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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carnivorous_Bean" data-source="post: 4398071" data-attributes="member: 57974">Honestly, I would love to see an edition of D&D which gave equal space to combat, 'social combat,' and crafting/profession rules. The arguments against crafting on the basis of grinding for materials are invalid, IMO. We are not trying to duplicate an MMO here. We're trying to take a good idea -- a group of different crafts, all of which create different but useful items -- and figure out how to include it in D&D.  In reality, blacksmiths did not -- and do not -- go and mine their own materials. Nor do potters necessarily dig up their own clay, woodcarvers cut down trees, etc.  What I would like to see is a system where the process involves a few rolls, like a skill challenge with time between the rolls. And the mundane materials are bought, while the exotic materials all require quests. It would make questing more interesting if you did it for some other reason, sometimes, other than killing stuff and taking its loot. Even if you're doing that, you're taking the loot for a purpose, which makes it more interesting. For example, let's say you need three items to make a Zeenger's Orb of Psychopompic Sneezing. One of them is earth from the temple of a good-aligned god in a remote valley, requiring a journey through beast-filled wilderness and then several tests at the temple to prove worthiness, etc. The next is a jewel from the crown of a king who has been slain three times (a divination is needed to discover who this is, which requires a quest, then there's a quest to get the jewel from the mummy lord's crown). And the last is powder from a hunting-horn blown within a thousand heartbeats of the fall of its prey, a specific demon who has been haunting the hills near such-and-such. (Oh, yes, and you need some mundane glass and a brass stand, bought from a glassblower and a latoner for a total of 5 gold.)  You couldn't go into this much detail in the description, of course, but you could describe how many rare items are needed for a variety of items, level-appropriate stuff, etc. etc. Herbalism and alchemy, in WoW terms, would be really great for an RPG, because the search for rare herbs is obviously an adventure in itself.  As for lessening the number of skill points -- well, just have separate set of crafting skill points. They've already separated combat and non-combat abilities for balance -- why is it so hard to do this for adventuring and crafting skills? If there are players who don't want to craft, they can spend their skill points on various types of performance, gambling, whatever.  It's also odd that there's so much overt hostility to the idea of adding crafting, even as its own skill system. Seems almost like an attitude of, "If WotC didn't see fit to include it, then you're dumb for wanting it."</blockquote>

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