Café de Nuit

Me and my gaming group have been wondering: what would a commoner have to do to make it to 20th level, if circumstances dictate?

Kill an awful lot of wolves and bears come to eat his sheep

Seriously, though, I really don't think a commoner would ever make it to level 20 without picking up another class along the way, unless he was somehow only faced with entirely mundane tasks which increased in difficulty as he leveled up. The above example with the epic shepherd would work at first, but he'd ultimately have to face down worgs, winter wolves and dire bears to earn any XP at all, and then it's hard to keep calling him a commoner instead of a fighter.

I can see a commoner making it to 10th level on rare occasion, but never 20th. Unless of course they lived to be about 120 lol

Well, maybe if he was a fervent follower of the all mighty god of agriculture?
WHat if his field was frequently attacked by the Tarrasque which he has to drive off with his +5 vorpal scythe? (this one comes from Corrupted Loremaste)

His field is full of dread corn treant, and he has to drop them every autumn.

Maybe he just hides behind the PCs whenever the village is attacked and gets a share of XP for not dying.

Hey, it could happen.

Maybe he just hides behind the PCs whenever the village is attacked and gets a share of XP for not dying.

"Hey, what in name of Pelor are you doing in my bag of holding?"
"... Don' mind mey. Jus' holdin' mah breath"

^_^

Maybe he's a damn good roleplayer and gets lots of in-character and story awards.

Charney wrote:Well, maybe if he was a fervent follower of the all mighty god of agriculture?
WHat if his field was frequently attacked by the Tarrasque which he has to drive off with his +5 vorpal scythe? (this one comes from Corrupted Loremaste)

Nice to know I was remembered. Heard of the idea back when the Epic Level Handbook came out. Someone brought up the idea of an epic level commoner, which lead to someone submiting stats far a Paragon Human 20th level commoner. Think the CR came out to something like...22 or so. Story was that he was the favored earthly agent of the god of agricultre. I guessing he could likely plow every field in the kingdom in one day...with his bare hands.

a 20th level commoner is excatly that .... very very very common. He rises in level by being as banal and mediocre as possible

I'd absolutely LOVE to play such a character in any campaign, especially in Ravenloft!!!

*Gaining experiences points just for sitting at the fireplace and staring into the gloom, while zombies and mosters of all kind roam the streets of the village... marvellous!*

But what were the special ablities of such a character... *DMG only would not fit* any suggestions?

Definitely too few sleep for me these days...

I'd use something similar to the blacksmith XP stuff from 2e Sages and Specialists. A blacksmith got a certain amoutn of XP for making stuff. Similarly the commoner might get a certain amount for each harvest, or any number of mundane tasks. here's a suggestion.

Per crop planted successfully each spring: 100 xp
Per crop harvested successfully: 200 xp
Per gold in crop sales: 2 xp
repairing storm damage to a village building: 50xp
(note this is in addition to the standard xp for fighting off wolves etc)

This is what makes the rules in the D&D DMG conncerning city-building so funny: if you follow those in determining the inhabitants for your town, you can end up with a 20th level Commoner. I did, and I still don't know what to do with him. He'll be old and wise (has to be, to survive this long ). Apart from that, I like the god of agriculture-bit mentioned, just have to tweak it a bit to make it more suitable for my city. Hmm...

An interesting topic.

Sean Reynolds wrote a theory about peasants, a nice essay on commoner levelling.

I also very much liked the commoner over a lifetime thread on ENworld.

Check out Toothless Joe (also on ENworld) for an idea on a high level commoner.

There`s also some nicefiction about an epic level commoner on the silven road site.

Speaking of commoners, this recent issue of Dragon (April 2005) has some rather amusing flaws in the Class Acts section...