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Cloistered Scholar

Source: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (5e 2014).

As a child, you were inquisitive when your playmates were possessive or raucous. In your formative years, you found your way to one of Faerûn's great institutes of learning, where you were apprenticed and taught that knowledge is a more valuable treasure than gold or gems. Now you are ready to leave your home – not to abandon it, but to quest for new lore to add to its storehouse of knowledge. The most well-known of Faerûn's fonts of knowledge is Candlekeep. The great library is always in need of workers and attendants, some of whom rise through the ranks to assume roles of greater responsibility and prominence. You might be one of Candlekeep's own, dedicated to the curatorship of what is likely the most complete body of lore and history in all the world. Perhaps instead you were taken in by the scholars of the Vault of the Sages or the Map House in Silverymoon, and now you have struck out to increase your knowledge and to make yourself available to help those in other places who seek your expertise. You might be one of the few who aid Herald's Holdfast, helping to catalogue and maintain records of the information that arrives daily from across Faerûn. Source: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Benefits

Feature Details
Skill Proficiencies History
plus your choice of one from among Arcana
Nature
and Religion
Tool Proficiencies None
Languages Two of your choice
Equipment The scholar's robes Value:1gp Weight:4lbs of your cloister
a writing kit (small pouch Value:5sp Weight:1lb with a quill Value:2cp Weight:0
a bottle of ink Value:10gp Weight:0.0625lb
folded parchment Value:1sp Weight:0
and a small penknife Value:0 Weight:0 )
a borrowed book Value:25gp Weight:5lbs on the subject of your current study
and a pouch Value:5sp Weight:1lb containing 10gp Features Library Access Though others must often endure extensive interviews
significant fees to gain access to even the most common archives in your library
you have free
easy access to the majority of the library
though it might also have repositories of lore that are too valuable
magical
or secret to permit anyone immediate access. You have a working knowledge of your cloister's personnel
bureaucracy
and you know how to navigate those connections with some ease. Additionally
you are likely to gain preferential treatment at other libraries across the Realms
as professional courtesy shown to a fellow scholar. Suggested Characteristics Use the tables for the sage background as the basis for your traits
motivations
modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity. Your bond is almost certainly associated either with the place where you grew up or with the knowledge you hope to acquire through adventuring. Your ideal is no doubt related to how you view the quest for knowledge
truth – perhaps as a worthy goal in itself
or maybe as a means to a desirable end.