LudicSavant
2015-01-19, 06:56 PM
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/191/4/0/forge_by_candra-d6v26mq.jpg
This guy made all this stuff with no ranks in Craft.
If you want to optimize, you probably don't want to be spending any ranks in Craft. Not just because it's not a very good skill, but because you can often do the task without investing in the skill at all.
The main practical purpose of Craft skills is to be able to get mundane items more cheaply whenever you have the spare time (1/3rd of the price), such as the Mithral Full Plate you wanted. Or for flavor. Or maybe because you want to Fabricate something very specific. Or maybe you want to make money during downtime. But usually it's the first one.
So, you are a hardworking artisan who spent his hard earned skill points in Craft (Armorsmithing) and you walk out in the street one day and you realize... all the Wizards you know are all bloody master craftsmen that can make all the masterwork full plate you can. They also can craft masterwork weapons, weave masterwork baskets... you name it, they can probably craft it. Every single one of them. What happened?
Well, those guys have like 16 Int. That totally gives them a +3 craft bonus. Then they can take something like the Magecraft spell (Eberron Campaign Setting) for the cost of a cheap scroll and some magic ink for scribing. Then they grab some artisan's tools for 50gp, and go work in a workshop just like you do. They also have a Familiar that can aid another. We're already looking at a result of 22-24 when they take 10 on a Craft check, which is enough to produce almost every masterwork item in the game. The key bit is that it doesn't matter what kind of Craft check it is. Their bonuses apply to crafting everything, whereas the poor shmoe who actually took ranks in Craft only applies them to a specific kind of item.
It's not just Wizards that can do this. It's pretty much everyone, at some point or another. Wizards just have the easiest time doing it right off the bat at level 1 without even trying.
Artisan's Tools are cheap and give you +2 to all Craft checks (And in general, a core Masterwork Tool can give you a +2 to any of your skill checks! Use them!). Working in a workshop gives you a +2 to the appropriate Craft check that stacks with that. Tons of spells and abilities boost skill checks (though Magecraft is the cheapest and most accessible for anyone), and you can get a Drow House Insignia of that and hand it to anyone. As you go up in levels, it becomes increasingly effortless. Every Cleric learns Divine Insight (Spell Compendium). Bards start inspiring competence or using Focusing Chants or whatever. You can grab an Eternal Wand (Magic Item Compendium) or Drow House Insignia (Drow of the Underdark) of Magecraft, and even the Fighter can use that insignia. All in all, past the lowest levels nobody is going to really have to worry about being able to grab a +10 to Craft and take ten to throw together mundane items during downtime.
Mind, all of this only matters if you have tons of downtime. Crafting is slow. Really slow. Do you know how much time it takes to craft Mithral Full Plate with a whopping +30 to Craft (Armorsmithing)? About 100 days. That means that you might actually be able to take the length of the entire campaign crafting and still never finish a single piece (as if this skill wasn't enough of a trap already). Some DMs let you get around this though, because they'll allow pre-game Crafting (e.g. while you're creating your character) or shorten crafting times so that Artificers get to have their fun, in which case odds are someone in your party will be able to get cheaper mundane gear without any skill point investments, and this can add up to saving quite a lot of money (Such as cutting 7100gp off that vanilla Mithral Full Plate).
All that actual ranks in the trap skill that is Craft do is to allow you to craft things a bit faster (still really slow, as shown above with the +30 skill check example), and make a bit more money (read: practically nothing for an adventurer's income relative to the time spent). As long as you have the time (such as if your DM will allow you to craft stuff at character creation, or you have a timeskip) and the ability to hit 20 when taking 10, you can use Craft to reduce the price of (almost) all of your mundane items by 1/3rd. Costly spell components, special-materials armor, whatever. This can often give you a lot of extra money to throw around at character creation. Note that this is something that you could not do simply by investing ranks in Craft... you could spend all of a Rogue's skill points on it and still not have enough to reduce nearly all of your mundane item costs by 1/3rd.
The main exception to this is Craft (Poisonmaking) (and sometimes Craft (Alchemy)). Poisonmaking is a real skill that can actually be worth it. Heck, its status as a Real Craftsman's Skill is emphasized by the fact that it even adds insult to injury by rendering obsolete all other Craft skills for money-making, because according to Complete Adventurer Poisonmaking calculates profits in GP rather than SP and allows you to pay only 1/6th of the cost of the materials if they are readily available, making the profits far better (and you can actually complete your poisons in fairly reasonable periods of time). You also actually care about raising your ranks in Craft (Poisonmaking) since you might want to reach actually difficult DCs like "35." Then you can Fabricate some Black Lotus Extract, bottle it up in alchemical weapon chambers from Complete Adventurer, and go nuts. Just make sure you grabbed Poison Use (or immunity to poison or some other such thing).
Examples of getting a 20 in Craft when taking 10 with different classes:
Cleric: If you're willing to wait until level 3, you'll grab Divine Insight. That plus Artisan's Tools and a 10 intelligence will already get you a 20 on your Craft checks. At level 1, you have things like Guidance (core cantrip) and Ray of Hope (Book of Exalted Deeds), which can help yourself or an ally hit that 20.
Wizard: Easiest of the lot. Learn Magecraft, have a Wizardly intelligence score, score some Artisan's Tools. Even if you don't have access to Magecraft it's very easy; there are plenty of buff spells that will nudge you or an ally over that threshold, including options as simple and obvious as "Fox's Cunning," and you get a familiar to help you out. If you can't do it at level 1, you'll probably be able to do it soon.
Bard: There’s a good chance you want to switch out Bardic Knowledge for something like Bardic Knack (PHB II) or Lore Song (Dungeonscape). You’re also an arcane caster and have UMD. You also might be taking handy spells like Improvisation which boost skill checks and other things. You might even have invested for the +2 bonus in intelligence because you wanted to qualify for Words of Creation. Between Loresong, a +2 int bonus, a masterwork tool, and an aid-another buddy, you’ve already hit the DC20 spot at level 1 without going out of your way. As always, there’s also the option of waiting a bit, and then Magecraft, Improvisation bonuses, Bardic Knack bonuses, and so forth will come on the radar.
At third level or higher you can also use your Inspire Competence song to boost a buddy’s craft check (which you probably didn’t give up for some other feature, because you wanted to qualify for the Song of the Heart feat).
Anyone with about 1000g: Drow House Insignia (Magecraft), Artisan's Tools, Workshop, ask a teammate to use a low level buff on you or Aid Another. If you have UMD or spellcasting ability Eternal Wands work just as well as Drow House Insignias.
____________
Poisonmaking: The Exception
I've joked in the past that Poisonmaking is such a sly, roguish little bugger that he's not a Craft skill at all, but merely masquerading as one to get past customs. Poisonmaking doesn't follow the normal rules for Craft, and is actually worth putting a few skill points into from time to time. Exhaustive lists of poisons can be found in other guides (here's one: http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=4854.0). Rather than go over all that again, I'll just point you to the interesting bits to get you started for brevity's sake.
- Poisonmaking has different rules than other Craft skills, noted in the skills section of Complete Adventurer and in the DMG (in the section where it lists all the poisons). Poisons can be crafted for 1/6th of the materials cost if the materials are readily available (unlike the usual 1/3rd for crafting), and you use GP instead of SP when determining how fast you can craft your poisons (resulting in much more reasonable craft times.) The two of these things combined also mean that poisonmaking is considerably more profitable than any other Craft skill. If you are making products and selling them at 1/2 market price, with Poisonmaking you are making a ~200% profit instead of ~50% on every sale... and turning out products 10x faster besides, which means you're making 40x as much money as any other Craft skill. In Complete Scoundrel there's a poison called Salvo which can be made with a low DC and is made out of random scraps that are pretty much always considered to be "readily available." Churn that out and you get money.
- Minor Creation is super handy for making poison to use in your adventures... and there's a really cheap way to get it, too, which I think the guide I linked does not cover. Thanks to the Magic Item Compendium errata about magic items and psionic transparency, you can make a Drow House Insignia with Psionic Minor Creation on it for 620g. Simply make the Craft check and you'll have all the poison you'll want for the next hour, regardless of class. Note that you can only make plant-based poisons while using Minor Creation, but that list includes goodies like Black Lotus Extract (DC35), Cave Terror (DC21), Sassone Leaf Residue (DC16) and Drow Knockout Poison (DC13). The Arsenic and Old Lace guide I linked has a comprehensive list of poisons that can be made with Minor/Major Creation.
- There are some handle animal tricks that can give you free poison too. The guide I linked should list them. For example, according to Drow of the Underdark, it's a DC 15 Handle Animal check to convince a vermin with the Bestow Venom trick to give enough poison for a single dose, and then a DC 15 Craft check to distill that material into a usable poison.
- If you want to use your poison rather than simply sell it, protect yourself from poison. This can come from the Poison Use feature (such as the Alternate Class Feature for the Bard from Drow of the Underdark or the Master of Poisons feat, also from Drow of the Underdark) or it can simply be something being immune to poison (such as by being a Necropolitan). Lots of ways to do it.
- Weapon Capsule Retainers and Triple Weapon Capsule Retainers from Complete Adventurer are lovely for administering poison through your weapons, especially if you're getting them for 1/3rd price by crafting them.
- Cheap poisons like Sleep-Smoke or Drow Knockout Poison can be extremely effective in low level encounters, and cheap enough at mid-levels that you can just throw 'em around willy nilly and hope for a lucky win while just doing your regular murder hobo face stabbing business. Think of it as a critical hit bonus.
____________
Profession: The Anti-Flavor Skill.
While I'm talking about lame trap skills you shouldn't be putting ranks in, I might as well bring up Profession.
I sometimes refer to it as the "anti-flavor" skill. You know, like I just did in that header right there. Barring perhaps some very narrow edge cases (such as maybe Profession: Sailor in a purely maritime game), the Profession skill has no good reason to exist from a game design perspective. If you want to say your character is able to make a living as a cook or a butler, hell that's flavor text. The fact that you can earn half your Profession check in gold pieces per week doesn't even actually really matter to an adventurer.
Just to emphasize how pointless the Profession skill is, note that the typical player character with no ranks in Profession whatsoever can make more money than that per week with little to no risk to themselves. How, you ask?
- Craft with no ranks (see above). Poisonmaking makes considerably more money than Profession or any other form of craft, because it doesn't follow the same economic rules as other Craft skills.
- From the skill entry on Perform: "In addition to using the Perform skill, you can entertain people with sleight of hand, tumbling, tightrope walking, and spells (especially illusions)."
- Spellcasting. Check out the amount of money you make for casting a spell for someone. A spellcaster dedicating their daily spell selection to casting spells for NPCs rakes in cash.
- Most skills can be made to make more money than Profession gives you, while also providing actually-useful in-game effects for adventurers. Obvious ones include Knowledge, Open Lock, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Survival, Spellcraft, Speak Language, Sleight of Hand, Ride, Heal, Handle Animal, Disguise, Forgery, Appraise, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Escape Artist.
- You can make money just by *having class skills* and being willing to train people or doing shows and demonstrations.
- All of this is typically dwarfed by your adventuring income, and even if it somehow isn't your DM is probably going to limit your WBL, which makes playing the economics game largely moot. Besides, if your DM isn't nixxing out-of-adventuring WBL inflation, you start worrying about things like Flesh to Salt, Wall of Iron, or breaking ladders into 10 foot poles. Ugh. As much as I love Recettear, D&D is not really the system for it.
http://www.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/380CapitalismHo.jpg
3.5e's economics rules just can't handle this monster.
Moreover, lots of characters just really can't afford to dump skills. If you're a cleric, you get 2+int skills. You probably want Concentration and Spellcraft and Knowledge (Religion), and that doesn't even really leave you much wiggle room for customization as it is. A typical dwarf cleric won't even be able to get those 3 skills at max ranks, let alone if he's paying a pointless skill tax for Profession (Minister) or some such utter nonsense.
But why do I call it an "anti-flavor" skill? It's because its primary effect that I've observed in the 14 years since 3rd editions release is taxing players for writing character backstories, thus subtly encouraging people to steer clear of wanting to say things like "and also he was a totally awesome baker" in their stories. If a player puts points into Profession "for flavor reasons" then they are being mechanically penalized for wanting to add fun roleplaying details, and that just rubs me the wrong way.
So... just don't do it. Say Profession doesn't exist. Let players say that they're a good cook or have the perfect accent for a highly-sought-after butler just as a reward for bothering to write down such details in their backstory. Say players can earn a reasonable wage during downtime, and it doesn't even matter. Maybe even just say it offsets upkeep costs, since you obviously don't want to spend all your time deciding how much the PC spent on food and board and so forth over the timeskip.
Cheers,
Ludic
EDIT: Questions and Answers
If the purpose of crafting is to save money on gear, then there comes a point where you have to question spending money on things to help you craft better. Is 1000 GP for a drow insignia really worth it? Just how much are you planning on spending on mundane items?
It is worth it as soon as you want to buy even one of the more expensive special-material armor or weapons for people. Adamantine, Mythril, Feycraft, all that stuff. In fact, the 1000GP pays for itself the first time you craft a suit of Full Plate, since crafting it shaves 1000gp off of the price of Full Plate. If it's, say, Githcraft Mithral Full Plate with Masterwork Armor Spikes with a Wand Chamber and Triple Weapon Capsule Retainer, well, you save a lot more. When you're doing it for the entire party... you save a ton.
You'll also find that it adds up fast for all of the little things. Last time I played a game starting at mid-level the party saved tens of thousands of GP by doing this.
Edit2: Added my comments on Profession, added a few more notes on Craft.
Edit3: Added an additional section on Poisonmaking at another poster's suggestion.
This guy made all this stuff with no ranks in Craft.
If you want to optimize, you probably don't want to be spending any ranks in Craft. Not just because it's not a very good skill, but because you can often do the task without investing in the skill at all.
The main practical purpose of Craft skills is to be able to get mundane items more cheaply whenever you have the spare time (1/3rd of the price), such as the Mithral Full Plate you wanted. Or for flavor. Or maybe because you want to Fabricate something very specific. Or maybe you want to make money during downtime. But usually it's the first one.
So, you are a hardworking artisan who spent his hard earned skill points in Craft (Armorsmithing) and you walk out in the street one day and you realize... all the Wizards you know are all bloody master craftsmen that can make all the masterwork full plate you can. They also can craft masterwork weapons, weave masterwork baskets... you name it, they can probably craft it. Every single one of them. What happened?
Well, those guys have like 16 Int. That totally gives them a +3 craft bonus. Then they can take something like the Magecraft spell (Eberron Campaign Setting) for the cost of a cheap scroll and some magic ink for scribing. Then they grab some artisan's tools for 50gp, and go work in a workshop just like you do. They also have a Familiar that can aid another. We're already looking at a result of 22-24 when they take 10 on a Craft check, which is enough to produce almost every masterwork item in the game. The key bit is that it doesn't matter what kind of Craft check it is. Their bonuses apply to crafting everything, whereas the poor shmoe who actually took ranks in Craft only applies them to a specific kind of item.
It's not just Wizards that can do this. It's pretty much everyone, at some point or another. Wizards just have the easiest time doing it right off the bat at level 1 without even trying.
Artisan's Tools are cheap and give you +2 to all Craft checks (And in general, a core Masterwork Tool can give you a +2 to any of your skill checks! Use them!). Working in a workshop gives you a +2 to the appropriate Craft check that stacks with that. Tons of spells and abilities boost skill checks (though Magecraft is the cheapest and most accessible for anyone), and you can get a Drow House Insignia of that and hand it to anyone. As you go up in levels, it becomes increasingly effortless. Every Cleric learns Divine Insight (Spell Compendium). Bards start inspiring competence or using Focusing Chants or whatever. You can grab an Eternal Wand (Magic Item Compendium) or Drow House Insignia (Drow of the Underdark) of Magecraft, and even the Fighter can use that insignia. All in all, past the lowest levels nobody is going to really have to worry about being able to grab a +10 to Craft and take ten to throw together mundane items during downtime.
Mind, all of this only matters if you have tons of downtime. Crafting is slow. Really slow. Do you know how much time it takes to craft Mithral Full Plate with a whopping +30 to Craft (Armorsmithing)? About 100 days. That means that you might actually be able to take the length of the entire campaign crafting and still never finish a single piece (as if this skill wasn't enough of a trap already). Some DMs let you get around this though, because they'll allow pre-game Crafting (e.g. while you're creating your character) or shorten crafting times so that Artificers get to have their fun, in which case odds are someone in your party will be able to get cheaper mundane gear without any skill point investments, and this can add up to saving quite a lot of money (Such as cutting 7100gp off that vanilla Mithral Full Plate).
All that actual ranks in the trap skill that is Craft do is to allow you to craft things a bit faster (still really slow, as shown above with the +30 skill check example), and make a bit more money (read: practically nothing for an adventurer's income relative to the time spent). As long as you have the time (such as if your DM will allow you to craft stuff at character creation, or you have a timeskip) and the ability to hit 20 when taking 10, you can use Craft to reduce the price of (almost) all of your mundane items by 1/3rd. Costly spell components, special-materials armor, whatever. This can often give you a lot of extra money to throw around at character creation. Note that this is something that you could not do simply by investing ranks in Craft... you could spend all of a Rogue's skill points on it and still not have enough to reduce nearly all of your mundane item costs by 1/3rd.
The main exception to this is Craft (Poisonmaking) (and sometimes Craft (Alchemy)). Poisonmaking is a real skill that can actually be worth it. Heck, its status as a Real Craftsman's Skill is emphasized by the fact that it even adds insult to injury by rendering obsolete all other Craft skills for money-making, because according to Complete Adventurer Poisonmaking calculates profits in GP rather than SP and allows you to pay only 1/6th of the cost of the materials if they are readily available, making the profits far better (and you can actually complete your poisons in fairly reasonable periods of time). You also actually care about raising your ranks in Craft (Poisonmaking) since you might want to reach actually difficult DCs like "35." Then you can Fabricate some Black Lotus Extract, bottle it up in alchemical weapon chambers from Complete Adventurer, and go nuts. Just make sure you grabbed Poison Use (or immunity to poison or some other such thing).
Examples of getting a 20 in Craft when taking 10 with different classes:
Cleric: If you're willing to wait until level 3, you'll grab Divine Insight. That plus Artisan's Tools and a 10 intelligence will already get you a 20 on your Craft checks. At level 1, you have things like Guidance (core cantrip) and Ray of Hope (Book of Exalted Deeds), which can help yourself or an ally hit that 20.
Wizard: Easiest of the lot. Learn Magecraft, have a Wizardly intelligence score, score some Artisan's Tools. Even if you don't have access to Magecraft it's very easy; there are plenty of buff spells that will nudge you or an ally over that threshold, including options as simple and obvious as "Fox's Cunning," and you get a familiar to help you out. If you can't do it at level 1, you'll probably be able to do it soon.
Bard: There’s a good chance you want to switch out Bardic Knowledge for something like Bardic Knack (PHB II) or Lore Song (Dungeonscape). You’re also an arcane caster and have UMD. You also might be taking handy spells like Improvisation which boost skill checks and other things. You might even have invested for the +2 bonus in intelligence because you wanted to qualify for Words of Creation. Between Loresong, a +2 int bonus, a masterwork tool, and an aid-another buddy, you’ve already hit the DC20 spot at level 1 without going out of your way. As always, there’s also the option of waiting a bit, and then Magecraft, Improvisation bonuses, Bardic Knack bonuses, and so forth will come on the radar.
At third level or higher you can also use your Inspire Competence song to boost a buddy’s craft check (which you probably didn’t give up for some other feature, because you wanted to qualify for the Song of the Heart feat).
Anyone with about 1000g: Drow House Insignia (Magecraft), Artisan's Tools, Workshop, ask a teammate to use a low level buff on you or Aid Another. If you have UMD or spellcasting ability Eternal Wands work just as well as Drow House Insignias.
____________
Poisonmaking: The Exception
I've joked in the past that Poisonmaking is such a sly, roguish little bugger that he's not a Craft skill at all, but merely masquerading as one to get past customs. Poisonmaking doesn't follow the normal rules for Craft, and is actually worth putting a few skill points into from time to time. Exhaustive lists of poisons can be found in other guides (here's one: http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=4854.0). Rather than go over all that again, I'll just point you to the interesting bits to get you started for brevity's sake.
- Poisonmaking has different rules than other Craft skills, noted in the skills section of Complete Adventurer and in the DMG (in the section where it lists all the poisons). Poisons can be crafted for 1/6th of the materials cost if the materials are readily available (unlike the usual 1/3rd for crafting), and you use GP instead of SP when determining how fast you can craft your poisons (resulting in much more reasonable craft times.) The two of these things combined also mean that poisonmaking is considerably more profitable than any other Craft skill. If you are making products and selling them at 1/2 market price, with Poisonmaking you are making a ~200% profit instead of ~50% on every sale... and turning out products 10x faster besides, which means you're making 40x as much money as any other Craft skill. In Complete Scoundrel there's a poison called Salvo which can be made with a low DC and is made out of random scraps that are pretty much always considered to be "readily available." Churn that out and you get money.
- Minor Creation is super handy for making poison to use in your adventures... and there's a really cheap way to get it, too, which I think the guide I linked does not cover. Thanks to the Magic Item Compendium errata about magic items and psionic transparency, you can make a Drow House Insignia with Psionic Minor Creation on it for 620g. Simply make the Craft check and you'll have all the poison you'll want for the next hour, regardless of class. Note that you can only make plant-based poisons while using Minor Creation, but that list includes goodies like Black Lotus Extract (DC35), Cave Terror (DC21), Sassone Leaf Residue (DC16) and Drow Knockout Poison (DC13). The Arsenic and Old Lace guide I linked has a comprehensive list of poisons that can be made with Minor/Major Creation.
- There are some handle animal tricks that can give you free poison too. The guide I linked should list them. For example, according to Drow of the Underdark, it's a DC 15 Handle Animal check to convince a vermin with the Bestow Venom trick to give enough poison for a single dose, and then a DC 15 Craft check to distill that material into a usable poison.
- If you want to use your poison rather than simply sell it, protect yourself from poison. This can come from the Poison Use feature (such as the Alternate Class Feature for the Bard from Drow of the Underdark or the Master of Poisons feat, also from Drow of the Underdark) or it can simply be something being immune to poison (such as by being a Necropolitan). Lots of ways to do it.
- Weapon Capsule Retainers and Triple Weapon Capsule Retainers from Complete Adventurer are lovely for administering poison through your weapons, especially if you're getting them for 1/3rd price by crafting them.
- Cheap poisons like Sleep-Smoke or Drow Knockout Poison can be extremely effective in low level encounters, and cheap enough at mid-levels that you can just throw 'em around willy nilly and hope for a lucky win while just doing your regular murder hobo face stabbing business. Think of it as a critical hit bonus.
____________
Profession: The Anti-Flavor Skill.
While I'm talking about lame trap skills you shouldn't be putting ranks in, I might as well bring up Profession.
I sometimes refer to it as the "anti-flavor" skill. You know, like I just did in that header right there. Barring perhaps some very narrow edge cases (such as maybe Profession: Sailor in a purely maritime game), the Profession skill has no good reason to exist from a game design perspective. If you want to say your character is able to make a living as a cook or a butler, hell that's flavor text. The fact that you can earn half your Profession check in gold pieces per week doesn't even actually really matter to an adventurer.
Just to emphasize how pointless the Profession skill is, note that the typical player character with no ranks in Profession whatsoever can make more money than that per week with little to no risk to themselves. How, you ask?
- Craft with no ranks (see above). Poisonmaking makes considerably more money than Profession or any other form of craft, because it doesn't follow the same economic rules as other Craft skills.
- From the skill entry on Perform: "In addition to using the Perform skill, you can entertain people with sleight of hand, tumbling, tightrope walking, and spells (especially illusions)."
- Spellcasting. Check out the amount of money you make for casting a spell for someone. A spellcaster dedicating their daily spell selection to casting spells for NPCs rakes in cash.
- Most skills can be made to make more money than Profession gives you, while also providing actually-useful in-game effects for adventurers. Obvious ones include Knowledge, Open Lock, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Survival, Spellcraft, Speak Language, Sleight of Hand, Ride, Heal, Handle Animal, Disguise, Forgery, Appraise, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Escape Artist.
- You can make money just by *having class skills* and being willing to train people or doing shows and demonstrations.
- All of this is typically dwarfed by your adventuring income, and even if it somehow isn't your DM is probably going to limit your WBL, which makes playing the economics game largely moot. Besides, if your DM isn't nixxing out-of-adventuring WBL inflation, you start worrying about things like Flesh to Salt, Wall of Iron, or breaking ladders into 10 foot poles. Ugh. As much as I love Recettear, D&D is not really the system for it.
http://www.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/380CapitalismHo.jpg
3.5e's economics rules just can't handle this monster.
Moreover, lots of characters just really can't afford to dump skills. If you're a cleric, you get 2+int skills. You probably want Concentration and Spellcraft and Knowledge (Religion), and that doesn't even really leave you much wiggle room for customization as it is. A typical dwarf cleric won't even be able to get those 3 skills at max ranks, let alone if he's paying a pointless skill tax for Profession (Minister) or some such utter nonsense.
But why do I call it an "anti-flavor" skill? It's because its primary effect that I've observed in the 14 years since 3rd editions release is taxing players for writing character backstories, thus subtly encouraging people to steer clear of wanting to say things like "and also he was a totally awesome baker" in their stories. If a player puts points into Profession "for flavor reasons" then they are being mechanically penalized for wanting to add fun roleplaying details, and that just rubs me the wrong way.
So... just don't do it. Say Profession doesn't exist. Let players say that they're a good cook or have the perfect accent for a highly-sought-after butler just as a reward for bothering to write down such details in their backstory. Say players can earn a reasonable wage during downtime, and it doesn't even matter. Maybe even just say it offsets upkeep costs, since you obviously don't want to spend all your time deciding how much the PC spent on food and board and so forth over the timeskip.
Cheers,
Ludic
EDIT: Questions and Answers
If the purpose of crafting is to save money on gear, then there comes a point where you have to question spending money on things to help you craft better. Is 1000 GP for a drow insignia really worth it? Just how much are you planning on spending on mundane items?
It is worth it as soon as you want to buy even one of the more expensive special-material armor or weapons for people. Adamantine, Mythril, Feycraft, all that stuff. In fact, the 1000GP pays for itself the first time you craft a suit of Full Plate, since crafting it shaves 1000gp off of the price of Full Plate. If it's, say, Githcraft Mithral Full Plate with Masterwork Armor Spikes with a Wand Chamber and Triple Weapon Capsule Retainer, well, you save a lot more. When you're doing it for the entire party... you save a ton.
You'll also find that it adds up fast for all of the little things. Last time I played a game starting at mid-level the party saved tens of thousands of GP by doing this.
Edit2: Added my comments on Profession, added a few more notes on Craft.
Edit3: Added an additional section on Poisonmaking at another poster's suggestion.