| Liam Warner |
I was looking at the formulas for a profession skill and NPC casting costs as a way to support my mage in downtime periods when she needs to earn a living when not adventuring and well ...
Profession = Ranks + Ability mod + class skill + misc.
Spellcasting = (spell level * caster level * 10) + misc e.g. expensive components.
Now at the bottom end of the scale a profession check can earn you 1 gp (1 rank, 0 ability mod, not a class skill, no other mods) for a week of work and casting 1 cantrip earns you 5 gp (1st level caster, 1st level spell, no other expenses) 5 times as much and you've got the rest of the week off.
At the upper end a profession check can earn you 25.5 gold (20 ranks, max wisdom with all abilit increases in it, class skill and a gnome for an extra +2). Alternatively a 20th wizard who casts all their spells earns 36,400 + expenses over a thousand times as much. If you extend it out over 3 months it gets worse with a profession maxing out at 324.21 gold while a wizard can earn a potential 3,239,600 gold plus expenses.
Now obviously a wizard isn't going to be casting all their spells every day or their higher level ones regularly but equally obviously as long as I'm not in a tiny village my mage is better off casting for hire than working as say a chef she'll earn more in less time.
So I decided I wanted something that would ...
1) Allow my mage to earn funds more in line with NPC spellcasting hire.
2) Allow non casters the same benefit.
3) Not completely invalidate the profession skill.
4) Preferably not break the WBL although that's a lower concern as even a straight by the rules profession check can earn you between 50 and 1,300 a year (I haven't worked out the income for variable day months, and player variance plays a part) and if you have long downtime the players are going to wind up with a bit more than their wbl.
I've come up with 3 possibilities (although 2 an alternates of the same idea) to represent this and I'd like to know which people think seems better.
[B]Method 1[b]
Class skill profession
Rough Fluff
Adventurers in the course of their careers master great skills and esoteric knowledge that can be in great demand when they are between quests. By trading on these skills and knowledge adventurers are able to command higher wages than most professionals.
Mechanics 1
Rather than making a Normal profession check an adventurer may instead use the following formula (Class Level + Ranks in profession x (with x being a gm approved matching profession e.g soldier for a fighter) + Ability mod + Misc Mod + class skill) / 2. Aditionally instead of this representing a weeks work this instead represents 1d6 + 1 days work. Although only one check may be performed per week (7 day period) if the employment lasts less than a full week the adventurer is free to do whatever they want in the meantime.
This would allow at the lower end a potential increase in earnings of .5 gp and at the upper end 10 gp per week (24 to 480 a year) with more potential free time. However it still falls far short of a NPC spell casters regular earnings.
Mechanics 2
Rather than adding the players level to the check you allow them to use the full profession check rather than halving it (retain the d6+1 time and limit of 1 check per week). This doubles the potential earnings at the lower end its now 2 to 21 instead of 1 to 10.5 and at the upper end its 32 to 51 instead of 16 to 25.5. Over the course of a year a potential extra 768 to 1,224 more in line with NPC spell casting, more free time but the WBL starts to be a concern if you have significant downtime as the actual earnings are 2,448 per year (although this value is for a 20th level gnome with a maxed profession) and a 1st level one with 10 wis, non class skill could earn as low as 96 Gp a year instead of 48.
Both these methods however share the problem if replacing the existing check.
[B]Method 2[b]
Quarterly Checks
Rough Fluff
Although adventurers possess many varied and valuable skills the short durations they remain in a town often prevents them making the contacts and business connections that would allow them to make the full potential of what they can over.
Mechanics
The regular profession check is for when an adventurer will only be in town for a few weeks and can be used as desired if the PCs will be in a town for a week or more. However if the PCs will be in one place for a quarter of the year or more (3/6/9/12 months) they may instead choose to make a quarterly check. This is rolled on the following table.
3 month period = (Ranks + Ability Mod + Class Skill + Misc Mod) * 12 (4 weeks to a month, 3 month period).
3-6 month period = (Ranks + Ability Mod + Class Skill + Misc Mod) * 1.5 * 12.
6-9 month period = (Ranks + Ability Mod + Class Skill + Misc Mod) * 2 * 12.
Every additional 3 month period over 9 months (12/15/etc) = (Ranks + Ability Mod + Class Skill + Misc Mod) * 3 * 12.
Contacts and reputation fades at an equal rate to that at which it was obtained. That is for every 3 month or part there of in which the adventurer is not attending to their business they drop one step on the table. For example if they had been running their business for several years (times 3 on the table) and them had to adventure for 2 weeks they would drop to a 2 times multiplier until they have spent another 6 months running their busines I.e. a check at times 2 to let people know they are back then future ones at times 3.
On the upside this can earn values more in line with NPC spellcasting if they work at it and for people adventuring a lot won't replace the standard check. On the downside its more bookwork and could greatly unbalance the WBL if you have extensive periods of downtime. So what do people think?