How competent should NPCs be?

[Susano-wo]

Ah, the classic sound of condescension. Hopefully you didn't mean it that way.

No, it wasnt meant to be condescending; I should have used different wording. My apologies

Oh, okay. Profession: Specially Trained Blacksmith.

Blacksmith the is the profession, specially trained is just a description. Just like its unreasonable to assume profession: any, or profession: miracle worker, its unreasonable to try to take profession to duplicate crafting when they are explicitly different. from the SRD: "Craft skill represents ability in creating or making an item, a Profession skill represents an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge." Which might mean, now that I think about it, that by RAW anything you can take crafting for you cannot take as a profession, which solves the discrepancy right there, though economically it is silly, but it was already silly to assume every profession makes the same amount of money

Useful weapons, quality clothing, or anything else in a D&D game comes from somewhere. Normally where it comes from doesn't matter, but it's plausible to imagine such an NPC having ranks in a Profession skill. The Profession skill contains everything necessary to work in that profession. It doesn't address actual output or services rendered, but of course the NPC does have output or did perform a service. So would a PC engaged in the same profession.

The abstraction is that the output and service doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to the character, nor to the location where the profession was practiced. Because it doesn't matter, we're free to imagine that the output or service was anything we want. The blacksmith spent the week crafting a masterwork item for a noble. The noble paid up front, but there were cost overruns, and the blacksmith even had to pay a local with Profession: Alchemist to give him a potion that would keep him awake. At the end of the week, the blacksmith had a total profit of 1d20/2 + half his skill modifier in gp, and he had a masterwork sword, which was handed over to the noble. Or stolen. Or lost. Or whatever.

The blacksmith could even work directly with the PCs. He might sell them a masterwork sword for however much it would go for. But, insofar as it matters to the game, at the end of the week that blacksmith's profit would be 1d20/2 + half his skill modifier in gp.

Why doesn't a PC just take ranks in blacksmith, make a bunch of swords in a week and supplement his Profession: Blacksmith income with the sale of all those swords? Well, mainly because he already had to sell those swords as part of the Profession roll, but also because what that plan calls for is a Profession: Salesman roll, with the paltry number of GP that entails for another week's work.

Sure, if you make a profession roll, it is certainly fair to say that you used your product to make your money. I guess that's a way to solve the discrepancy as well. Well, no that doesn't work, because as a character who can create a masterwork sword, it doesn't make sense that you can make it and sell it, but not just make it. Which makes craft useless, which is why I think they intended for profession to be a catchall for things that are not performances or crafts, but that people would be trained in.