Skill = Profession

[Tetsubo]

I've often seen players take a skill in a useful Craft or Performance art. But I've rarely seen players (myself included) take a related Profession. Mostly I think because skill points are so precious. I had an idea today that might solve this. For every four Ranks a character has in a skill that is related to a profession, they receive one rank in said Profession. The Profession skill would also be considered a class skill for all classes.

This means that a 20th level character with max Ranks in a skill would have a Profession of 5. Which isn't going to cripple any campaign. The player could of course pump up the Profession score higher if they desired.

Does this sound reasonable?

 

[Nyeshet]

Does this sound reasonable?

I see no problem with this. Profession skills are really of little use to PCs except as background ideas. Craft is generally more useful, as it allows a PC to make an item that may be needed (such as extra arrows at lower levels, etc).

Profession is mostly meant to allow a sense of psuedo-economy in the campaign world. Roll a die, check your profession, and that is how many silvers you made that day. It might also work for long periods of down time for the PCs, giving them a way to make a few extra gold during the winter months when the pass might be buried in snow, the river is frozen over, and the few other roads are unpassable.

Giving a few extra skill points just for profession - or even virtual skill points - is not game breaking. I'd even consider giving each of your PCs a single bonus feat at first level: choose a profession, and you gain an automatic skill point in per ___ levels, perhaps gaining a synergy bonus as well from any related craft skill. I once had a bard with Craft (song). Several of his songs were well enough made that our party later on encountered them in places we were just arriving at. If the PC has feat "Profession (minstril)" and 5+ ranks in Craft (song), then perhaps at tenth level they would gain +4 to their profession instead of +2 (2 for level, 2 for synergy from craft).

 

[Herzog]

It's true the Profession skills are hardly ever used.

But then again, when would you ask for/allow a profession check?

1. to earn money in downtime? most campaigns I know don't have that much downtime, and if they do, it tends to be used for crafting magic items and (re)training.

2. to make a check instead of a required knowledge, craft, or even bardic knowledge check related to the profession? Better to have put those points in the knowledge or craft skill, and with your system, they have and that skill will probably be higher.

Profession should be taken for flavour. The mechanical impact is minimal, and it should probably stay that way.

 

[hornedturtle]

I always thought that there should be a synergy between craft, profession and the related knowledge skill. I imagine a high level blacksmith with maxed ranks in craft(blacksmith), profession(blacksmith) and knowledge(?blacksmith) should get more than a +2 to each.

 

[slwoyach]

I simply allow any reasonable skill to be used as profession. Whether it be craft, survival (guide), knowledge (sage), or whatever.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Craft and Profession are mutually exclusive - if you make stuff you take craft (stuff) but if you don't you take profession. You shouldn't feel the need to spend points in multiple skills.

The two profession skills I've seen used are Profession (Sailor) and Profession (Merchant) - allowing one to do all the things you'd want to do on board ship, or to negotiate good prices on selling and buying things. I'm pretty liberal in allowing one-time bonuses to skill checks if the player can justify it.