Free Professions

[Afgncaap5]

Ignoring for a second slightly easier chances of entering classes or acquiring feats that have professions as their prerequisites, would giving players extra skill points earmarked for a single profession hurt the game much?

Theoretically it gives them an income stream, and some players can do amazing things with income, but for your average, unoptimized players do you see any potential for damage here?

Three variants I'm considering: max ranks (four at first level, one each level after that), one per level (They can max it if they wish, but need to provide the other three points themselves somewhere), or the cross-class freebie (basically, they get one skill point every two levels that can go into the profession check, which they can spend extra on to max out if they wish.)

Ultimately I'm trying to encourage some newer players to have an identity for their characters outside of "Adventurer, treasure hunter, and mercenary" so that they might have some other skills that they might be able to call on in the future. Whatever I make for them, though, I'd like to be balanced enough for my more seasoned players to also be able to take advantage of.

And, yes, this means that I'm trying to find that ever-elusive line between "Useful" and "Easily Abused", and that's something that's largely up to speculation. Possibly a fool's errand. Still, I'm curious to know what people think.

[Vhaidara]

I allow a free Profession, Perform, or Craft skill, and allow the players to keep it maxed.

This has led to some silly outcomes. Like Profession (Pirate), rolled whenever he needs to do something Pirate-y. And Profession (Weeabo). Don't think that one needs explanation.

[Sir Chuckles]

Outside of qualifying for barely a handful of fringe feats and prestige classes, a few free ranks in Profession are actually neither abusable nor all that useful. Unless it's a nautical campaign in which Prof (Sailor) is actually being rolled by the PCs, I can't imagine it coming up in crunch time situations.

Monetarily, you earn "about half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work". That's...piddly income for people who often enter play armed with easily 100gp in weapons.

Though I can certainly agree with giving them to new players in order to encourage roleplay. It also would let you see what kind of player they might be, if you were to notice the Rogue with Profession (Thief).

[Chronos]

Even for those prestige classes with a Profession prerequisite, the main mechanical purpose is as a way to impose a minimum level. So as long as you're not letting them exceed the normal skill cap, it shouldn't even cause a problem there.

[Afgncaap5]

Okay, good. So, nothing game-breaking there. I'm thinking I'll do that. It's always been a little sad to me that I've never had someone with Profession (Vintner) checks. Of the... okay, maybe two situations I've made would've been useful for that, but still.

[Bullet06320]

we do something similar with Knowledge local, in your home region, 4 free ranks in one region
its makes since, you know where u grew up, the locals, businesses, the roads, etc, at least to a minimal level

[Ravens_cry]

I had a similar idea. It could also include more useful skills if it was for a class that didn't usually take them, like Spellcraft for a Fighter. Basically, it is meant as a way to encourage players to broaden their character beyond generic, boilerplate X.

[Oddman80]

I fully support it. PCs that have a history are so much more fun to play - I like the idea of a guy who has bounced around between several different jobs... really a Jack of all trades - you never know when he'll know something pertinent to the situation because the knowledge sn't coming from your formulaic knowledge checks.... but it is ridiculous that to do so means all the guy can do is be a professional - and not have any other skills whatsoever...

[Naez]

I feel it could get out of hand if the player's open a business.

[Curmudgeon]

It'll let the PCs cover living expenses and leave a bit aside for equipment they want/need. They won't be earning any XP while they're laboring instead of adventuring.

At level 1 they'd have 4 ranks in their Profession. With no threats or distractions, they can "take 10" and have a check result of 14 + WIS mod, giving them about 7 gp for a week's work. Your random Rogue starts the game with 5d4 x 10 gp, or 125 gp on average (Player's Handbook, page 111). They could get as low as 50 gp with bad rolls and be short on equipment. A rapier (the standard melee weapon for a Rogue) costs 20 gp. So even living cheaply this free Profession skill will still take the character a month for them to be able to afford one basic bit of adventuring gear.

No, this isn't abusive at all.

[Seerow]

For what it's worth I give my players 2+int mod in Knowledge/Craft/Profession/Perform skills. I've only seen it improve characters, as they dip into skills they'd otherwise ignore in favor of spot/listen, tumble, balance, and all those other "necessary" skills. I also remove the int mod from other skills and just give a flat 50% bonus, so wizards get 3 non-background skills, Barbarians get 6, Rangers get 9, and Rogues get 12. This makes int less mandatory for anyone who wants some skill points, while having that int will still provide more of the knowledge/profession skills you would expect.

[Karl Aegis]

Professions don't add anything to a character. If it does come up at all it just means whoever was in charge of planning out the groups activities didn't do their job and your group lost money. Depending on level, the group could lose a little amount of money they could otherwise gained that week or they hemorrhaged enough money that week they should think about retiring.

[HurinTheCursed]

The game mecanics hardly support fluff except for sense motive, intimidate/diplomacy/bluff and knowledge checks and still, characters cannot afford putting that many points in those without losing in adventuring parts. Way too many useful skills in the crunch, not enough skill points.

A magic crafter can become rich even by staying in a city, an artisan can become moderatly rich doing the same, I don't know for perform, I never saw anyone bothering using it for money. A night outside is easily 5 gold coins for the meal and 10 for the room, to compare with the minimum wage of 1 silver coin. The presence of magic is disruptive for any functionnal economy.
But XP and big money come from adventuring, changing the world comes comes from experience. There is no CR for personnal quests such as running your shop better.

The only world changing use of level one characters would be characters such as advisors, detectives for the political powers would would not have to make opposite rolls, using the player's wits to the max rather than the character sheet.

That's very clever of you to give free skill points that can only be allocated to fluffy skills so that the characters are deeper. I see no way this could create unbalance in your game. At worse, characters who would have invested such a point for crunch (prestige class, bard representation), gets a free skill point for any skill, nothing game-breaking.