Dumb skill question, bare with me

[Vinja89]

Quick question, I am writing up a character for PFS who was a butcher and sausagemaker before picking up adventuring. It is based on a 3.5 char i played who put points into both "Profession: Butcher" and "Craft: Sausagemaking", my friend is saying they would both fall under the profession, but with the one actually making something im not sure and just figured for a laugh i would see what the people on here say.

I personally could see it going both ways.

[Dread Knight]

I'd say it would fall under Butcher since that is part of the profession

[Tinskin]

Hmm, I would say they both fall under the profession skill. It doesn't really mater though, the only powerful profession skill I know is Profession: Barkeep.

[LloydGM]

Technically, a butcher has the skills to take an animal from "the hoof" to sausage, ground meat and prime cuts.

[Vinja89]

Cool, guess i was reading into the difference between Profession and craft too much. I just always assumed like how you need a miner to break down an ore vein into a chunk of iron, but than need a blacksmith to turn that iron into a bunch of nails or what not.

Thanks a lot fellas i appreciate it

[VRMH]

Craft = making a great sausage
Profession = earning money making sausages (great or otherwise)

[Orfamay Quest]

VRMH wrote:

Craft = making a great sausage

Profession = earning money making sausages (great or otherwise)

Yeah, this is the main difference at my table. There's a guy in the group who is awesome at grilling burgers -- his Craft (burger) is fantastic. But he's no Ray Kroc, whose Profession (fast food restauranteur) is legendary.

Basically, McD's makes lousy burgers and sells them by the billion. A home cook may be able to make a sumptuous burger but not be able to sell them.

[Paladin of Baha-who?]

For another example, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler has a very high bonus to Profession(Sausage-seller) but a significant penalty to Craft(sausagemaking).

[Vinja89]

wow thanks all you guys, especially the past three. I figured i mean the meat pies, sausages, and butchery he did would be descent enough, just never gone past 2 with no intention of going into the "cook" profession skill (honestly part of the humor is that he can make the raw materials but he cant cook it worth a damn). great to know now i can do all that just using one skill "prof: butchery".

Just i love taking professions of some sort for all my chars, in this case raising pigs and slaughtering them for meat before becoming an adventuring fighter. Really appreciate your guys input and why i love these forums, everyone so friendly and willing to give their 2 cents :)

[Cyrus Lanthier]

You also have handle animal for raising pigs, I hope? :p

I think that the whole "craft skills create things" is a bit simplistic. Craft skills create lasting goods- tools, armor, weapons, even buildings (stonemasonry and carpentry, though you might need the help of Profession: Architect or Engineer, perhaps Knowledge:Engineering depending on your GM and the complexity of the building). Cook is a profession and so is brewer, so I think that mundane comestibles (alchemy not exactly being mundane) fall under profession to create, as well as harvesting raw materials (Profession: Woodcutter, Miner). Services also fall under Profession (Porter, Courtesan, Barrister).

I tend to give people breaks on things related to their Profession. On the note of service based professions, I remember an Expert NPC in one of my games who was a butler/manservant. He could use his Butler skill as a few other skills, in the right situations. For example, if his master (someone he served for at least a month) was acting strange, it filled in for Sense Motive. If something was out of place in the house he served, if filled in for Perception (this assumes that things were in order in the first place, so he can tell what's out of place). He could use his Profession as diplomacy/intimidate when dealing with household staff or to fulfill his express and appropriate duties (for example, getting admittance to deliver a letter personally). Basically anything that was required for him to be a functional butler was under the one skill, but it had many restrictions, most notably that he had to serve for some time before it actually came into full effect.

Not sure what sort of periphery abilities a butcher might get- I guess you would have a pseudo handle-animal and heal skills to deal with animals as well as tell their condition and general health at least (not diagnosing diseases, but telling that it's sick with something and you don't want to buy/butcher/eat it).