View source for How To Distribute Trade Skill Points

== Selecting your Profession(s) ==

How to distribute your '''Trade Skill Points''' must be considered carefully as once they are invested they can't be changed without DM approval. 

There is no right or correct way to distribute them, but there are some factors that will guide you to decide how to use them.

== Gift, Race and Skills ==

The first big factor is if your build allows to get the [[Gifts|Gift of Craftsmanship]], the extra trade points and crafting points opens up more combinations of profession or speeds up any item production.

The second big factor is if your build allows you to invest into [[Skill_changes#Craft_Mastery|Craft Mastery Skill]] or has access to extra crafting points, [[:Category:Cleric_domains|Domains]] or [[Loremaster#Secret_Knowledge|Loremaster Artisan Secret]]. 
Extra crafting points means additional speed to craft items.

Finally, another factor to consider is your race and classes. A few crafting recipes requirement are for certain classes and races, as the Elven Chainmail or bard instruments.

== Build Synergy ==

A Wizard investing in Smithing, or a Fighter wearing only metal investing in Carpentry is possible, but some classes may get extra mileage from their profession distribution.

A fighter may be more interested in Smithing to be able to create and repair their own weapon, shield and armor, while a Wizard may be more interested in alchemy, art, or both to prepare spell components to fuel their spells.

Bellow a few keywords for each profession available, '''this does not contain''' the whole list of what profession can help with, always check each Profession to see what other options are available.

{| class="wikitable" 
|-
! Profession
! Functionality
! RP
|-
| Alchemy
| Spell Components users(Greenstone)<br>Permanent/temporal offensive essences<br>Defensive essences<br>Grenade Users
| Components for other professions
|-
| Art crafting
| Spell Components users(Malachite)<br>Dedicated looters/miners (gem cutting)<br>Helms and jewelry<br>Ioun stones
| Paintings<br>Granite Fixtures<br> Altars
|-
| Carpentry
| Bards (Instruments)<br>Archers (Bows and Ammo)<br>Wooden shields<br>Staff makers
| Sailors<br>Wooden fixtures
|-
| Herbalism
| Potions (No Lore/UMD Builds)<br>Fresh drinks extra stats<br>Poison users<br>Choking Powder users
| Fishers<br>Cooking Food
|-
| Smithing
| Users of Metallic gear<br>Metal weapons users
| UD sailors<br>Metallic fixtures
|-
| Tailoring
| Cloth & leather armor users<br>Unarmed Combat
| Sailors
|}

== Carry Capacity ==
Some professions uses materials that are more cumbersome than the others to carry around and could be a factor to consider when picking the profession distribution.

Stones and wood are heavy and in one gathering trip you will be carrying many of them, even the walk from a chest or bank to a crafting station could turn into a slow walk or many different trips.

If your build has low Strength and you really want a Profession that uses heavy materials, you may want to consider getting another player to grab/carry them for you, or invest as soon as possible in a method to keep or transport them, as Enchanted [[Containers]], [[Carpentry#Other|Featherweight Cases]] or [[Alchemy#Other|Orbs of gravity]].

Keep in mind, carry capacity only matters with raw materials, once the item is started, the resulting blueprint will only weight 0.5 lbs no matter the inputs used. Because of this, another way to decrease this issue is to carry started projects, rather than the materials.

{| class="wikitable" 
|-
! Weight
! Profession
! Reason
|-
| High
| Smiting
| Coal, Metal Chunks
|-
| High
| Carpentry
| Wood
|-
| Medium
| Alchemy
| Ingots to prepare catalysts, Glass
|-
| Medium
| Art crafting
| Granite,Marble and Sand/Glass, large quantity of raw gems
|-
| Low
| Herbalism
| Large quantity of herbs or potions
|-
| Low
| Tailoring
| Leather, or the materials needed to start a project
|}

== Time invested ==
Some professions will spend a lot of time working in one item as their recipes have a high crafting points requirement, while others will spend more time in the menu rather than crafting, starting many smaller projects with lower point requirements.

This also comes proportional with how much time you will be investing gathering ingredients and their difficulty to obtain. 
Professions that craft gear most likely will be looking for materials in high level dungeons, shops or from other players, while others can get what they need mostly in low danger areas. 

{| class="wikitable" 
|-
! Time per project
! Profession
! Reason
|-
| High
| Tailoring
| Best armors start at 240 crafting points, some going up to over 500.
|-
| High
| Smithing
| Armor, weapons an shield have a large Craft point requirement.
|-
| Medium
| Carpentry
| The best staffs reach over 400 crafting points.
|-
| rowspan="3" | Low
| Art crafting
| Helms can have a high amount of crafting points, else, this profession would be bulk cutting gems.
|-
| Alchemy
| Aside permanent essences, this profession will spend a lot of time crafting materials like catalysts.
|-
| Herbalism
| Aside seeds, this profession will spend a lot of time crafting many different projects.
|}

== Heavy investment vs low investment ==

'''When to do a heavy investment into one profession'''

Related to the topic above, some professions may be more interested to invest most, if not all of their '''Trade Skill Points''' in one profession to cut the time needed to craft one item thanks to the mastery checks.

Being able to success every mastery check when crafting an item means it would only take half the time to finish, making profession that craft gear more interested to do a heavy investment to get them earlier, or to get back to their clients as fast as possible.

The list is the same as the table above, this means Art Crafting, Alchemy and Herbalism are good candidates to mix and match, or to put remaining points from the other heavy investment professions.

Still, keep in mind RP is also important, if your character is planning to entertain a party with foods or drinks, being able to have success in the mastery rolls means being able to create large quantity of items right away. 

'''When to do a low investment into a profession'''

Mostly if you have leftover points after investing in your main profession or you want to avoid chasing another player to get the inputs for your main craft. 

Putting 1 point into all profession can be useful. For example, one point in carpentry opens the option to craft books and many fixtures, like a simple sign.

Thanks to god saves, items up to DC 21 can be created with just 1 point, provided you are willing to burn many crafting points fishing for a 20.

== How many points to invest ==
The final decision will be how many points will be in each. This will be a personal preference based on your character concept and the player play time.

Are you planning to just craft items just for you? Are you planning to sell your crafting services to other players? Are you in a rush to get your items soon? Do you want more versatility?

First and most importantly, check what items are you interested to craft in a profession and see what is the highest DC of them.

===The safe approach===

As failing on a 1 is a possibility while crafting, a safe approach is to invest enough trade points of the DC minus 2.

'''Example''': A player wants to craft a DC 40 smiting item, then 38 points into smithing can be considered enough to craft the item safely at normal speed. 

===The speed approach===

Thanks to the mastery roll checks, each point invested above the DC will reduce the time needed to craft the item.

'''Example''': A player wants to craft DC 40 smiting item very fast, then 60 points into smithing are invested.
This also enables double mastery roll success in lower DC items, speeding up how fast you can craft item.

===The versatile approach===
Gear has only to be crafted once, unless you are planning to sell them, so a different approach is to diversify the distribution of the trade points, enabling crafting a few pieces of gear and enjoying the bonuses of a secondary profession.

God saves opens up this possibility, as only the first item creation roll is important to determine if the crafting materials are lost and with 100% piety, your character will take a 20 on its roll. This approach has the cost of a lower crafting speed because of failing rolls when using crafting points.

'''Example''': A player wants to craft a DC 40 smiting item only once, so only 30 points go into smithing, uses a god save to start the project (Or asks another more skilled character to start it). After that just is a matter of time to finish the project using extra crafting points on failed crafting rolls. This would save 8 points compared to the safe approach.

Following the example, the lowest a character could theoretically invest is the DC minus 19, only progressing when rolling a 20. But, at that point, it may be be better to just ask another character to craft the item or just buy the item rather than investing trade points.

===About the guide===
*'''Written by''': ElevenOne
*'''Date''': April 2025

[[Category:Guides]]