D&D 4E Craft and Performance for 4e

[kaomera]

Craft and Performance Skills

Craft and performance cover a wide range of skills. When you learn a craft or performance skill you must choose a particular craft or art that you gain proficiency in. Craft and performance do not count as class skills for any class unless you take the appropriate background. These skills can otherwise be learned as normal, or by taking the appropriate background. Craft would normally be associated with intelligence or wisdom, and performance with dexterity or charisma, but the DM should allow any appropriate ability to be used.

Craft and performance skills serve to supplement the normal 4e skill list, and should not replace existing skills. These skills exist to give a bonus to checks that otherwise would be straight ability checks. There should be circumstances (at the DM's discretion) where they are appropriate for use in a skill challenge, etc. The DM is encouraged to make opportunities for these skills to be used (if a character has one), and has final say over the appropriate use of them (under the guideline of "say 'yes' to the players). However, it is in the end the player's responsibility to find good uses for them.

These skills do not have skill powers associated with them - the player is however encouraged to gain training for her PC in appropriate related skills, and may then take associated skill powers, which may be re-flavored to reflect the craft or performance skill. For roleplay purposes these skills can be used to raise funds, but any gold so earned should be accounted for with the normal wealth mechanics.

Backgrounds

Natural Talent
Campaign Setting: General
You where recognized at an early age as possessing a particular affinity with your chosen craft or performance skill, and have worked since to perfect that art.
Benefit: You gain either one craft or one performance skill as a trained skill.

Apprenticed to a Master
Campaign Setting: General
You have spent many long hours in training your chosen craft or performance skill, under the guidance of an accomplished master of that art.
Benefit: Add either one craft or one performance skill to your list of class skills, and you gain a +2 bonus with that skill.

Feats

Masterwork Item (Craft)
Prerequisite: Any appropriate craft skill.
Benefit: Choose one particular magic item appropriate to your craft skill. You can craft that item as if you knew the appropriate ritual as long as it is no more than two levels above your character level. Once each five levels you may replace the chosen item with an appropriate upgrade, subject to DM approval.

Singular Artistry (Craft or Performance)
Prerequisite: Any appropriate craft or performance skill.
Benefit: Choose one craft or performance skill. The first time you make a check against that skill in a given skill challenge you may count it as two successes if you succeed. In addition you gain a +3 feat bonus to the skill when making opposed skill checks.

Superlative Performance (Performance)
Prerequisite: Any appropriate performance skill.
Benefit: Choose one ritual appropriate to your performance skill (including martial practices) of your level or lower. You master that ritual and can perform it once per day without paying the component cost.

 

[eriktheguy]

I'd suggest finding a way to do give the players these abilities without requiring skill or feat slots. Every feat spent makes your character less combat ready and every skill spent makes them slightly less viable in skill challenges and non-combat scenarios.

I like that you have written backgrounds to allow players to take these skills without using up a slot. I also like that you have added some mechanical benefit to the feats to help offset the cost of the slot, but I still think they are rather weak.

I like your idea of using craft/performance skills to replace something that would normally be 'just an ability check', but every time I ask players for a straight ability check, it has nothing to do with performance or crafting (the only thing that comes to mind is strength for lifting).I also liked your idea to allow craft/perform to replace a skill check in a skill challenge (though I recommend letting players to replace a skill check in general). I can imagine perform being used in this way, but not craft. In any case, craft seems like it would be much more situational.

Also, how specific does a perform skill need to be? Can someone just choose one instrument, or can they play five? Do they need to take separate skills to be good at acting and stand up comedy. I can see a player who wants a basic set of performance ability quickly running out of skill slots.

 

[kaomera]

I have to admit that this was just a few ideas I threw together overnight after reading the thread on simulation & skills over in 4e Discussion. I had considered making a submission to Dragon out of this, but I just don't have the time to flesh it out.

I tried to balance these against other similar backgrounds and feats, and I really did not want to have to deal with overlapping existing skills. A skilled dancer should also be good at most or all of what the acrobatics skill does, but IMO this is better handled system-wise by having the character trained in acrobatics than in letting them substitute the performance (dance) skill. I tried to include feats to do the sorts of things that players might want to be able to do within the "fluff" of being a performer / crafter, but I think they still need some work. For one thing I've noticed that there are at least a few martial practices that are perfect for crafting... (I had never actually more than glanced at the martial practices, actually...)

Personally, as a DM and if I was using these rules, I'd be inclined to be very lenient with the player's choice of specialization, in respect to the fact that he is giving up character-building resources. But, honestly, I wouldn't really feel the need for this stuff. As a DM I'm more than willing to handwave stuff and/or adapt the campaign to support the fluff the players want for their characters. And why drop your background and a feat when the DM is willing to make that fancy axe you want your dwarven blacksmith to be working on between adventures part of the normal treasure parcels?

Also, part of this is inspired by a recent skill-challenge I ran where the PCs needed to make Athletics checks to move through a crowd of dancing (and oblivious) eladrin nobles...

 

[eriktheguy]

Right. I think the dance is a perfect example. If one of your players were a dancer, you might allow them to act as though they were trained even if they weren't or use dex instead of str etc. Your example of allowing them to make a skill check instead of an ability check is essentially the same as letting them act as though they were trained.
I would probably let each player have one or two free 'obscure skills' according to their background, and let them have more if they really wanted to invest a skill point in it. If one skill point makes you trained in every sport (athletics), I don't see why it shouldn't let you play a large variety of instruments, tell jokes, act, and juggle (perform).

If you were to make a very general skill called perform which made you good at all these things, I think some characters would probably invest skill points in it seeing as 4e doesn't have a perform skill.

In any case you mentioned you like to hand-wave such things. I think this is a great philosophy as a DM in general, and definitely valid in this case. When I make houseruls for things like trap-building, crafting, etc, I try not to make them cost feats/skills/powers etc. I might require someone to be trained in arcana to build a magic trap, or in thievery to build a mechanical trap, but that's the extent of it. It's just my personal philosophy on house rules so you don't have to take it as gospel, but this is a forum so criticize is what I do ^^.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

One of my players is a bard, when he attempts to perform/tell stories/etc I have him roll a Cha check against an level appropriate easy (sometimes normal for super important performances, but never hard) skill roll with his bard of all trades feat bonus.

Diplomacy could also work for the roll, as could bluff, athletics, acrobatics, or any other appropriate skill.