Some adventurers hang up their swords and put away their spellbooks, only to find that they have to take them up again. This may be a story of fulfilling one’s true potential, achieving a glory always longed for, or even one of redemption and penance for a past life of violence or treachery.

Special Feature: Former Self. Upon character creation, also create a version of your character that represents who they once were, up to 10 levels higher than whatever your adventure starts at.

Source of Inspiration: Memory.You are both haunted and driven by who you once were. You gain inspiration whenever you score a critical with an ability check your former self had proficiency in, or overcome something that you could not in your past adventures.

Defeat a foe who you had previously lost to, face a fear you developed from your previous life adventuring, restore (or destroy) an item, relationship, or group that was iconic of your old adventures, subvert or fulfill the expectations of someone who knew you before.

Inspiration Feature: Things Remembered. As a reaction, you may spend your inspiration to use the proficiency bonus and ability score of your former self to make a single attack roll, ability check, or saving throw.

Fulfilling Your Destiny 

You fulfill your destiny when you either become who you once were again, or diverge markedly from that path but still find glory.

Defeat a major foe from your past or their modern day heir or analog, restore a settlement or large organization that suffered in your absence, take revenge on whatever entity drove you from adventuring before or destroyed your peaceful retirement, found an institution with numerous members that is in line with or antithetical to your old values.

Fulfillment Feature: Reborn. You have either found your stride again, or decided who you once were is not who you will be again. Either way, you are the stuff of legends. You gain a +1 bonus on all attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.

In addition, you may use Things Remembered twice per long rest without using inspiration. If you reach a level equal to or surpassing your Former Self, you can use that feature to instead gain a +5 to the roll before you know the outcome as your excellence shines through

Table: Death Destiny

D6 Motivation

1 Unfinished Business: You learned of something you accidentally left undone

2 Debt: Someone has called in a debt from a long time ago.

3 Loss. Loss of a loved one or friend has called you to return to a life of adventure.

4 Disappointed. The quiet life does not live up to what you expected.

5 Guilt. The guilt of past failures has pushed you back into action.

6 Enemy Returns. An enemy you thought you had defeated has returned.

Plenty of stories have heroes and former mercenaries give up a life of adventure for quiet, honest work. But it’s never that simple: just because they’ve walked away from the happenings of the world, doesn’t mean that the world is done with them! There are stories also about mages that hung up their robes to don a gardener’s apron or famous berserkers that now content themselves with yelling advice from the sidelines while enjoying a nice cuppa instead of sparring personally. That doesn’t mean their tale has ended, however, as the call to adventure can come from unexpected places. Whatever reason a character hung up the tools of their past trade, the following mechanics can help them take it—or something completely different—up once more.