Could someone explain what these are for??
It seems from the Core book.. that you can use them to earn money for the week... but it's been a RARE game where our adventures actually went and got day jobs.
The Bard abilities don't even seem to have anything to do with a skill roll or DC.. sooo... Seriously? Does anyone use these?
I'm SURE there's something I'm missing... but with the limited skill points you get, I just don't see what use they will ever be.
Duelist requires me to have 'perform: Dance' at 2 ranks... but I've never actually ROLLED that skill.
Could someone explain what these are for??
It seems from the Core book.. that you can use them to earn money for the week... but it's been a RARE game where our adventures actually went and got day jobs.
The Bard abilities don't even seem to have anything to do with a skill roll or DC.. sooo... Seriously? Does anyone use these?
I'm SURE there's something I'm missing... but with the limited skill points you get, I just don't see what use they will ever be.
Duelist requires me to have 'perform: Dance' at 2 ranks... but I've never actually ROLLED that skill.
Well, different answers for this question:
- Performance is the best skill(s) for Bards, since they've got Versatile Performance. Basically it is two skills for the price of one.
- There is a few magic items which rely on performance skills.
- Flavor, flavor, flavor... For me, the most important reason to take them (or craft). It explains something about my character even though I might not be rolling them. I can't remember having a character who didn't have at least a few skill points in craft/perform/profession.
- Circumstantial bonusses: Utterly in the realm of houserules, I love to have professions have an effect on situations where they seem relevant. They might provide a bonus (or replace another skill) when it comes to a related knowledge, craft, appraise or perhaps another check.
At the end of the day, they aren't necessary and you risk not rolling them at all. But putting a few skill points in them, isn't going to make your character significantly worse at everything else.
When GMing I tend to grant the players some free points of profession/perform/craft at character creation or throughout the play, if it fits the characters and the actions they take.
Could someone explain what these are for??
It seems from the Core book.. that you can use them to earn money for the week... but it's been a RARE game where our adventures actually went and got day jobs.
The Bard abilities don't even seem to have anything to do with a skill roll or DC.. sooo... Seriously? Does anyone use these?
I'm SURE there's something I'm missing... but with the limited skill points you get, I just don't see what use they will ever be.
Duelist requires me to have 'perform: Dance' at 2 ranks... but I've never actually ROLLED that skill.
They pretty much never get used. You can take them for fun, but they other than that they are not really worth having.
Sometimes the Bard can give everyone saves equal to his perform check. Against figments, for example. But that is rare.
Profession is also for flavor. In my game people have a profession or craft and they get one free skill point in it every level.
They pretty much never get used. You can take them for fun, but they other than that they are not really worth having.
This is the sad truth. I find this more of a GM problem than a game rule problem. GMs don't write many adventures that use some of these skills.
As for phantom's example, I have actually had a game where the last two scenes had perform(dance) featured prominently. My dwarf in full plate was rather useless, but my wife's shadowdancer secured a place in campaign history with a performance that would put any hack on "Dunces with the Stars" to shame. Her dancing ability allowed us to bypass an entire encounter because she was granted an immediate audience with Lord Mayor due to her dancing prowess.
Many of the perform and profession skills should be liberally applied for circumstance modifiers to other rolls.
The problem is GMs tend not to provide these kinds of tests because they know that often characters will fail because the players haven't invested in the proper skills, instead the players take something more 'useful.' Until such time as these skills get used they will of course remain useless.
So Fluff for the most part...
That's cool, I actually LIKE fluff like that, but when dealing with a new system I'm leary about shooting myself in the foot.
I've got a character coming up that will be Sherlock holmes type Detective/bard.
As he actually HAS a job... the debate in my mind over taking 'Profession: detective' or putting those points in knowledge/perception stats to DO the job...
And whether 'perform' would even be necessary... I guess I do HAVE to have it (going Oratory..) but one stat... or a bunch?
(not overly fond of the bard/detective performance stuff ANYWAY... but I do like the knowledge class skills and such...)