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

[Li Shenron]

Handwave it. Give 'em what skills, tools, etc make sense and shine it.

Sure, but notice how my idea is actually very close to handwaving it!

I don't really do any work beforehand. What I really do, is just open up Basic at the page of the relevant background. So if the PC are talking to a guard, I'll keep the Soldier background in front of me, if they're talking to the librarian I'll keep the Sage background in front of me, if they casually meet and start a conversation with someone in the street, I'll keep the Folk / Noble / Criminal page in front of me (you never know who you meet on the street... ).

Everything is already there. At most, I replace one skill on the spot.

But really all this happens in real time, I am not preparing anything before. The nice of this, is that whatever the PC decide to bring up in the conversation, there is stuff on that page that helps me improvise something interesting: I can roll on the trait (or ideal/flaw/bond) table to determine the general attitude and response of the NPC, I can use the listed proficiencies + a random background sub-choice to determine what are in general the things this NPC know if they ask him questions.

Ability scores are indeed mostly irrelevant, until there is to roll some dice I can totally ignore them. They are just an addition, but it takes 3 seconds to decide that NPC Joe is strong but dumb, and NPC Mary is wise but shy.

 

[iltharanos]

4) Projectiles for catapults - they can just walk back after being fired and reload themselves

5) Anvils, sledgehammers, and other striking tools

6) Sapper-proof foundations for fortifications

7) Stress balls for demon lords

8) Self-erecting Tarrasque cages

Ooh.

9) Mobile target dummies

10) Trap triggers - just walk them into any area you suspect of having traps and watch the sparks fly!

11) Choking hazards for creatures - have that marauding red dragon choke on an entire village of commoners for easy xp

 

[miniaturehoarder]

I use lots of commoners. Besides that they populate towns, I use them most often as mooks, wielding clubs, daggers, pitchforks and slings. They represent new recruits to bandit bands, new converts to cults, and of course peasant conscripts. Thier stats also are reskinned as adolescent humanoids.

 

[Gnashtooth]

Ooh.
11) Choking hazards for creatures - have that marauding red dragon choke on an entire village of commoners for easy xp

Oooh, but then they WOULD have hit points, because they would actually receive the XP for choking the dragon, and then they would all die as soon as they leveled!

 

[Draegn]

In my game commoners are "1hd" people with depending on occupation have 3-12hp. They do a job and may become important if the players interact with them. I never know which commoner the players might latch on to.

Once the players ignored the inn owner that could have sold/given them a spell component. They never thought to ask why the inn was named what it was. Another time they made the city falconer their best friend and learned falconry.

 

[S'mon]

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)?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

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)?

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.

 

[S'mon]

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.

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.

 

[redrick]

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)?

I think we can assume that D&D cults, generally being hostile in nature, include some basic combat training as part of their cultist activities. Cultists probably have knifing and backstabbing drills mixed in with their chanting and sacrificing.

While exceptions would abound, your standard in-town commoner probably doesn't spend a whole lot of time working on his or her wrestling and archery.

 

[77IM]

I come up with stats for unimportant NPCs on-the-fly as needed. Generally they wind up being +6 for Expertise (+2 ability, +4 proficiency), +3 for Skilled (+1 ability, +2 proficiency), +0 for general stuff, -1 for stuff they are bad at (-1 ability). That's pretty easy to remember. Unlike PCs, I allow unimportant NPCs to have Expertise on saving throws (otherwise they would all be pushovers). If I actually need combat stats for an NPC, I just turn to the back of the Monster Manual and pick a stat block.