Sage

You are a seeker of the world’s truths and an expert in your chosen field, with esoteric knowledge at your fingertips, or at the farthest, in a book you vaguely remember.

Why have you left the confines of the library to explore the wider world? Do you seek ancient wisdom? Power? The answer to a specific question? Reinstatement in your former institution? 

Ability Score Increases: +1 to Intelligence and one other ability score.

Skill Proficiencies: History, and either Arcana, Culture, Engineering, or Religion.

Languages: Two of your choice.

Suggested Equipment (Cost 16 gold): Bottle of ink, pen, 50 sheets of parchment, common clothes.

Feature: Library Privileges. As a fellow or friend of several universities you have visiting access to the great libraries, most of which are off-limits to the general public. With enough time spent in a library, you can uncover most of the answers you seek (any question answerable with a DC 20 Arcana, Culture, Engineering, History, Nature, or Religion check).

Adventures and Advancement. When you visit libraries and universities you tend to be asked for help in your role as a comparatively rough-and-tumble adventurer. After fetching a few bits of esoteric knowledge and settling a few academic disputes, you may be granted access to the restricted areas of the library (which contain darker secrets and deeper mysteries, such as those answerable with a DC 25 Arcana, Culture, Engineering, History, Nature, or Religion check).

Sage Connections

1. Your rival who always seems to be one step ahead of you in the research race.
2. The college dean who banished you for conduct unbefitting a research fellow.
3. A former student of yours who has become a dangerous wizard.
4. The professor who took credit for your research.
5. The rival sage whose cruel nickname for you has made you a laughingstock.
6. The alchemist who will pay for bizarre monster trophies and other ingredients—no questions asked.
7. The peer with a competing cosmological theory that causes endless friendly bickering.
8. The noble who recognized your intelligence at a young age and sponsored your entrance into academia.
9. A talented apprentice who ran away after mastering magical power but not the theoretical foundation to control it.
10. The invading general who burned the library that was once your home.

Sage Mementos

1. A letter from a colleague asking for research help.
2. Your incomplete manuscript.
3. An ancient scroll in a language that no magic can decipher.
4. A copy of your highly unorthodox theoretical work that got you in so much trouble.
5. A list of the forbidden books that may answer your equally forbidden question.
6. A formula for a legendary magic item for which you have no ingredients.
7. An ancient manuscript of a famous literary work believed to have been lost; only you believe that it is genuine.
8. Your mentor’s incomplete bestiary, encyclopedia, or other work that you vowed to complete.
9. Your prize possession: a magic quill pen that takes dictation.
10. The name of a book you need for your research that seems to be missing from every library you’ve visited.