So, I recently started playing an Orc Witch. GM said we'll get some downtime at semi-regular intervals and I'd like to make frequent use of Earn an Income.
His background is Root Worker so I got Herbalism Lore. I do not, however, have any plans or desire to to increase it past trained or learn Craft or Performance.
So I thought about picking up the Additional Lore skill feat at level 2, to get an additional Lore skill with automatic scaling to improve my income. But I'm having some trouble to come up with a fitting Lore.
My Witch is basically something of a magical researcher, taking an interest in all things magical, especialy the more obscure/occult stuff. And I'd like the Lore to represent that while also being a reasonable choice for making money.
Any ideas?
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Academia Lore is what you use to Earn Income as a scholar (since it's what the Scholar background comes with), so that seems like it would work.
The Mgical Shorthand Feat is another alternative, since that lets you effectively Earn Income with the skill associated with your Tradition of magic, though you can only use that money towards learning new spells.
It also lets you learn spells faster, and removes a lot of the risks to failing the roll to learn them.
Library Lore and Scribing Lore are also appropriate for scholars. But you probably won't find lots of libraries looking for help curating their occult sections, and scribing is kind of boring.
Fortune-Telling Lore is probably a decent way to make money in most places in Golarion, and lets you experiment with obscure methods of divination (of which the real world has many...). It's not all Harrow decks!
Academia Lore is what you use to Earn Income as a scholar (since it's what the Scholar background comes with), so that seems like it would work.
We're level 1 and in a small village with like 200 residents. I don't think Academia will do me any good there. We'll probably head towards larger settlements at some point, but I'd prefer a Lore skill that's more universally applicable.
The Mgical Shorthand Feat is another alternative, since that lets you effectively Earn Income with the skill associated with your Tradition of magic, though you can only use that money towards learning new spells.
It also lets you learn spells faster, and removes a lot of the risks to failing the roll to learn them.
I thought about that as it would allow me to basically make money by using my best skill. The problem is that it requires Expert in said skill and my level 4 and 6 Skill Feats are used up by other stuff which I simply can't delay. So I couldn't get Shorthand before level 8 unless I sacrifice my 3rd level general feat.
On one hand, being able to try learning a spell again without waiting until the next level seems very valuable. But on the other hand I can feed scrolls to my familiar to learn stuff without any checks. More expensive than using Learn a Spell, but always an alternative. I have currently planned Shorthandas my 8th level Skill feat.
Library Lore and Scribing Lore are also appropriate for scholars. But you probably won't find lots of libraries looking for help curating their occult sections, and scribing is kind of boring.
Fortune-Telling Lore is probably a decent way to make money in most places in Golarion, and lets you experiment with obscure methods of divination (of which the real world has many...). It's not all Harrow decks!
Library might be a bit hard to find in more rural regions, much like Academia. I'm also not quite sure how a higher level Library job would look. Scribe would be an... interesting choice for an Orc, that's for sure. Would also probably allow me to make use of my above average number of languages.
Fortune-Telling seems fine, but might include a bit more socializing than my character is comfortable with.
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We're level 1 and in a small village with like 200 residents. I don't think Academia will do me any good there. We'll probably head towards larger settlements at some point, but I'd prefer a Lore skill that's more universally applicable.
Literacy is near-universal in Golarion and towns that size pretty universally have a school of some sort (generally a one room Wild West kinda school, but still). See if the teacher wants a vacation and take over for a bit.
Or use Herbalism Lore right now until you get some place bigger.
I thought about that as it would allow me to basically make money by using my best skill. The problem is that it requires Expert in said skill and my level 4 and 6 Skill Feats are used up by other stuff which I simply can't delay. So I couldn't get Shorthand before level 8 unless I sacrifice my 3rd level general feat.
On one hand, being able to try learning a spell again without waiting until the next level seems very valuable. But on the other hand I can feed scrolls to my familiar to learn stuff without any checks. More expensive than using Learn a Spell, but always an alternative. I have currently planned Shorthandas my 8th level Skill feat.
Personally, I don't think the extra money is worth a Skill Feat in the long run if you're gonna get Magical Shorthand anyway. Even at 7th level, the difference is usually only gonna be something like 5 SP a day on a successful check. It will also make successes more likely, but it's still not really a enough to matter. Even assuming a month of downtime at 7th level it's gonna be less than 20 gold at that point. At 2nd through 5th, greater chances of success aside, the difference is a silver piece a day at most. Even if you get 100 days of downtime in that level range, I'm skeptical the difference will come to more than 15 GP in all that time.
Even rounding up, we're probably talking 50 GP between 2nd and 8th or thereabouts even assuming four or five months of downtime in that period. That's not worth the Skill Feat, IMO.
“Witch Lore.”
Witchcraft lore. ;)
Fortune-Telling Lore
This is my suggestion too.
You could ask your GM if you could apply Additional Lore’s free skill increases to Herbalism Lore rather than the Lore you get from the feat.
“Which lore should I take for my Witch?”
“Witch Lore.”
“That’s what I’m asking!”
Real answer, maybe Herbalism Lore.
But Who is on First?
Anyway, when it comes to lore skills, I tend to want something that would be useful for monster IDs.
I can imagine some ways you could use Lore(fiends) for profit. Find a local church and either give a lecture about how to identify and fight the fiends, or maybe a sermon to the congregations with a little fire and brimstone warning on morality.
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But Who is on First?“Which lore should I take for my Witch?”
“Witch Lore.”
“That’s what I’m asking!”
Real answer, maybe Herbalism Lore.
“No, Hoo is my familiar.”
“I don’t know!”
Anyway, when it comes to lore skills, I tend to want something that would be useful for monster IDs.
I can imagine some ways you could use Lore(fiends) for profit. Find a local church and either give a lecture about how to identify and fight the fiends, or maybe a sermon to the congregations with a little fire and brimstone warning on morality.
There’s a lot of variation in how broad of a lore you can take where monsters are concerned, so that would definitely be something to talk over with your GM. Fiends is pretty broad, though I think Undead lore is one that’s published somewhere. I also remember there being an example of Vampire Lore, too, which would point to needing to be more specific.
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There’s a lot of variation in how broad of a lore you can take where monsters are concerned, so that would definitely be something to talk over with your GM. Fiends is pretty broad, though I think Undead lore is one that’s published somewhere. I also remember there being an example of Vampire Lore, too, which would point to needing to be more specific.
There are several different canonical examples of creature type Lores like Fiend, Undead, Dragon, or Animal provided by Backgrounds, so they're clearly rules-legal. Narrower Lores like Vampire also exist, and per the rules receive lower DCs when they apply.
But Who is on First?“Which lore should I take for my Witch?”
“Witch Lore.”
“That’s what I’m asking!”
Real answer, maybe Herbalism Lore.
“No, Hoo is my familiar.”
“I don’t know!”
"No, Idunno is the witch"
Anyway, I feel lore fiends is fine. Too general for lowered lore DCs, but it lets you ID with your primary stat instead of wisdom. And it only lets you cover about a quarter (admittedly a rather important quarter) of what creatures you could likely Id with Religion.
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Anything that appears published somewhere is fine. I didn’t realize Fiend lore was out there. Anything else, it’s best to check with your GM to be sure.
I think that it's a pretty safe bet that, if some creature types are officially available as Lores, then they are all officially available with the possible exception of Humanoid. I think that's also almost certainly true with all but the most unreasonable of GMs once you point out the creature types that are indisputably available (Animal, Dragon, Ooze, and Undead).
Once that's pointed out denying the other possibilities (Beast, Celestial, Construct, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Fungus, Monitor, and Plant) seems pretty weird and inconsistent and I'm doubtful as to whether reasonable people will do it. I can see it for Humanoid or some of the weird categories, but most basic creature types? I rather think not.
"No, Idunno is the witch"But Who is on First?“Which lore should I take for my Witch?”
“Witch Lore.”
“That’s what I’m asking!”
Real answer, maybe Herbalism Lore.
“No, Hoo is my familiar.”
“I don’t know!”
Isn't Which the rogue?
Only when applying rouge.
/cevah