Outrider

You are the most comfortable on the back of a beast. Your clan trained you to ride when you were young. You learned to hunt the food you needed to survive from your mount, and you learned to make war upon neighboring clans and enemies from far away from the saddle. It doesn’t matter if your beast of choice is a horse, a camel, or something more exotic such as a giant bird or lizard, your ability to bond with these animals is unmatched and you can do everything from them short of hauling them into a dungeon.

Your people are accomplished at the art of warfare. You have learned to use your mount to rush and outmaneuver your enemies on the field of battle, making you a deadly force to recon with for human and inhuman opponents alike.

In fact, it was likely warfare that led to your leaving your home. Perhaps you were injured and left behind, you might have left your clan after some fundamental disagreement with your war chief, or you might have found a place and its people you loved so much that you decided to settle down there.

To you, civilization exists to make people soft. You are not soft. Once you are able to move beyond the fact that you originated with the barbarian clans, you tend to earn the respect of those you meet because of your strength, toughness, and sometimes your brutality. You’re also able to market your skills with mounts, both in training them and using them for specific purposes.

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Leatherworker’s tools

Equipment: Backpack, bedroll, heavy war horse, longsword, longbow, and a saddle

Feature: Sleep in the Saddle

You do everything from your mount. You fight, you hunt, you eat, and you can sleep. While you are traveling overland, you can take a short or long rest while on your mount. The mount will continue to either travel straight in the direction you have already been riding or follow a trail (at your discretion). It will only stop if it encounters an enemy, or a natural barrier along your intended path, such as a river or a rockslide. When the mount’s path is blocked, it alerts you by waking you, and if you do not resume your sleep within a matter of minutes, you lose the benefits granted by the rest. Your mount can continue doing this for 1d4 days before stopping from exhaustion.

Suggested Characteristics

Whether you hail from temperate lands, a desert, or the plains, your bond with your mount is one of the most important aspects of your life. It takes lengthy and intense training for the mount to perform at the level you expect, and as a result, a bond forms that makes it just as important to you as you are to it. Despite your attachment to your animal, you are unafraid to ride it into combat, and you know that the day might come when it will fall in battle, and you will need to find a new one to begin training. Some of the civilized people you meet find this attachment to your animal strange, and you in-turn find their detachment to their animals somewhat offensive.

d8	Personality Trait
1	When not in battle, I’m even tempered, and I have no problem sitting in the saddle for days at a time.
2	I refuse to regret the things I’ve done in the past, for I cannot change them.
3	Insult me again and you’ll be wearing your sword through your guts.
4	I keep to myself unless I have a reason to speak to people, 5 If I make you a promise, I will deliver, or I’ll die trying.
6	I’m always loud, and I I see no reason to hold back with my thoughts.
7	Drink with me tonight, for tomorrow we may die!
8	Watch how you talk to my mount. I’ll become angry as though it were me you’re talking to.

d6	Ideal
1	Authority: Prove to me you are worthy leading and I will follow you through Hell.
2	Struggle: To live is to struggle. To give up is to die.
3	Fairness: Life is not fair, but I choose to be as fair as I am able.
4	Humor: Without humor, life would not be worth living.
5	Reputation: Reputation has little meaning when your main concern is survival.
6	Trustworthiness: Trust is the bond that makes us whole. Break my trust at your peril.

d6	Bond
1	My clan was ambushed by slavers and it took me years to escape. I will bring them down if it’s the last thing I do in this life.
2	A wealthy merchant owes me a favor after I saved him from bandits.
3	After my parents were slain in battle, I was raised by one of their clan-mates.
4	A nobleman drove my clan from our ancestral grounds. I will make him pay.
5	There is an old woman who showed me great kindness after I was injured in battle, and I would travel any lengths if she asked.
6	The one who trained me to fight betrayed the clan. I must track them down and bring them to justice.

d6	Flaw
1	I can’t resist games of chance.
2	I cannot pass a tavern without stopping for a few drinks.
3	I trust people too easily, and it has led to more than a few big mistakes.
4	Betray my trust and I won’t stop hunting you until I’ve evened the score.
5	Put a bounty before me and I will eat until there is nothing left.
6	I wish to own everything I set my eyes upon.