# Skinning a creature?



## Thurbane (Sep 5, 2007)

What skill(s) would you use to successfully skin a creature or make trophies of it's teeth or claws?

Craft (Leatherworker)
Craft (Taxidermy)
Knowledge (Nature)
Profession (Hunter)
Profession (Butcher)
Survival


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## robberbaron (Sep 5, 2007)

Survival, certainly.
Skinning animals is all part of preparing them for cooking. Would probably include cleaning/preparing hides as well.

I guess that to make them more presentable you'd need an appropriate craft skill, though.


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## Infiniti2000 (Sep 5, 2007)

Craft (Tanning) to actually generate usable material from the skin.  Survival would be sufficient to obtain the pelts with some amount of curing that would make them at least transportable for some distance.


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## nittanytbone (Sep 5, 2007)

The PHB2 feat "Trophy Collector" has a prereq of Craft (Taxidermy).

I'd imagine Survival would be used to skin an animal for strictly utilitarian purposes (probably combined with a DC 5 or 10 craft check to make a basic useful item out of the skin).

Appraise would be used to gauge the value of such an item.  Knowledge Nature could help as well to identify animals with valuable pelts.

Profession (Hunter) could be used to gather raw materials to later make craft checks on.


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## frankthedm (Sep 5, 2007)

Survival with a 2 point synergy from the Heal skill.

IMHO Wotc really dropped the ball on this subject. Just because the party is fighting animal-int foes does not mean there is no coin to be made.  Dire animals and magical beasts could have had their pelts worth _plenty_ of GP maybe even comparable to a CR appropriate treasure. Nothing like losing treasure to editorial bias.


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## Zurai (Sep 6, 2007)

frankthedm said:
			
		

> Survival with a 2 point synergy from the Heal skill.
> 
> IMHO Wotc really dropped the ball on this subject. Just because the party is fighting animal-int foes does not mean there is no coin to be made.  Dire animals and magical beasts could have had their pelts worth _plenty_ of GP maybe even comparable to a CR appropriate treasure. Nothing like losing treasure to editorial bias.




I agree. Furs and pelts were an extremely valuable commodity, and one would think it'd be even more so when we're talking about the furs and pelts of magical creatures. Imagine what a fashionista would pay for, say, a displacer beast fur coat!


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## Thurbane (Sep 6, 2007)

In our games we generally use pelt values as from 1E and 2E sourcebooks and issues of Dragon.

The only thing we aren't to sure on is the method for obtaining them. In the past, we have used DEX checks to avoid ruining the pelts, but it seems like various skills should also have their place in the process. The advice so far seems pretty good.


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## nittanytbone (Sep 6, 2007)

frankthedm said:
			
		

> IMHO Wotc really dropped the ball on this subject. Just because the party is fighting animal-int foes does not mean there is no coin to be made.  Dire animals and magical beasts could have had their pelts worth _plenty_ of GP maybe even comparable to a CR appropriate treasure. Nothing like losing treasure to editorial bias.




Well, you COULD in theory make no-risk money with something like Profession (Trapper/Furrier) or Craft (Taxidermy).

For example, a ranger with WIS 12 and 1 rank in Profession could pull in 6 GP/week when taking 10.  Not astounding, I suppose, but decent for NPCs or for martial characters during downtime.  Its better than nothing.


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## Thurbane (Sep 6, 2007)

Here's a rough draft of a system I'm developing for my game, for fur/pelt values:


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## danzig138 (Sep 6, 2007)

robberbaron said:
			
		

> Survival, certainly.
> I guess that to make them more presentable you'd need an appropriate craft skill, though.



That's the path of thinking I have on the matter as well.


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