Astral Drifter 5e
For longer than you can remember, you have traversed the Astral Sea. There, you experienced firsthand the wonders of the Silver Void: you stopped aging and no longer felt hunger or thirst. Driven by wanderlust, you drifted from one part of the Astral Sea to another, like a mote of dust on the wind. You have lost count of the decades that have passed since you arrived here.
In your travels, you have camped on the petrified hulks of dead gods and narrowly escaped the psychic winds that sweep across the Astral Sea while also avoiding prolonged contact with the plane’s most dangerous denizens.
Source: Spelljamer: Adventures in Space - Astral Adventurer's Guide
Languages: Two of your choice (Celestial or Gith recommended)
Equipment: A set of traveler's clothes, a diary, an ink pen, a bottle of ink, and a pouch containing 10gp
Features
Longevity: You are 20d6 years older than you look, because you have spent that much time in the Astral Sea without aging.
Divine Contact: You gain the Magic Initiate feat and must choose cleric for the feat.
In the Astral Sea, you crossed paths with a wandering deity. The encounter was brief and nonviolent, yet it made a lasting impression on you. This deity saw fit to share one secret or obscure bit of cosmic lore with you. Work with your DM to determine the details of this knowledge and its impact on the campaign.
Roll on the Divine Contact table to determine which deity you encountered, or work with your DM to identify a more suitable choice.
Divine Contact
| d10 | Wandering Deity |
|---|---|
| 1 | Corellon, god of art and magic (chaotic good) |
| 2 | Tymora, god of good fortune (chaotic good) |
| 3 | Fharlanghn, god of horizons and travel (neutral good) |
| 4 | Istus, god of fate and destiny (neutral) |
| 5 | Nuada, god of war and warriors (neutral) |
| 6 | Arawn, god of life and death (neutral evil) |
| 7 | Arawn, god of life and death (neutral evil) |
| 8 | Hecate, god of magic and moons (chaotic evil) |
| 9 | Celestian, god of stars and wanderers (neutral) |
| 10 | Ptah, god of knowledge and secrets (lawful neutral) |
Should You Be an Astral Drifter?
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
You’re a space-faring traveler, moving through the planes like an aimless sailor, working ship to ship to see it all. In a Spelljammer game, I’d say this is as close to perfect as you can get for creating a perfect adventurer. Outside of Spelljammer, can an Astral Drifter work? First, ask your DM- if they’re cool with it, I think you’ll have a fantastic time with the kind of character it sets you up with.
Longevity and Divine Contact
Astral Drifter comes with two features: Longevity and Divine Contact.
Longevity is entirely fluff, but fun fluff. Humans in particular are fun to play around with using this idea- being an 60 year old who looks like they’re still in their 30s can add interesting dynamics with ease. Elves, dwarves, and other creatures with long lifespans won’t really notice this feature- what’s the difference between a 320 and 350 year old elf as far as appearance goes?
Divine Contact pairs the fluff of Longevity with power. You get Magic Initiate for free, but have to choose Cleric for it. Starting with two bonus cantrips, like Guidance and Thaumaturgy, and a free 1st level cleric spell with a spell slot for it is fantastic, especially on martial character sheets that often will lack utility tools early on. I personally would love to get Ceremony with this; if you want a more practical effect, Bless, Healing Word, and Shield of Faith are all are easy to find uses for at all tiers of play, making them major assets to your sheet.
On top of these mechanical boons, Divine Contact also comes with world building information you get to work with your DM on. Speaking to a roaming deity can give you unique insight into events that are foreshadowed, and intertwine elements of your character into a broader epic narrative that will slowly unfold as the campaign progresses.
Skills
Insight I find is a must-have skill for somebody in the party; getting it on your background can be a compelling reason to take a high wisdom, especially on characters like Fighters and Rogues who can have a bit of wiggle room when assigning their ability scores. Religion, on the other hand, isn’t regularly popping up in an average adventure, and even when it does, it's usually building out the world more than helping progress player action.
Other Proficiencies
Two languages aren’t usually that important; in Spelljammer, with a wide array of species flying through vast worlds, I can envision it being a bit more relevant, but most of the time bonus languages are primarily fluff.
Equipment
Don’t write off ink and a diary- these items give you a record-keeping device and a method of marking objects. Sometimes you want to be sure the object you’re receiving is one you had originally- marking it is a way to help reduce your odds of getting scammed. You can leave messages for people following you, set reminders in specific places for you and your party, and write letters to work with familiars or Animal Messenger to actually communicate large amounts of information over long distances.
Bonus Tables
The Divine Contact table works in Spelljammer and can be a useful tool for DMs who want to use gods but don’t want to make their pantheon. If gods aren’t important in your game, or you’re using a different pantheon, this table can be entirely pointless.
There being no trinket table here is a sin. You’re an astral drifter. You’ve journeyed across space in all kinds of wild vessels to incomprehensible worlds full of bizarre oddities and wondrous creatures. You should have something weird from these travels to paint a picture of your history with the planes.
All Together
Divine Contact being a feature that offers anyone Magic Initiate automatically makes this option a consideration for any martial character out their with a decent Wisdom modifier. Rangers seem like an obvious fit for the option, with both the flavor and mechanics being entirely on point for them. Monks, too, fit the bill for a Wisdom based martial class who can majorly benefit from a 1st level cleric spell and pair of cleric cantrips.
Clerics also may just want more of the stuff they already have- this is more.
Because Insight is the skill you’re likely to use most from this, having a high Wisdom score can make it an actual element you are using regularly instead of defaulting to higher Wisdom characters to make the check, as they probably out Insight you in the low tiers should you have a 12 or lower.
That being said, if you want to start with Magic Initiate (Cleric), anyone can pick this up as a cheap way to get it. If your DM is open to this kind of background at their table, it’ll be a fantastic choice for a lot of characters.
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