Making the most of Craft (Food) or Profession (Chef)

[Kyros731]

I'm thinking of making a character for a game that really specializes in food (The character, not the game). My current thought is to go investigator, but other than I don't really know much about good uses other than aiding diplomacy checks. Any advice? Pathfinder system, no 3rd party but most official sources are allowed.

[Knight Magenta]

Call all of your extracts pies?

[Doc_Maynot]

Yeah, other than the refluff to extracts and alchemical items there is no way outside of 3rd party, that being the Chef class (which is actually really fun).

[Afgncaap5]

Control food and control the world, I say. I think you're right that diplomacy is the biggest asset here, but that's from a mechanical standpoint: I think this is a kind of character who's fluff may be able to surpass the mechanical benefits.

Consider: how many level 5 Experts in the world are there, truly? A few hundred, maybe? How many of those level 5 experts have a PC's ability to boost Intelligence scores, and a class that grants Crafter's Fortune? If a world-class chef gets, say, 5 ranks in Craft (Food), plus the training bonus, followed by (let's be generous here) a 16 in Intelligence and a +2 synergy bonus from having ranks in Profession (Chef) and another +2 from masterwork tools, then the typical world-class chef's crafting bonus is +15-ish. An Investigator who's dedicated to it can get a similar bonus before level 5 without pulling any fancy tricks thanks to the Crafter's Fortune spell. By level 10, an Investigator can be good enough at crafting food to be a freakin' *legend* in the culinary community. You might not be the world's best chef by level 10, but I'd be willing to bet that the humanoids who are better than you don't show up every day.

Can you offer the baron's minions better food than they've had all their life for an entire week if they'll stop working for him? Can you offer the ferocious dragon eight exquisite pigs that have been prepared with the draconic palate in mind if she'll just let you and your party travel through its territory undisturbed? Can you make a soup so savory that the ogre won't care that you had a flask of poison in your hand a few minutes earlier? Can you give the lizardmen pointers on how to improve their feast even while you're the main course? I'd say you can do all this and more.

Now... it'd be great if there were some more definitively mechanical things to do, but you're already off to a great start. I'd suggest asking your DM if you could be a situational bard, capable of granting the party certain morale bonuses or circumstance bonuses (or even alchemical bonuses, rare as those things are). See if you can collect (or even invent) recipes and ingredients that can bestow them if you prepare a certain meal for your party. Elfmint Lemonade might grant the effect of Endure Elements (but only for hot environments, and only if you've actually got elfmint and lemons on hand), while Direboar Stew might grant the same effect for cold environments (again, though, you'd better have Direboar meat on hand). I might even let a particularly hearty meal grant a single temporary hit point, personally, or a minute bonus on saves against very specific things. This is, admittedly, all homebrew, but it'd be *your* homebrew, so it could fit better than some of the unknown variables that you get from third party mechanics. As long as it doesn't come up every session and as long as the bonuses truly are minor enough to be almost inconsequential, a generous GM might have some fun coming up with recipes for you to discover.

[Amphetryon]

Be a Witch, and use the Cauldron Hex.

[digiman619]

Pity you said no 3PP, because if you let Spheres of Power into the equation, then you can literally have all you magic flow from your cooking and baking skills.

[SangoProduction]

Pity you said no 3PP, because if you let Spheres of Power into the equation, then you can literally have all you magic flow from your cooking and baking skills.

It's literally as easy as refluffing your spells. "Ox's Strength? No, Protein Bar!"

[Afgncaap5]

It's literally as easy as refluffing your spells. "Ox's Strength? No, Protein Bar!"

Yeah, it's basically that idea. Spheres of Power 's only difference is that the drawback system gives you more magical power. So in straightforward Pathfinder it's "No need to cast Ox's Strength when I've got three protein bars to hand out!" but in SoP it'd be closer to "No need to cast Ox's Strength when I've got six protein bars to hand out!" (Also, you'd *need* to make that Craft Check with Spheres of Power, but in Pathfinder you wouldn't need to go through that.)

[Fable]

The Chef class from the 3rd party book Flavour Handbook is fantastic, infact, all of the archtypes from it are well written and usable

[Doc_Maynot]

The Chef class from the 3rd party book Flavour Handbook is fantastic, infact, all of the archtypes from it are well written and usable

What I was referring to in my post, currently playing one in a Kingmaker game. Been wonderful so far.