Craft-Perform-Profession Question

[Hand of Vecna]

What's the difference between Craft (Cooking) and Profession (Chef)?

What's the difference between Perform (Comedy) and Profession (Comedian)?

 

[Starglim]

Craft (cooking) allows you to make meals that have value, if you use expensive ingredients. Profession (Chef) allows you to earn money as a chef and to know the various things that a skilled chef should know.

Perform (comedy) allows you to make a lot of people laugh, give you money, and pass on your name to develop your reputation. It also allows a bard to create extraordinary and magical effects with his jokes. Profession (comedian) allows you to make a living as a comedian without really leaving an impression on anyone.

 

[Antoine]

Sort of :
Craft, profession and perform pertain to different types of "jobs"/occupations/skills.

If the skill is about building/constructing/crafting things it's a craft.
If it's about running a business/designing/creating abstract things such as a book or a recepy, it's a profession.
If it's about entertaining people, it's a perform.

Cooking/chef is a profession, not a craft (chefs and cooks don't "build/craft" meals).
Comedy is a perform, not a profession. Playwright is a profession.

A guy with the profession [shipwright] skill can design a ship. He'll need guys with craft [carpenter] skill to get the hull together. And so on…

Hope this helps.

 

[irdeggman]

Antoine pretty much nailed it.

"While a Craft skill represents ability in creating or making an item, a Profession skill represents an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge. To draw a modern analogy, if an occupation is a service industry, it's probably a Profession skill. If it's in the manufacturing sector, it's probably a Craft skill" from PHB under Profession.

Basically to be a Craft skill something concrete/descrete has to be made.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Yes, but a cake is a tangible, concrete thing, and so it sounds like Craft (cooking) [or, if you wanted to go more detailed, Craft (baking)] would be used to make a cake. A cake recipe might be an abstract thing, but no moreso than the instructions on how to forge a sword or weave a basket.

 

[4sticks]

In our campaign, we have completely erased the Profession skill. If you want to get a job as a Chef and earn money, you use the Craft (cooking) skill to determine how good you are. If you want to earn money as a Shipwright, you should take levels in Knowledge (shipbuilding).

How could anyone possibly argue that their character can earn money as a Dancer, if they don't have the skill, Perform (dance)? And the flip-side, how could someone who has the skill, Craft (pottery) not earn money by making clay pots?

My advice, scrap the Profession skill entirely, and use your common sense.

 

[Scharlata]

[...]My advice, scrap the Profession skill entirely, and use your common sense.

Hi!

.. and don't do this

The difference between Craft and Profession is a narrow but tangible one. Craft lets someone do things with his hands or other extremities and his body in general. The potter crafts i.e. amphores to be sold on the market. He goes to the market and sells his wares. But if he isn't apt in a Profession like merchant, too, he may get not what his wares are worth, because he doesn't know the market prices in other towns. The architect is someone who has the skill Profession (architect) and designs buildings and makes blueprints and calculates statics. The mason is someone who has the skill Craft (stoneworking) and makes stone to construct a building with.

I think the Craft and the Profession skill are relatively easy to distinguish and to handle, as Starglim pointed out.

Kind regards

 

[Deadguy]

Scharlata, I think this thread quite clearly that people do have a hard time distinguishing Craft and Profession!

For myself, the preferred method is simply to roll up Craft and Profession into a new skill Artisan, so there's no doubt about what it's under. (For reference, use whichever bonus of Int or Wis is higher).

The only wrinkle I add is that I have such a thing as Artisan (merchant), which represents the skill of leveraging goods and services for wealth. That way I can distinguish between the skilled Journeyman (say with Artisan [blacksmith] +7) and his boss (who has Artisan [blacksmith] +8 and Artisan [merchant] +5).

However this has strayed far into House Rules territory, for which I apologise. Officially, as Starglim has pointed out, it's supposed to be clear which is which. It's just in reality that it gets nuanced (and then abused by DMs!).

 

[Scharlata]

Scharlata, I think this thread quite clearly that people do have a hard time distinguishing Craft and Profession!

[...]

(and then abused by DMs!).

Thanx for pointing out that other people have other problems. I'm asking questions that other forum members (would?) laugh at.

BUT..... Profession and/or Craft abused by a DM? Horrible and inunderstandable.....

Please tell me.

Kind regards

 

[irdeggman]

The other thing to use in determining if a skil is a craft or profession is the pharse in the PHB "To draw a modern analogy if an occupation is a service industry, it's probably a Profession skill. If it's in the manufacturing sector, it's probabl a Craft skill"


Cooking a meal is a service industry whereas mass producing meals (like trail rations) could be perceived as a profession.