I've noticed that the optimization Guides often tell you to steer clear of the Profession skill. While this is often accurate, there are some skills that adventurers would be wise to take an interest in.
Architect * - Not going to come up often. Most GMs would consider Knowledge (Engineering) a suitable replacement
Baker * - I doubt i've ever seen this come up in a story
Barrister ** - Could be useful, especially for lawful PCs
Brewer * - Character background fluff, not really going to come up
Butcher ** - Situational depending on the campaign
Clerk * - being literate assumes that most PCs could get by
Cook *** - Useful from a roleplaying perspective. Many players enjoy playing a character who can cook
Courtesan * - A skill more suitable to roleplaying than roll-playing
Driver ** - Situational, especially if campaign uses chariots or carriages.
Engineer ** - Again, Knowledge (Engineering) will be of more benefit to a PC
Farmer * - Character background fluff, possible story use in regard to predicting weather and the overall upkeep of a homestead
Fisherman * - Anyone who's ever gone fishing knows a straight d20 sums it up pretty well!
Gambler ** - Situational. Most games either roleplaying gambling using dice (E.g. Twentybone) but useful if you gamble during your downtime
Gardener * - Situational, Herbalist (see below) would be more useful to an adventurer
Herbalist *** - Synergy with Craft (Alchemy) and Craft (Poison), a solid choice, great for druids, alchemists and rogues!
Innkeeper ** - More a retirement vocation for adventurers.
Librarian * - See Clerk
Merchant *** - Good for higher levels or for wealthy characters who want to make some extra cash during downtimes
Midwife * - Not going to come up often and easy enough to hire a NPC
Miller * - Another job that would rarely come up for adventurers
Miner *** - Dwarves should get this for free! Useful underground obviously.
Porter * - Yeah, this skill shouldn't really come up...
Sailor **** - Easily the best pick of the list. Many campaigns use boats as plot devices so being able to control one pays off dividends
Scribe * - Again, being literate should be enough
Shepherd * - Not going to come up often (or ever)
Stable master * - Hire someone to do this. Wild Empathy if you're really keen
Soldier * - This is better served by roleplaying a soldier
Tanner * - Craft (Leather) covers this
Trapper * - Rogues and Rangers (and others), take Craft (Traps)
Woodcutter * - Buy an axe
So my recommendations for adventurers who want to take Professions are Sailor, Herbalist, Cook, Merchant and Miner. While the others can certainly add to your character's backstory, they won't come up as often.
Its a safe bet to steer clear of them altogether, but as I'm sure we all know some GMs will let different stuff slide, and some appreciate "stupid" choices made for the sake RP/background/flavor.
Honestly, as a GM who loves to have rich backgrounds from his players, I still don't see much of a use for the Profession Skill outside of Sailor. There's just not much to be made of it. If you want to put in that your character is a baker, so be it. You're a baker. Its going to be pretty rare that a profession will actually have a useful, in game, application outside of Sailor and that could easily be turned into just a regular skill. Even then I probably wouldn't put many ranks into it unless it was a very aquatic campaign wherein most adventures/sessions are occurring on boats.
I hear the ultimate campaign book will expand on the uses of Profession.
I feel like they should have just combined Profession and Craft or make Profession be an optional character building construct, like Traits. Realistically, every character should have a profession, even if it's something like "beggar."
Optimization guides are about mechanics. You can RP without taking a rank in profession skill.
Optimization guides are about mechanics. You can RP without taking a rank in profession skill.
This isn't an optimization guide, I just wanted to separate the good professions from the bad. You can roleplay a mechant all day but the game actually has a mechanic to check how good a merchant you are, similar to how good you are at bluffing people and sensing motives.
Looking forward to see how they expand this skill in Ultimate Campaign
Some prestige classes actually require a profession skill, an example is pathfinder chronicler from the main book. It lists profession: scribe 5 ranks.
