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Dice Mob Home > Dice Mob Rules > Skills > Skill Descriptions

Professions and Trades

Generally these professions are just an assortment of skills that a certain profession might have at their disposal to accomplish campaign tasks and even sometimes affect NPCs or monsters in some way advantageous to the character. If this action isn’t necessarily desired by those being affected, it would require a Win-Loss roll (if they have more than just a generic resistance) or a Skill Check otherwise. With professions, generally the only improvement obtained by higher degrees is the increase in dice rolled.

Obviously this isn't the limit of professions, simply a generic list of professions that might have application in assorted campaign genres. For any that seem to be missing, lump them in with something close or make another skill with its own list of expertise. Generally professions are just lumps of barely useful skills with no general progression for higher and higher skill degrees other than the number of dice rolled. In the list of provided trades, each of the listed trades generally have one particularly useful skill. With any new professions or trades, it's generally only useful to list them if at least one important skill can be associated with them.

Skill Non-Proficient? Dice Type Effect in a Nutshell Mana?
Chemist No Standard Skill Check Mix potions, explosives, herbal remedies, poisons, and other substances; skill check required if difficult or non-proficient No
Computers and Engineering No Standard Skill Check Program, hack, or engineer; skill check required if difficult or non-proficient No
Craftsman - Ironworking No Standard Skill Check Forging, fixing dents, sharpening swords; skill check required if difficult or non-proficient No
Craftsman - Jeweler No Standard Skill Check Appraising, cutting, fashioning gems and jewelry; skill check required if difficult or non-proficient No
Craftsman - Leatherworking No Standard Skill Check Making leather goods; taxidermy; repairing leather armor; skill check required if difficult or non-proficient No
Craftsman - Woodworking No Standard Skill Check Woodcarving, carpentry; skill check required if difficult or non-proficient No
Entertainer No Standard Skill Check Sing, dance, entertain; skill check if difficult or non-proficient; increase all dice rolls of party for one round once per combat if proficient No; Per degree
Farmer No Standard Skill Check Farming, herding, ranching, gardening, agriculture, butchering, weather sense; skill check required if difficult or non-proficient No
Firearms and Explosives No Standard Skill Check Build weapons and ammunition; build non-technical explosives and deploy them effectively; skill check if difficult or non-proficient No
Mariner No Standard Skill Check Sailing, knots, weather sense; skill check required if difficult or non-proficient No
Merchant No Standard Skill Check Buying, selling, haggling; skill check if difficult or non-proficient No
Miner No Standard Skill Check Mining minerals, gems; detecting direction underground; detecting poisonous gases underground; detecting stability of caves and caverns; skill check if difficult or non-proficient No
Politician No Standard Skill Check Politics; law; skill check if difficult; decrease all dice rolls of opponents for one round once per combat No; Per degree
Scholar No Standard Skill Check Read, write, use magical scrolls; skill check if difficult No; Per degree

Chemist

Cook, alchemist, chemist. Making explosives and chemical poisons. Making potions or powders. Combat skills can be stored in potions or powders to be used as non-combat or passive actions, but they also take up inventory slots. Ability to determine the nature of potions and powders.

Computers and Engineering

Although mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, aerospace engineering, software engineering, networking, hacking and cybersecurity, architectural engineering, and plumbing generally aren't all the talents of a single individual, we're going to cover all of them here for the sake of simplicity.

Craftsman - Ironworking

Includes blacksmithing, weaponsmithing, and making armor. Detecting the stability of an iron construction and the quality or the magic of metal weapons and armor would also be among the skills requiring a skill check.

Weaponsmithing involving precious metals like silver, gold, and platinum would additionally require the jeweler skill.

Craftsman - Jeweler

Includes jewelry, gemcutting, silversmithing, goldsmithing, and appraising skills as well as determining if jewelry might have magical properties.

Weaponsmithing involving precious metals like silver, gold, and platinum would additionally require the ironworking skill.

Craftsman - Leatherworking

A craftsman in leatherworking includes the ability to fashion and repair leather goods including backpacks and waterskins as well as leather and studded leather armor and weapons like slings and slingshots.

A proficient leatherworker is considered first degree proficient with a sling or slingshot, but higher degrees require actual proficiency with those weapons.

Proficient leather workers can determine the nature of magical leather weapons and armor with a successful skill check.

Craftsman - Woodworking

The trade of craftsman in woodworking includes all things woodworking and carpentry as well as fashioning wooden weapons like staves, bows, crossbows, bolts, and arrows. Woodworkers can detecting the stability of wooden bridges and other wooded structures and would understand defects or other flaws in construction that they could use to their advantage. Given enough time and the proper resources, they can build sturdy wooden structures like bridges, towers, and buildings.

The nature of magical wooden weapons can be detected with a successful skill check.

Entertainer

Entertainer is a very broad skill, but for the purposes of Dice Mob and keeping things simple, entertainers can do anything that would generally be considered entertainment include singing, dancing, stand-up comedy, story-telling, and an ability with any number of musical instruments.

This can be used to cause a distraction or earn money. It can also be used in a group setting to shift the emotions of a group slightly in one direction or another.

Entertainers can use a free action at the beginning of a round to increase the dice rolls of all characters in the entertainer's party by the number of dice equal to their skill degree for one round once per battle with a successful skill check.

Note: This does not include juggling or acrobatics. Those fit under other skills.

Farmer

The farmer trade obviously includes being a skillful farmer, but it also includes related skills including gardening, shepherding, animal handling, edible and poisonous plants, herding, footprints of predators, and all things agriculture.

A farmer can read the weather on land equal to the abilities of a mariner at sea, knowing when a dangerous storm could be coming or when to expect periods of rain, pestilence, or drought. Depending on the difficulty, these could require a successful skill check.

In desolate areas, farmers can make a skill check to find water.

A farmer is automatic first degree proficiency with a staff and a sling, but actual proficiency is required for a higher degree.

Firearms and Explosives

Firearms and explosives experts are proficient in gunsmithing, bullet making, building and deploying explosive devices including improvised explosive devices, determining the type and strength of triggered explosives and explosive traps. These could be done automatically or with a successful skill check, if difficult.

Firearms experts would automatically be proficient with pistols, rifles, and shotguns at first degree, though higher degrees would have to be attained through actual proficiency. They can also determine the abilities of magical firearms with a successful skill check.

Note: This trade skill doesn't involve making explosives, but does involve implementing traps or the standard trigger of explosives using C4, gunpowder, or other readily explosives; a chemist would be required to make the explosives, especially chemical explosives.

Mariner

Mariners are able to sail and navigate a ship, even in treacherous waters, at night or during the day. They can maneuver a ship into position to battle against other ships and any canons or other ship-mounted weaponry would be used at an advantage of two degrees per degree.

Mariners understand the weather at sea, including detecting when dangerous storms are coming with a successful skill check.

Mariners are familiar with areas frequented by pirates, sea lore, good fishing locations, and any history or knowledge related to the sea with a successful skill check.

Rope-work including tying knots and untying knots, mending nets, building fishing or crabbing equipment and effectively catching fish, lobsters, crabs, and other edible sea life.

Mariners are automatically proficient with nets and harpoons at first degree.

Depending on the genre, they are proficient at using scuba equipment and snorkeling. If combined with the mining trade skill, they would be proficient at cave diving.

If combined with a merchant skill, Mariner merchants are familiar with local guilds associated with shipping, both legal and illegal.

Merchant

Economics, basic mathematics, haggling, pricing, and appraising are among the skills of a merchant. They would know about prominent merchant guilds in the area, both legal and illegal. If they've grown up in a culture where written agreements or displayed pricing are likely, they would understand how to read and write and even how to make and read legal agreements between merchants.

Haggling has the ability to favorably affect purchase prices in the favor of the character to a reasonable degree with a successful skill check or win-loss roll vs cognitive or emotional defense, whichever is higher. Successful haggling increases selling prices by 10% per degree or reduces purchase prices by 10% per degree.

Miner

Mining, caving, spelunking, assaying, underground direction sense, finding an exit underground, detecting toxic gases, and anything other skills a miner is likely to have developed. Miners would be proficient in chemicals and explosives likely to be used in a mine, from separating desired elements from dross to blowing through rock.

When using a pick in combat, they are automatically considered proficient in a pick at first degree proficiency, though any increases above first degree would require an actual proficiency in picks.

Secret passages in stone can be found with an additional two dice per degree of proficiency.

Politician

Political history, etiquette, writing, reading, law, understanding political documents, and other skills belong to the politician. Like an entertainer, a politician can also use his or her skill as an orator to sway the emotions of a group in one direction or another.

Politicians can use a free action at the beginning of a round to decrease the dice rolls of all opponents by the number of dice equal to their skill degree for one round once per battle assuming the monsters could reasonably be expected to understand the character. (High scholar abilities would help him be understood by a larger number of creatures.) Affecting an opponent's dice rolls requires a successful win-loss roll vs cognitive defense.

Scholar

Many scholars are either clergy or scientists, and abilities include history, art, architecture, clerical and religious knowledge, reading and writing (if it isn’t common), astronomy, geology, and physics.

Using magical scrolls or spells in spell books, even if the skill on the scroll isn't actually available to the character reading the scroll. Most scrolls would require a successful skill check.

At third degree, scholars can make a skill check to decipher writing in any language including dead and ancient languages. This may simply be understanding approximately what something is saying or it could be a word for word translation ability depending on how likely they would be to be able to do either.

At sixth degree, scholars can make a skill check to speak and understand any spoken language including dead and ancient languages. This may simply be understanding approximately what someone is saying and generally conveying words back to someone else, or it could be speaking and understanding something close to fluently depending on how likely they would be to do so.

trades.1567875407.txt.gz · Last modified: by dungeonmaster