Lv 999 Villager

[Spore]

Often heroic characters create a disconnect between the setting or world and themselves. They are incredibly talented, in the art of fighting, magic or subterfuge. They are master of hand-to-hand combat, use magical potions and poisons like others to use water. They commune with dark forces and the primal essence of nature itself.

Starting with my first character in Pathfinder, a somewhat misnomed rogue, I always was fascinated by the idea how a perfectly normal person would adventure. Our sorcerer was loosely based on Legend of Zelda's Link how depending on the game he is in, is also a perfectly ordinary teenager that is just extremely brave (and somewhat skilled).

Just now I have seen a short sweet manga titled Lv 999 Villager (https://imgur.com/gallery/YPmFpq7). I do not want to base my character on the implied social structure nor on the idea of just playing a commoner with more hit dice.

I want your ideas which official class or class combination could stand for the perfectly normal guy gone adventurer. Refluffing spellcasting is something that just strings into a heap of problems. so refrain from those.

Fighter - they are a very powerful class but wearing heavy armor is a trained ability. We won't do much of that.
Barbarian - refluff rage and have a decent AC with a shield and sword (I consider Link's tunic clothes) but the resistance to damage is somewhat hard to explain. But that is just numbers, it is reasonable not to act on it.
Rogue - the class is GREAT on showing the skilled mundane guy or gal. With the right skills they are believable as commoner and experienced adventurer alike.
Monk - another form of unarmored defense is great. Low level that is. High level monks are incredibly mystical.
Rangers - a Huntsman is very thematic, a Beastmaster Ranger is even more nice. the character can be decidedly average and just has adopted a fierce monster for himself.

So imho, a good build could - barring multiclassing requisites - look like that.
Folk Hero Rogue 1 - Ancestral Guardian Barbarian 4 - Thief Rogue 4 - Champion Fighter 12
Skills: Animal Handling, Insight, Perception, Persuasion, Survival, Stealth
Expertise: Insight, Stealth
He'd fight with a longsword (standard issue hero stuff) or a spear (simpler), maybe he could use a shield. The build works okay, but I am not really happy with it. Nor would I know subtle feat choices.

[Unoriginal]

Often heroic characters create a disconnect between the setting or world and themselves. They are incredibly talented, in the art of fighting, magic or subterfuge. They are master of hand-to-hand combat, use magical potions and poisons like others to use water. They commune with dark forces and the primal essence of nature itself.

I'm not seeing the disconnect.

It's not like they're the only ones in the world doing it.


Our sorcerer was loosely based on Legend of Zelda's Link how depending on the game he is in, is also a perfectly ordinary teenager that is just extremely brave (and somewhat skilled)

Link is never "perfectly ordinary". Even in Wind Waker, where he is not the reincarnation of the Hero of Time, he still starts the game as a very skilled combatant trained by a master awesome enough to beat a Darknut, and Link himself is stronger than the Bokoblin mooks.

In some other games, Link is less trained, but has access to other powers to compensate.



Starting with my first character in Pathfinder, a somewhat misnomed rogue, I always was fascinated by the idea how a perfectly normal person would adventure.

See, that's the thing. A perfectly normal person would not adventure, because they're a perfectly normal person.

They don't have what it takes to be an adventurer.



I do not want to base my character on the implied social structure nor on the idea of just playing a commoner with more hit dice.

Soooooo... what exactly would be "mundane" about your character, then?



I want your ideas which official class or class combination could stand for the perfectly normal guy gone adventurer.

The thing is, if they went adventurer, they're either not mundane or dead. What you're asking is inherently oxymoronic.





Rogue - the class is GREAT on showing the skilled mundane guy or gal.

Nothing about the Rogue is mundane.



With the right skills they are believable as commoner and experienced adventurer alike.

Yeah, no. No commoner is going to pull out what a Rogue can do.




So imho, a good build could - barring multiclassing requisites - look like that.
Folk Hero Rogue 1 - Ancestral Guardian Barbarian 4 - Thief Rogue 4 - Champion Fighter 12
Skills: Animal Handling, Insight, Perception, Persuasion, Survival, Stealth
Expertise: Insight, Stealth
He'd fight with a longsword (standard issue hero stuff) or a spear (simpler), maybe he could use a shield. The build works okay, but I am not really happy with it. Nor would I know subtle feat choices.

So your "perfectly mundane guy" has spirits helping them, incredible skills, and can out-skill legendary conquerors in personal combat?



Sorry if I sound unduly confrontational, but you can't have both "mundane" and "adventurer in a D&D world".

If you want to play the "normal human who goes through things thanks to resilience, determination, and being likeable" a la Shounen Hero, try the Samurai.

[strangebloke]

Having read the manga in question, I suppose it's only fair to give folks an explanation for what it's about. It's basically a standard MMO-type world, where people are born with classes (mostly peasant) and can grind for levels/gear.

The MC was born with the worst class (peasant) but is really efficient at level grinding and despite having no special abilities, has high enough stats that he can curbstomp everyone. (because it's that kind of manga.) So he's a generic guy with high numbers. Exactly how he's so efficient at grinding is a total mystery, and isn't explained at all. So that's where your trouble comes in.

my suggestion would be:

Open hand monk multiclassing into thief rogue after fifth level, and staying in that for the duration. You don't gain any particularly mystical abilities, but you can punch really hard, knock people over, knock people out, run really fast, jump really high, sneak really well, etc.

For roleplay purposes, I would run this as him being a natural talent. He never really worked particularly hard to become a martial artist, but he's always been phenomenally fast and tough, and he figured, hey, why not see the world? He's not particularly smart or stupid, but is a big fan of simple things like Punch & Judy shows and the like.

Not normal, really, but exceedingly down-to-earth so that even when facing down demigods, his mannerisms are those of a gentle country farmer.

[Citan]

Hi OP.

I'm afraid I have to 100% agree with Unoriginal here.
The simple concept of "normal" and "adventurer" don't mesh well with each other.

Beyond that, I don't understand why you would want to theorycraft a level 20 character, and honestly the only fitting choice would be a flip coin or breed between Champion Fighter (first) and Thief Rogue (second) because...

1. Champion Fighter is the one and only class+subclass that lacks any original, "taste-defining" feature as well as any role-playing ties (mostly).

Barbarian's Rage does come together with a good number of preconceptions about how he behaves, and the mechanic too pushes the playstyle in a distinct way.

Thief overall works but still pushes you in a specific way mechanics-wise, and the class fluff does puts you in shady background even if you're perfectly fine ignoring it.

Champion is just a guy that spent so much time fighting he got extra good at it. And in that kind of world, fighting for your life is something you can expect of anyone, anytime (mostly). Plus the lack of any "intrusive" mechanic (Sneak Attack > finesse, Rage > melee) or specific fluff means you could copy a starting character sheet x times and yet end with characters that each have their own flavor in playstyle and roleplay (except maybe if for all characters you use exactly the same progression ASI-wise).

2. Fighter is the one with the most ASIs, so the one that you can spend most "flavor-feats" on (aka feats that do bring mechanical bonuses but those are easily restrainable by DM if needed).
For example, any villager that created a commerce and made it flourish beyond usual scale would be eligible to the Actor feat because he is probably a hell of a negotiator. Maybe he also developed a particularly honed instinct to anticipate trouble, either by seeing through lies or feeling a danger nearby, which you could translate with Observant feat. And maybe the reason why he managed to go that far while still managing most everything himself is because he had a borderline extrahuman memory (Keen Mind).

[Naanomi]

So... most classes, but with the Folk Hero Background?

[Armored Walrus]

I think you break the concept you're looking for as soon as you take a Class. Just take 20 levels of Commoner. +5 proficiency bonus on that sweet, sweet club they wield, ASIs at 4th, 8th, 16th, and 19th level, and 1d8 hit points per level. So at 20th you're a commoner with probably 18 Str or Con. If STR, you've got about 100 hit points, wield that club with a +9 to hit and +4 to damage. If Con, you're walking around with about 180 hit points, but you only have +5 to hit and base club damage. Personally, I'd go STR. You can murder any other commoner with impunity, but if you ever run into a "real" adventurer, you're toast.

[xyianth]

Ranger. Just pick all the trap choices and you will be effectively a commoner anyway. j/k (sort of)

In all seriousness: Strength-based Thief Rogue. Don't use a finesse/ranged weapon and sneak attack is wasted. You get a bunch of ASIs, skills, and at-will survival tools. In fact, even without sneak attack, if you build a Thief Rogue as an unarmed brawler/grappler you can be extremely effective in entirely mundane ways. All of the Thief Rogue abilities (except maybe supreme sneak) don't actually have to make you good at being a thief. I'm playing one now that isn't even proficient in sleight of hand. I combined the Outlander background, Thief Rogue, Healer feat, and Ritual Caster(Wizard) to make a huntsman type character. I refluffed the healer's kit stuff as poultices and the rituals I learned where find familiar and alarm.

[Spore]

[Link] would fight with a longsword (standard issue hero stuff)


Apparently very wrong since it's a very short "long sword": https://youtu.be/wEBDrpkHM2o?t=8m09s

With 100cm, it is barely a long sword and considering Link's amazing swordplay at times, I feel a finesse'd Short Sword is more accurate anyhow.


In all seriousness: Strength-based Thief Rogue.

I really like that one.


Champion Fighter is the one and only class+subclass that lacks any original, "taste-defining" feature as well as any role-playing ties (mostly).

You can ignore several fluff ties in D&D. A Barb can just be an angry guy and doesn't have to hail from a tribe of semi-berserking brutes. A bard can be anyone with enough charisma, though my old DM heavily disagrees and forces a bard to use song themed stuff. you can exchange the Paladin for a cleric and vice versa. You can make the warlock an odd priest or another flavor of wizard. You can make a wizard a cleric (e.g. in a world where gods dont give divine spells).

But yes, taste = null there are not many classes around. If you want to force the issue, a Champion Fighter is still a professional melee or ranged combatant. I break my vow of not perusing homebrew and just put this up. It is pretty funny. (I could see this thing dex focussed loaded with traps and a crossbow.)