D&D 3E/3.5 Is farming still a Profession in 3.5 ?

[Henry]

I am trying to build a character at work and I don't have any 3.5 books handy. Is farming still a profession in 3.5, or has it become a craft skill? For that matter, the SRD doesn't list ANY specializations except for knowledge. Did they remove the specifics lists for craft and Profession from 3.5, or did they just not include them in the SRD?


Thanks for any help in advance!

Henry

 

[Plane Sailing]

They removed the synergy bonuses from profession skills (e.g. prof(herbalist).

It seems like they wanted "profession" to be used ONLY for making money when not adventuring, which seems a shame to me. There certainly isn't any game-mechanics reason for not creating any profession desired though. 3 ranks in Profession(horologist)? why certainly sir!

 

[Henry]

At one time, I thought it was said that all skills which PRODUCE something (a tangible item) were supposed to be craft skills, and all skills which were intangible (accounting, being a guide, portage) were supposed to be Professions. In 3E, farming was a profession, but now, I don't see ANY professions. I noted this when I loaded PCGen when making my character, and wanted to know if this was an SRD product identity issue, or if there really ARE no examples of what's what anymore.

 

[Silveras]

Yes, the PH still has sample lists under both Craft and Profession. Farming is still listed under Profession, and the distinction between "making something" vs. "services" is still there.

I have no idea why the lists were removed from the SRD, though.

 

[Henry]

Yes, the PH still has sample lists under both Craft and Profession. Farming is still listed under Profession, and the distinction between "making something" vs. "services" is still there.

Thanks, Silveras! (and Plane Sailing, for that matter.)

I have no idea why the lists were removed from the SRD, though.

And I have no idea why farming is listed as a service. After all, there IS a tangible product of your labor - that's kinda the point.

Thanks, all.

 

[Spatula]

Yeah, but as a farmer you don't "make" your crops like you would a bow or a horseshoe.

 

[dcollins]

Rule "examples" are not in the SRD, and the various options for Profession and Craft skills have been counted as just examples. They weren't in the 3.0 SRD, either.

 

[tensen]

Yeah, but as a farmer you don't "make" your crops like you would a bow or a horseshoe.

Aye.. just like cooking is a profession and not a craft. What is more questionable is that if those two are examples of profession... is a vinter a craft or a profession?


In my own personal viewpoint on things... many of the skills can be taken as craft, profession, or knowledge depending on how you wanted to learn it. For ease of use, I don't really force the player to differentiate. But if you do force them:

Knowledge (alcohol) for the person that is a true taster of the alcohol.. Can place a vintage and year as quickly as he can tell whether water was fouled by something.

craft (vinter) For making a superb vintage out of the best materials.

profession (barkeep), profession (waitress), profession (wineseller). Each of these have slightly different skills involved, and you need not differentiate their knowledge unless something odd really comes into play. The wineseller and the barkeep both know how to water the liquor down without high loss of flavor, but while the wineseller knows how to keep the wine fresh, he doesn't know exactly how many drinks it takes for a type of individual to be really violent after drinking. And the barkeep knows how to stop difuse the situation and might get a good diplomacy type at that point, but the waitress knows how to balance with liquids in hand, and keep moving better so a drunk can't grapple her easily.

 

[Henry]

Personally, I'd rather them make them ALL either Craft or Knowledge skills, and make Profession a generic skill, just like d20 Modern. Make profession be HOW you use that knowledge to make money with the skills you have. so, it'd be craft (blacksmith), but Knowledge (Farming), or Craft (Alchemy), but Knowledge (Accounting).

Oh, well; mine is not to wonder why, mine is but to con the DM.

Rule "examples" are not in the SRD, and the various options for Profession and Craft skills have been counted as just examples. They weren't in the 3.0 SRD, either.

Actually, they were:

Profession (WIS; TRAINED ONLY)
The character is trained in a livelihood or a professional role, such as apothecary, boater, bookkeeper, brewer, cook, driver, farmer, fisher, guide, herbalist, herdsman, innkeeper, lumberjack, miller, miner, porter, rancher, sailor, scribe, siege engineer, stablehand, tanner, teamster, woodcutter, and so forth.

The above is from a copy from wotc's boards in January of 2002, after they finalized that section of the SRD. I wish they had left it in.

 

[Faerl'Elghinn]

I would definitely rule that farming is a profession. I think that the specific category lists for profession, craft, and knowledge skills are intended to be open-ended, and any additions should be subject to DM arbitration. The choice between Profession and Craft is basically irrelevant as far as the rules are concerned, as both are class skills to all classes, and both use intelligence as the relevant ability modifier. In my opinion, it is purely a matter of common sense. In this case, I feel that Profession is far more applicable, although you may decide otherwise. Really, either of the two should probably be considered a subset of the Knowledge skill available to all in any case.

In my opinion, the Knowledge skill is one of the most poorly handled aspects of the rules, as it can be difficult to determine how broad a topic a set of ranks should encompass. Generally, the specific knowledge skills presented tend to cover some fairly broad topics, so I would say that in most cases, if a specific type of knowledge is generally considered to be a subcategory of a broader area of expertise, then ranks devoted to it should also apply to all other subsets within said broader category.