PF2 SRD:Earn Income
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Earn Income (Trained)[edit]
You can use a skill — typically Crafting, Lore, or Performance — to earn money during downtime. You must be trained in the skill to do so. This takes time to set up, and your income depends on your proficiency rank and how lucrative a task you can find. Because this process requires a significant amount of time and involves tracking things outside the progress of adventures, it won’t come up in every campaign.
In some cases, the GM might let you use a different skill to Earn Income through specialized work. Usually, this is scholarly work, such as using Religion in a monastery to study old texts — but giving sermons at a church would still fall under Performance instead of Religion. You also might be able to use physical skills to make money, such as using Acrobatics to perform feats in a circus or Thievery to pick pockets. If you’re using a skill other than Crafting, Lore, or Performance, the DC tends to be significantly higher.
Earn Income
| Downtime |
You use one of your skills to make money during downtime. The GM assigns a task level representing the most lucrative job available. You can search for lower-level tasks, with the GM determining whether you find any. Sometimes you can attempt to find better work than the initial offerings, though this takes time and requires using the Diplomacy skill to Gather Information, doing some research, or socializing. When you take on a job, the GM secretly sets the DC of your skill check. After your first day of work, you roll to determine your earnings. You gain an amount of income based on your result, the task’s level, and your proficiency rank (as listed on Table 4–2: Income Earned).
You can continue working at the task on subsequent days without needing to roll again. For each day you spend after the first, you earn the same amount as the first day, up until the task’s completion. The GM determines how long you can work at the task. Most tasks last a week or two, though some can take months or even years.
Critical Success: You do outstanding work. Gain the amount of currency listed for the task level + 1 and your proficiency rank.
Success: You do competent work. Gain the amount of currency listed for the task level and your proficiency rank.
Failure: You do shoddy work and get paid the bare minimum for your time. Gain the amount of currency listed in the failure column for the task level. The GM will likely reduce how long you can continue at the task.
Critical Failure: You earn nothing for your work and are fired immediately. You can’t continue at the task. Your reputation suffers, potentially making it difficult for you to find rewarding jobs in that community in the future.
Crafting Goods for the Market (Crafting)
Using Crafting, you can work at producing common items for the market. It’s usually easy to find work making basic items whose level is 1 or 2 below your settlement’s level (see Earn Income on page 504). Higher-level tasks represent special commissions, which might require you to Craft a specific item using the Craft downtime activity and sell it to a buyer at full price. These opportunities don’t occur as often and might have special requirements — or serious consequences if you disappoint a prominent client.
Practicing a Trade (Lore)
You apply the practical benefits of one of your Lore specialties during downtime by practicing your trade. This is most effective for Lore specialties such as business, law, or sailing, where there’s high demand for workers. The GM might increase the DC or determine only low-level tasks are available if you’re attempting to use an obscure Lore skill to Earn Income. You might also need specialized tools to accept a job, like mining tools to work in a mine or a merchant’s scale to buy and sell valuables in a market.
Staging a Performance (Performance)
You perform for an audience to make money. The available audiences determine the level of your task, since more discerning audiences are harder to impress but provide a bigger payout. The GM determines the task level based on the audiences available. Performing for a typical audience of commoners on the street is a level 0 task, but a performance for a group of artisans with more refined tastes might be a 2nd- or 3rd-level task, and ones for merchants, nobility, and royalty are increasingly higher level. Your degree of success determines whether you moved your audience and whether you were rewarded with applause or rotten fruit.
| Task Level | Failure | Trained | Expert | Master | Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 cp | 5 cp | 5 cp | 5 cp | 5 cp |
| 1 | 2 cp | 2 sp | 2 sp | 2 sp | 2 sp |
| 2 | 4 cp | 3 sp | 3 sp | 3 sp | 3 sp |
| 3 | 8 cp | 5 sp | 5 sp | 5 sp | 5 sp |
| 4 | 1 sp | 7 sp | 8 sp | 8 sp | 8 sp |
| 5 | 2 sp | 9 sp | 1 gp | 1 gp | 1 gp |
| 6 | 3 sp | 1 gp, 5 sp | 2 gp | 2 gp | 2 gp |
| 7 | 4 sp | 2 gp | 2 gp, 5 sp | 2 gp, 5 sp | 2 gp, 5 sp |
| 8 | 5 sp | 2 gp, 5 sp | 3 gp | 3 gp | 3 gp |
| 9 | 6 sp | 3 gp | 4 gp | 4 gp | 4 gp |
| 10 | 7 sp | 4 gp | 5 gp | 6 gp | 6 gp |
| 11 | 8 sp | 5 gp | 6 gp | 8 gp | 8 gp |
| 12 | 9 sp | 6 gp | 8 gp | 10 gp | 10 gp |
| 13 | 1 gp | 7 gp | 10 gp | 15 gp | 15 gp |
| 14 | 1 gp, 5 sp | 8 gp | 15 gp | 20 gp | 20 gp |
| 15 | 2 gp | 10 gp | 20 gp | 28 gp | 28 gp |
| 16 | 2 gp, 5 sp | 13 gp | 25 gp | 36 gp | 40 gp |
| 17 | 3 gp | 15 gp | 30 gp | 45 gp | 55 gp |
| 18 | 4 gp | 20 gp | 45 gp | 70 gp | 90 gp |
| 19 | 6 gp | 30 gp | 60 gp | 100 gp | 130 gp |
| 20 | 8 gp | 40 gp | 75 gp | 150 gp | 200 gp |
| 20 (critical success) | — | 50 gp | 90 gp | 175 gp | 300 gp |
Income Examples[edit]
The following examples show the kinds of tasks your character might take on to Earn Income during low-level and high-level play.
Harsk Makes Tea[edit]
Harsk is a 3rd-level ranger and an expert at harvesting and brewing tea. He has a Tea Lore modifier of +7. He has 30 days of downtime at his disposal and decides to work at a prestigious local tea house. The GM decides this is a 5th-level task if Harsk wants to assist the tea master, or a 2nd-level task if he wants to serve tea. Harsk chooses the tougher task, and the GM secretly sets the DC at 20.
Harsk rolls a 4 on his Tea Lore check for a result of 11. Poor Harsk has failed! He earns only 2 sp for his efforts and continues working for 3 more days, for a total of 8 sp.
At that point, the GM offers Harsk a choice: either he can finish out the week with the tea master and look for a new job, or he can lower his ambitions and serve in the tea house. Harsk, now more aware of his own capabilities, accepts the less prestigious job for now. He moves to his new job and attempts a new Tea Lore check against DC 16. Rolling a 19, he gets a result of 26—a critical success! He earns 5 sp per day (like a success at a 3rd-level task). The GM rules that demand will be high enough that Harsk can work there for the remainder of his downtime if he so chooses, a total of 26 days. Harsk accepts and earns a total of 138 sp (13 gp, 8 sp) that month.
Lem Performs[edit]
Lem is a 16th-level bard and legendary with his flute. He has a Performance modifier of +31 with his enchanted flute. With 30 days of downtime ahead of him, Lem wonders if he can find something that might excite him more than performing in front of a bunch of stuffy nobles. He finds a momentous offer indeed — a performance in a celestial realm, and Lem’s patron goddess Shelyn might even be in attendance! This is a 20th-level task, and the GM secretly sets the DC at 40.
Lem rolls an 11 on his Performance check for a result of 42. Success! The engagement lasts for a week, and at the end, the grateful celestials present Lem with a beautiful living diamond rose in constant bloom worth 1,400 gold pieces (200 gp per day for 7 days).
With 23 days of downtime left, Lem accepts a 14th-level task performing at a prestigious bardic college for members of a royal court. The GM secretly sets the DC at 32, and Lem critically succeeds, earning 28 gp per day for a total of 644 gp. Between the two performances, Lem has earned just over 2,000 gold pieces during his downtime — though he’s not sure he’ll ever sell that rose.
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