Yeah. When I said I could see it being reasonable, I had in mind a game with adequate downtime for it to work. My games haven't worked out that way, but others' games can differ.
D&D 5E Professions in 5e
Yeah. When I said I could see it being reasonable, I had in mind a game with adequate downtime for it to work. My games haven't worked out that way, but others' games can differ.
JiffyPopTart
Bree-Yark
You have two tools in your GM toolbelt to use for ALL of these circumstances.....
1. You can let a PC add their Proficiency bonus to any checks that they would be considered to have experience in. This can go from +2 to +6 throughout their career. If a PC is a bookkeeper...then anything related to bookkeeping can be judged as being able to add PROF bonus to the roll. For NPCs you can make up whatever proficiency bonus makes sense for the character using that same scale. I would limit the values being +2 (for an entry level NPC) up to +12 (for the best at a profession in the world NPC).
2. Anytime a character has extenuating circumstances at succeeding in a roll (someone is assisting, they have lots of time, they have a special tool that makes the job easier) then you can grant ADVANTAGE to the roll. Similarly you can assign DISADVANTAGE if the opposite is true.
Using just the two rules listed above you can, with minimal effort, recreate any of the skills missing from the game. You don't need to ad-hoc different systems for each skill, just use the two rules above for EVERY skill.
So, Private is just out of boot camp. Does the Gunny Sgt. really think they have the profession of being a soldier really down? Does the Sgt with 20 years in the service think the 24 year old Lieutenant fresh out of OTC, who technically outranks the Sgt, but hasn't ever even been in combat, really know everything he or she needs to know? Same for the police officer.
So, again - this is why I say table matters. For you, these people know the profession, while to me, they are very green, and may not have the full profession benefit.
In the real world, you do your basic training over those few months, but to rise to the level of professional, you need experience doing it too, and that takes years. A rookie cop just out of police school isn't going to have anywhere near the experience of a beat cop who's been doing it for years, whether that's knowledge of who's who (on the streets and in the precinct), what shortcuts can be taken without anyone complaining, the politics of the workplace, who would make a good CI, what to do in situations that weren't taught to you in school, etc.
wingsandsword
Legend
Unless you're meaning for starting characters to be middle-aged, that wouldn't make sense.
I don't see anything about starting ages in here, maybe that's another undefined thing in 5e, but I'm pretty used to the idea of starting characters in D&D being fairly young people in their late teens to mid-20's. . .people who might have only been practicing their trade or profession before their adventuring life a few years. If they were more experienced, they'd probably be above 1st level.
Would a Gunnery Sergeant be a 1st level starting character?
Yes, a veteran NCO thinks a green private or butterbar lieutenant is an idiot who doesn't know anything. . .but that's not an objective measure of their basic knowledge of the profession. That green private or young lieutenant does have the core skills of their profession, they just lack the experience that shapes that knowledge. . .in D&D terms that's more a matter of character levels than anything else.
Have a look at the backgrounds in the PHB:
Acolyte: "You have spent your life in the service of a temple..."
Charlatan: "You have always had a way with people..."
Criminal: "You are an experienced criminal with a history of breaking the law. You have spent a long time among other criminals..."
Entertainer: "Your art is your life."
That's the first four. I could go on, but I'll leave the rest for you to do.
Professions are what you've spent your life doing up till the point you became an adventurer.
Acolyte: "You have spent your life in the service of a temple..."
Charlatan: "You have always had a way with people..."
Criminal: "You are an experienced criminal with a history of breaking the law. You have spent a long time among other criminals..."
Entertainer: "Your art is your life."
That's the first four. I could go on, but I'll leave the rest for you to do.
Professions are what you've spent your life doing up till the point you became an adventurer.
Oddly it's actually closest to the original D&D, where there really wasn't much in the way of rules at all. Every edition since added in more and more complications in an attempt to "solve" various problems with the game. 5E has taken a different approach, going away from such complications.
5E was developed with an open playtest over a couple of years. The goal was to create the game that would appeal to the largest number of players. The simplicity of 5E has proven to be extremely popular, but it isn't going to appeal to everyone. As you like the fiddly bits, this means that 5E isn't going to be the right game for you, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't try to force 5E to work for you (although you can, as it's very flexible for homebrewing), but I'd consider other games to fit your needs, such as Pathfinder.
Sure, and if @wingsandsword (and/or the table they're running at) think it makes sense to enable people to pick up the basic implicit proficiencies of a background during downtime, that's a perfectly fine way to houserule it.
To you. I think someone who has a Soldier profession should have been in active service for a couple of years. In our pseudo-medieval timeframe, they can start younger than we do in our world, but even if we use our world ages - you could have that when you are 20, easily. At that point Gunny is no longer watching you like a hawk, he's trained you up to do your job right, and expects you to just do it, and you'll hear from him if you don't.
