Professional Training and Pledges

[Holy-Hell-Thats-Hot]

I have a Notary changeling character who was a lawyer in his previous life before his durance. To reflect this, he has three dots in the Professional Training merit, with Academics and Politics as his Asset Skills.

The second dot in that merit let’s the character benefit from 9-again on rolls using the Asset Skills. Since pledgecrafting for Notaries uses Politics, do pledge rolls also gain this benefit?

[Heavy Arms]

This is always a bit contentious, but ultimately it's up to you and your ST.

The rules can certainly be read such that, yes, you get 9-again because it's a Politics roll and there's no stipulations on Professional Training. It's not wrong to read it that way.

However, it's also valid to say that the context of how Professional Training is described should matter to interpretation. Saying that the bonus should only apply to "mundane" applications of the Skill isn't wrong either.

Talk to your group, find out what they feel is best. Ultimately 9-again is a minor bonus. Getting it on pledgecrafting rolls isn't going to overpower the game. Not getting it with every Politics roll isn't going to make your character feel incompetent at their focus.

[Tessie]

I believe the most common house rule limitation on Professional Training is to only apply 9-Again or Rote Action on Skill rolls, i.e. when it's just Attribute+Skill, and not on any supernatural power activations. I think that's what Heavy Arms is referring to, and it's how my group runs it.

The Kith Blessing for all Kiths applies to all rolls within the given limits, but all those rolls can be taken by all characters. Meaning that they're not power activation rolls; they're Skill rolls (or possibly Attribute Tasks, i.e. Attribute+Attribute). The Politics roll to negotiate/read/interpret fae pledges is a completely mundane roll that happens to be about a non-mundane subject. As such Professional Training should apply on it just as much as Professional Training for Academics (or Enigmas in historical settings) would apply on a roll to decipher a mystical scroll. The Kith Blessing (of getting Exceptional Success easier) is just added on top of the roll for Notaries.