Need help figuring out which merits and flaws are right for you?
Let me do it for you!  I'll even give you a few extra merits for the privilege of binding you more succinctly into my plots. This shouldn't be seen as 'free merits' they'll be 'ones earned by risk taken' _ because the flaws I choose wont be negotiable. [Though I'll take into account severity if you are very unhappy.]

Ascetic Monk
Your character is a young student of a monastic order that teaches discipline via the denial of physical needs. With his earthly passions tempered by years of meditation and seclusion, your character often strikes others as somewhat detached from practical reality. As he inevitably points out, he has simply acquired a more relaxed and objective viewpoint on the nature of existence.
Though he is forbidden from initiating acts of violence against others, his years of “exercise meditation” have shaped him into a formidable unarmed fighter.

Assassin-in-Training
Your character is an eager young student of a rarefied and secretive profession, that of the clandestine killer! Since childhood, his mysterious master has taught him weapons, poisons, and infiltration techniques as other masters teach their apprentices how to blow glass or tan leather. He is filled with the confidence of youth, ready to pit his skills against his first actual target, and heedless of his master’s admonitions to be more cautious.

Buccaneer
Your character lives the life of a glory-seeking freebooter, borne before the wind in search of treasure, adventure, and infamy! Having inherited his leaky ship in a duel with its former master (a far greater plague upon the seas than your character, of course), he now roams the trade lanes, seeking easy prey for his untested (and not entirely trustworthy) crew. Although loot is indeed an excellent thing to come by, your character is much more interested in spreading his legend far and wide than he is in lining his pockets– after all, one cannot buy genuine infamy with coins.

Charming Bandit
Your character is a low-down theft-addicted footpad who would pick a child’s pocket if he thought he might find a bent copper piece or two. He’s also a dashing, charismatic, irresistible man-about town, a swaggering romantic with implacable faith in his own immortality. His life is a constant struggle between the need to successfully steal things and the need to draw attention to himself with flamboyant gestures and constant womanizing. When your character isn’t entertaining his companions, he’ll be dodging their attempts to hit him over the head and tie him to a chair.

Chivalrous Knight
Outwardly, your character is a paragon of the knightly virtues– bold, fearless, courteous to ladies, self-sacrificing, and pious. Yet in his heart he is troubled by the emotional burden of his long service, the ache for old friends long dead, the guilt he feels over the men he has slain, and the hypocrisy of the noble lords he serves in war and peace alike. With a young wife and child awaiting him at his manor, and with certain elements of the court secretly vying against him and his liege, he has begun to wonder how much longer he can maintain his facade of knightly propriety.

Combat Mage
Your character is a mage who has trained exclusively for the field of battle– to support men-at-arms with Spells and defeat enemy Spell-casters before they can turn the tide of an engagement. Knowing that the common troops disdain the aloof attitude and feeble physique of most of his peers, he has resolved to live under harsh military discipline, eschewing unnecessary comforts and maintaining an imperviously serious demeanor. He bears the scar of a sword wound across his ribs, an injury he carries proudly as a measure of his willingness to stay close to the action.

Commando
Your character is a highly-trained and disciplined fighter in the service of a cause or a government. The very existence of the small body of elite men and women that your character serves with is kept secret – the concept of a “special force” is quite a novel one in the unsophisticated military of most d20 fantasy worlds. As a souvenir of his long and arduous service, your character bears a slender scar across his throat– this from an arrow that could have taken his life but only took most of his voice instead.

Confidence Trickster
Your character is a cunning and charismatic rogue who robs his victims with his wits as often as he does with a knife; small-time scams and elaborate cons alike are his pride and joy. He has quite an impetus to prolong his daring life of crime in the form of a large debt owed to the friendly (for now at least) master of a local thieves’ guild; he also has a reason for caution, in the form of a cruel noble that took lasting offense after your character lightened his coffers by a few hundred gold pieces.

Courtly Troubleshooter
Part advisor, part teacher, part spy, and part assassin, your character is as much an old war-horse of the noble house he serves as any knight on the field of battle. Over the course of many long years, your character has guarded the children of his liege-family and trained those children when they came of age.
He has served as a courier for messages of vital importance, just as he has waylaid agents of opposing houses and stolen or forged their own messages.
Ever watchful, ever cynical, your character is an old hand at the intrigues of a court, and there is no measure he will rule out when it comes to protecting the interests he serves.

Deadly Mystery
Your character was found washed up on the beach after a nasty storm, without any memory of who he was or where he came from. His well-muscled body is covered in bizarre tattoos without meaning to anyone, and he has the Speed and confidence of a trained killer. Who shaped him for this task? How did he end up in the sea without a stitch of clothing? What is the meaning of the vicious streak your character tries to hide, and the nightmares that haunt his nights?

Displaced Heir
Perhaps it was a wicked uncle, or a cruel advisor, or a wicked vizier. Perhaps it was you character’s identical twin. Whoever did it, your character is the last legitimate heir to his family’s power and possessions, and he’s been violently usurped. Now your character is on the run, without allies, unable to proclaim his rank due to the agents and assassins surely on his trail. Reclaiming his rightful title and throne will be a very complicated business.

Duelist
Your character is regarded as something of a foppish dilettante with a bad habit of picking fights; although he is indeed a braggart and a clothes-horse, he is also an extremely skilled fighter– fast and clever, habitually wielding a rapier to use these qualities to their maximum advantage. The art of the duel is his driving passion, and the moment when he is at maximum risk to his life and reputation is inevitably the apex of his happiness.

Elderly Wizard
Your character has grown old in the study of his arts, though not particularly adept. He has chosen to eschew the call of adventure thus far, dwelling quietly and comfortably in the service of a minor noble or a town, preparing scrolls and potions to make his living. If he wishes to venture out into the world, this is his last chance to do so before his advancing years conspire to render him completely home-bound. Perhaps a bit of fresh air and exercise is just the thing for his aching joints and troubled mind.

Expert Archer
Archery is your character’s life, the finest art and the highest science he can conceive of. Rather inept at close-quarters combat, your character is a terror with a bow in his hands. In the service of a city-state or a noble, your character may roam the wilderness on patrol or support a large army with his precision shooting– or perhaps alternate between these duties as necessary. Fiercely proud of his skills, he regards most melee combatants as uncultured boors. Last but not least, he has a temper quite out of character for most dedicated students of archery, and must often struggle against it when the situation demands that he remain cool and collected.

Flamboyant Cavalier
Un-scarred, charmingly naive, care-free, and rather full of himself, your character is the very picture of an untested young knight at the height of his youthful splendor. Eager for glory in tournament or war, your character has yet to taste the harsh reality of defeat, injury, or the loss of friends and allies. Older cavaliers look upon him with a mixture of knowing disdain and secret envy, for they remember when they were as eager and untested as he is.

Grizzled Bounty Hunter
If there’s a no-account pest-hole full of lowlifes and thieves anywhere within a two hundred mile radius, chances are your character knows it like the back of his hand. For many long years, your character has trudged through wilderness and skulked through cities, hunting wanted criminals for far too little pay. Lean, mean, and ready at all times with his trusty crossbow, your character is as careworn and cynical as they come. His successes have earned the enmity of thieves all over the place, so it’s a good thing he always watches his back.

Heroic Yokel
Legend Speaks of a chosen one– an individual possessed of unalloyed courage, a pure heart, and a blessed innocence. There’s a strong possibility this may be your character, provided he can be convinced to leave his old aunt and uncle on their run-down farm! Unpolished, totally out of his depth in urban intrigues, uneducated by civilized standards, and ignorant of his potential place in the greater scheme of things, your character is nonetheless a brave and loyal fellow with a heart of gold. Even if his friends do keep him shut up and out of sight when they’re dealing with other people, there’s no one they’d rather have at their side when they face real danger.

Humble Magical Genius
Your character is a very young practitioner of the wizardly arts, with the potential to become one of the greatest Spell-casters ever seen in his Specialty of choice! Gifted with an instinctive understanding of magic that even his veteran instructors envy, he has already carved a niche for himself in the hierarchy of his wizardly order, but not without arousing the dangerous jealousy of a rival wizard.
Despite his great power, your character is anything but ostentatious– in fact, he’s often a bit socially awkward and always full of self-doubt.

Ingenious Artificer
Crippled by a childhood illness, your character has spent most of his life pent up with nothing but his own imagination to amuse him. Apprenticed at an early age to a scribe (his damaged legs having rendered him unfit for manual labor), he has acquired a thorough knowledge of multiple craft and engineering disciplines as well as a grounding in the magical knowledges. Adept at a variety of fine crafts, your character stands to become a master artificer when he has acquired more experience.

Maximum Brute
Your character is huge– taller than anyone around him, broader at the shoulders, longer in the arms, and fantastically rounder of belly. Anything but light on his feet, and chronically incapable of mastering ranged attacks, your character has nonetheless made the best of his uncanny bulk and has become a truly fearsome melee opponent. Capable of soaking up damage as well as dishing it out, your character powers through obstacles with unwavering brute force.

Monster Wrangler
Your character acquired an early fascination with the beauty and power of the mysterious creatures that haunted the wilds near his rural home. His natural affinity for approaching, handling, and riding large creatures has earned him a trusted position in the service of a noble or a government, training unusual and dangerous beasts for use as mounts and guardians.

Nomadic Desert Warrior
Your character is a brash young swordsman of an ancient people who roam the harsh deserts far to the south of “known civilization.” A freakish string of ill luck drove him far from the caravan he was guarding and into the strange scrub lands just north of the great deserts. There, he was discovered by a north-lands merchant caravan as he lay dying of thirst after a heroic feat of endurance.
Despite his ill-concealed disdain for the “barbarians” of the northern cities (who are dumb enough to mistake your character for the “barbarian”), your character feels bound by honor to remain among these people until he repays the debt he owes to the merchant that nursed him back to health.

Popular Bard
Your character is off to an early start in his chosen career. While some bards labor in obscurity for years, playing alehouses for copper-pieces and scorn, your character has found an appreciative audience across a wide area. Confident, flamboyant, and memorable (always well-dressed and displaying a unique and striking set of tattoos), your character is eagerly anticipated in many venues. His habit of making fun of unpopular nobles in bawdy songs has helped his career, but it has also earned him the enmity of at least one of those unpopular nobles.
Also, let’s be frank, he wouldn’t be where he was today without the assistance of a few friends on the dodgy side of the law– and those debts will some day come due.

Outlaw Cleric
The local government, under orders from a cruel or indifferent tyrant, has begun severely mistreating the peasantry– increasing taxes and throwing the poor and the rebellious out of their homes. Unable to bear these outrages, your character has left his temple to aid and minister to the displaced, frightened people now hiding in the woods. When the opportunity presents itself, your character also fights on their behalf, wreaking havoc and mischief on the servants of tyranny.

Spoiled Noble
Your character is a young scion of a great and noble house, trained in all the courtly arts and studied in all the civilized virtues. Unfortunately, he’s also a self important, stuck-up little prig. His guardians have banished him from court for several years, in the hope that the real world can beat a sense of responsibility into him. Perhaps your character has been assigned to a lowly military command, on garrison duty in a far and hostile climate. Or perhaps he has been forcefully indentured as a caravan guard or shipboard marine under the watchful eyes of one of his family’s tougher agents.

Treasure Hunter
Your character is a tomb looter and dungeoneer extraordinaire, fleet of foot and dexterous as they come. He’s also massively in debt to a particularly nasty creditor, so it’s a good thing he enjoys crawling around in subterranean death traps and divesting them of their treasures.

Undead Hunter
Your character’s entire family was taken from him by a foul creature of the night, and since adolescence he has adventured far and wide to stake, slash, and burn the undead wherever they may be found. This life has left many scars upon your character– he has an undeserved (though understandable) reputation as a disturber of the peace and a grave-robber, and somewhere out there lurks a lich or master vampire that desires revenge for the death of a trusted agent. Your character is also paranoid about the undead and their cats paws, whom he suspects to be following him everywhere he goes.

Underage Thief
Your character is barely out of childhood, yet already eager to pit his dexterous skills against the dangers and opportunities of the wide world. True, your character’s small frame gives him quite an advantage when slipping in and out of tight spaces, but it does make him a bit difficult to take seriously.

Vengeful Aristocrat
Your character has spent thirteen years languishing in the darkness of a forlorn island prison, banished there by the cruel machinations of his enemies in society. He was torn away from his life and his family, exiled to his fate because the bastards didn’t have the strength of will needed to kill him outright. He will soon make them regret their “mercy–” for he has escaped and made his way back to the mainland with one thought alone on his mind:_ revenge!

Well-Intentioned Fanatic
Your character is a zealous servant of a good deity, fresh out of training and ready to carry forth his impossibly high standards and naive idealism! He does indeed mean well, and his power to do good is undeniable, but his extreme narrow- mindedness and inability to perceive the gray areas of life do little to endear him to more worldly characters that might become friends and allies. Convinced of the self-evident superiority of his deity and representing an order that many already consider militant and obnoxious… well, let’s just say that he’s in for quite an adventure.

Wild Freebooter
Your character is a barbarian, high on daring and low on practical experience, who has set out in the full flush of youth to win glory for himself in the great wide world beyond the lands of his people. His head spins with dreams of avarice, for it is said that the “civilized” people are as soft and spineless as their cities are rich and unguarded. Imagine! Avenues paved with gold and houses set with jewels, just waiting for a true and mighty warrior to take what he will from the unworthy ones that hoard it. Just wait until your character first sets foot in this laughable “civilization!”

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