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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4215968" data-attributes="member: 4937">The profession skill has always been problimatic.  On the one hand, it is occasionally useful for filling a hole in the list of standard skills.  That's how you've been using it.But on the other hand, for most uses of the professional skill, there is often a standard skill which would seem to overlap.  For example, take the idea of 'Profession(Lawyer)'.  What does skill in 'Profession(Lawyer)' really entail that isn't coverable by Knowledge(Law) and some sort of social skill like 'Diplomacy'?  How skillful of a lawyer can you be without Knowledge(Law) and how much knowledge of law does high skill in Profession(Lawyer) really entail?That's always bugged me to distraction.  And yet, I didn't want to get rid of Profession because of corner cases like Profession(Boating) where nothing else seemed to fill the idea of 'Capable of rowing or paddling a small craft'.  Likewise, I've previously been involved in campaigns that heavily revolved around the use of tall sailing ships, so I like you I didn't want to get rid of 'Profession(Sailor)' or 'Profession(Navigator)' even though I saw some problimatic overlaps between Profession(Sailor) and the actual skills used by a sailor like climb, balance, and use rope.  After all, there is more to being a good sailor than things like being able to climb, maintain your balance, tie knots, maintain your direction, read the tides and weather, and so forth - even though its pretty impossible to imagine a good sailor that doesn't also have these skills.I am rather unhappy with the 4E skill list, but one thing that it did do for me is force me to question my own 3.X derived skill list and the upshot of that is that it convinced me to bite the bullet and get rid of the profession skill.After really looking at the list of professions, there are only a few that have some essential skill which isn't covered by some other skill.  The list of what isn't covered is so small, that I think it is much better to do away with the profession skill and have specific skills for the corner cases. 4E is designed really only with core gameplay in mind.  If you play the game differently than the core rules assume, you are going to find holes in the rules.  Fortunately, I think it is designed to be easy to patch.In your case, I think the idea solution is to add something like 'Sailing' or 'Handle Craft' or whatever you think broad or narrow enough to fit the skill as you want to define it to the list of available skills, and then add it to the class skill list of those classes you think deserve a chance to begin trained in the skill.  Everyone will have some skill in this as they advance in level, and they can spend a feat to become trained in it.</blockquote>

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