You are skilled at a specific job such as a crafter or laborer. Like Knowledge and Perform, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Profession skills, each with its own ranks. Profession comes in a few variants of crafter, laborer, or other. Profession is unique in the fact that it uses either wisdom or intelligence to perform its task
Crafters
A crafter generally falls into the category of blacksmith, armorsmith, fletcher, bowyer, alchemist, and so on. This generally means you’re adept at creating something. Below are some examples, though your GM may allow different variants. Unless otherwise specified all crafting skills are treated as mental skills.
- Alchemist(Int): Crafting alchemical items.
- Armorsmith(Foc): Crafting metal armors.
- Blacksmith(Foc): Crafting metal weapons and shields.
- Bowyer(Foc): Crafting bows and arrows.
- Jeweler(Foc): Rings, Necklaces, etc…
- Leatherworker(Foc): Crafting leather armors.
- Mechanic(Int): Crafting mechanical items such as trigger weapons (crossbows/firearms), vehicles, and siege weapons.
- Potioner(Int): Crafting potions.
- Toxicologist(Int): Crafting natural and alchemical poisons.
- Weaver(Foc): Clothing, Cloaks, and other cloth items.
- Woodworker(Foc): Crafting wooden weapons(like quarterstaffs) and shields.
- Stonemason(Foc): Crafting using stone, stone cutting, chiseling, and so on.
Check
A basic function of Profession when used with a crafting type profession is to make an item of an appropriate type of the profession (such as a blacksmith making a sword). Items created with a Profession check fall into a broad category of complexity to determine the DC, other items may have specific DCs required to create them.
When crafting an item you must have the appropriate tools or area to perform your work, such as an alchemist needing an alchemy kit. A lack of these tools may allow you to continue with your work but imparts a -2 penalty as you improvise with what you can find to complete the task.
To create the item you must have materials whose value is equal to ¼ of the cost of the item to be crafted. A profession check is made each day against the DC of the item to determine progress of the item.
Success makes an amount of progress based on the Crafting DC and Progress value chart, usually measured in gold pieces. For each degree of success you exceed the DC you improve the progress by double (one degree being double, two degrees being triple, and three degrees being quadruple and so-on). When the total progress is equal or greater than the cost of the item, the crafter may then make one final craft check to complete the item. Progress in excess of what is needed for the item may be applied to the next item if making multiple of the same items at the same time.
A failed profession check results in no progress, but a failure by one degree or greater causes a waste of raw materials equal to the base progress of the item that day, to a maximum of the initial cost (the ¼ of cost in raw materials).
To complete an item you have gained enough progress for, the crafter must make a final profession check against the craft DC of the item. If successful the item is finished; some items gain additional benefits based on the degrees of success of this final check. If this check fails by less than one degree the final cost of the item is increased by 50%, but the item is still finished. A failure by one degree or more fails to craft the item.
You may set aside an item you’ve begun crafting a return to later, though some items with volatile items, or perishable goods may have a limited time frame per GM discretion. To craft an item 8 hours of work must be dedicated to the act of crafting though this may be broken up into smaller segment, though at least 1 hour must be spent for progress to count towards this per day. The crafter cannot perform more than 8 hours of work each day, and cannot dedicate more time to get additional progress per day.
Crafting Items of Masterwork Quality: See the masterwork item rules for more information on making masterwork versions of weapons and armor.
Crafting Items of a Special Material: When crafting an item using a special material its DC is increased by 5.
Repairing Items: Using the appropriate Profession skill that would be used to craft an item, may also be used to repair that type of item. Repairing an item that has taken damage, but it has not been destroyed, costs 10% of the item’s cost in raw materials, though a repair kit may be used instead. Repairing an item with profession repairs at a rate of 1d6 points of damage per hour, plus an additional 1d6 per two degrees of success you exceed the crafting DC. The DC of repairing the item is the same as crafting an item, meaning items that are of masterwork quality or special materials receive the same increase for determining their crafting DC when being repaired. You may increase the DC by 10 to more hastily craft the item at a rate of 10 minutes rather than an hour.
Item Crafting DCs
The following chart has a generic list of DCs that a GM may use to determine DCs and progress per day; otherwise many types of items have specific crafting DCs associated with them.
Crafting Complexity | Craft DC | Base Progress per Day |
---|---|---|
Extremely simple | 5 | 1 gp |
Simple | 10 | 2 gp |
Normal | 15 | 4 gp |
Complex | 20 | 10 gp |
Intricate | 25 | 20 gp |
Very intricate | 30 | 40 gp |
Extremely intricate | 35 | 60 gp |
Simple Weapons/Armor | 10 | 2 gp |
Martial Weapons/Armor | 15 | 4 gp |
Exotic Weapons/Armor | 20 | 10 gp |
Poisons | DC = the Fortitude DC of the poison | 50 gp |
Alchemical Items | DC dependant on rarity and rank. | Determined by rarity. |
Laborers
A laborer works as more of a catch-all category for a type of profession that doesn’t directly produce a crafted good, such as a sailor, soldier. Sometimes a laborer may be a type of crafter who doesn’t fit the mold of the normal crafting rules, and as such may have their own set of tasks they may perform, such as a chef improving the quality of food on a journey, or a farmer assisting with animals or the growing of food.
Common Uses
Earn a Living
A laborer can earn a number of gold pieces per day of dedicated work equal to half your resulting profession check. Laborers may perform additional tasks based on their profession skill in different situations; some are listed as
Specific Uses
Soldier(End):
A character with Profession(Soldier) can perform the following tasks:
- Use Profession(Soldier) in place of a Knowledge(Region) to recognize an army, mercenary group, or even a group of bandit’s nation, affiliation, or identify their insignia, as well as any other information relating to the group.
- Use Profession(Soldier) in place of Appraise to determine the quality of a weapon or armor.
- Use Profession(Soldier) in place of Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidate when interacting with someone who recognizes the army, group or other organization you are or previously were associated with.
Sailor(Foc):
A character with Profession(Sailor) can perform the following tasks:
- Use Profession(Sailor) to Navigate a ship in fair conditions (DC 20)
- Use Profession(Sailor) to Navigate safely in a hazardous sea (DC 25+)
- Use Profession(Sailor) in place of Knowledge(Region) to recognize ports, seas, and other nautical locations.
- Use Profession(Sailor) in place of Diplomacy to gather information in a sea port town or district.
- Use Profession(Sailor) in place of Acrobatics to keep balance on a ship.
Chef(Agi):
A character with Profession(Chef) can perform the following tasks:
- Cook a meal of exceptional quality (DC 20)
- Notice poison in food (DC 25)
- Feed an additional person with a hunted food or ration by extending it through the use of soup or other methods. DC 15 plus an additional person per 10 you exceed the check.
Farmer(End):
A character with Profession(Farmer) can perform the following tasks:
- Use Profession(Farmer) in place of Knowledge(Nature) to identify an edible plant.
- Use Profession(Farmer) to grow food. This can be in a field or a simple garden in the back of a wagon. Growing food should take a minimum of a month with a DC 10 Profession(Farmer) check. The time can be reduced half by doubling the DC. The resulting plant produces enough food for one person plus an additional person per 5 that you beat the DC.
- Use Profession(Farmer) in place of Knowledge(Nature) to try and direct a livestock animal such as Pigs, Ox, Cows, Horses, Goats, etc…
Gambler(Psy):
A character with Profession(Gambler) can perform the following tasks:
- When gambling a Profession(Gambler) may make a DC 20 Profession(Gambler) check to cheat at a current game of gambling to gain a +4 bonus to any rolls. Opponents get a perception check to notice this cheating against the gambler’s profession check.
- When gambling a Profession(Gambler) may make a DC 10 Profession(Gambler) check to gain a +2 bonus to any rolls by trying to outplay the foe using statistics to their advantage, or possibly even just card counting.
Linguist(Foc)
A character with Profession(Linguist) can perform the following tasks; much of these tasks are covered under the Languages and Literacy page; while many of these behave similar to crafting, the monetary cost is usually low to negligible and thus tracking progress is usually not as viable with the gold per day system.
- Writing longer or more complex documents.
- Forging documents or signatures.
- Translation documents.
- Encrypting documents.
- Decryption of documents.
Action/Retry
Varies, a check usually represents a single day of work, though some specific uses are usually a standard action or greater.
An attempt to use a Profession skill to earn income cannot be retried for that day. An attempt to accomplish some specific task can usually be retried though the consequences of that failed check may still be there (such as failed navigation through profession sailor).