D&D 5E How do you handle Commoners in your game?

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Yeah; I really don't like the 'helpless commoners' trope which this emphasises. Luckily 5e makes it easy to give my commoners 2 hd so they're on a par with everybody else.

Yup... just like it lets me use the "commoner" stats when dealing with a big bunch of non-combatants that have gotten mobbed-up and angry about something and now the PCs have a reason to interact with them in some way other than "Heya, George, nice to see you. How's the harvest looking this year?", and to use literally any other set of stats to represent any commoner that isn't meant to fit in the "helpless commoners" trope.

Just like I can grab the zombie stats and have them be shambling, mindless, trope-fulfilling brain-biters, or I can grab the mummy stats and describe some kind of super-zombies made by potent necromantic artifact.

By embracing game choices for game reasons, I'm free not to have a list of 30 different sets of every so slightly different stats in order to represent 30 different species of bird.

 

[thalmin]

Much of the time, commoners are just minions or red-shirts or stormtroopers. But many times they get somewhat or even fully statted out. Borrowing from earlier editons, I have some higher level commoners/experts/nobels/warriors/accolytes/whatever. It all depends what I or the players need the npc for.

 

[Lucius Drake]

It's a game. It makes choices for game reasons.

Cultists have more HP because cultists are intended to be more of a danger in the context of the player characters dealing with them in combat.

It's not that people are actually becoming any tougher or more combat-capable just by putting on a robe and chanting in the basement with their buddies - it's that the point of that game element is changing.

Also, someone who has actually just joined a cult is still a commoner as far as I'm concerned. The cultist statblock is for those who are indoctrinated and hardened by the experiences they've had while in the cult.
If the PCs in my game kicked in the door to a newly formed cult of the Dragon Below they could expect to find a small number of 'Cultists" and a larger number of "commoners-who-have-joined-a-cult".

As for how I handle commoners in my games, I tend to hand-wave them mostly. They have their 4hp unless there's reason for me to stat them up as a unique NPC or they need to be hardier for some reason.
I do treat them like minions though. Even if the approaching goblin doesn't manage to do 4 damage to the farmer, the farmer still screams in pain and collapses to the ground, possibly in actual medical shock, likely in terror and agony regardless. Again, unless there is some narrative reason for the commoner to actually struggle on - perhaps the farmer wants to reach his wife and children, perhaps the shopkeeper wants to protect her life savings, perhaps the devoted fanboy needs to impress the party by carrying out his mission to pull that lever and drop the bridge for them to cross...

 

[Li Shenron]

One thing I don't get is why Commoners have 1 hd but Cultists have 2 hd. Why should joining a cult more than double your hp (4>9)?

A Cultist in the NPC chapter is not every cultist. But I know you are a seasoned RPGer and so you already know that!

 

[S'mon]

A Cultist in the NPC chapter is not every cultist. But I know you are a seasoned RPGer and so you already know that!

I guess my point is really why should human Commoners be weaker than everyone else. Maybe to allow for 'save us brave adventurers!' at 1st level, but really I don't think giving them 2d8 hp would get in the way of that. I like how my Pathfinder GameMastery Guide stats normal people at 2nd level, and I like how all the other normal people in the 5e MM get 2 hd, so I go with that for human commoners, I can then use 1 die for children (d6 for Small children) if necessary. Frailer people can have CON 6 or CON 8 for reduced hp.

 

[Li Shenron]

I guess my point is really why should human Commoners be weaker than everyone else. Maybe to allow for 'save us brave adventurers!' at 1st level, but really I don't think giving them 2d8 hp would get in the way of that. I like how my Pathfinder GameMastery Guide stats normal people at 2nd level, and I like how all the other normal people in the 5e MM get 2 hd, so I go with that for human commoners, I can then use 1 die for children (d6 for Small children) if necessary. Frailer people can have CON 6 or CON 8 for reduced hp.

Sure why not... The PCs get minimum 6hp (unless they have a CON penalty), and 2d8 averages to 9, which is a bit like saying that commoners normally are anyway tougher than wizards & sorcerers, and very slightly tougher than rogues & clerics & druids - maybe because commoners on average do more physical work than all the former.

Anyway note that as per this thread I am not usually concerned at all with commoners' HP or combat stats. Most commoners just run away from combat, and for those who don't, there is one Commoner NPC option in Basic, although it's totally fine to just make something else up. But the 'Commoner' I am talking about in this thread is rather the kind that interacts with the PCs in every possible way except combat.

 

[The Human Target]

Since a modifier of +0 represent your average human, I just roll 1d20 for all the ability checks and stuff for commoners.

Estimating which NPC is talented at what is just too much trouble with hardly any benefit.

I tend to roll 1d6 to see if they have a bonus in a particular area if need be.

 

[S'mon]

Sure why not... The PCs get minimum 6hp (unless they have a CON penalty), and 2d8 averages to 9, which is a bit like saying that commoners normally are anyway tougher than wizards & sorcerers, and very slightly tougher than rogues & clerics & druids - maybe because commoners on average do more physical work than all the former.

Anyway note that as per this thread I am not usually concerned at all with commoners' HP or combat stats. Most commoners just run away from combat, and for those who don't, there is one Commoner NPC option in Basic, although it's totally fine to just make something else up. But the 'Commoner' I am talking about in this thread is rather the kind that interacts with the PCs in every possible way except combat.

Re hp - agreed. The '1st level Cleric' NPC in the MM gets 2d8/9 hp, one more than a 1st level PC; I don't think it breaks anything to do the same with '1st level Wizard' NPCs either, but I might give them 1 die and 4-5 hp.

Non-combat stats - I'm generally rolling Proficiency + attribute mod on d20 for my Commoner types; +4 is typical; an Expert might have +7 (+4 Expertise, +3 Attribute). I generally keep DCs in the 10-15 range unless it's both hard & tryable by lots of people.