Variant Sailors

Contents

Variant Sailor: Privateer

While pirates are often seen as fearsome and cruel criminals, the privateer is more often glamorized as a romantic hero. As a privateer your activities are similar to those of a pirate, but you are authorized by a country’s government by letters of marque to attack the ships of its enemies. You could be a member of the nobility, a commoner or even a former pirate.

What sets you above a pirate is your adherence to the privateer code, a set of rules to guide your conduct to be honorable and virtuous.

If you decide your sailing career involved privateering, you can choose the friendly shores feature instead of the ship’s passage feature.

Variant Feature: Friendly Shores When you are in any settlement that is friendly to the flag you sail under, you are treated as a hero of the high seas. Everyone has heard the stories of your adventures and are inclined to think the best of you. Both nobles and common folk will make every effort to accommodate your requests in exchange for news of your adventures, unless you act dishonorably.

Variant Sailor: Ship’s Surgeon

Ship’s rarely have a true doctor onboard and this role is often filled by the cook, carpenter or whoever says yes to the job. In the past you may have been a physician, surgeon, barber, carpenter or nurse who used non magical healing to treat your patients and create medicine. For whatever reason you became a ship’s surgeon, your past medical experience (or lack of experience) is less important than your ability to focus and stop the bleeding when others panic.

If you decide your sailing career involved acting in the role of a Ship’s Surgeon, you can replace the Sailor proficiencies and equipment with the variant proficiencies and equipment below.

Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, Medicine
Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism kit, vehicles (water)
Equipment: Herbalism kit, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp

If you decide your sailing career involved acting in the role of a ship’s surgeon, you can choose the dead reckoning feature instead of the ship’s passage feature.

Variant Feature: Dead Reckoning Your experience healing fallen allies during combat has provided you with the ability to snatch lives back from death. When using a healer’s kit you are able to heal a creature for 1 hit point. This ability can not be used again until you complete a long rest.

Variant Sailor: Navigator

You are a skilled navigator who has learned to combine your knowledge of cartography, sense of direction and superb sailing skills. Your past experience as a ship’s navigator makes you invaluable on any sea voyage.

You are used to keeping a daily log and maintaining charts, maps and navigation tools while on a ship.

If you decide your sailing career involved acting in the role of a navigator, you can replace the sailor proficiencies and equipment with the variant proficiencies and equipment below.

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Perception
Tool Proficiencies: Cartographer’s tools, Navigator’s tools, vehicles (water)
Equipment: A set of traveler’s clothes, cartographer’s tools or navigator’s tools, a chart, and a pouch containing 10 gp

If you decide your sailing career involved acting in the role of a navigator, you can choose the sense of direction feature instead of the ship’s passage feature.

Variant FeatureSense of Direction Your skills as navigator make you an excellent ship’s pilot, but they also have provided you with an excellent sense of direction. As long as you have a full view of the sun or moon, you can not become lost.

Variant Sailor: Explorer

You grew up dreaming of sailing the seas, exploring the far edges of civilization and beyond in search of the unknown. You might have been drawn to a life of sea exploration for the love of discovery or to get rich finding lost treasures. If you decide your career as a sailor has focused on exploration, you can choose the secret discovery feature instead of the ship’s passage feature.

Variant Feature: Secret Discovery Whatever reason you became an explorer, your journey brought you to some secret, mythical, far off, or otherwise inaccessible place from which only you returned. Only you know of the existence of this place and its secrets. Work with your GM on the specific details of the location and its people, dangers, treasure and more.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pirate Adventurers for Fifth Edition 1.0 published by Tribality.com (Innovaworks Inc.); Copyright 2016 Shawn Ellsworth

scroll to top