Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rallek" data-source="post: 4499923" data-attributes="member: 8463">The way that I use profession/craft skills in my games is (roughly) as follows;Let's take the popular choice of sailor. What does taking profession(sailor) actually mean in terms of the character's abilities? In short, it makes the character familiar with and capable of executing the tasks common to the operation of a sailing vessel. This undoubtedly covers a number of things that are also expressed as separate skills, such as rope use, climb, and balance. So does the sailor in effect get these three skills for free? In my games no, and here's why.If we read the “Character Skills” text that is broken out at the bottom of page 62 in the 3.5 player's handbook, we come across a quote that, to me, is very important here; “Performing routine tasks in normal situation is generally so easy that no check is required.” In this context what profession skills do is to expand the definitions of “routine task” and “normal situation” for the character in question. Is tacking against the wind or executing a gybe a routine task? For your average rogue, no, for one with profession(sailor), absolutely.As far as the aforementioned “free skills” go, can the sailor tie exotic knots, climb through the rigging, and keep his balance on a heaving deck, sure. But that doesn't mean that he can scale a stone wall as if he had the climb skill, nor does he have any advantage at setting a grappling hook, binding an angry orc chieftain, or crossing a chasm on a beam three inches wide. The profession(sailor) skill grants him proficiency with climbing, uses of rope, and balance only in so far as they relate to the practice of sailing.Let's say that on board a ship a character with profession(sailor) and one with ranks in use rope are securing some lines. The sailor has no need to roll a check, this is for him a routine task in a normal situation. The character with use rope has to make a check, even if only to state that they are “taking ten”, because while their skill at using rope may make this a rather trivial task, it is still outside of “normal” for them.  So when and why does a character with profession(sailor) roll that particular skill? Let's say that your ship is facing into a hurricane west wind, and you're trying to make it to Whitefish Bay... this could end badly, time to roll that skill check. If no one in your party has the skill, you'd better hope that you hired some good sailors. For a less fatal example, let's say that you wanted to race another ship, or coax some extra speed out of your vessel to shorten a journey, this is also an excellent time for a profession check.Craft skills work similarly, anyone with skill in blacksmithing for instance, can service basic equipment and turn out horseshoes, nails and the like if need be, as to him these are routine tasks in a normal situation. If it becomes important to know exactly how quickly a character makes a given item, or if the item is more complex/specialized then it's time to roll a craft check. As far as how often these skills are used in my games, I can honestly say that in all the years I've run D&D games, I can't recall a single campaign in which no characters took a craft skill. There have been several instances in which no one selected a profession skill, but this is the exception rather than the rule.</blockquote>

Verification