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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zustiur" data-source="post: 4501485" data-attributes="member: 1544">Staying upright on a rocking surface is a balance check. Not throwing up on a rolling sea is a sea legs (profession sailor) check. They're not the same thing. Balance doesn't teach you how to tack, and knowing how to sail doesn't teach you how to walk on a thin ledge. They're separate skills. Again, the profession skills are there to fill the gap BETWEEN other skills, not to be used instead. A sailor character would logically have use rope, balance AND profession Sailor, and use each in different circumstances. It's like suggesting that Survival (which allows you to hunt animals for food) allows you to cheat by not having Move Silently. This clearly isn't the case.  MOST sailors wouldn't have many ranks, as they'd be commoner level 3 at most. 3E assumes nearly everyone can read, this is totally at odds with our history, and is not specific to sailors. Whereas the SRD defines a profession as "a skill representing an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge." Which is just a way of saying it 'fills the gaps' between other skills. Again I disagree. Profession (sailor) doesn't at any point replace Use Rope, Balance, Climb or any other skill and no attempt should be made to use it when the more specific skills are appropriate.  ACTING? Acting might fool someone for a very short period of time, but it won't fool anyone who actually works in the field. I outlined disguise as something you'd use in ADDITION to your profession skill. To be a carpenter you need to BE a carpenter, you can't just ACT as a carpenter and expect to fool anyone. You cannot just act as a mason and expect to get into the guild of masons, they'll spot you for a fraud in an instant. The same applies to all other professions. Yes certainly I'd allow it. And as above, it wouldn't be used where other skills are more appropriate. Being a Circus performer doesn't mean you don't need to take tumble, balance or jump. Each is a different task, and is applied at a different time. The skill Profession (circus performer) includes less specific tasks, such as knowing when to make a fool of yourself to get the best laugh, how to walk in clown shoes or how to interact with OTHER performers. To walk the tight-rope, you still need your balance checks, and no level of Profession skill will change that. Likewise being good at Perform (clown act) doesn't mean you'll know how much to charge for people to come and see the show.Going back to the guitar example from earlier - You may be the ultimate rock star, but you'd better have profession (band manager) or employ someone who does, or you'll never get paid. This seems to be what people forget about profession skills. At no point can you use profession INSTEAD of a more specific skill.In many ways profession is closer to knowledge than to any of the physical skills. Knowledge (Music) doesn't reduce the need for Perform (instrument). Neither does Profession (x) reduce the need to spend ranks in skill <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f44d.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt="(y)" title="Thumbs up    (y)"  data-smilie="22"data-shortname="(y)" />. If it helps to understand what I'm saying, replace the word Profession with Knowledge. It's now Knowledge (sailing) or Knowledge (Farming). So true.</blockquote>

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