Transitioning Commoners to PC Classes?

[Palanan]

I've been mulling a campaign idea in which the characters start out as commoners, and then transition to standard PC classes once they've had a little experience under their belts.

I wouldn't want to keep them as commoners too long, and I wouldn't want to burden them with a legacy of commoner levels, so I'm wondering about the best way to convert, say, a Commoner 1 to a Rogue 1, in terms of skills, hit points, feats, etc. Are there rules to cover this, in 3.0 or 3.5 or Pathfinder? And if not, what would be a good approach?

[Sian]

make the Commoner level don't count on needed XP and all other things prehaps

[DeltaEmil]

I've been mulling a campaign idea in which the characters start out as commoners, and then transition to standard PC classes once they've had a little experience under their belts.

I wouldn't want to keep them as commoners too long, and I wouldn't want to burden them with a legacy of commoner levels, so I'm wondering about the best way to convert, say, a Commoner 1 to a Rogue 1, in terms of skills, hit points, feats, etc. Are there rules to cover this, in 3.0 or 3.5 or Pathfinder? And if not, what would be a good approach?Simply replacing the Commoner levels with the levels in the class they want to be looks like the easiest way.

[Psyren]

I've been mulling a campaign idea in which the characters start out as commoners, and then transition to standard PC classes once they've had a little experience under their belts.

I wouldn't want to keep them as commoners too long, and I wouldn't want to burden them with a legacy of commoner levels, so I'm wondering about the best way to convert, say, a Commoner 1 to a Rogue 1, in terms of skills, hit points, feats, etc. Are there rules to cover this, in 3.0 or 3.5 or Pathfinder? And if not, what would be a good approach?

Yes, Pathfinder has some basic rules for this in Ultimate Campaign - it deals mostly with young characters (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/basics-ability-scores/more-character-options/young-characters), but you can adapt the basic concept to nearly any age.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Just have the commoner level replaced with the PC class level.

Commoners have low skill progression, bad saves, the lowest HD, and bad base attack bonus. So replacing the commoner level with any other class level will be an improvement in every area. The only issue would be with this, the commoner might have class skills the PC class does not but you can just allow any commoner class skill they took ranks in to be grandfathered into the PC class.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by DeltaEmil
Simply replacing the Commoner levels with the levels in the class they want to be looks like the easiest way.

Right, that's what I had in mind, but not sure how to work the skill points and etc. If a commoner has ranks in Handle Animal, and then transitions to a Rogue, do those count as bonus ranks, or are the skill points reallocated?


Originally Posted by Psyren
Yes, Pathfinder has some basic rules for this in Ultimate Campaign - it deals mostly with young characters, but you can adapt the basic concept to nearly any age.

Aha, thank you very much. Once again Pathfinder comes through.

:smalltongue:

[JusticeZero]

My solution to this (in PF) was as follows:
A "Commoner" has 6HP+con mod, bab 0, no good saves, no class skills, and 2+int skill points.
When they go to level 1, add (class hd-6) hp, the class skills, saves, BAB, and if they have more than 2+int skill points, the difference needed to bring them up to standard first level for their class.

[Stegyre]

It's a concept I like a lot, too, although my own (still-in-process) thoughts stretch it out a bit longer.

Characters begin at Commoner 1.

Classes are divided into ranks, and once a character has at least one level in a rank, he "unlocks" the next higher rankand may take classes therein:

Rank 1: Commoner
Rank 2: Other NPC classes (Warrier, Expert, etc.)
Rank 3: Low-power PC classes (anything lacking 9th-level spells/powers/maneuvers: Ranger, Bard, PsyWar, Rogue, etc.)
Rank 4: Anything else (ToB, full casters, etc.)

Each time a character has enough XP to advance, he may either take a class level or he may rebuild anyone of his existing levels, trading it out for a level in any class he is currently qualified for.

Thus, upon gaining 1,000 XP, a character may take a level in Expert (Commoner 1 / Expert 1). Gaining another 2,000 XP, he may take a level in Ranger (Commoner 1 / Expert 1 / Ranger 1, becoming 3rd level), or he may rebuild one of his existing levels (Expert 1 / Ranger 1, remaining 2nd level but having traded out the Commoner level for a Ranger level).

Note that using the rebuilding rules can open up some powerful PrC options, particularly in level-capped games like E6.