7.19 Profession (Varies)

The Profession skills represent your practical understanding of a particular profession. Like Craft, Knowledge, and Perform, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Profession skills, each with a separate degree of training. While a Craft skill represents ability in creating or making an item, a Profession skill represents an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge. Most commoners have some training in a Profession skill.

Choosing an Attribute: No attribute is a key attribute for Profession. However, depending on how you are using your Profession, you can add any attribute’s base value to your Profession check. For example, if you use your experience as a farmer to harrow a field, you can add your Strength to the Profession check. On the other hand, if you use your experience as a sailor to determine the right angle for sails in the current wind, you can add your Perception to the Profession check.

7.19.1 Common Profession Tasks

Earn Income: You can make a Profession check to practice your trade and make a decent living. You earn about half your Profession check result in silver pieces per week of dedicated performance.

Identify Item: You can make a Profession check to identify any unusual properties or functions of a magic item or esoteric mundane item. The difficulty value is equal to 5 + twice the item’s rank. Items that are particularly common in a particular setting may be easier to identify, which can reduce the difficulty value by 2 or more. Success means that you know the item’s general purpose, and how to activate its functions, including any magical effects. You also know the item’s rank, which lets you estimate its value.

Perform Task: You can make a Profession check to perform some tasks related to your profession. This allows you to use Profession in place of other skills when it is appropriate. For example, a sailor could use Profession to tie common knots in place of Devices or Survival, or a farmer could use Profession to identify common animals and plants in place of Knowledge (nature). The difficulty value when using Profession may be higher than it would be to use the normal skill for the task, depending on the relevance of the Profession skill.