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.

Many vocations lack a profession and people who make their living that way are unskilled, use raw attribute rolls like Strength for manual labor, or use regular skills such as Nature for hunting and fishing or Dungeoneering for mining.

Professions generally have no application in combat or action scenes. Using them takes time; from several minutes to several months. They are used to define and flesh out character backgrounds, and their usefulness is in downtime and in skill challenges taking longer than rounds.

Each profession has many sub-branches, specialized fields that govern a part of the whole field. When learning a profession, you only learn one such branch. There are talents that improve all the branches of a profession, giving characters a general talent in a whole profession. 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.

Academics

Academic professions transform ideas into reality. An academic’s work need to be realized by others, such as actors performing a play, musicians playing a composition, or stonemasons building from an architect’s plans. These professions assume a reasonably efficient society on the scale of the late feudal era. For a barbarian or dark ages game, they might be off-limits.

Ability

Academics use Intelligence as the key ability.

Academic professions

You can learn an Academic Profession by spending a talent.

Architect

An architect understands geometry and design, making drawings used to build houses, gardens, bridges, fortifications and other large-scale projects. It is generally impossible to make a construction more than 30 ft. tall or 150 ft. long without the help of an architect.

Captain

A captain commands a ship, directing the work of sailors to sail fast and safely, and can navigate costal waters. Any ship over 30 ft. in length requires a captain. You still need Academics (Stargazer) to navigate at sea.

Composer

A composer writes music and leads other in musical performances. Any performer can create new music for his own performance; a composer coordinates several instruments and singers into one grand design.

Governor

A governor understands the nuisances of civilian administration and can balance a budget, keep a bureaucracy running, resolve conflicts, act as a judge, and serve as an administrator.

Merchant

A merchant understands the laws of supply and demand and is able to move and market large quantities of goods while maintaining a steady profit. Scrupulous traders insure goods come to the right buyers in a timely and efficient manner, to the benefit of everyone. This skill deals with bulk goods; it doesn’t help much when purchasing singular expensive items, such as magic items.

Officer

An officer commands forces on land; coordinating training, maneuvers and logistics to create a workable military force. Leading a force up to fifty men is done with Service (Boss); coordinating larger forces benefits greatly form an experienced officer.

Stargazer

You know the position of celestial bodies in the sky, and can use them to tell the time and to orient yourself. This is the main profession for navigating at sea, tough Nature is also important for that. This profession can also be used to aid all scrying and travel rituals.

Writer

A writer creates literary works of art; prose, poetry, and drama. These can then be published or performed by speakers and spread ideas, educate, praise, or condemn. A good writer can have an enormous effect on the people of an area, which is why rulers often try to control what is written, both by reward and persecution. This works much like the Diplomacy skill, only it uses the written word. Can be used to aid binding rituals.

Craft

You are skilled at making things. Different craftsmen make different kinds of objects. For a heroic character crafts come easily, and you will often surpass ordinary craftsmen in proficiency and diversity. Thus, the craft fields given here are very broad. Most professional craftsmen are much more specialized that this. Still, the Crafts profession is divided into a number of fields or specialties. Each is a separate profession that must be learned separately, but the Handyman talent gives a feat bonus to all crafts.

Template:Strike Crafts can be used to aid all creation rituals for appropriate objects. Craft skills can also be used to create suitable presents meant for particular people; a well-crafted and suitable present can give a +2 bonus on social interaction rolls against the recipient. The DC of making a fitting present is the Will defense of the target.

Ability

Crafts use... eh... some suitable ability. Actually, using different abilities for different crafts may be a good idea.

Magic Item Creation

A trained craftsman can make magic items appropriate to his craft. A smith makes swords, a leatherworker leather armor and so on. The level of the item can be two higher than your own level, three levels higher if you have the Handyman talent. Crafting magic items is a part of an adventure and can take as little as several hours if everything comes together. It is done in three steps.

1. Inspiration: This step is governed by the player, who describes the source of inspiration or lore behind the magic. This is often tied to recent experiences; fighting a fire creature, seeing a vast waterfall or talking to a wise mystic might all serve as inspiration for different items. The inspiration stage also includes doing preliminary work, or perhaps just taking a half-finished item out of storage.
2. Component: Most of the material the craftsman needs will be simple and ordinary, but a magic tem always requires at least one extraordinary component. Examples include dragon scales, phoenix eggs, or the sound of a cat’s footfalls. The level of this challenge of this should be equal to the level of the item. Acquiring this component is a small quest in itself, generally involving the entire party and giving a standard quest reward. The DM is encouraged to use this as an adventure hook.
3. All-Nighter: Finally, the item is finished in a long night of hectic work. This takes place during an extended rest, but the hard work costs you two healing surges from the next day. You must also expend materials with a value equal to the cost of the magic item you’re making.

Limitations: Cost and level limits for items are the same as for ritual magic item creation.

List of crafts

Select one craft for each talent. Each Craft skill corresponds to a range of occupations. Some examples are given below.

Alchemy

You refine small quantities of precious substances, like an apothecary’s medicines, potions, or the creation of ritual components. You can Template:Strike brew potions in batches of five and recognize and identify a great variety of substances and know how they react. An alchemist Template:Strike can Template:Strike aid all healing rituals.

Woodworking}}

You are a carpenter, shipwright, joiner, cooper, fletcher, bowyer or other craftsmen that works with wood. You can make everything from houses and ships to carts, weapon handles, staves, shields, arrows, and bows.

Cooking

You are a cook, brewer, baker. Whatever your occupasion, you prepare food – either for immediate consumption or for storage and trade – such as curing meat, brewing ale and beer or vinting wine. A brewer can brew potions using the crafting rules for magic items, only in batches of ten.

Metalworking

A founder casts soft metals, from precious metals such as silver, gold, and bronze to simple metal such as tin or lead. He can also work soft metals when cold, engraving and hammering anything softer than iron or steel. These metals generally do not carry an edge well, but make excellent tools and jewelry as well as axes, flails and maces.

Lapidary

A lapidary works in hard, fragile materials such as hard stone, ivory, glass, and gems. He can also engrave and decorate metals. This is useful for making jewelry, ornaments, high-quality tableware, and precision instruments such as alchemists use. Lapidaries can also make windows and simple prisms and lenses from glass or crystal. Template:Strike

Leatherworking

A leatherworker works with leather and hide, making clothes, leather and hide armor, and slings. Leather is also used as raw material in many other crafts. You can be a tanner, saddler, shoemaker,

Mechanics

A mechanic builds mechanical devices, such as crossbows, clocks, traps, and locks. Compared to other crafts, the mechanic is not self-sufficient, needing parts made by a smith, founder and lapidary to practice the craft. In late renaissance settings, you can make firearms.

Painting

A painter prepares and applies color to wood and plaster. Skilled painters can work on canvas, producing both portraits and landscapes to current fashions. They can also sketch well, and this is useful for documentation. It takes about five minutes to make a quick sketch of an area, and this can be done as a part of a short rest.

Pottery

A potter works in ceramics and other kiln-work, making tableware, urns, tiles, and figurines. This is a very common craft, but part-time village potters cannot rival professional artists working with fine clay and specialized workshops.

Scribe

A scribe works with paper, making neat books and scrolls. This includes all parts of book-making, -binding, -writing, and illumination (making illustrations). A scribe can also take dictation and do basic bookkeeping. If printing is available, it falls under this profession as well.

Smithing

A smith shapes iron and steel, making chain, scale and plate armor, iron tools, and all melee weapons except the quarterstaff and club.

Stoneworking

You are stonemason, blockcutter, sculptor, works in stone, building smaller buildings, walls and the like or realizing the plans of an architect. A trained stonemason can also do sculpting and decorative work in stone.

Tailor

A tailor makes clothes and cloth armor, along with tents, and tarpaulins. A good tailor can make and repair these things quickly and efficiently; an excellent tailor can make them beautiful and attractive, often using expensive imported materials. Tailored objects make excellent gifts.

Weaving

Weaving, fabric-making and basket-weaving techniques, useful for making wicker work, blankets, quilts, carpets, and cloth. It takes a very skilled weaver to make large pieces of cloth, such as those needed for sails, large carpets, or noble clothes and bedclothes.

Other

Dyer: A catch-all for chemical workers, from such low pursuits as soap-making and salt-panning to paper-making and dying expensive cloth.

Fame

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 NPCs 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.

Fame is not static. When you move about you lose contact with your fan base, and even a temporary setback can make you a has-been or at least make you temporarily out of fashion. You cannot retry a failed Fame roll unless the situation has significantly changed. Apply the following modifiers to

Situation	Modifier
Outside your regular area	-5 (or more)
Last adventure was a failure	-5
An adventure the last week was a resounding and public success	+5

Fame has a drawback; it makes it easier to hear rumors of your exploits. But such rumors tend to be exaggerated, almost urban legends, so while it is easy to get people to talk about you, it is no easier to actually find solid information on your whereabouts.

To see if people have been impressed by your fame, make a Fame roll against Will defense. On a success, they have a previous impression of you; you won’t need to introduce yourself, and if their basic values mesh with yours they will start out friendly.

To find fans willing to help you has a difficulty of 30; only the very famous can count of finding fans everywhere. If you spend an hour looking them up, the DC falls to 20. Such fans will give you basic aid; a place to stay, food, shelter. They will speak out for you and do minor services, but not take risks on your behalf.

Perform

Performance skills are used to entertain, please, and impress other people. Each performance takes from one minute up to an hour. In a game context it is more often used as a preliminary to social interaction, helping to set the mood. Used this way, the perform profession can be used do the aid other action for any social interaction, and you can even help yourself this way by doing the performance before your interaction skill check. Another way to use a perform skill is as a way to attract attention and stand out in a crowd in a positive way; the DC is the Insight of the target.

Acting

comedy, drama, mime, etc. as per the 3.5 SRD

Courtier

You are versed in the endless intricacies and rituals of court life. Courts this complex exist only in rich, stable places such as ancient empires or large Eladrin cities in the Feywild. Etiquette governs every step of life, and maintaining form and decorum has become a performance art in itself. This can be used to aid deception rituals.

Dance

Dance is the art of bodily expression, to convey meaning through stance, posture, and movement. A dancer can accompany himself using the shuffling of feet or with instruments such as tambourines and castanets, but a dance performance is often supported by a musician. You do not need this profession in order to take part in public dancing, but stage dancing or leading a public dance requires a profession roll. This can also be used to aid all divination and scrying rituals.

Percussion instruments

You play percussion instruments, from huge war drums to tiny xylophones. Drums are loud and suitable for public spectacles and war, less so for intimate scenes. They are often used as accompaniment for dancers, and can be used as long-distance signaling devices, tough such drums need to be huge, often made out of whole trees. You can aid warding rituals.

String instruments

You play string instruments, such as harps, lyres, mandolins, and dulcimers. This creates subtle sounds suitable for intimate settings. String instruments can be loud but then need to be excessively large and they never reach the volume of drums or horns. You can aid restoration rituals.

Wind instruments

You play wind instruments, such as horns, pipes, flutes, and recorders. These are very flexible in style, capable of being either subtle or very loud as the case demands, but you cannot sing while playing a wind instrument. This can be used to aid travel rituals.

Keyboard instruments

There are many machines that function as musical instruments, from organs, clavichords, accordions, viola organista, and harpsichords to magical effects used as instruments. Not all use a keyboard; what they have in common is that the player does not directly create the sound and instead uses a device. Keyboard instruments are extremely flexible, and can be used to create almost any type of music, but they tend to be expensive or heavy or both. Keyboard music can be used to aid creation rituals.

Sing

You can use your voice as an instrument. Your voice can enthrall an audience and be audible in a wide area. A professional singer has a vide repertoire and can vary volume and timbre, and can also act as a chanter, leading other less skilled singers. Can be used to aid exploration rituals.

Oratory

A speaker is a performer using words, presenting a story or script in a clear, audible, and enjoyable way. It is used in public speaking, storytelling, playacting and other verbal presentation. A speaker is not inherently skilled in social skills; the profession concerns the presentation of a script, not choosing the right words for an occasion. Still, this profession can be highly useful if you wish to use social skills against many people at once or in a noisy setting. Oratory can be used to aid binding rituals.

Services

Service professions provide skilled services without crafting objects. Service skills are a way to earn respect and a living, but also a way to focus and find inner strength; professions can be used to aid other on almost any task by providing a good working environment. Professional relationships are also a very good way to integrate yourself with others of the same profession, and can be used like Streetwise to find rumors appropriate to the job.

Barber

A barber does all kinds of body care, from styling hair, nails and skin to massage and minor surgical work such as removing blemishes or making tattoos. Many barbers are also skilled in Healing.

Overseer

Template:Strike You know how to lead a small team of workers. This hands-on approach to leadership works with groups of ten to a fifty people or so. You know when to encourage or punish, when to give instructions, and how to keep up morale. This is useful both to lead a civilian work crew or office, a small military unit, or a gang.

Farmer

You can work with soil and plants, producing bountiful harvests or beautiful and meditative gardens.

Husbandry

You can care for, train, breed, and herd domestic animals.

Lover

Anyone who puts their mind to it can have a satisfying love-life with a familiar partner; this is making a profession of it and being able to sexually stimulate strangers.

Peddler

You buy and sell produce. You are familiar and comfortable with local markets, and able to find anything that is being sold in a particular locale. You know how to work with strangers as customers, and can quickly evaluate goods and know their resale value.

Sailor

You are comfortable on ships and boats and know how to handle small craft or serve as crew on larger ones. You can navigate costal waters in reasonable safety as long as you only sail by day. You cannot navigate at sea using this profession alone. See Academics (Captain) for rules on ships and Academics (Stargazer) for navigation.

Valet

You are good at caring for the creature comforts of others. This includes maintaining clothes and personal hygiene, providing basics such as light, food, and warmth, handling personal expenses efficiently, and knowing when you are needed or not. A novice valet is a servant or maid, as you progress in skill you might move on to become an innkeeper or major-domo.

External links

• List of medieval professions