Rules Index | GM Screen

Inheritance

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 168
The GM may decide that your character inherits something of value from a deceased relative. This may be as innocuous as a village farm or a house in the city, an adventurer’s heirloom such as a masterwork rapier or ring of protection +1, or something cryptic and unnerving like a glowing frog idol or a skull that whispers secrets.

These items are often the source of adventure hooks: Perhaps squatters are living in your house, the rapier has an inscription in a lost language, or cultists are trying to steal the idol. Sometimes the inheritance creates family drama, such as a brother who is upset that you got the house instead of him, an impoverished uncle who’d like to sell the ring, or a religious cousin who shuns you because you own the blasphemous skull. Just like in real life, an inheritance can divide close family members or create alliances out of distant relatives.

These guidelines for inheritance don’t apply if you are just using the idea as a way to provide roleplaying flavor for your character’s starting equipment. For example, if your starting equipment at 1st level includes a normal longbow, you don’t need GM approval to say that the bow once belonged to your grandmother, who was a ranger in her youth. However, if you wanted an heirloom masterwork longbow or +1 longbow for your character, you would need GM approval because the price of either of those items is beyond what a 1st-level character could afford.

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

Inheritance