Optimizing Commoner 1

[Speebump]

I've been thinking about running a commoners oneshot and I was curious what builds were moderately effective at level 1?

Chicken infested+quick draw is an obvious option, as is boosting Handle animal. Martial Study to grab diplomacy and then boosting that. But beyond that, what works?

Is it worth grabing weapon focus spear and toughness for a poor mans warrior? Is it worth taking the two feats the let you bind up to a level 3 vestige, but only use one power at a time? Are you better off trying to avoid melee combat all together and give everyone slings/crossbows?

[mootoall]

Handle Animal is pretty much your best bet. That and the Landlord feat allows for some of the more well-known abuses.

[Volthawk]

Well, Shape Soulmeld (Dissolving Spittle) with either an incarnum-using race or human (for an Incarnum feat for an essentia point) gives the commoner an at-will acid attack with a range of 30ft, doing 2d6 acid damage, needing a ranged touch attack to hit.

With Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige, you can bind Savnok for free +1 Full Plate (since you bind as a 5th level binder). Mind, you'd most likely fail the binding check, so you'd be under his influence.

If you're dragonblooded, Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm, from Dragon Magic) can give you 1d6 claw attacks. As a Silverbrow Human, you could also grab an Incarnum feat for an essentia point to invest into the Claws, giving them +1 attack and damage.

Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) can get you an Animal Companion. Similarly, Shape Soulmeld (Soulspark Familiar) gets you a Least Soulspark, and if you get an essentia point, you can give it a little bonus. These are nice since it means you have an ally that's pretty powerful.

Healing Soul (from Magic of Incarnum) gives you the ability to heal 2hp as a swift action, and as a commoner 1, you're fragile and without much healing, so that might come in handy (can you use swift actions when disabled? It talks about move, standard and full-round actions, but not swifts).

[Speebump]

I beleive that you if you have limited actions then you can exchange a move action for a swift action. That is off the top of my head though.

Also thanks for the suggestions. I do have magic of incarnum, but I'm not really familiar with the system. Also I wasn't sure what would be worth while to bind via Improved Bind Vestige.

[Volthawk]

I beleive that you if you have limited actions then you can exchange a move action for a swift action. That is off the top of my head though.

Ah. Well, if you also take Shape Soulmeld (rageclaws) you stay up below -10, so that isn't an issue. You'd need to be human or one of the subspecies, though, preferably Azurin, as you also get a point of essentia to go with the one you get with Healing Soul, allowing you to also put essentia in Rageclaws, so you die at -13.

[Callista]

Okay, so is there a Commoner build that is equal to an average PC class without being overpowered?

The general strategy for commoners seems to be to use things that would be overpowered for anyone, and are generally pretty cheesy. Wouldn't building a commoner that is on par with the average character in a real game be more interesting?

[Volthawk]

Okay, so is there a Commoner build that is equal to an average PC class without being overpowered?

The general strategy for commoners seems to be to use things that would be overpowered for anyone, and are generally pretty cheesy. Wouldn't building a commoner that is on par with the average character in a real game be more interesting?

Eh, the Shape Soulmeld stuff I'm talking about makes them like mini-incarnum classes. I guess if you get more feats (flaws, Elder Evil devotion/Elf + Dark Chaos Shuffle, human bonus feat) you could get closer to the equivalent of a normal Incarnum class.

[Silva Stormrage]

Okay, so is there a Commoner build that is equal to an average PC class without being overpowered?

The general strategy for commoners seems to be to use things that would be overpowered for anyone, and are generally pretty cheesy. Wouldn't building a commoner that is on par with the average character in a real game be more interesting?

I don't think thats possible. Commoner doesn't get anything that other classes can't get. The only thing I can think of is early entrance to the survivor prestige class.

[Soranar]

There's a dinosaur wrangler build somewhere (you have to be a halfling) that lets you tame a ridiculously high CR creature at level 1.

[Volthawk]

Well, in terms of mimicking PC classes, Wild Cohort gets you an equivalent of Animal Companion, while Shape Soumeld (with Incarnum races/feats for essentia), Martial Study/Stance, and Bind Vestige (and the expansion feats) lets you somewhat mimic classes using those systems (more limited, though, since Shape Soulmeld and Martial Study/Stance only gives you a single soulmeld/maneuvers, and Bind Vestige only gives a single ability from the vestige, even with Practiced Binding, you only get two abilities).

[Speebump]

I don't really care about ballance vs the standard classes. And I'm well aware that the power of any build will come from feat/skill abuse. I am interested in ballance vs eachother though since I'll need to be preparing a variety of characters for this.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

There was a build once about using Handle Animal, spurs, and Push An Animal to deal stupid amounts of damage, assuming you could mount it. I believe the example was taking out the Tarrasque with a halfling commoner.

[Volthawk]

I don't really care about ballance vs the standard classes. And I'm well aware that the power of any build will come from feat/skill abuse. I am interested in ballance vs eachother though since I'll need to be preparing a variety of characters for this.

Ah. Really, the feats from Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle, and Magic of Incarnum are the things that will make your commoners have unique tricks - most the stuff from other books aren't very interesting or need class features or other requirements commoners won't meet.

Ooh, just thought of another thing. Aberrant feats (although the best things, like flight or tentacle attacks, need 3 feats). Also, psionic feats (accessible either by Wild Talent or being a psionic race). Psionic Fist/Weapon, for example, would give you a good 2d6 extra damage. Up The Walls might be a fun thing to take. Racial feats might also be nice.

[Cieyrin]

Ah. Really, the feats from Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle, and Magic of Incarnum are the things that will make your commoners have unique tricks - most the stuff from other books aren't very interesting or need class features or other requirements commoners won't meet.

Ooh, just thought of another thing. Aberrant feats (although the best things, like flight or tentacle attacks, need 3 feats). Also, psionic feats (accessible either by Wild Talent or being a psionic race). Psionic Fist/Weapon, for example, would give you a good 2d6 extra damage. Up The Walls might be a fun thing to take. Racial feats might also be nice.

Hidden Talent can make Commoners into mini-Wilders, which can be fun in and of itself.

[Volthawk]

Hidden Talent can make Commoners into mini-Wilders, which can be fun in and of itself.

That's intended for use in high-psionics campaigns, though.

[Retech]

Dragonwrought Kobold to get wizard or sorcerer casting?

[Volthawk]

Vile feats can have interesting things, especially Deformity feats (although to get anything other than the basic Willing Deformity you need to be human). Deformity (claws) for a claw attack (an alternative to Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm) if you want claws and aren't dragonblooded and don't qualify for Dragontouched). Deformity (madness) gets you mind-affecting immunity for the cost of 4 Wis (the secondary effect, get 1/2HD to a single Will save once a minute doesn't apply since we're talking level 1 here). Deformity (obese) boosts Constitution, which is nice given how fragile commoners are.

Also, a Warforged with Admantine Body would be pretty powerful here. +8 armour bonus and DR 2/admantine is pretty damn nice for a commoner. Pretty damn nice for any level 1, really.

[Cieyrin]

That's intended for use in high-psionics campaigns, though.

I didn't see anything in the OP stating a specific bias against such a thing. Besides, web material and Complete Psionic (*shiver* I'm using CPsi for justifying. Scary...) use Hidden Talent without worrying about the whole 'high psionics variant' bit, so I'm not seeing where we're breaking the game by letting commoners manifest 1st level powers when there's other feats already mentioned in the thread that allow for casting and other access to alternate magic systems.

EDIT:
Dragonwrought Kobold to get wizard or sorcerer casting?

You don't actually need to be Dragonwrought to get the Kobold ritual of 1st level spellage to go. Dragonwrought only comes up if you want to break into True Dragon arguments for using Loredrake and whatnot.

[Volthawk]

I didn't see anything in the OP stating a specific bias against such a thing. Besides, web material and Complete Psionic (*shiver* I'm using CPsi for justifying. Scary...) use Hidden Talent without worrying about the whole 'high psionics variant' bit, so I'm not seeing where we're breaking the game by letting commoners manifest 1st level powers when there's other feats already mentioned in the thread that allow for casting and other access to alternate magic systems.

Fair enough, I was just pointing that out as a possible problem with using that feat.

[Hiro Protagonest]

There's a dinosaur wrangler build somewhere (you have to be a halfling) that lets you tame a ridiculously high CR creature at level 1.

Bubs is level 4 and isn't pure commoner.

[Retech]

Why not take loredrake with it? And might as well sprinkle in some white dragonspawn abomination and spellhoarding for 3rd level spells.

[Coidzor]

That's intended for use in high-psionics campaigns, though.
Kind of irrelevant by this point. The only restrictions that matter are the ones that are actually there.

[mabriss lethe]

Shapesand, craft: trapmaking, spamming marbles on the floor.

[Cieyrin]

Why not take loredrake with it? And might as well sprinkle in some white dragonspawn abomination and spellhoarding for 3rd level spells.

We could give it Epic Spellcasting as a Venerable Dragonwrought Kobold, too, but that seems a bit excessive on how shaky the Dragonwrought/True Dragon lore is and probably not what the OP is looking for.

[TurtleKing]

So from the Binder camp we have the feats Bind Vestige, Improved Bond Vestige, and Practiced Binder.

Based on whcih one you mind you could be a tank, scout, party face, sniper, as well as several ways to be some sort of a skill monkey.

You can also even do some truenaming through Truename Training. Grab Minor Utterance of the Evolving Mind once you have reached 3rd level and again 6th level for a 1st level utterance. The reason why you grabbed it twice is so you can now get Utterance of the Evolving Mind, Crafted Tool, and Perfected Map feats. You will be getting Utterance of the Perfect Map feat three levels behind others when they can get that feat but you can get it none the less.

Is this cheese or even optimised...nope. However its more than a standard commoner.

[Radar]

It's not about any sort of build, but here (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19558998/Commoner_Campaign?pg=1) is a record of a solo Commoner campaign - very good read.

[Gavinfoxx]

How exactly is a commoner getting access to any psionic power? Wild Talent doesn't give him the ability to manifest powers...

[Greenish]

Also, a Warforged with Admantine Body would be pretty powerful here. +8 armour bonus and DR 2/admantine is pretty damn nice for a commoner. Pretty damn nice for any level 1, really.I'm just pointing out a possible problem with that: Warforged don't come in commoner.


How exactly is a commoner getting access to any psionic power?Hidden Talent.


There's a feat in one of the FR books, I want to say PGtF, that allows you to cast a bunch of cantrips.

[Cieyrin]

I'm just pointing out a possible problem with that: Warforged don't come in commoner.

I think it'd be hilarious to have a Warforged commoner. Armored Farmer Corps!


There's a feat in one of the FR books, I want to say PGtF, that allows you to cast a bunch of cantrips.

Complete Arcane had a bunch of cantrip feats as well. There are some racial specific ones for gnomes in Races of Stone that expands into select 1st level illusions, I believe...

[dextercorvia]

Assuming two flaws here. Kobold Commoners still have Claw/Claw/Bite, and can use the Draconic Rite of Passage to get a 1st level spell. They can then take Precocious Apprentice to qualify for a Reserve feat. One more for Hidden Talent, will give you Warlock/Caster hybrid.

Alternatively, Dragonwrought and Epic Toughness will fix their squishyness. That leaves a feat for Multiattack.

[ericgrau]

Well ignoring tarrasque-killing handle animal builds and such, commoners get proficiency with one simple weapon. I think a longspear for 1d8 + reach would prove to be a viable threat to PCs, and match history somewhat as well. It's a lot harder to 1 shot the poor armorless commoner before he gets an attack that way.


Is it worth grabing weapon focus spear and toughness for a poor mans warrior? Is it worth taking the two feats the let you bind up to a level 3 vestige, but only use one power at a time? Are you better off trying to avoid melee combat all together and give everyone slings/crossbows?

Toughness is one of the best feats at level 1, especially for a low HD class like commoner. Greatswords still one shot you though; it mainly protects against everything else (spells, animal companions, etc.). Weapon focus to hit AC 15-17 PCs when you otherwise have a +0 modifier helps tremendously. That's 20-33% more damage. True using range instead of reach is another way to stay safe, although you do half as much damage with slings. Slings and rocks or even bullets are much cheaper than longspears but crossbows are way more expensive. Commoner money is tight.

[Cieyrin]

Well ignoring tarrasque-killing handle animal builds and such, commoners get proficiency with one simple weapon. I think a longspear for 1d8 + reach would prove to be a viable threat to PCs, and match history somewhat as well. It's a lot harder to 1 shot the poor armorless commoner before he gets an attack that way.



Toughness is one of the best feats at level 1, especially for a low HD class like commoner. Greatswords still one shot you though; it mainly protects against everything else (spells, animal companions, etc.). Weapon focus to hit AC 15-17 PCs when you otherwise have a +0 modifier helps tremendously. That's 20-33% more damage. True using range instead of reach is another way to stay safe, although you do half as much damage with slings. Slings and rocks or even bullets are much cheaper than longspears but crossbows are way more expensive. Commoner money is tight.

There's a reason Joe Wood the Commoner went with Dagger, for the versatility. He could have gone club for the same reasons but clubs aren't quite as stylish. Cheap and can be used in both melee and at range, as well as concealable.

[Radar]

There's a reason Joe Wood the Commoner went with Dagger, for the versatility. He could have gone club for the same reasons but clubs aren't quite as stylish. Cheap and can be used in both melee and at range, as well as concealable.
A dagger is also a valuable tool for everyday work.

[Zonugal]

A dagger is the most utility minded for anything in a commoner's life.

A club is the most utility minded for combat in a commoner's life.

A spear is the most powerful for combat in a commoner's life.

But a sling is the most practical for combat in a commoner's life (that is to say it is free, its ammunition is free and it forces you to stay out of melee range).

[Cieyrin]

A dagger is the most utility minded for anything in a commoner's life.

A club is the most utility minded for combat in a commoner's life.

A spear is the most powerful for combat in a commoner's life.

But a sling is the most practical for combat in a commoner's life (that is to say it is free, its ammunition is free and it forces you to stay out of melee range).

Especially if you're a halfling. Woot, +3 to hit for -2 avg damage!

[Zonugal]

Especially if you're a halfling. Woot, +3 to hit for -2 avg damage!

Either way you'll still hit for 1 point of damage and with any sling your focus should be on poison use (viable for a commoner) not the actual sling bullets.

[Cieyrin]

Either way you'll still hit for 1 point of damage and with any sling your focus should be on poison use (viable for a commoner) not the actual sling bullets.

Well yeah but the key is that you hit more often, which is a common commoner issue.

[Aquillion]

At long last, I can link you to my utterly serious and very useful guide. Being Nobody: Aquillion's Guide to Commoners (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80968). I'm glad I'm not the only person to recognize the potential of this often-overlooked but terribly overpowered class.

[Runestar]

Have your commoner take 2 flaws, followed by shape soulmend: dissolving spittle, airstep sandals and soulspark familiar. You can now fly at 10ft, have a ranged 1d6 acid attack (I suppose touch attack makes up for the crap bab) and a cr1 familiar which is probably a better fighter than your commoner. :smallbiggrin:

[Greenish]

A dagger is also a valuable tool for everyday work.A dagger is a weapon, a knife is a tool. Most daggers made for fighting aren't very good as tools.

[Radar]

A dagger is a weapon, a knife is a tool. Most daggers made for fighting aren't very good as tools.
Still better then a club or a spear. Something like a bowie knife would be fairly good for both mundane and combat use i guess. You could always settle for one of theese (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01NHcTM5IA4).

[Cieyrin]

Have your commoner take 2 flaws, followed by shape soulmend: dissolving spittle, airstep sandals and soulspark familiar. You can now fly at 10ft, have a ranged 1d6 acid attack (I suppose touch attack makes up for the crap bab) and a cr1 familiar which is probably a better fighter than your commoner. :smallbiggrin:

Wild Cohort yourself a Heavy Horse and you have something that doesn't look out of place for a Commoner and it will happily murder other Commoners for you, one hoof at a time. :smallwink:

[Coidzor]

Wild Cohort yourself a Heavy Horse and you have something that doesn't look out of place for a Commoner and it will happily murder other Commoners for you, one hoof at a time. :smallwink:

Then take the time to warbeast it for further hilarity of biting horses! :smallbiggrin:

Or just to be able to give it a mouthpick weapon when you can afford one for further hilarwesome.

[Volthawk]

Have your commoner take 2 flaws, followed by shape soulmend: dissolving spittle, airstep sandals and soulspark familiar. You can now fly at 10ft, have a ranged 1d6 acid attack (I suppose touch attack makes up for the crap bab) and a cr1 familiar which is probably a better fighter than your commoner. :smallbiggrin:

Only problem with Airstep Sandals is you need to end your flight on a solid surface, so its utility is lowered. However, if human you can also get an Incarnum feat for a point of essentia (or be an Incarnum race, or an Azurin with an Incarnum feat for 2 points). With that setup, the essentia can either give you 1d6 extra damage, let you fly 10ft further, or give your familiar an improvement.

----------

Looking around, Abyssal Heritor feats are another interesting set of feats that can add some nice little things to your commoner. They do all have drawbacks (each gives a -2 penalty to a certain skill check, and once you take two or more, you automatically become chaotic, unable to become nonchaotic without taking a certain Abyssal Heritor feat, Orderer Chaos).

Primordial Scion is quite nice, adding 1d6 to the damage you do to any lawful enemies and makes your attacks chaos-aligned (needs human or a subrace, though, as it has any other Heritor feat as a prereq). This gives a penalty to Listen checks, but as its a class skill, you could put ranks in it, I guess, to counteract that.

If using flaws, Claws of the Beast and Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm) with an essentia point invested gives claws dealing 1d6+2 damage before Strength, with a +1 bonus to attack. You need flaws since Claws of the Wyrm needs the Dragonblooded subtype (acquirable through Dragontouched), and you also need a point of Essentia (either through a feat or a race). Even Azurin would need a flaw (since although they get two feats and a point of essentia, they need another for Dragontouched). This has a minor drawback of -2 to Sleight of Hand, which is a minor tradeoff for draconic/demonic (maybe an Abyssal Drake was an ancestor?) claws of awesome. Oh, and probably angry mobs, but eh, you might just be a commoner, but you're a commoner with claws. They are commoners without claws.

Keeper of Forbidden Lore and Precognitive Visions might be interesting with a commoner, since you're a villager who gets visions of the near future and shards of the demonic racial memory. Mechanically, you get +2 to Knowledge (the planes) and Spellcraft, being able to use both of them without ranks, and a +1 insight bonus to either AC, attack, initiative, a save or a skill, changeable every day. The penalties here are -2 to Spot and Gather Information.

Now, all of these feats scale with more Heritor feats, and apart from the Claws one, I didn't take flaws into consideration, so you can get stronger effects if flaws are involved (some of these only increase for every two feats, like Precognitive Visions and Primordial Scion).

[ericgrau]

A longspear is also good for hunting. I'd stick with spear or sling proficiency simply because I can always use a knife without proficiency for all the utility uses. If I really want a melee-range combo then I'd get a regular spear which has higher damage and a larger range increment than a dagger.

Love all the commoner-of-doom feat suggestions btw. Not just for effectiveness, but also the fluff is pretty lolzy on a commoner.

[Volthawk]

Just for the hell of it, a more detailed version of one of the things I mentioned earlier:


Heretic Joe
Azurin Commoner 1

Feats:
1st: Dragontouched
Racial Bonus: Claws of the Beast
Flaw feat: Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm)
Flaw feat: Primordial Scion

Flaws: Any two of your choice, except for Noncombatant.

End Result:

The commoner has the Dragonblooded, Human and Incarnum subtypes.
His alignment has to be some kind of Chaotic
He gains two claws, dealing 1d6 damage, with which he has a +1 bonus to attack (enhancement) and a +3 bonus to damage (1 enhancement, 2 profane)
His attacks are chaos-aligned, dealing an extra 1d6 damage against lawful opponents.
Skill-wise, he has a -1 penalty to Listen (the bonus from Dragontouched offsetting the penalty from Primordial Scion somewhat) and a -2 penalty to Sleight of Hand. He has a +1 bonus to Search and Spot, however.
He also has +1 to saves against paralysis and sleep effects (not really an intentional thing, just one of the effects of Dragontouched).


For the hell of it, here's an example statblock. I used Murky-Eyed and Shaky for flaws (I know they're supposed to be relevant, but come on, we're optimising Commoners here), and the nonelite array. Equipment-wise, I figured basic padded armour could be affordable for a commoner, since he has claws for many things (Defending your land from animals? Claws. Need to cut up dinner? Claws. Need to reap the harvest? Claws. Yeah, Heretic Joe takes the 'if you have a hammer...' approach to life), although he'll still have low AC. In case you're wondering, the 11 Cha is there since it's needed for Dragontouched

Heretic Joe
Medium Humanoid (dragonblooded, human, incarnum)
HD 1d4+1 (3 HP)
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Init: +0
AC 11 (+1 armour); touch 10; flat-footed 11
BAB +0; Grp +1
Attack Claw +2 (1d6+4)
Full-Attack 2 Claws +2 (1d6+4)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks Primordial Scion
Special Qualities Dragontouched
Saves Fort +1 Ref +0 Will -1
Abilities Str 13, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 11
Skills Listen +2, Search +1, Sleight of Hand -2, Spot +4
Feats Dragontouched, Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm), Claws of the Beast, Primordial Scion
Challenge Rating 1/2
Alignment Chaotic Evil

Primordial Scion: Heretic Joe's attacks are chaos-aligned, dealing an extra 1d6 damage to lawful-aligned creatures.

Dragontouched: Heretic Joe has draconic ancestry, giving him a +1 bonus to saves against paralysis and sleep effects.

Skills: Heretic Joe has a +1 bonus to Search and Spot checks, but a -1 penalty to Listen checks and a -2 penalty to Sleight of Hand checks.


Disclaimer: Volt has no responsibility for any angry mobs that this combination causes. Reports of insanity due to the chaotic whispers this combination brings have been registered, but not proven. Consult your local cleric before using this.

[Cieyrin]

"Heretic Joe is a terrible farmhand. He's always out there in the fields, cutting up straw before it's ready, marring the trees, scaring people. I'd fire him but you saw what he did to Jimmy, didn't you?" :smallcool:

[Volthawk]

If you get 15 Cha (if using nonelite array, you just need to play a Spellscale or Lesser Aasimar) you can pick up Otherworldly Countenance, to give a small bonus to either Intimidate or Perform (equal to the amount of Abyssal Heritor feats you have, so without flaws it will just be +1 since a nonhuman race is needed to meet the prereq) but the big thing is you get an ability that forces a target within 30ft to make a Will save (would be DC 12 for this commoner 1) or be either fascinated (if Perform is boosted) or sickened (if Intimidate is boosted) for as long as it stays in your line of sight. Without flaws, though, it would only work once a day (since it has a number of uses a day equal to the amount of Abyssal Heritor feats you have). Still, it's a way for a Commoner 1 to stop someone from taking any actions (with the fascinated option).

----------

I looked at Devil-Touched feats, but they're not as useful for our commoner. First of all they need a pact with a devil, and even then all past the root feat need scores of 15 (and as human races don't get ability score boosts and the bonus feat, they can't grab them even though they have the feat slot, while races with bonuses that let you qualify don't have any feat slots past taking the root feat) or need you to be above 1st level. However, then I read the pact rules, and if the pact includes a bonus feat, then you can get one as well as the root. I guess for a Pact Insidious, you could get two feats, but the prereqs would still be hard if you wanted to get three Devil-Touched feats (a Lesser Aasimar would be able to get the last two feats, I guess, or a Kobold could get Dragon-wought so they could qualify for the last two feats, although it would only be able to get Devil's Favour and one other, since Dragon-wought takes up a feat).

The root feat, Devil's Favour, gives you a +2 bonus to a roll (it says "attack, save or check", so I guess damage doesn't qualify, but most other things work) twice a day (I'm assuming we have two Devil-Touched feats. In general, unless I mention it, like with Heretic Joe, I assume we're using the nonelite array and no flaws), and the next feats depend on what score your race choice has boosted up to 15 or higher.

Devil's Flesh (Con 15) would give +1 natural armour and +1 Intimidate, at the penalty of -1 to Diplomacy vs Good creatures, which isn't that nice, since Intimidate is cross-class and there are better ways of getting more natural armour which doesn't require you to go into a pact with a devil and the whole damnation thing.

Devil's Sight (Wis 15, only race I think that qualifies is Lesser Aasimar) increases darkvision by 60ft (so you gain it if you have none, if you do, which our Lesser Aasimar does, it extends) and lets you get 30ft blindsight for 2 5-round periods a day, which is pretty nice. You're also a celestial-descended villager who has made a pact with a devil, so yeah.

Now, Devil's Tongue (Cha 15) is the nicest one IMO. Twice a day you can make a creature within 60ft make a Will save (again, it would be DC 12) or be dazed and flat-footed. It usually takes a standard action, but if you use both uses at once, it's a swift, allowing you to attack the guy with your commoner-y strength (Devil's Favour would let you be more accurate, I guess...).