Ranks in Basket Weaving?

Question

I'm currently running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with a small group of friends. One of the players is playing a Lawful Good paladin of Cuthbert. All of the players are around Level 20. There's some argument over the fact that he keeps dumping all of his skill points into Profession: Basket Weaving. He feels that, from a character perspective, this is justified, as there are few things more orderly in the world than a basket.

The problem is that the other players are griping about it. Personally, I believe that he ought to be able to dump his skill points into whatever he wants, but I need to come up with something to pacify them.

Does anyone have any ideas for an epic basket-centered campaign?

Answer 1

Wasn't this a joke thread on the WotC forums back when 3.0/3.5 was first released? I seem to remember reading a lot of basket weaving jokes based off of it back then. /shrug

I'll base my answer on the assumption it's a serious question but somehow I doubt it is.

Ideas for an epic basket centered campaign? Nope not particularly but who says you need to center the campaign on one character's odd skill choice? Certainly let the topic come up from time to time to reward his supposed dedication to basket-weaving as a philosophy of order but there's no need to make a huge deal about it.

This is one of the things I like about 4th edition though; skills are functional. There aren't any fluff skills like profession or craft.

This isn't to say skills like that don't make your character more real, or that roleplaying aspects aren't important. They are important but I don't feel it's necessary to spend character resources on it. If you want your character to be a master basketweaver or blacksmith and the DM is fine with that then you just are. No need to spend character resources that could be better spent on things that will matter in the game, such as Athletics skill or Diplomacy or History. Seems like a Win-Win situation.

Answer 2

I don't know about "basket-centered", but you could probably work in at least a few opportunities to use the skill without TOO much work, perhaps as a clue in some kind of mystery or something.  On the other hand, at level 20, mysteries aren't very mysterious.  High level magic can tell you just about anything you want to know.

Other options might be a story arc based around some esoteric craftsman's guild or said paladin gaining the enmity of some weaver-god jealous of his abilities, similar to the story of Arachne.