A Twentieth Level Commoner? AAH!

[Kaelaroth]

How does a commoner get up levels? Experts get it from increasing the knowledge, and Aristocrats get it from going up the ranks and learning more etiquette, but how do commoners get more XP?

They can't get RP XP, as they aren't PCs, and do not fight monsters - so lack the two greatest forms of it. if you said, just by existing, doesn't that mean that your PCs should just acquire extra levels (of commoner) at random times, as they're there too. And, if they did things like warriors and experts, learning trades, wouldn't they cease to be commoners?

Please explain this to me. I am rather confuzzled. :smallredface:

[BardicDuelist]

Most commoners never make it past first level, and 5th is usually the maximum. They are just a level 20 class for completion (and FR, where the bartender is almost epic).

[Starsinger]

Most commoners never make it past first level, and 5th is usually the maximum. They are just a level 20 class for completion (and FR, where the bartender is almost epic).

Slightly off point.. there should be some sort of super powerful PrC for level 21+ commoners... Requirements like "Can't cast spells, use invocations, have a BAB higher than +11, have an animal companion, smite evil, etc. etc." I dunno why, but it'd be neat.

[Eldritch_Ent]

A Prc for level 20 commoners? Heck, just make the epic progression for commoners something ridicculous- like +5 bab a level and triple spellcasting...... Or something. (I'd just say uber amounts of feats and any skill as a full class skill, but eh.)

There was a funny thread a while back about a Commoner with like 1800 levels- who saved the world from extradimensional beings... 4 times a day. :smalleek: with his +57 ho and bag of cosmic corn and epic mule.

[MCerberus]

What level commoner do you need to be to beat the Damn Crab?

[Emperor Demonking]

They fight the wolves and other monsters. If they don't get role playing xp.

[ZebulonCrispi]

Once you hit level 45, you can go to Al De Baran and Job Change into Supercommoner to get abilities from all of the base classes.

[Wraithy]

the obvious answer is farming.
to become a lvl 20 commoner you'd need to farm a veriety of crops on a MASSIVE scale, in a rediculously short amount of time and under next to impossible conditions and on your own.
imagine farming the continent of africa with your bear hands in a day.

[Leon]

The challenges of everyday life on the Market farm

[DiscipleofBob]

Something like this happened in the pirate campaign I was running when I rolled up random classes and levels and the PC's ended up hiring a level 8 commoner. We reasoned that he must've killed a lot of gophers back on the farm.

[Zeful]

When I was doing the city building thing in the DMG I got 1 lv 15 commoner, 2 lv 8 Commoners, 4 level 4 commoners, and 8 level two commoners. thats 48 levels of people, before any aristocrats, experts, warriors or PC classes. I tried figuring out why it's a level 15 commoner and not some obscure multiclass with commoner 3 in there. I couldn't figure it out.

[Devils_Advocate]

Sean K. Reynolds explains where peasants get their XP from (http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/theoryaboutpeasants.html)

So, how is it possible that anyone can become a twentieth level commoner? Wouldn't doing anything awesome enough to get you to 20th level also warrant leveling in a better class than -- bleah! -- Commoner?

Well, frankly, it's just one of the inherent oddities of the system that there are two ways to improve an NPC-classed character: by giving him more levels, or by giving him a better class. There's not really any particularly obvious, straightforward basis on which to decide how many Fighter levels and how many Warrior levels to give the soldier NPC you're building. Just use your own best judgement and choose whatever you think fits him the best.

D&D is full of stuff like this. You're not likely to be able to come up with a plausible, in-world explanation of why so many humanoids are equally proficient with all simple weapons, but nevertheless, by the RAW, they are. Now, you can use weapon groups instead. You can use vitality and wound points, too, and armor as Damage Reduction, and combat facing, and all sorts of variants, if you want. However, in general, it's probably best to accept the d20 System for what it is: a system in which verisimilitude is not achieved through realism and attention to detail, but through not thinking about things too much (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.MST3KMantra). Trying to make the rules realistic is fighting an uphill battle.

[mostlyharmful]

Had a level 22 commoner in a city a while back, he got rolled up and the only thing we could think to do with him was make him the Temples gardener, that the high priest goes and talks to about his problems cos the gardeners got a better wisdom. He grew some pretty amazing roses.

[XenoGeno]

Had a level 22 commoner in a city a while back, he got rolled up and the only thing we could think to do with him was make him the Temples gardener, that the high priest goes and talks to about his problems cos the gardeners got a better wisdom. He grew some pretty amazing roses.

Replace "gardener" with "sweeper" and that sounds exactly like Lu-Tze from Discworld.

[Blanks]

Remember commoners do something that almost no adventurers do:
They have families!

I became a father in may, and let me tell you, thats an epic level challenge for you right there.


AND COMMONERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES HAD LIKE 10 TO 20 OF THEM!!! :smalleek:




:smallbiggrin:

[RS14]

You just need to scale down the level of challenge you're thinking of. It's things like finding a job, getting the harvest in, finding a lost sheep, not fainting at your wedding, finding your way home while drunk. The amount of xp granted is dramatically less, but so what? With four encounters per day and fourteen encounters per level and all that, an adventurer becomes epic in just over two months. It is a good thing that commoners receive a tiny fraction of the xp. You can say adventurers receive xp for these same things if you like, but it is really so tiny that there is no point in tracking it.

Also, obligatory:


The man stood his ground. "Darmok the Sewerman, that's who!"

That explains the smell, thought Yarnn, sniggering. The man reached down beneath the table and pulled out a battered shovel.

"Do you know what I do every day?"

Yarnn was beginning to get annoyed. Why couldn't the little s**t just sod off and take his stink with him.

"I kill rats," the man continued, holding up the shovel. "Dozens of them. Dozens of rats every day for the past 15 years. Do you know what that means?"

"Er... no."

"It means that I'm a 28th level sewerman. My mate Jennon is 25th level, and there's not a man at that table below 15th. What was it you were saying to my friend the landlord?"

[Accountant]

Back a while ago, there was the tread to make an encounter with a CR 9000, and somebody said a 9000th level commoner with all feats invested in toughness.

With an AC of 10 and only an unarmed strike, could your party defeat him?

[Zeful]

It's one simple weapon of their choice actually.

But what's really bad is that dwarven commoners can become dwarven defenders. And it's feasible they'll level up sooner because defeating yellow mold is a CR3 enocounter.

[horseboy]

Doesn't it state in the DMG that the average level for someone in a wilderness/frontier area is 3rd? You'd think driving off wolves, bears, mountain lions, surviving countless waves of goblinoid attacks, keeping your family from starving to death over the winter after a bad harvest. Just getting by from day to day can be a huge challenge.

[Beleriphon]

I should probably point out that Sharn: City of Towers includes a 20th level commoner. She's an elf, she runs a restaurant. Thats right, she's a 20th level cook.

[Arceliar]

In a campaign once when I rolled REALLY well for stats, I contemplated trying to power game a commoner.

I ended up playing something else after my DM decided I couldn't take vow of poverty -- he said in my case it wasn't a vow, it was circumstantial.

That tangent aside, I think the point of commoners gaining levels is that they have more (I realize the wording here is about to suck) experience at life, and are thus more apt to deal with situations than the younger, less experienced commoners.

People seem to forget that's what these RPGs are trying to simulate, it just usually focuses on something a little more interesting.

So, evidently a 20th level commoner....has a lot of stores and probably very few fingers left.

[Arbitrarity]

Back a while ago, there was the tread to make an encounter with a CR 9000, and somebody said a 9000th level commoner with all feats invested in toughness.

With an AC of 10 and only an unarmed strike, could your party defeat him?

That was me :smallbiggrin:
Partially designed to point out the flaws induced by varying levels of optimization in CR's. As I recall, that farmer could be taken down in a 4 rounds by a hasted level 16 frenzied berserker. If he took steadfast determination, it was a different story :smalleek:

Actually, if he was optimized at all, he could kill quite a few parties. His saves were stratospheric, his health was god-like, and his BAB was excellent. Had I dumpted his stat increases into strength, he would ANNIHLATE most parties without mad skills, as long as he was sufficiently manuverable.

[Siric]

Quests...

Getting a Job rewards EXP, keeping a Job Rewards EXP and GP, Finding a Woman rewards EXP, but costs gold. Getting Married and having Kids Grants LOTS of EXP, but takes away all your GP.

Also, don't forget EXP for killing Livestock.

[bugsysservant]

Well, most commoners are older than 3.x. And back in 1st ed. 1gp=1xp. So most commoners gained levels back then through income and haven't advanced much since they were converted.

[Chronos]

And it's feasible they'll level up sooner because defeating yellow mold is a CR3 enocounter.Nah, if you really want to level your commoners up quickly, throw a Flux Slime (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/obstacles.htm#fluxSlime) at them. CR 21 encounter that can be defeated by a Commoner 1 with a bottle of alchemist's fire. :smallbiggrin:

[bugsysservant]

Nah, if you really want to level your commoners up quickly, throw a Flux Slime (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/obstacles.htm#fluxSlime) at them. CR 21 encounter that can be defeated by a Commoner 1 with a bottle of alchemist's fire. :smallbiggrin:

"'Yup, looks like you got yerself a patch o' flux slime, scourge o' the mightiest heroes the world has ever seen."
"Well, what'll it cost me to get rid of it?"
"Oh, I'd say 25 gp. 'Course prolly won't be able to get the alkemist's fir till mondy, an e'en then can't guarantee I'll get around to it."

[nobodylovesyou4]

a village of commoners probably would have maybe a gold between them, no where near the 25 to get a vial of alchemists fire. but if they did get it somehow, they could get a ton of xp.

[Lochar]

a village of commoners probably would have maybe a gold between them, no where near the 25 to get a vial of alchemists fire. but if they did get it somehow, they could get a ton of xp.

No they can't, because the DMG doesn't have XP values for a group of level 1s managing a CR 21 encounter. read the fine print. :smalltongue:

[Suzuro]

I'd have to say shearing sheep would gain a fair amount of Experience, I mean, have you ever TRIED that? Do you know how tough it is? They keep running away and you have to chase them down, hold them down all while using shears to cut the wool off.

-Suzuro

[Dervag]

Replace "gardener" with "sweeper" and that sounds exactly like Lu-Tze from Discworld.In Small Gods Lu-Tze was part of the gardening staff of a huge temple.

He grew bonsai mountains, among other things.


a village of commoners probably would have maybe a gold between them, no where near the 25 to get a vial of alchemists fire. but if they did get it somehow, they could get a ton of xp.On the other hand, they also have no magic, so the flux slime isn't much of a threat to them.

[SoD]

Hmm, I guess if a level 1 commoner just heard about a huge bunch of shreikers (CR 1...but can't attack), and went and just killed one. That'd be a bit of XP, later, goes back and kills another. More XP. Eventually, he'll level up, and a single Shreiker won't give him any XP. How sad. So he just kills four of them, which would be more of a challenge. And continues doing that until he's epic. One city I created once had a level 26 aristocrat though. But epic commoners...I've always wanted to play as one of them, but my DM won't let me...

[Fishy]

Obviously none of you have played Harvest Moon.

Subsistence farming without modern agricultural tools is *hard*, dude.

[mostlyharmful]

They will however have a barrel of oil, just because it's so useful and cheap. Between them they can just lob oil and lit torches at the thing until it goes up. no need for alchemy at all.:smallcool:

[Kurald Galain]

There was a funny thread a while back about a Commoner with like 1800 levels- who saved the world from extradimensional beings... 4 times a day. :smalleek: with his +57 ho and bag of cosmic corn and epic mule.

Link please?