Talents (4E)

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

Professions are the non-combat equivalence of skills, and most rules that apply to skills apply to professions as well. Professions are considered skills for abilities that affect the use of skills. Unlike skills, a character does not start with any professions; they must all be learned using talents.

Character background and vocation

Professions are useful in defining and fleshing out character backgrounds. Some vocations can be represented by Profession, others by Craft or Perfoms. Many vocations lack a corresponding profession skill. People who make their living that way are unskilled, use raw attribute rolls like Strength for manual labor. Others use regular skills such as Nature for farming, hunting and fishing, or Dungeoneering for mining.

Using profession skills

Professions generally have no application in combat or action scenes. Using them takes time; from several minutes to several months. Their usefulness is in downtime and in skill challenges that take longer than rounds. Additionally, many professions can be used for the aid other action, both to help skills and ritual casters. Where a profession is relevant for rituals, this is noted in the description of the profession.

Learning profession skills

A character can use a Talents (4E) to learn a professional skill. Craft, Perform and Fame are available in addition to the eponymous Profession skill. With the exception of Fame, these skills consist of several specific skills.<ref>This works much like the Perform, Craft and Profession skills in the third edition of the game.</ref>

Craft

Ability as a craftman represented by several skills:

• Alchemy
• Smithing
• Jewelcrafting
• Leatherworking
• Engineering
• Tailoring
• Woodworking

Perform

Ability as a performer is represented by several skills. Examples of usage and instruments are listed for each skill below.

• Act (comedy, drama, mime)
• Dance (ballet, waltz, jig)
• Instruments (keyboard, percussion, string, wind))
• Oratory (epic, ode, storytelling)
• Sing (ballad, chant, melody)

Profession

List interesting or useful professions. It is probably a good idea to list common professions (such as Farmer) which use existing skill such as Nature. The list below includes Academics and Service, and some can probably be removed.

• Architect
• Barber
• Farmer
• Governor
• Lover
• Merchant
• Overseer
• Sailor
• Soldier
• Stargazer
• Valet
• Writer

Fame

See talk page for full text

Fame is not so much as profession as a measure of how successful and well-known you are in your career. It is used to see whether people have heard of you and what their impression is, to find fans and admirers, to gauge your popularity and to check the loyalty of your followers.

Notes

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External links

• List of medieval professions