Profession

Epic Path \ Skills \ Profession

• Ability Score Used: Wisdom
• Usable Untrained? No
• Armor Check Penalty Applies? No

You are skilled at a specific job. Like the Knowledge and Perform skills, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Profession skills, each with its own ranks. A Profession skill represents the ability to cultivate, craft or provide goods or services relevant to the profession, as well as the general knowledge of how to earn a living in that profession.

Even though many of these professions require tremendous endurance, or facile hand or tool work, all professions are Wisdom-based, since they all require a great deal of common sense and learning to achieve greatness, regardless of their physical demands. Even though a blacksmith must be strong and endure heat all day, those things don't make him a great blacksmith. His experience with shaping metal with tools (thus, wisdom) are what make him a great blacksmith.

The most common Profession skills are: Alchemist, Architect, Armorsmith, Artist, Barrister, Blacksmith, Bookbinder, Bowyer, Brewer, Butcher, Carpenter, Cartographer, Cobbler, Cook, Drover, Engineer, Farmer, Fisherman, Gambler, Gardener, Glass Smith, Herbalist, Innkeeper, Jewelsmith, Leathersmith, Librarian, Locksmith, Mason, Merchant, Miner, Sailor, Scrivener, Shipwright, Siege Engineer, Soldier, Tailor, Tanner, Trapper, Trapsmith, Weaponsmith, Weaver and Woodcutter.

Numerous other professions exist, though some are far too dull to be attractive to a player character (e.g., Clerk, Miller, Porter), too provocative for some campaigns (e.g. Prostitute, Midwife), or are campaign specific (e.g. Redcap, Lamplighter).

Players are free to put ranks into any profession they desire (or multiple professions), granting them insight and knowledge related to that profession, professional contacts, an understanding of common protocols, jargon, laws and business practices pertinent to that profession, etc. Indeed, in addition to making a character's background more colorful, having a profession skill can be highly useful in the right circumstances. In most cases, a relevant profession skill is far more likely to reveal useful information than a more generic skill.

Common Uses

Create a Good

The Profession skill allows you to cultivate, craft or supply a good relevant to your chosen trade (if applicable; some professions provide only services). The DC depends on the complexity of the item to be created. The DC, your check result, and the price of the item determine how long it takes to make a particular item. The item's finished price also determines the cost of raw materials.

To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.

• Find the item's price in silver pieces (1 gp = 10 sp).
• Find the item's DC (either from the Goods and Services page, or by asking your GM)
• Pay 1/3 of the item's price for the raw material cost.
• Make an appropriate Profession check representing one week's worth of work. If the check succeeds, multiply your check result by the DC. If the result x the DC equals the price of the item in silver pieces (SP), then you have completed the item. If the result x the DC equals double or triple the price of the item in silver pieces, then you've completed the task in one-half or one-third of the time. Other multiples of the DC reduce the time in the same manner. If the result x the DC doesn't equal the price, then it represents the progress you've made this week. Record the result and make a new Craft check for the next week. Each week, you make more progress until your total reaches the price of the item in silver pieces.
• Other Modifiers:
  • Tools: Creating items using a profession skill requires artisan's tools to give the best chance of success. If improvised tools are used, the check is made with a -2 penalty. On the other hand, masterwork artisan's tools provide a +2 circumstance bonus on the check.
  • Spells: A successful Profession check in conjunction with the casting of an appropriate spell enables you to make items with a bonus on the Profession check. This bonus is equal to the spell level of the spell in questions, and depending upon the spell (for example, [Ironwood (Spell)] for wooden items) may also enhance the items directly.
  • Minor Creation: When casting the spell minor creation, you must succeed on an appropriate Profession check to make a complex item.
• Progress by the Day: You can make checks by the day instead of by the week if desired. In this case your progress (check result x DC) should be divided by the number of days in a week.

• Action: Profession checks to make items are made by the day or week (see above).
• Retry? Yes, but if you fail a check by 4 or less, you make no progress this week (or day, see above). If you miss by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again.

Locate a Contact

You can use your profession skill to locate other members of your professional community. You must be in a location which is likely to have people who practice your particular profession, but a profession check allows you to find colleagues even if they might be difficult to find for outsiders. The DC of this check is 15, though this can increase significantly if you're looking for a particular individual, such as the guild leader of your profession, or a member of your profession who is also a member of the nobility. Settlement size can also influence the DC. It might be very tough to find the herbalist in a very small community where everyone has multiple jobs, and similarly, it will be very tough to locate a the head of the shipwright guild in a megalopolis, though quite easy to find one random shipwright.

• Action: Typically 1 hour per settlement size. See Settlement Sizes for details.
• Retry? Yes.

Demonstrate Expertise

You can call upon your knowledge of your profession to speak the jargon, comply with the normal protocols or etiquette expected of you, impress your colleagues, and generally be a professional in your field. The DC of this sort of check is generally 10 for casual situations, or 15 if you are speaking with people familiar with your profession. Against other professionals of your field, this is an opposed roll, your profession skill against theirs. If you succeed, you impress your audience with your knowledge, convey the validity of your point of view, etc. A highly successful roll (beat DC by 5 or more) might even change an NPC's attitude towards you, as though you had succeeded on a Diplomacy check. Failing the check by less than 5 means your audience is not swayed by your opinions, but does not change their opinion of your professional competence. Failure by more than 5 means they are dismissive of your ideas, and hold you in lower esteem regarding your competence in this field. Low level characters should consider staying quiet around the masters of their profession, lest they earn a poor reputation that is difficult to shake off later.

• Action: Conversations generally require a few minutes or longer.
• Retry? You can attempt another check 24 hours later, though a particularly poor result from any check may make future checks more difficult, as you are also forced to overcome the bad impression you've made.

Earn a Living

You can earn half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work. You know how to use the tools of your trade, how to perform the profession's daily tasks, how to supervise helpers, and how to handle common problems.

• Action: A single check generally represents a week of work.
• Retry? Varies. An attempt to use a Profession skill to earn income cannot be retried. You are stuck with whatever weekly wage your check result brought you. Another check may be made after a week to determine a new income for the next period of time. An attempt to accomplish some specific task can usually be retried.

Untrained

Untrained laborers and assistants (that is, characters without any ranks in Profession) earn an average of 1 silver piece per day.

Epic Skill Uses

Note: All uses below require a minimum of 21 Ranks in the skill to use.

Master

(DC 60) - your profession checks can be made in 1 day, instead of 1 week.

Grandmaster

(DC 80) - your profession checks can be made in 1 hour, instead of 1 week.

Maker

(DC 100) - your profession checks can be made in 1 minute, instead of 1 week.

Apex Professional

(DC 140) - in any settlement larger than a large town, you know all of the prominent merchants, collectors and guildmasters.