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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 5492236" data-attributes="member: 44797">Ever since I participated in this thread:<a href="http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172604" target="_blank">Old Mac Donald Had a Farm (But No Ranks In Knowledge: Nature) (3.5) - Giant in the Playground Forums</a>...I have been of the mind that Profession & Craft should confer some unwritten benefits.  It seems absurd that a commoner with skills in Profession (farmer) cannot recognize the animals in his care until he puts ranks into Knowledge (nature).  If you have even a single rank in a profession or craft skill, I believe it should confer at least rudimentary knowledge of all that is needed to be successful with that skill.If you have ranks in Profession (sailor) it probably should confer some ability to work with rope, tie knots, and climb rope ladders & masts.  It might not be as good as someone who specialized with lots of ranks in climb & use rope, but you should be able to get by as a sailor with what you have.What this means is that in my games, if you select a profession (maybe just for background flavor) and find you are stuck without a specific skill that your profession skill can cover, you can make a profession roll.If the party encounters a plant that needs to be identified with Knowledge (nature), a check using Profession (herbalist) might also do it, in limited scenarios.If the party encounters some gems that they would like to identify and get ballpark valuations, they could use Appraise, but they might also be able to pull off a valuation with a great Profession (miner) check.  But I'd make it harder.  If it's a DC 15 to get a reasonable valuation using Appraise, it might be a DC 20 to get the same ballpark number using Profession (miner).  And it would only apply to gems that can be mined.  For example, some of the grown living gem monsters in the game world wouldn't be the kind of thing miners would be mining, so they'd not be able to roll for a check like that.A miner should also know pretty easily about some monsters from Tome of Horrors, such as the Cave Cricket, Cave Fisher, Cave Moray.A sailor should know about whales, kraken, octopus, shark, squid, and other ocean creatures.  Or at the very least, instead of needing a Knowledge (nature) check, sailors should be able to try Profession (sailor) checks.Any time someone says something like this: "Are you kidding?  The commoner/expert has ranks in Profession and STILL can't do it right?  They NEED it for their profession!"  I would consider that "needed" thing to be something that they could use their Profession skill for.One last example.  Someone with Profession (scribe) might "need" to be able to do rudimentary Decipher Script checks, even if they don't have ranks.  They wouldn't be as good as a specialist, but they might get a roll that has a DC 5 points higher.Stuff like that seems fair to me as a DM.  Otherwise, lots of professions don't actually work.  You end up with silly threads like the one I linked to.</blockquote>

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