Does your party have a cook?

[Aeolius]

I can't decide if that would be the best thing ever or the spawn of satan.

Spawn of Cerberus.... they're doggie bags

 

[Richards]

My players have an NPC cohort, Old Clem, with a few levels each in Commoner and Expert. He's an old fisherman who discovered that following around an adventuring band pays a LOT better than scrabbling for a living in a fishing village. (The PCs originally hired him to row them out to a rock outcropping in the ocean near his village, and he's been with them ever since.) They can count on him to serve up fresh fish anytime they camp near a river or lake, and he's also developed "land fishing," where he sits up on a tree branch and dangles his line down to the ground, catching unwary squirrels and such for the stew pot in that fashion.

Johnathan

 

[pemerton]

I've seen several PCs with Cooking skill, but in Rolemaster, in which the marginal cost (measure in character-building resources) of developing that sort of skill is much less than in 3E D&D (typically around 1/50 of the resources available per level).

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Non-weapon proficiencies were a blast. I remember one character I had that was a professional fisherman and chef. He'd ocassionally haul in a critter best left undisturbed.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Technically I'm the cook...but considering I play a 'Eat the hearts of your enemy to gain their strength' type barbarian, whose prefers state of cooking is raw, the party doesnt usually let me do the cooking duties. Having a ungodly high Fort save helps for that 'Need to see what that tastes like' urge, I can tell you that.

DM: "You want to DRINK the silversheen?"
Me: "Yeah, I always wondered what it tasted like"
Other player: "Well, at least it's not Wyvern poison again..."
Me: "I lived, didnt I? It tasted pretty good, actually. I think it'd make a great marinade"

 

[Nyeshet]

Yes

I once had a halfling character to whom I gave two skill points in cooking due to background. But then I usually set aside 2-4 skill points at first level which I placed based upon the character's background. Things like Fletcher or Smith were more common, however.

 

[Aeolius]

This thread makes me wish that future monster manuals would include a "Uses" section for each beastie. How best to cook the creature, what parts can be used as material components for spells and potions, the value of feather, hide, and shell... and so on.

 

[justanobody]

This thread makes me wish that future monster manuals would include a "Uses" section for each beastie. How best to cook the creature, what parts can be used as material components for spells and potions, the value of feather, hide, and shell... and so on.

How about a monster manual recipe book. for cooking and all other things like you mention?

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

My 2e illusionist had cooking proficiency. He considered himself an aesthetic gentleman type, so he had all sorts of odd skills like that.

We also had a professional French chef that travelled with us for a while, at least until the drow captured him. Alas, poor Pierre...

I @#$% hate the drow.

 

[Piedmon Sama]

Yes. Although I recognize there's a difference between knowing how to prepare and preserve food so it's edible (a Survival check), and actually cooking. The latter, to my mind, involves extra touches like seasoning, marianating, and knowing how to preserve/enhance the flavor of a meal. The Crusader 2/Swordsage 3 cohort of my player's Cleric 7 spent most of his life in a Temple of Tyre's training barracks and knows nothing of wilderness survival, but he does know how to butcher meat (it's a cultural thing, everyone in his country at least owns a cow and some chickens), so I gave him 2 ranks in Profession: Cook to represent that. He can take raw meat and make it edible, but I wouldn't call what he does "cooking." OTOH, he's planning to buy a sack of pepper and bag of salt cubes next time the party comes to a major city to see if he can't "learn on the job." Sneezes and hurt feelings are expected to ensue.