The Underrated Professions Thread (TM)

SpadeDraco · 2016-09-15T20:58:57.000Z

Exactly what it says on the tin. Post professions that look absolutely horrible on paper, but perform much better than expected in practice.

I’ll start:

Computer Hacker

On Paper: A one point profession that starts with terrible gear and 4 points in a skill that gives few tangible early game advantages.

In practice: With the appropriate start (Either Infected or sacrifice 2 trait points) and stats (12+ INT 1 tick in computers (6) and 4 ticks in electronics (4)) this guy can walk into a police station day 1 and walk out with a full suit of riot gear and a shotgun. He can also craft an Electrohack as soon as he has the tools (a soldering iron and a screwdriver both SUPER RARE) and use it to start raiding Military Bunkers as early as the first week. The high INT combos incredibly well with both Zui Quan and Dragon Style as well so the character doesn’t even really need to be a complete pushover in close combat.

Overall I’ve been really happy with my Hacker start. I’ve done shit in the first week that would have taken my previous characters months to pull off. It’s encouraged me to give some of the less popular professions a chance. Anybody else have a similar experience?

Tawarochir · 2016-09-15T22:20:17.000Z

Butler/maid is my go-to profession these days. 1 cooking is great with the really weird way Cooking works (e.g. 1 cooking is needed for, say, hot dogs,) 2 tailoring gives you a head start on tailoring, and 1 driving never hurts. Plus, the maid starts with boots.

Zilenan91 · 2016-09-15T23:44:37.000Z

Lumberjack is really really good. It’s probably just a better survivor and if I remember correctly it doesn’t cost any points either. The wood axe lets you start on constructions from day one with wood you chop down and also doubles as a great weapon that you won’t need to replace for a very long time.

Hibou · 2016-09-16T04:58:29.000Z

I’ve been playing with the otaku profession lately, and while the tailoring level isn’t that effective, it is a starting platform and can let you repair some of your simpler articles of clothing. The cheeseburger is actually one of my favorite parts of the starting loadout. It’ll keep you satiated for most of the first day, so you don’t have to worry about food while you’re raiding the outskirts of town. The messenger bag is really the crown jewel, though. Low encumbrance for decent storage means you don’t have to worry much about running into a zombie or two without time to prep for a fight and lets you haul more stuff back to the evac shelter. (I almost always go with the escapee start. The shelter has just too many goodies to pass up.)

Chezzo · 2016-09-16T06:27:02.000Z

I have been playing hobos lately. With a bit of cooking, their whiskey can be turned into tainted tornadoes pretty easily and that gives you three to six mutations right off the bat.

Then you can distill the gin and make molotovs or bandages or whatever. You can also distill the fruit wine, but then what are you going to stay drunk all the time on?

survivornaginata · 2016-09-16T13:17:28.000Z

blacksmith-with 3 points you can have scrap suit on begining and you will have most of recepies you need.

X-PLODE · 2016-09-16T18:07:15.000Z

[quote=“Chezzo, post:5, topic:12536”]I have been playing hobos lately. With a bit of cooking, their whiskey can be turned into tainted tornadoes pretty easily and that gives you three to six mutations right off the bat.

Then you can distill the gin and make molotovs or bandages or whatever. You can also distill the fruit wine, but then what are you going to stay drunk all the time on?[/quote]
Distill fruit wine into brandy.

I thought this thread was about the innate bonuses some professions have like doctor or blackbelt.

SpadeDraco · 2016-09-17T03:36:16.000Z

[quote=“X-PLODE, post:7, topic:12536”][quote=“Chezzo, post:5, topic:12536”]I have been playing hobos lately. With a bit of cooking, their whiskey can be turned into tainted tornadoes pretty easily and that gives you three to six mutations right off the bat.

Then you can distill the gin and make molotovs or bandages or whatever. You can also distill the fruit wine, but then what are you going to stay drunk all the time on?[/quote]
Distill fruit wine into brandy.

I thought this thread was about the innate bonuses some professions have like doctor or blackbelt.[/quote]

Doctor and Blackbelt are underrated? Blackbelt is straight overpowered.

TheWumpus · 2016-09-17T03:49:18.000Z

[quote=“SpadeDraco, post:8, topic:12536”][quote=“X-PLODE, post:7, topic:12536”][quote=“Chezzo, post:5, topic:12536”]I have been playing hobos lately. With a bit of cooking, their whiskey can be turned into tainted tornadoes pretty easily and that gives you three to six mutations right off the bat.

Then you can distill the gin and make molotovs or bandages or whatever. You can also distill the fruit wine, but then what are you going to stay drunk all the time on?[/quote]
Distill fruit wine into brandy.

I thought this thread was about the innate bonuses some professions have like doctor or blackbelt.[/quote]

Doctor and Blackbelt are underrated? Blackbelt is straight overpowered.[/quote]
Not if you choose caporeira.

Lazy_lizard · 2016-09-17T04:56:11.000Z

Mail carrier is great. They start with low encumbrance storage and you can pick psychopath, schizophrenic, trigger happy for thematic shits and giggles.

Rot · 2016-09-17T05:50:01.000Z

Any of the starts that involve bring a student/teacher.

Start at a library, easy to grab tons of books then ‘book’ it. Science classes spawn lab-related equipment, also if you’re lucky you could find a baseball bat, which in my opinion is a good weapon early game. If you have time, you could raid the cafeteria for food.
Not to mention student-related professions start with a backpack, more space, more stuff to haul out.

My personal favorite is the elementary student. Just think a little kid surviving the apocalypse alone, slaying zombies easily is 100% badass. Also, the sandwich is a bonus.

X-PLODE · 2016-09-17T07:56:01.000Z

[quote=“SpadeDraco, post:8, topic:12536”][quote=“X-PLODE, post:7, topic:12536”][quote=“Chezzo, post:5, topic:12536”]I have been playing hobos lately. With a bit of cooking, their whiskey can be turned into tainted tornadoes pretty easily and that gives you three to six mutations right off the bat.

Then you can distill the gin and make molotovs or bandages or whatever. You can also distill the fruit wine, but then what are you going to stay drunk all the time on?[/quote]
Distill fruit wine into brandy.

I thought this thread was about the innate bonuses some professions have like doctor or blackbelt.[/quote]

Doctor and Blackbelt are underrated? Blackbelt is straight overpowered.[/quote]
I am talking about unique bonuses that a profession has, not skills/stats for the profession.

For example doctor iirc has a unique bonus to removing bad CBM’s and some other first-aid tied skills.
Blackbelt has a unique hidden trait to access 3 martial art styles that are not obtainable for any other profession.

There are 1 or 2 more professions that have unique bonuses, this feature was abandoned or forgotten i think so it only applies to a handful of professions.

Rot · 2016-09-17T08:32:55.000Z

Police related professions don’t have a riot bot summoned when an eyebot takes a picture of you.

BorkBorkGoesTheCode · 2016-09-17T08:49:40.000Z

Skaters get offroad skating modifiers.

X-PLODE · 2016-09-17T10:53:08.000Z

Rot:

Police related professions don’t have a riot bot summoned when an eyebot takes a picture of you.

The police badge also does the same for any other character right?

Shopkeeper · 2016-09-17T12:38:57.000Z

Nope, only if you’ve got a police related starting trait or become a marshal + have a badge equipped.

hexman · 2016-09-17T15:47:52.000Z

The profession which really needs a buff is the Broken-Cyborg profession. You’ll be filled with faulty-bionics which won’t just debilitate you but can prove fatal if not tended to (and removed in time); and for the gear, well, you’ll be wearing subject-suit and foot-rags and carrying some noise canceling headgear but that’s all. And on top of that you’ll get ZERO profession skills making it really challenging for a profession with 2 points. Yes it gives 2 points which is equal to the failed-cyborg profession which comes with lot less crap and much better power supply.

There’s even a “broken-cyborg challenge” guide on the wiki (http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Guide:_Broken_Cyborg).

I guess it was created to be paired with the lab scenario but with the evacuee scenario it won’t help you much after you (finally) remove all of those bionics.

Another profession which needs a little buff is the Cyberjunkie. It gives zero points when it should give at least one. Again, when paired with the evacuee scenario it proves to be a really bad start. In the beginning the problem will not be faulty-bionics but the bare-minimum clothing with which you’ll be freezing to death if not found proper gear in time; and after a few days when you get a hold of yourself you’ll waste your precious time sleeping and scratching yourself and after a few more days your health will begin to deteriorate to the point when you won’t be able to heal much from sleep. The skills you get from this profession will not be much of help as skills don’t do much at level-1. To use the good bionics you get will need to regularly power yourself since power will drain quickly.

And removing the bionics is a real pain as it requires really high skills and you can even die on unsuccessful removal (http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Bionics#Removing_Bionics , http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Guide:_Broken_Cyborg#Removing_Bionics).

Zilenan91 · 2016-09-17T16:32:00.000Z

Are riot bots friendly to SWAT Officers/cops? I want to know that if I walk up to an eyebot with my SWAT ID off and let it take a picture of me, will it summon friendly robots?

survivornaginata · 2016-09-17T19:02:41.000Z

BorkBorkGoesTheCode:

Skaters get offroad skating modifiers.

iirc they fall less often in fight so you ca melee fairly successfully.that was when i played them at least.skating off pavement or flour was still diffficult and slow.

deoxy · 2016-09-19T16:06:46.000Z

hexman:

The profession which really needs a buff is the Broken-Cyborg profession.

I quit playing broken cyborg because it was too easy. Seriously.

(I think I heard they added frail to that? OK, if that’s the case, it’s just crazy, because failing a removal is almost certain to kill you, since the damage doesn’t take frail into account (at least, it used to not - they fix that?).)