AD&D Secondary Skills: Turning Old Trades Into Useful Character Backgrounds

AD&D’s Secondary Skills table can do more than sketch a character’s past. With a few clear rulings, a former trade becomes a useful part of play: an armorer can judge a breastplate, a sailor can work rigging, and a farmer can find food in familiar country. These abilities add texture to a first-level character without replacing the class that defines their adventuring role.

Art by Larry Elmore

Giving a character a working past

This set of backgrounds is intended for 1st Edition AD&D and is compatible with ODD. The premise is straightforward: a character has spent most of their life preparing for their main profession, but may also have picked up ordinary skills in childhood or along the way. A fighter might know a trade from home; a cleric might have learned practical work during training.

The referee can choose a background that fits the setting, or roll percentile dice to determine one. Results of “TWO BACKGROUNDS” grant a second suitable trade. The table can also be used for henchmen. Each result assumes years of experience in that occupation, and its benefits add to class abilities unless a rule says otherwise. Listed percentages are starting points; adjust them to match the circumstances.

Craft, materials, and close observation

Armorer: This character knows how armor is forged, fitted, and repaired, from leather jacks to plate. They can judge armor’s quality and value with 90% accuracy, and identify its origin or style 25% of the time. With basic tools and an hour, they can restore damaged armor to full protection. Armor they make or maintain grants +1 AC while worn, thanks to its fit.

Bowyer/fletcher: A craftsperson familiar with bow wood, stave tillering, and arrow fletching gets +1 to hit with self-made bows. Given materials and time, they can produce one short bow or 12 arrows per day, repair bows and arrows, and assess a bow’s quality, range, and pull-weight by sight. Personally made ammunition avoids the -1 penalty for using found or scavenged arrows.

Jeweler/lapidary: Experience with gems, precious metals, and fine detail work allows appraisal of jewelry and gems with 90% accuracy, including a 75% chance to spot fakes. The character also gets +1 when searching small objects for secret compartments, traps, or hidden inscriptions. The referee may grant a bonus on other delicate handwork.

Leather worker/tanner: This trade covers curing hides and making goods such as boots or armor. The character can judge the quality and value of leather goods, craft or repair them given time and materials, and restore leather armor in an hour. They have a 50% chance to identify the creature behind a hide, while personally made leather goods gain +5% to saves against ordinary wear, rot, and breakage.

Limner/painter: An artist can make a recognizable likeness of a person or scene they have seen, notice overlooked details in paintings or visual clues (+1), and identify a painting or illuminated manuscript’s school, era, or origin 60% of the time. They can also prepare pigments, inks, and paints from natural materials.

Tailor/weaver: A practiced hand at cloth can assess fabric and clothing, recognizing fine or foreign materials 70% of the time. The character can make or mend clothing, disguises, and padded armor. Altered, well-fitted garments provide +10% to disguise checks; a hidden pocket, false seam, or concealed item in clothing has a 20% chance of being noticed beyond the usual search.

Woodworker/cabinetmaker: This craftsperson can appraise wooden furniture and objects, make or repair wooden items and simple mechanisms, and spot hidden compartments, false bottoms, or trick joinery 25% of the time beyond a normal search. They also get +1 when disarming or rigging a trap built into wooden furniture or fixtures.

Land, food, and animals

Farmer/gardener: Years of working soil help a character judge its quality and estimate likely yields. They forage edible plants with half the usual chance of accidental poisoning from unfamiliar flora, gain +10% on survival checks in cultivated or temperate terrain, and can read weather from the sky, wind, and animal behavior. This forecast covers a one-mile radius and the next 24 hours, with 70% accuracy.

Forester: A woodland hand can move through natural forest without leaving a trail 90% of the time, and gets +10% to surprise rolls in woods. They can assess a tree’s age, health, and species, identify useful or dangerous forest plants 75% of the time, and gain +2 on navigation checks in forested terrain.

Hunter/fisher (hook and line): In viable terrain, this character can find enough food for themselves and three others per day: 90% of the time in good conditions, 50% in poor ones. They gain +1 to hit animals with thrown or missile weapons, can track game in wilderness 60% of the time, and get +10% to surprise when lying in wait.

Fisher (netting): Nets, weirs, and seines are this worker’s tools. Near fishable water, two hours of work yields enough food for six people unless supernatural interference prevents it. The character gets +2 to attacks made with a net and has an 80% chance to escape, or free someone else from, nets, webs, or snares.

Husbandman: This character can judge a domestic animal’s health, age, temperament, and value at a glance. Animals they tame or train gain +1 on loyalty or morale checks. Once per animal per day, they can treat a wound to restore 1d3 hp or address a minor ailment; they also gain +15% to checks for calming or controlling a frightened or hostile domestic animal.

Trapper/furrier: In suitable terrain, the character’s snares catch small game 60% of the time per night. They can prepare a hide without reducing its value, assess furs at market rate, and identify animal species from tracks 60% of the time. Their familiarity with traps gives +10% to detect or avoid natural snares and deadfalls.

Travel, trade, and building

Mason/carpenter: A builder can spot structural weaknesses in a building, wall, or bridge 75% of the time, construct or repair simple structures with available materials, and gain +1 when bracing or shoring up a failing structure. They have a 20% chance to notice recently disturbed stonework, false walls, or hidden doors in worked stone or wood, in addition to the usual search.

Miner: Underground experience helps this character judge tunnel and cavern stability, sensing an impending collapse 70% of the time. They have a base 15% chance to detect slope, depth, and direction underground, dig at twice an untrained laborer’s rate, and recognize valuable ore veins and common minerals by sight.

Navigator: Reading stars, currents, and charts reduces the chance of losing a vessel’s course by half. Weather permitting, the navigator can estimate location from stars, sun, and landmarks with 80% accuracy, read or produce navigational maps, and gain +1 to reaction or survival rolls during a storm or shipwreck.

Sailor: Familiarity with rigging and shipboard life means no chance of falling while climbing ropes under normal conditions, or 90% safety in storms or combat. Sailors can tie or undo knots immediately, gain +2 to escape bonds or rigging traps, and get +1 to hit in shipboard combat. They also know common sailor cant and gestures for quiet communication aboard a vessel.

Shipwright: A shipbuilder can judge a vessel’s seaworthiness, spotting rot, poor construction, or sabotage 75% of the time. They know its approximate value, cargo capacity, and crew needs, and can perform or oversee repairs with time and materials. Checks to keep a damaged ship afloat gain +10%.

Teamster/freighter: Skilled handling gives +2 to control wagons and draft animals in dangerous conditions. Proper cargo loading cuts the chance of loss or spoilage in half on overland trips. The character has a 50% chance to know the terrain, waypoints, and hazards on a well-traveled route, and can make running wagon or cart repairs with basic tools.

Trader/barterer: The character gains +10% on negotiation and buying or selling reactions, and can estimate common trade goods’ market value with 85% accuracy. They know regional price shifts 60% of the time, as the referee determines, and have a 50% chance to catch a swindle or bad deal before agreeing.

Gambler: Time spent at games of chance teaches the character to spot loaded dice, marked cards, or sleight of hand 60% of the time. They gain +10% to reactions during wagers, games, or chance-based bargaining, plus +1 to reaction rolls when assessing a stranger’s intentions. Once per day, at the referee’s discretion, they may reroll a failed saving throw tied to a wager or game gone wrong and must keep the new result.

Keep backgrounds practical

Backgrounds complement class abilities. A fighter with a trapping past remains a fighter; the trade adds useful knowledge without taking over the character’s role. Referees may limit each character to one background to reflect a life spent in a single occupation before adventuring.

The referee’s judgment brings these abilities to life. Backgrounds tend to help with appraising goods, finding food, making minor repairs, and producing simple items. To set a boundary, consider what someone with years in that trade could reasonably do, then compare that ability with the other backgrounds at the table. That approach keeps a practical skill relevant while leaving room for class abilities to matter.