Has anybody ever seen anything other than a Human Commoner?

[Zopz]

I mean do the other races always have class levels or what?

[skywalker]

I would like to point out that "commoner" is an NPC class. So even human commoners have a certain type of class level. I think the general rule in D&D is every adult has some kind of class level.

I have also seen elven commoners, dwarven commoners, and I think a halfling commoner, along with several dwarven and elven experts, and of course most orcs are warriors, etc. This is only in my personal in-game experience.

[Talic]

I mean do the other races always have class levels or what?

I've seen dwarf commoners statted out before.

[Zopz]

I would like to point out that "commoner" is an NPC class.

I know, I just have never seen anything other than Human Commoners in any towns we go to. Our dm just assumes that all Dwarfs are either fighters or blacksmiths, and that all elves have levels in wizard.

[daggaz]

I have seen commoners of every race, including in the underdark. They should be as their name implies....common.

[Yami]

Such as the beholder commoner who crafted statues for various nearby dungoens in one campaign. Hmmm, wait... I think that was an expert, not to mention mad...

I've seen goblin commoners. We also called them slaves as well as cheap xp, depending.

Mostly though it's human commoners just cause evenyone else has good enough sense to bar thier town when humans approach, filthy things. I suppose it also depends on the world you play in. I will admit you will never see an elf commoner in any of my worlds, but thats because years of hatred and racial prejudice have culled those who can't defend themselves from the land. And often blacksmiths will be summoned salamanders or such. I save the Dwarves dungoen building work.

And then there's a campaign I'm playing right now were we started months after some other group failed to stop an insidious plot to open a permantent portal to the aybss. Yup, haven't seen a single commoner in that one.

[Scalenex]

We had some halfling commoners recently in one game I played. The halflings had a pretty big section of the city. When the townspeople accused our druid's animal companion of being the werewolf that savaged them, there were halflings amidst the angry mob that confronted us. I assume they were commoners.

In any event I thought about a few things. Demi-humans tend to live longer so their non-combatants might all be experts instead of commoners due to a life time of learning. Savage races tend to have tougher lives so they'd be warriors.

Here's one way of looking at why humans have commoners cornered. What's more common then humans in a typical D&D world?

[Dhavaer]

I've seen half-orc, gnome and elf commoners as PCs.

[Aquillion]

I know, I just have never seen anything other than Human Commoners in any towns we go to. Our dm just assumes that all Dwarfs are either fighters or blacksmiths, and that all elves have levels in wizard.

Well, where have you been adventuring? If you're just staying around human towns, you're likely to get a somewhat biased view of other races... you'd tend to see the dwarves and elves who travel outside of their homelands, and those are mostly going to be skilled professionals or adventurers. Commoners don't travel so much, not in a world without cheap, fast transportation (D&D has fast, not so much cheap unless you're in Eberron or something.)

It's also not always obvious what class someone has. Those blacksmiths might have been experts, but they might also have been commoners, after all (they get craft as a class skill, and even with low commoner skill points they could keep it maxed). If you've ever seen a dwarven or elven merchant, they could be a commoner just as easily as an expert. And so on.

[Talic]

I have seen commoners of every race, including in the underdark. They should be as their name implies....common.

Oh, yes, they're common....

But no self-respecting adventurer wastes his time looking at COMMONERS! Sheesh. In order for a commoner to actually be worth paying attention to, it needs to have an ECL mod at putting it no lower than one below your PC ECL.

[Badgerish]

I've used more experts than commoners, mainly because experts are occasionally useful/interesting to PCs and commoners would just get in the way.

IMHO my interpretation of NPC classes. despite what the DMG says, these only go upto level 5.
commoners = the unimportant, downtrodden scum. farmhands, beggars, labourers etc.
experts = 'normal' people. farm owners, craftsmen, shop-staff, some militia (handle animal/spot/listen), most clergy (dilpo/K:religion/sense motive) etc.
warriors = normal people who are trained to fight, but still suck compared to PCs as they have no destiny. militia, common soldiers, thugs etc.
adepts = people who borrow their magic from others. village elders, minor witches/healers, 'blessed' clergy (all of the above must make some witchery agreement for their power, thus limiting their scope)

As for racial splits in NPC classes, all races have all classes, but some have a bias towards certain classes (in my games, all proper dwarves will serve in the militia, so there are very few commoners)

[Yami]

The only memorable commoners are the BBEG's who spent thier NPC wealth on a ring of nine lives, and then rely on thier cohort for everything. None one else really deservers the title of 'Commoner'.