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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6836989" data-attributes="member: 4937">The Commoner - A class for those who have nothingCommonerThe adventuring classes are characterized by their ability to cope with extraordinary crisis, and particularly ones involving violent conflict or at least the potential for violent conflict.&nbsp; They live life on the edge, and in the margins, and on the frontier.&nbsp; But in the great sheltered societies created by the different free peoples, there is often little need for such skill and little room for developing them.&nbsp; A person might go decades or years with facing any threat which has violence as a practical solution.&nbsp; Life for them is an unending battle not with mighty forces threatening the universe, but with mundane poverty, tedium, hunger, and disease.&nbsp; Life’s battles and challenges require not diversity of skill, but simple persistence.&nbsp; Even if they had the natural talent to develop skills as a wizard or warrior, they generally lack need, opportunity, or desire to do so.&nbsp; For these persons, the simple skills of the commoner is enough to carry them through life – often with a measure of contentment.Adventurers: Commoners are almost never adventurers.&nbsp; Indeed, the class represents almost the antithesis of the adventuring life.&nbsp; The commoner endures by acceptance, persistence, and by not getting involved.&nbsp; Powers and threats come and go, and great contests are fought.&nbsp; The commoner just endures in hopes of better times, content to let others fight their battles whenever possible.&nbsp; Nonetheless, though they lack any particular aptitude for it, a commoner will fight for what they love and believe in if cornered.&nbsp; If this becomes a reoccurring need, the commoner adapts by developing the skills needed for such contests, and it is oft discovered that many are diamonds in the rough.Background: Commoners can be of almost any background provided that background is not a life of daring and adventure, but of daily routine.&nbsp; Life does not deal to everyone an equal hand.&nbsp; At least half of any society must be below average, and each society has in it an unfortunate few that are below average in everything.&nbsp; The aged, the very young, the infirmed, the disabled, the fool, the drunkard, and sundry unfortunate wretches may have no option to gain a measure of security but the common one.Likewise, there are many person who lack opportunity to make the investment in time and cost necessary to make something more of themselves.&nbsp; Not everyone is taken as an apprentice.&nbsp; Not everyone can afford tutors and books.&nbsp; Not everyone receives schooling and advanced and diverse education, nor does everyone undergo the hardships that make a necessity of learning in a school of hard knocks with survival as a teacher.&nbsp; However a person comes by their great skills, some never have the chance.&nbsp;&nbsp; Indeed, in a great many societies this situation is often considered desirable.&nbsp; The cogs that make up the bottom rung of society need not have broad skills to perform their essential task, and are perhaps more content with their lot if they do not.&nbsp; Maybe even more importantly, if these persons lack great skill, then they are easier to control and exploit.&nbsp; It’s desirable to many in secure and comfortable stations of life if the greater mass of peasants, serfs, slaves, and laborers are commoners.&nbsp; At the very least, these people are less of a threat if they do revolt.In similar manner, gender segregated societies offer little roles for women generally relegate to most women the life of a commoner regardless of their station in life.&nbsp; The commoner class is not a rank.&nbsp; The pampered idle aristocrat needing to know not even how to dress themselves, is perhaps more likely than any other to be of the commoner class.Races: Members of all races can be commoners.&nbsp; Indeed, the more successful the race becomes, and the more powerful and stable their institutions become, the less need there becomes for anyone to be other than commoners.&nbsp; As the human race is presently in ascendance, commoners are perhaps most common among humans living in their great and populace nations.&nbsp; Elves living solitary lives deep in sheltered woods are often commoners, as are dwarves living in their great delves and fortresses.&nbsp; But fey races on the other hand are more likely to advance as feybloods, even when they live comparatively sheltered lives.&nbsp; Idreth likewise are more likely to be akashics if they have the mental strength for the path, and few among that scholarly cloistered race lack opportunity for education.&nbsp; The orine and the goblin races live lives of comparative violence and hardship in harsh and wild lands, and so the lower rungs of their society contain a greater proportion of warriors.&nbsp; More feral races are seldom commoners.Other Classes: The average commoner associates most closely with other commoners.&nbsp; The lives of the adventuring classes to them seem strange and alien, if not even frightening and wrong.&nbsp; The try not to meddle in the otherworldly affairs of these classes, and hope likewise that they are not interfered with.&nbsp; Of the adventuring classes, the one they feel most comfortable with and interact with most often is that of the Explorer, for members of many ordinary professions like teamster, mariner, prospector, and lumberjack are often also members of that class.&nbsp; Likewise, the Hunter, if he is a fur trapper or hunter of game, is a familiar personage with concerns not too far from their own.&nbsp; The commoner likewise sees the need of Clerics or Shamans, to intercede with and propitiate greater and alien powers on their behalf.&nbsp; But the vast majority of interactions by the commoner are with their own, or else with other non-adventuring classes.&nbsp; Should they have ambition, the average commoner most admires, envies, and wishes to be like Experts, particularly if the Expert shows great skill in the very sorts of things that they themselves use and see as useful.&nbsp; Thus a community of commoners will generally choose Experts to represent and lead them, if they have their preference.&nbsp; For their heroes, the commoner typically chooses Paragons, which they see to be most like themselves in their basic nature, or else sometimes Rogues if they are unsatisfied with their lot and mildly rebellious against the social order.Alignment: AnyHit Die: d4Requirements: NoneClass Skills: The commoner’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Boating (Wis), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Rope (Dex)Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x4.Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A commoner is not proficient with any weapons, shields, or armor.&nbsp; However, see the common tools class ability.&nbsp; Table: The Commoner&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Level&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Base Attack Bonus&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Fort Save&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Ref Save&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Will Save&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Special 1st&nbsp; &nbsp; +0&nbsp; &nbsp; +0&nbsp; &nbsp; +0&nbsp; &nbsp; +0&nbsp; &nbsp; Common Tools +1, Ordinary Challenges, Salt of the Earth, Simple Living2nd&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; +0&nbsp; &nbsp; +0&nbsp; &nbsp; +0&nbsp; &nbsp; Common Sense3rd&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; 4th&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; 5th&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; +1&nbsp; &nbsp; Common Tools +26th&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; 7th&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; 8th&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; +2&nbsp; &nbsp; 9th&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; 10th&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; Common Tools +311th&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; +3&nbsp; &nbsp; 12th&nbsp; &nbsp; +6/+1&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; 13th&nbsp; &nbsp; +6/+1&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; 14th&nbsp; &nbsp; +7/+2&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; +4&nbsp; &nbsp; 15th&nbsp; &nbsp; +7/+2&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; Common Tools +416th&nbsp; &nbsp; +8/+3&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; 17th&nbsp; &nbsp; +8/+3&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; +5&nbsp; &nbsp; 18th&nbsp; &nbsp; +9/+4&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; 19th&nbsp; &nbsp; +9/+4&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; 20th&nbsp; &nbsp; +10/+5&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; +6&nbsp; &nbsp; Common Tools +5, Resourceful +1Common Tools: At 1st level, 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter, the commoner may gain proficiency in one weapon chosen from the following list: baton, club, dagger, net, sickle, quarterstaff, unarmed strike, or whip.&nbsp; Alternately, the commoner may select a common item or tool in which no weapon proficiency can be gained that can be used as an improvised weapon such as a hoe, frying pan, rolling pin, shovel, pitchfork, barstool, etc.&nbsp; When using that item as an improvised weapon, they suffer only a -2 penalty to hit for being non-proficient rather than the usual -4 penalty.Common Sense: Beginning at 2nd level, the commoner can add ½ his class level to any knowledge check with a DC of 15 or less.&nbsp; However, if even with this bonus the commoner fails the knowledge check by 5 or more, the commoner is convinced of the truth of some completely false but often plausible sounding tall tale, local legend, misremembered or misunderstood fact.Simple Living: So long as the commoner only has levels in the commoner class, they gain a +2 bonus on fortitude saves to resist disease and a +2 bonus on endurance checks. Resourceful: At 20th level, a commoner gains a separate destiny point pool, as the Paragon class ability of the same name.&nbsp; This pool contains a single destiny point, unless the character has the same class ability from another source, in which case the size of pool of destiny points increases by 1.Ordinary Challenges: Each day that a commoner does 8 or more hours of manual labor, they gain 1 bonus XP.&nbsp; This XP can only be used to gain levels in the commoner class.Salt of the Earth: The commoner is adaptable.&nbsp; Their lack of skill is usually the result of missed opportunity as much as lack of aptitude.&nbsp; If the commoner has the natural talent, once they receive opportunity, they are able to quickly make up for lost time.&nbsp; Commoners can replace levels in commoner with levels in another class by spending XP that they would otherwise use to gain levels.&nbsp; Commoners may not spend XP if in doing so, if they would have insufficient XP to attain their current class level.&nbsp; The cost of replacing a level in commoner with different class is ½ the XP required to gain an additional level neglecting all levels the character has in commoner.&nbsp; For example, a 1st level commoner could become a 1st level member of a different class at the cost of 500 XP.&nbsp; The same cost applies to a 3rd level commoner replacing one level in commoner for a different class.&nbsp; However, a 2nd level commoner and 2nd level rogue, needs to spend ½ the cost of advancing to 3rd level (1500 XP) to replace one of his levels in commoner with a level in another class (such as a 3rd level of rogue). When a commoner class level is replaced with a level in another class, the character immediately gains all the class benefits of being of that level in the new class while losing any benefits associated with the lost level of commoner.&nbsp;&nbsp; The characters existing skill point allocation does not change, but the character gains new skills points to invest equal to the difference in skill points between obtaining a level in commoner and a level in the new class.&nbsp;&nbsp; Likewise, the character does not reroll already rolled HD associated with gaining levels, but gains additional hit points according to the size of the HD of the new class: 0 additional hit points if the new class HD is d4, +1 if the new class HD is d6, +2 if d8, +3 if d10, and +4 if d12.&nbsp;&nbsp; If the first level taken by the character was commoner, when a character replaces his last remaining level in commoner with a different class, the additional skill points gained are multiplied by 4 and the additional hit points gained are doubled.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6836989, member: 4937"] [b]The Commoner - A class for those who have nothing[/b] [SIZE=3]Commoner[/SIZE] The adventuring classes are characterized by their ability to cope with extraordinary crisis, and particularly ones involving violent conflict or at least the potential for violent conflict. They live life on the edge, and in the margins, and on the frontier. But in the great sheltered societies created by the different free peoples, there is often little need for such skill and little room for developing them. A person might go decades or years with facing any threat which has violence as a practical solution. Life for them is an unending battle not with mighty forces threatening the universe, but with mundane poverty, tedium, hunger, and disease. Life’s battles and challenges require not diversity of skill, but simple persistence. Even if they had the natural talent to develop skills as a wizard or warrior, they generally lack need, opportunity, or desire to do so. For these persons, the simple skills of the commoner is enough to carry them through life – often with a measure of contentment. [B]Adventurers:[/B] Commoners are almost never adventurers. Indeed, the class represents almost the antithesis of the adventuring life. The commoner endures by acceptance, persistence, and by not getting involved. Powers and threats come and go, and great contests are fought. The commoner just endures in hopes of better times, content to let others fight their battles whenever possible. Nonetheless, though they lack any particular aptitude for it, a commoner will fight for what they love and believe in if cornered. If this becomes a reoccurring need, the commoner adapts by developing the skills needed for such contests, and it is oft discovered that many are diamonds in the rough. [B]Background:[/B] Commoners can be of almost any background provided that background is not a life of daring and adventure, but of daily routine. Life does not deal to everyone an equal hand. At least half of any society must be below average, and each society has in it an unfortunate few that are below average in everything. The aged, the very young, the infirmed, the disabled, the fool, the drunkard, and sundry unfortunate wretches may have no option to gain a measure of security but the common one. Likewise, there are many person who lack opportunity to make the investment in time and cost necessary to make something more of themselves. Not everyone is taken as an apprentice. Not everyone can afford tutors and books. Not everyone receives schooling and advanced and diverse education, nor does everyone undergo the hardships that make a necessity of learning in a school of hard knocks with survival as a teacher. However a person comes by their great skills, some never have the chance. Indeed, in a great many societies this situation is often considered desirable. The cogs that make up the bottom rung of society need not have broad skills to perform their essential task, and are perhaps more content with their lot if they do not. Maybe even more importantly, if these persons lack great skill, then they are easier to control and exploit. It’s desirable to many in secure and comfortable stations of life if the greater mass of peasants, serfs, slaves, and laborers are commoners. At the very least, these people are less of a threat if they do revolt. In similar manner, gender segregated societies offer little roles for women generally relegate to most women the life of a commoner regardless of their station in life. The commoner class is not a rank. The pampered idle aristocrat needing to know not even how to dress themselves, is perhaps more likely than any other to be of the commoner class. [B]Races:[/B] Members of all races can be commoners. Indeed, the more successful the race becomes, and the more powerful and stable their institutions become, the less need there becomes for anyone to be other than commoners. As the human race is presently in ascendance, commoners are perhaps most common among humans living in their great and populace nations. Elves living solitary lives deep in sheltered woods are often commoners, as are dwarves living in their great delves and fortresses. But fey races on the other hand are more likely to advance as feybloods, even when they live comparatively sheltered lives. Idreth likewise are more likely to be akashics if they have the mental strength for the path, and few among that scholarly cloistered race lack opportunity for education. The orine and the goblin races live lives of comparative violence and hardship in harsh and wild lands, and so the lower rungs of their society contain a greater proportion of warriors. More feral races are seldom commoners. [B]Other Classes:[/B] The average commoner associates most closely with other commoners. The lives of the adventuring classes to them seem strange and alien, if not even frightening and wrong. The try not to meddle in the otherworldly affairs of these classes, and hope likewise that they are not interfered with. Of the adventuring classes, the one they feel most comfortable with and interact with most often is that of the Explorer, for members of many ordinary professions like teamster, mariner, prospector, and lumberjack are often also members of that class. Likewise, the Hunter, if he is a fur trapper or hunter of game, is a familiar personage with concerns not too far from their own. The commoner likewise sees the need of Clerics or Shamans, to intercede with and propitiate greater and alien powers on their behalf. But the vast majority of interactions by the commoner are with their own, or else with other non-adventuring classes. Should they have ambition, the average commoner most admires, envies, and wishes to be like Experts, particularly if the Expert shows great skill in the very sorts of things that they themselves use and see as useful. Thus a community of commoners will generally choose Experts to represent and lead them, if they have their preference. For their heroes, the commoner typically chooses Paragons, which they see to be most like themselves in their basic nature, or else sometimes Rogues if they are unsatisfied with their lot and mildly rebellious against the social order. [B]Alignment:[/B] Any [B]Hit Die:[/B] d4 [B]Requirements:[/B] None [B]Class Skills:[/B] The commoner’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Boating (Wis), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Rope (Dex) [B]Skill Points at 1st Level:[/B] (2 + Int modifier) x4. [B]Skill Points at Each Additional Level:[/B] 2 + Int modifier. [B]Weapon and Armor Proficiency:[/B] A commoner is not proficient with any weapons, shields, or armor. However, see the common tools class ability. Table: The Commoner Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special 1st +0 +0 +0 +0 Common Tools +1, Ordinary Challenges, Salt of the Earth, Simple Living 2nd +1 +0 +0 +0 Common Sense 3rd +1 +1 +1 +1 4th +2 +1 +1 +1 5th +2 +1 +1 +1 Common Tools +2 6th +3 +2 +2 +2 7th +3 +2 +2 +2 8th +4 +2 +2 +2 9th +4 +3 +3 +3 10th +5 +3 +3 +3 Common Tools +3 11th +5 +3 +3 +3 12th +6/+1 +4 +4 +4 13th +6/+1 +4 +4 +4 14th +7/+2 +4 +4 +4 15th +7/+2 +5 +5 +5 Common Tools +4 16th +8/+3 +5 +5 +5 17th +8/+3 +5 +5 +5 18th +9/+4 +6 +6 +6 19th +9/+4 +6 +6 +6 20th +10/+5 +6 +6 +6 Common Tools +5, Resourceful +1 [B]Common Tools:[/B] At 1st level, 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter, the commoner may gain proficiency in one weapon chosen from the following list: baton, club, dagger, net, sickle, quarterstaff, unarmed strike, or whip. Alternately, the commoner may select a common item or tool in which no weapon proficiency can be gained that can be used as an improvised weapon such as a hoe, frying pan, rolling pin, shovel, pitchfork, barstool, etc. When using that item as an improvised weapon, they suffer only a -2 penalty to hit for being non-proficient rather than the usual -4 penalty. [B]Common Sense:[/B] Beginning at 2nd level, the commoner can add ½ his class level to any knowledge check with a DC of 15 or less. However, if even with this bonus the commoner fails the knowledge check by 5 or more, the commoner is convinced of the truth of some completely false but often plausible sounding tall tale, local legend, misremembered or misunderstood fact. [B]Simple Living:[/B] So long as the commoner only has levels in the commoner class, they gain a +2 bonus on fortitude saves to resist disease and a +2 bonus on endurance checks. [B]Resourceful:[/B] At 20th level, a commoner gains a separate destiny point pool, as the Paragon class ability of the same name. This pool contains a single destiny point, unless the character has the same class ability from another source, in which case the size of pool of destiny points increases by 1. [B]Ordinary Challenges:[/B] Each day that a commoner does 8 or more hours of manual labor, they gain 1 bonus XP. This XP can only be used to gain levels in the commoner class. [B]Salt of the Earth:[/B] The commoner is adaptable. Their lack of skill is usually the result of missed opportunity as much as lack of aptitude. If the commoner has the natural talent, once they receive opportunity, they are able to quickly make up for lost time. Commoners can replace levels in commoner with levels in another class by spending XP that they would otherwise use to gain levels. Commoners may not spend XP if in doing so, if they would have insufficient XP to attain their current class level. The cost of replacing a level in commoner with different class is ½ the XP required to gain an additional level neglecting all levels the character has in commoner. For example, a 1st level commoner could become a 1st level member of a different class at the cost of 500 XP. The same cost applies to a 3rd level commoner replacing one level in commoner for a different class. However, a 2nd level commoner and 2nd level rogue, needs to spend ½ the cost of advancing to 3rd level (1500 XP) to replace one of his levels in commoner with a level in another class (such as a 3rd level of rogue). When a commoner class level is replaced with a level in another class, the character immediately gains all the class benefits of being of that level in the new class while losing any benefits associated with the lost level of commoner. The characters existing skill point allocation does not change, but the character gains new skills points to invest equal to the difference in skill points between obtaining a level in commoner and a level in the new class. Likewise, the character does not reroll already rolled HD associated with gaining levels, but gains additional hit points according to the size of the HD of the new class: 0 additional hit points if the new class HD is d4, +1 if the new class HD is d6, +2 if d8, +3 if d10, and +4 if d12. If the first level taken by the character was commoner, when a character replaces his last remaining level in commoner with a different class, the additional skill points gained are multiplied by 4 and the additional hit points gained are doubled. [/QUOTE]

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