Post/Author/DateTime	Post
shades of eternity 04-15-08, 10:59 AM	I was looking through the 3.5 phb and found out something I found kinda odd. herbalism is a profession, rather then a craft. 1. any ideas why is that? 2. what can you do with it, using wizard of the coast books? 3. What optional rules, either homebrewed, or third party would you recommend for herbing it up?
faghter_hero 04-15-08, 01:39 PM	It's a profession because a herbalist is the medieval equivalent of a pharmacist, I guess. You already get half your check results in GP per week. But you could treat it more like a specialized Heal: Apply balm: Add your skill bonus to another character's Heal check during a First Aid attempt. Apply poison: Apply a liquid poison (contact or injury) to a blade, tranquilizer darts, or other delivery weapon. This normally has a 5% chance of failing and poisoning the character. The chance lessens by 1% per 2 ranks of this skill. Create antidote: If a plant or animal derived poison is successfully identified, and a small amount is obtained, the DC to create an antidote is equal to the original poison’s creation DC. An antidote may only work for the specific poison that was identified, and provides a +10 bonus for the poisoned character’s Fort. save against that poison. Identify poison/drug: Diagnose a poison or drug by its effects or appearance. The base DC is 15. Rehabilitate: As Treat Poison with the Heal Skill, but applies to drugs and addiction effects. Treat poison: As in Heal.
ciaran 04-15-08, 07:41 PM	Those are some handy uses. There could be a whole compendium of uses for specific Craft, Knowledge, Perform and Profession checks!
shades of eternity 04-15-08, 07:49 PM	agreed if ever there was a skill that needs clairification beyond color text, it's the profession skill. They did a descent job expanding other skills so I think it would help a lot.
ciaran 04-15-08, 08:42 PM	Agreed again. Lets take Profession skill out of the hands of commoners and into the hands of those who can really get alot of ranks into it: adventurers!
Pindar 04-16-08, 10:13 AM	3. What optional rules, either homebrewed, or third party would you recommend for herbing it up? I use a modified version of the herbs from rolemaster. I don't have my rules to hand but here is an example of how it works in my game. The Herbalism roll allows you to identify and find herbs. It allows you to prepare them properly and administer them. So in my Game say a player had a disease then the party healer could make make a DC 15 Herbalism check to remember the bark of the Red Willow tree could be brewed into a tea that eases fevers and would grant someone an alchemical bonus to their next save to recover from the illness. Finding and preparing it would be another DC 20 roll, each roll covers an 8 hour period so taking 20 would take a long time. After finding and brewing the tea the sick player would get a +2 on his save. I have a large set of tables of common and mythical/magical herbs of varying uses. Although I don't know why I bothered creating the rules because non of my players have ever wanted to use them.
faghter_hero 04-16-08, 04:39 PM	This thread really belongs in Skills and Feats section. I use a modified version of the herbs from rolemaster. I don't have my rules to hand but here is an example of how it works in my game. The Herbalism roll allows you to identify and find herbs. It allows you to prepare them properly and administer them. So in my Game say a player had a disease then the party healer could make make a DC 15 Herbalism check to remember the bark of the Red Willow tree could be brewed into a tea that eases fevers and would grant someone an alchemical bonus to their next save to recover from the illness. Finding and preparing it would be another DC 20 roll, each roll covers an 8 hour period so taking 20 would take a long time. After finding and brewing the tea the sick player would get a +2 on his save. After seeing this, giving synergy bonus to either Heal or Survival is appropriate, and taking a +2 synergy bonus from Knowledge: Nature as well (or Knowledge: Local, if you decide it covers folk cures, traditional medicine, and what herbs grow nearby). The second part looks more like a separate Craft: Herbalism skill... maybe even covered by Craft: Alchemy. Wait a minute, I completely forgot about diseases in my description. Treat Poison should be on there. Also, crafting an antidote would be covered by Craft: Alchemy, since it already includes making Antitoxin (the Antitoxin bonus is +5, but requires no identification of the poison or ranks of Profession: Herbalist). Antitoxin effects last 1 hour. The market price is 40gp, but an Antidote will only work for a specific poison (unlike Antitoxin, which is universal).
Johannixx 04-17-08, 09:29 AM	The Midnight campaign setting has pretty good rules for herbalism. I'd use those.
Cartigan 04-17-08, 12:55 PM	Does the profession line actually do anything but earn you a few coins per week?
Eerongal 04-17-08, 12:58 PM	The Midnight campaign setting has pretty good rules for herbalism. I'd use those. I came in here to mention that, but looks like i was beaten to the punch! You can find the rules here in the midnight SRD, though! (http://darknessfalls.leaderdesslok.com/magic_herbalism.htm)