Chapter 4: Skills

Craft skills (Int)

An activity qualifies as a craft only if all of the following criteria are met:

Craft Skill
Source
Description
Armorsmithing
PH
You are capable of making armors or shields of any type that is predominantly metal. This skill does not apply to the making of fur or hide, padded, leather, or studded leather armor, nor does it apply to wooden shields.
Basketweaving
PH
You are capable of weaving baskets from straw, reeds, bamboo or other suitable material.
Blacksmithing
PH
You can work with iron and make useful items out of it, e.g. nails, horseshoes, and various tools. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (metalworking), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (blacksmithing) check.
Bookbinding
PH
You can take pages of manuscript and make a book out of them by sewing (or otherwise fastening) the pages together and binding them within book covers. Book covers are typically made of leather, but could be made of other materials.
Bowmaking
PH
You can work to make bows and arrows, and to fletch the arrows.
Brickmaking
House
You are capable of making bricks from mud or clay, and know how to cure them either in the sun or by baking them in a kiln. You can also maintain and repair the kiln used.
Calligraphy
PH
You are skilled with quill and ink to produce beautiful, flowing and neat writing. You can also draw the decorative patterns that often adorn manuscripts or that embellish capital letters or signatures.
Candlemaking
DotF
You are skilled at making candles from animal fat, tallow, or wax. Also known as a 'chandler'.
Carpentry
PH
You are skilled at constructing sturdy buildings and objects such as furniture and cabinetry using milled lumber. Specialties within carpentry would include cartwrights (who build carts), coopers (who build wooden barrels and tubs), wainwrights (who build wagons, or wains for Englishmen) and wheelwrights (who make spoked wheels). This skill would also be used to make wooden shields.
Cobbling
PH
You can make and repair shoes and boots, typically from leather or wood. Other materials could be used to make footwear such as sandals.
Gemcutting
PH
You can cut, finish and polish rough gems, thus making them more valuable and more suitable for use in jewelry. You can also identify the type of gem it is, and estimate its value.
Glassblowing
House
You can make glass from sands or other suitable materials, and create bottles and various other items by blowing molten glass. You know what additives will produce colors, and can identify different types of glass. You are also skilled at cutting glass, and otherwise working with it.
Gunsmithing
House
You can construct various gunpowder (or smokepowder in the Forgotten Realms) weapons, from arquebuses to matchlock and flintlock muskets and pistols. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (machining), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (gunsmithing) check. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (metalworking), you can also make cannon. In the Hurvan campaign, only Ravenloft natives from certain domains may take this skill.
Leatherworking
PH
You can create various leather items from leather, such as predominately leather armor, saddles, scabbards, backpacks, bags, pouches and other such items.
Locksmithing
PH
You can make mechanical locks, and are familiar with the operating principles of locks. If you have 5 or more ranks of this craft, you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Open Lock skill check. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (machining), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (locksmithing) check.
Machining
House
You can craft gears and pulleys and assemble them into small or intricate mechanical devices using precision hand tools. Clockmaking would be a classic use for this skill. You can also make mechanical traps as you might find built into locks and chests. In Hurva, characters must be gnomes or Ravenloft natives from certain domains in order to take this skill.
Metalworking
S&F
You can make general items out of metal, either useful or decorative. Tinkers and cutlers would used this skill. This skill also subsumes specializing in metals, such as goldsmith, silversmith, coppersmith, etc. This skill also encompasses the craft of making and minting coins. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (blacksmithing), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (metalworking) check.
Needleworking
House
You are capable of various forms of needlework - knitting, crocheting, quiltmaking, tatting, laceworking - to make such things as garments, embroidery, quilts, blankets, doilies, and so on. If it is desired to track these separately, then you can do perform one such craft for each rank of Craft (needleworking) you have.
Painting
PH
You can use inks and paints to paint pictures of people and scenery. You have a good eye for colors and a good sense of visual perspective.
Papermaking
House
You know the procedure for making sheets of paper, parchment, vellum, or other such materials, that are suitable for writing on and using as documents.
Poisonmaking
S&S
p.25
This skill is required to make poisons. You can get a +2 synergy bonus if you have at least 5 ranks in either Alchemy or Profession: Herbalist.
Pottery
PH
You are skilled at making pots, jugs and other containers using a variety of clays. You can also operate and maintain a firing kiln and know how to glaze items to produce finished items. You are familiar with the types of clays used to make items and know where to find them and blend them as necessary.
Ropemaking
House
You know how to make strong rope from various fibers such as hemp and silk.
Sculpture
PH
You can accurately sculpt finely detailed depictions of people, animals, objects or decorative designs into stone. The sculptures you create are works of art. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (stonecarving), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (sculpture) check.
Sewing
Conv
You can cut and sew together cloth of various type to make garments. Seamstresses, dressmakers, tailors hatmakers and glovers would use this skill to ply their trade. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (leatherworking), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (sewing) check involved with making garments out of leather.
Shipmaking
PH
The shipwright uses this skill to build sea-worthy vessels fit to ship people and cargo across the seas. He knows the proper techniques for making keels, planks, bulkheads, rudders and masts from lumber provided. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (carpentry), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (Shipmaking) check.
Stonecarving
DotF
You can use chisels and awls to carve general utilitarian shapes from stone. Such shapes include blades or other weapons, blocks of specific shapes, or tools. If you are literate, you can also carve letters or simple diagrams into stone. You are familiar with the properties of the various types of stone suitable for carving, and know where such types of stone may be found. A stonecarver may also work in a quarry to produce the blocks that will be used by stonemasons and sculptors. You cannot use this skill to carve artwork.
[Note: The description is modified from that given in DotF to make it more distinct from Sculpture.]
Stonemasonry
PH
You are capable of constructing buildings and other objects from quarried blocks of stone. You know how to fit the blocks together and support what you build so that it can bear loads. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (stonecarving), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (stonemasonry) check.
Thatching
PH
You can take reeds, straw, fronds or other such materials and make them into a roof so as to keep the elements out of the structure.
Trapmaking
PH
This craft allows you to make traps and snares like you would use to capture or kill animals. The types of traps and snares you can make range from simple spring-loaded paw-traps to cages that allow entrance but not exit. In wilderness settings, this would allow you to make traps like branches that are pulled back with ropes and have spikes attached to them or like net traps. This does not include the complex mechanical devices built into objects (like locks and chests) and designed to cause damage to unauthorized 'guests'. If you have 5 or more ranks of Craft (machining), you get a +2 synergy bonus on any Craft (trapmaking) check. If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering) you can build entire rooms that are trapped and use counterweights to balance or set them.
Weaponsmithing
PH
You can use this skill to create metal weapons such as (but not limited to) swords and maces.
Weaving
PH
You can take various fibers (e.g. silk, wool, cotton, hair) and wave them together to make cloth, and are familiar with the use and maintenance of a loom. You can also make rugs and tapestries.
Woodcarving
DotF
You can use hand tools such as hand axes and whittling knives to make useful or artistic items out of raw wood. You are familiar with the properties of various types of wood, and can make such items as staves, shields, wands, tools, utensils, masks, combs, furniture, holy symbols, and figureheads from wood.