Skinning as a skill [Archive] - Wizards Community

Skinning as a skill [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
EyelessBeholder
07-04-07, 02:40 PM Im running a game with a warlock who is using skinning as a profession.

Anyone else ever have to deal with this hes skinning everything he fights. Asking me how much each pelt is worth and what not. Ive been basically running it 5spx CR of creature. And he can only get on full pelt from medium creatures. He loves skinning dire wolves.

Or anyone have any variant ways of doing this?
Pentar
07-04-07, 03:27 PM Im running a game with a warlock who is using skinning as a profession.

Anyone else ever have to deal with this hes skinning everything he fights. Asking me how much each pelt is worth and what not. Ive been basically running it 5spx CR of creature. And he can only get on full pelt from medium creatures. He loves skinning dire wolves.

Or anyone have any variant ways of doing this?

That sounds pretty fair. Typically, with profession, you get your die roll in GP solid week of work you do (or something like that). You could apply his dice roll to see the quality of pelt he got so that it affects the price/value. Otherwise, it's sort of a mundane point and not really game breaking, so not something to spend a lot of time focusing on.

An alternative to "Profession: Skinner", is using the Survival skill, which sort of involves all things "surviving in the wilderness".
Munz
07-06-07, 01:06 PM If you wanted to address the issue with how OFTEN he's doing it (you did state EVERYTHING he kills), you could be a stickler with the rules and then some. Assigning the value at 5 sp per CR of the creature is fine, but you could instead of addressing it as one check at the end of the week (because he could surely skin more than one in a week's time) make the value become copper pieces and have the player do a check for every day's (8 hours) worth of work to see how much progress he made on it.

Keep in mind if the player fails by 5 or more (I think that's right), the player wastes 10% of the material used in creation of the item. I could see this to mean if a hide would normally be worth 15 sp, and he wasted 10% of the material trying to skin it, then it would essentially only be worth 14 sp. Also, something you could do, is make the player keep track of how many hides he/she has yet to do. They could rot or go bad before the player has an opportunity to get to it.

Which brings me to another thing, what is the rest of the party doing while the player is skinning the corpse of said creature? Are they all just standing around waiting? Is the player ACTUALLY bringing the body with him/her? That would be kinda difficult to do, I would think. And then there's the cost of buying components to cure skin/hides that he has yet to get to. Or a bag of holding would do nice.

Does any of this help?
danielinthewolvesden
07-06-07, 08:23 PM An alternative to "Profession: Skinner", is using the Survival skill, which sort of involves all things "surviving in the wilderness".

But I would allow that only for a pelt you would use for survival, not a spiffy-looking high value pelt.
highbulp
07-06-07, 08:44 PM I'd probably let him skin and keep track of whatever pelts he has. Then when it comes time to sell the pelts, have him make the Profession check to see how much money he can get from it. If you think the pelt is extra spiffy ("but it's the pelt of the Tarrasque!"), add a circumstance modifier (maybe +2 for kind of neat (like the rare dire wombat), up to a possible +10 for something totally awesome (like the Tarrasque)).

As for the actual selling, you have two options: a check to see how much he gets per pelt, and a check to see how much he gets for all his pelts. The profession skill as written works best for selling ALL his pelts--the player says "I'm going to sell the pelts I've gathered," rolls a Check, and you multiply that by 1/2 of the number of weeks he's been out to figure out how much gold he's made. You could even cut that number in 1/2 or 1/4 if you don't think hunting skins while adventuring should count as a full practicing of the trade. Remember to add circumstance modifiers for how many "spiffy" pelts he has. This way the player has to do all the work of remembering what animals he has skinned, and basically you let the abstraction do the work of figuring out how much money he can make.

The other option you have is for him to make a check for every pelt. There are less rules to support this, but I'd say each pelt could sell for (1/2)*Profession check in sp (instead of in gp)--a hunter coming in with 10 normal pelts a week seems okay to me. The only problem with this is that it is more arbitrary (I'm just guessing on how much to make), and the player could be making a dozen checks each time you get to town (which takes time, so reduces the fun for the other players). That's why I'd have him make a single check to see how much he makes.

Remember that Profession doesn't only cover the ability to create/obtain a commodity--it also covers the ability to sell that commodity for a decent price.
darkdragonk
07-07-07, 12:28 AM Just look at the Trophyhunter feat in PHII, it requires profession (taxidermy). So it looks like Wizards aknowledges (sp) this kind of thing as a resonable profession. Treat it like any other. Or take the GP that he would ussaly get from the encounter and make the pelt be worth that and a bit ant let that be his treasure.
JellyPooga
07-07-07, 11:59 AM Don't forget that whilst skinning a critter is all well and good, an uncured pelt will start to go a bit whiffy and eventually disintergrate.

If this chappy isn't curing his pelts at all, then you may want to impose circumstance (possibly alchemical...) penalties on his social skills. Smells have a habit of rubbing off on people.
Daeva
07-07-07, 06:57 PM wow seriosuly i just read a how to on skinning, so the rest of the party is all keen in cool in chilling and blowing 10-30 minutes for the guy to properly skin each small animal, a large dire bear would take hours. i would get annoyed if a 4 day trip got turned into a 2 week one because some guy had a hard on for dead animal mutilation.

Also keep in mind your not goign to want the pelt off an animal hit with brimstone, or voltrotic (sp?) blast, or one hit by a fire, or acid spell, not to mention any other attack that would cause massive external or even moderate corrosive damage.
Illithid_Tentacles
07-07-07, 07:17 PM Just off the top of my head, I'd say skinning something would be covered by the Survival skill. Heal could also be used, I suppose.
Spellfire_junkie
07-08-07, 08:00 PM Synergy bonuses! Conditional, more than likely...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
EyelessBeholder 07-04-07, 02:40 PM	Im running a game with a warlock who is using skinning as a profession. Anyone else ever have to deal with this hes skinning everything he fights. Asking me how much each pelt is worth and what not. Ive been basically running it 5spx CR of creature. And he can only get on full pelt from medium creatures. He loves skinning dire wolves. Or anyone have any variant ways of doing this?
Pentar 07-04-07, 03:27 PM	Im running a game with a warlock who is using skinning as a profession. Anyone else ever have to deal with this hes skinning everything he fights. Asking me how much each pelt is worth and what not. Ive been basically running it 5spx CR of creature. And he can only get on full pelt from medium creatures. He loves skinning dire wolves. Or anyone have any variant ways of doing this? That sounds pretty fair. Typically, with profession, you get your die roll in GP solid week of work you do (or something like that). You could apply his dice roll to see the quality of pelt he got so that it affects the price/value. Otherwise, it's sort of a mundane point and not really game breaking, so not something to spend a lot of time focusing on. An alternative to "Profession: Skinner", is using the Survival skill, which sort of involves all things "surviving in the wilderness".
Munz 07-06-07, 01:06 PM	If you wanted to address the issue with how OFTEN he's doing it (you did state EVERYTHING he kills), you could be a stickler with the rules and then some. Assigning the value at 5 sp per CR of the creature is fine, but you could instead of addressing it as one check at the end of the week (because he could surely skin more than one in a week's time) make the value become copper pieces and have the player do a check for every day's (8 hours) worth of work to see how much progress he made on it. Keep in mind if the player fails by 5 or more (I think that's right), the player wastes 10% of the material used in creation of the item. I could see this to mean if a hide would normally be worth 15 sp, and he wasted 10% of the material trying to skin it, then it would essentially only be worth 14 sp. Also, something you could do, is make the player keep track of how many hides he/she has yet to do. They could rot or go bad before the player has an opportunity to get to it. Which brings me to another thing, what is the rest of the party doing while the player is skinning the corpse of said creature? Are they all just standing around waiting? Is the player ACTUALLY bringing the body with him/her? That would be kinda difficult to do, I would think. And then there's the cost of buying components to cure skin/hides that he has yet to get to. Or a bag of holding would do nice. Does any of this help?
danielinthewolvesden 07-06-07, 08:23 PM	An alternative to "Profession: Skinner", is using the Survival skill, which sort of involves all things "surviving in the wilderness". But I would allow that only for a pelt you would use for survival, not a spiffy-looking high value pelt.
highbulp 07-06-07, 08:44 PM	I'd probably let him skin and keep track of whatever pelts he has. Then when it comes time to sell the pelts, have him make the Profession check to see how much money he can get from it. If you think the pelt is extra spiffy ("but it's the pelt of the Tarrasque!"), add a circumstance modifier (maybe +2 for kind of neat (like the rare dire wombat), up to a possible +10 for something totally awesome (like the Tarrasque)). As for the actual selling, you have two options: a check to see how much he gets per pelt, and a check to see how much he gets for all his pelts. The profession skill as written works best for selling ALL his pelts--the player says "I'm going to sell the pelts I've gathered," rolls a Check, and you multiply that by 1/2 of the number of weeks he's been out to figure out how much gold he's made. You could even cut that number in 1/2 or 1/4 if you don't think hunting skins while adventuring should count as a full practicing of the trade. Remember to add circumstance modifiers for how many "spiffy" pelts he has. This way the player has to do all the work of remembering what animals he has skinned, and basically you let the abstraction do the work of figuring out how much money he can make. The other option you have is for him to make a check for every pelt. There are less rules to support this, but I'd say each pelt could sell for (1/2)*Profession check in sp (instead of in gp)--a hunter coming in with 10 normal pelts a week seems okay to me. The only problem with this is that it is more arbitrary (I'm just guessing on how much to make), and the player could be making a dozen checks each time you get to town (which takes time, so reduces the fun for the other players). That's why I'd have him make a single check to see how much he makes. Remember that Profession doesn't only cover the ability to create/obtain a commodity--it also covers the ability to sell that commodity for a decent price.
darkdragonk 07-07-07, 12:28 AM	Just look at the Trophyhunter feat in PHII, it requires profession (taxidermy). So it looks like Wizards aknowledges (sp) this kind of thing as a resonable profession. Treat it like any other. Or take the GP that he would ussaly get from the encounter and make the pelt be worth that and a bit ant let that be his treasure.
JellyPooga 07-07-07, 11:59 AM	Don't forget that whilst skinning a critter is all well and good, an uncured pelt will start to go a bit whiffy and eventually disintergrate. If this chappy isn't curing his pelts at all, then you may want to impose circumstance (possibly alchemical...) penalties on his social skills. Smells have a habit of rubbing off on people.
Daeva 07-07-07, 06:57 PM	wow seriosuly i just read a how to on skinning, so the rest of the party is all keen in cool in chilling and blowing 10-30 minutes for the guy to properly skin each small animal, a large dire bear would take hours. i would get annoyed if a 4 day trip got turned into a 2 week one because some guy had a hard on for dead animal mutilation. Also keep in mind your not goign to want the pelt off an animal hit with brimstone, or voltrotic (sp?) blast, or one hit by a fire, or acid spell, not to mention any other attack that would cause massive external or even moderate corrosive damage.
Illithid_Tentacles 07-07-07, 07:17 PM	Just off the top of my head, I'd say skinning something would be covered by the Survival skill. Heal could also be used, I suppose.
Spellfire_junkie 07-08-07, 08:00 PM	Synergy bonuses! Conditional, more than likely...