The recent editorial of Dragon Magazine (#378) talks about how some people feel that D&D 4e killed off a number of interesting skills that made their characters’ backgrounds more realistic, compared to previous editions. This article brings back a number of those skills.
In third edition you could progress both as a wizard and as a blacksmith, or both as a fighter and as an engineer. You could be a ranger skilled in trap making and leather work. WotC explains that while these mundane skills are now removed, you are free to choose being trained as a blacksmith or anything else as part of your background (if your GM allows). I have made a list of mundane skills to choose among for your background. They also come with stats, but do not improve as a result of your adventuring career.
Take a look at the list and rule suggestions!
You might want to check out my rules for secondary skills as well.
September 5th, 2010 at 21:59
Great call. I miss this kind of thing, it’s one of the reasons I have been straying away from D&D. Where are your DC’s though? I want to know what the DC for a masterwork wedding cake is!
September 5th, 2010 at 21:59
Thanks, I’ve updated the post with some example difficulty classes