We don't need no hero! Commoner Community Quest [D&D]

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Thanks to LeonCross on Spacebattles for his own Commoner Quest.



There was once a place where...
Location
Poland
Thanks to LeonCross on Spacebattles for his own Commoner Quest.



There was once a place where everyone knew how to kick ass in style. From the tailor to the landlady.


There was once a community that held the advance of an entire army all on it's own, where everyone was unique and their names ended in -x.


And then there's this hamlet. Filled with unusual people, deep in a dangerous land filled with dangerous beasts, where adventurers often go in search of treasure and glory.

What do these places have in common? They're filled with hard working folk that aren't afraid of anything that this world can dish out at them.

You're in charge of this community.

Whether by skill, age, charisma or pure leadership quality you've been chosen to lead this village.

It's certainly as unusual as you yourself are. It's filled with people with all kinds of abilities and all kinds of races. There isn't a stranger community in the whole wide world, but it's these differences that make this village so strong. No matter who you are you'll be accepted here, and that created closer bonds than even those of close family.

One day after one adventuring party of assholes who thought they could walk all over you too many you decided that you've had enough and that from now on every problem you have whether it's monsters or something else will be handled by you. You don't need no stinking heroes to bail you out!

[]What's your name?
[]Gender/Sex
[]What's the name of the Hamlet/Thorp/Village?

[]Who are you? Submit a build or vote for someone else's, otherwise it's going to be Adult Human male Commoner1 with Skill focus. This is the only character that is subject to vote, the guidelines for the rest are below.


Limits for this community:

The entire community consists of exactly 30 adults and an unspecified amount of children (which don't even have the benfits of being commoners of 1st level). You're allowed to submit your own concepts and builds with whatever races, templates(only 1 template per character however), skills and so on, and they'll be added, no (or very few) questions asked, no voting involved. I'll veto only the cheese that makes my arteries clog, and things that make no sense from a roleplaying standpoint but otherwise encourage optimization. If two people want to make a character to occupy the same spot (there should be only one healer in the entire hamlet for example, but there's a place for more than one hunter) then please talk it out and come to a consensus, otherwise I'm going to accept the first person that applied their character for the spot. Each character has 3 10s and 3 11s in attributes to distribute as they wish before age and race modifiers kick in. Two flaws are allowed per person and all are availble except the chicken infested. That one is granted only by god's will as a retribution or a blessing. There are however chicken infested commoners running around and they aren't that uncommon in the whole wide world. They're the reason the monsters breed so much thanks to an abundant food source.

Submitting your own character builds isn't a requirement at all. It's only to allow for fun concepts and optimized characters. Every character that wasn't taken from the thread will be made by me, and in that case they'll be a standard race like a human, halfling or elf, have very little to no optimization and will be in general a boring 1st level commoner.

The format for character submissions is as follows:

Taken from the commoner optimisation thread on Giantitp forums. The following build was made by Mithril Leaf.

The Dragon Slayer: Male Middle-Aged Strongheart Halfling Commoner 1; CR ½; Small Humanoid (halfling); HD 1d4+0; hp 4; Init +0; Spd 20 ft.; AC 11 (10 +1 dex), touch 11, flat-footed 11; Base Atk +0; Grp -5 (-1 str -4 size); AL TN; SV Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +1; Str 8, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 12.
Skills and Feats: Craft (Poisonmaking) +10 (4 ranks +1 int +2 Masterwork Tool +3 Psicrystal bonus), Handle Animal +5 (4 ranks +1 cha), Craft (Leatherworking) +8 (4 ranks +1 int +3 Psicrystal bonus) and Read/Write/Speak (Common & Elven); Hidden Talent (Psionic Minor Creation), Psicrystal Affinity (Artiste), and Psionic Talent x2.
Traits & Flaws: Noncombatant & Frail
Equipment (70 gp [36 gp if crafted]; 6 lb.): One cow, to be made into a sculpture, one masterwork tool (Poisonmaking), one glass vial volume totally 7 cubic feet (no listed price, 10 gp sounded fair).

Wealth and equipment isn't wealth by level unless it's a reasonable list. I'll grant the 900 gp for each person only on the condition that they have a house (which costs 1000gp funnily enough), which means it's only for married couples. Otherwise everyone owns the tools of their trade, anything they might reasonably own (like a place to live) and a small amount of savings.

Levels are given out when story appropriate and not for experience points, so yes, adding a backstory to the level 1 aristocrat barmaid that married for love but found out that being married to a commoner isn't what it's cracked up to be and she's rather marry for money is going to help her level up faster. Same thing if you start writing stuff about your favourite characters. Omake are likely to be made canon unless they affect game balance (by for example adding something to a character that they shouldn't have like a vorpal blade of awesome +500) and so on.

This is going to be a setting where a 3rd level character is a hero on par with Aragorn. a 5th level and beyond is probably as powerful as this world's equivalent to Gandalf and there aren't that many people of this calibre. Keep this in mind when submitting a character because they're unlikely to pay out if the build in mind only comes online after levels upon levels of prestige classes.

All concepts have to be unique if they're unusual. That's the condition I'm putting on allowing cheese. I'll allow one Water Orc Dragonborn, one Warforged and one Antropomorfic bat, but not three Warforged for example. Oh and before I forget, level 1 characters with no level adjustment only.

All members of the community are commoners with the following exceptions:
3 expert maximum for the community provided they fulfill an unique role you can come up with that is necessary or sensible for the community. For example if you want to have a blacksmith then he'll be allowed to be an expert instead of a commoner, provided he absolutely needs more skillpoints than the commoner gives. A healer might need to know a lot of stuff, same as the local poisonbrewer, or alchemist, but if you manage to make a commoner with these skills, then you can save your expert slots for something else that needs it more.

4 warriors that are the local militia and troubleshooters in case something happens.
1 aristocrat
1 magewright
1 adept

Half of the community has to be men, the other half women.

If there's something I ommited or didn't make clear, please let me know.

Local gods and legends availble to the hamlet:

They're all availble for worship in your hamlet, and some of them add a unique spell to worshippers that can cast divine magic to their spell lists. Each god also gives access to domains for their worshipers (if they're clerics or gained access to them through a feat) related to things that they are gods of. Make note that to even be able to cast the original spells a commoner will need a feat that grants divine spells, or be an adept.

Rokita, the devil of contracts

A lawful evil devil that clawed, and bargained and tricked his way into godhood, proving that it doesn't matter if you can shatter continents with your fireballs, or that you have a million followers if only you have a modicum of business sense. He's not after your soul, only your money (which is arguably worse).

He is a god of earth, law, trade, contracts, money, greed, common sense, and mathematics.

His followers are usually self-centered, greedy, or just plain old businessmen that don't care that their god is evil as long as he helps them earn more money. He doesn't have clergy, he has bankers. They'll put a gold value on your soul while selling you insurance ressurection in case that pesky dragons kill you and your whole village.

Cambion's Common Contract (Cantrip)
This spell gives access to trade with hell, which is used more often and has more acceptance than one might think. By performing a ritual after writing a contract signed in blood (not necessarily the caster's) a trade is made. In exchange for gold which is used up for the casting and a sacrifice a certain amount of goods specified in the contract will appear for the caster. Hell has unlimited resources and anything you might need they will get for you, only limited by gold limit imposed for the commerce of the community in which the spell is cast, or the closest one when cast in the wilderness (for example hamlets of 30 people have a limit of 50 gp on goods availble for purchase).

In essence this spell allows the caster to perform a trade even when no merchant is availble, or when local merchants don't have something you need (like critical spell components, or custom magic items). Despite being a spell granted by an evil god usage of this spell is widely accepted as necessary and paladins don't make a habit of hunting commoners for it's usage.

Focus: An altar and a dagger
Components: Money required to purchase the goods, which is always fair and the base market price, one live sacrifice (rabbits and poultry are the most common used), one handwritten contract.

Grakch, the dragon of dragons

A chaotic evil dragon that exists as a local legend. Not much is known about him other than a certain tale of a nearby kingdom. A long time ago a king sent his two sons to deal with a monster terrorizing the land. When one son killed the other because he wanted the throne for himself he blamed the death on the dragon. Years later the crime was found out and the prince was sent out into exile. The king called for heroes to slay the beast. Many tried and failed. All of them great heroes. In the end the dragon was slain by a simple cobbler. He stuffed a sheep carcass full of poison and left it outside the dragon's lair. The dragon got so thirsty that he drained an entire lake and exploded from how full he was. He is remembered as a great monster to this day, and it is that infamy that gives he the power of a lesser deity.

He is a god of fire, evil, death, destruction and anything evil you can think of.

He has no real followers that aren't evil assholes or criminals or monsters. He has no clerics, only shamans calling on his strenght, mostly orcs and goblins.


Dhurus, the man that tricked the devil

A god for people of neutral alignment. He began his career as a sorcerer that sold his soul to Rokita in exchange for power. He made a condition however that he will only relinquish his soul when they'll meet again in Krym, a city that was very famous at that time. When the time came for him to pay he avoided Krym for many years. In the end Rokita invited him to a tavern to meet again. When they did so Rokita pointed at the sign which announced the tavern was named "Krym". Fearing for his soul he summoned a rooster and flew on it to the moon, where he remains to this day.

He is a god of the moon, poultry, magic, knowledge, debts, trickery, luck and healing

Magic users often turn to him for inspiration. People who are unlucky pray to him for help. Especially those inflicted with the curse of chickens which can make any commoner's life pretty inconvenient. His clerics are studious types that turn to him for a convenient source of magic and are otherwise atheistic.

Summon Rooster (cantrip)
This spell summons a common cock for 1 round per caster level. The chicken behaves like any other summon, and is dispelled when killed. It takes a full round to cast this spell.

Goplana, the nymph of change

A chaotic good spirit of nature, this fairy like to mess with people. Often bestowing unusal gifts wherever she goes to people she likes, and curses to people that forget to appease her, she's more of a force of nature than a conventional deity.

She is a goddess of air, change, nature, pranks, animals, chaos, plants and druids

Most common folk worship her if they love fun, and value nature or live off the land. Most druids call on her for power.

Egg rebirth (1st level)
This spell replaces someone's feats or skill ranks over a period one month after the casting of the spell. It takes 2 hours of uninterruped time to cast this spell, and after it is finished the target looses one feat or skill point of their choice, and gains a new feat or skill point of their choice at the end of one month. The knowledge and power are gifts from Goplana and don't require any actual training. The knowledge of the new skill, or how to use the new power simply appears in a person's head. You can't put two castings of this spell on the same target at the same time. Repeated uses of this spell one after the other tend to draw ire from Goplana, as she'd prefer that people don't abuse her divine interventions. In general it is safe to cast this spell on one person the amount of times equal to the amount of their feats. After that each casting has a small cumulative chance of drawing the wrath of Goplana.

Components: Dragon egg shells worth at least 200 gp to retrain a feat, or 20 gp to retrain a skill.

Skuba, champion of the people.

He's the lawful good cobbler that rose to legendary status for killing Grakch. Starting as a simple commoner he cemented himself forever in the memory of commoners for a feat that was thought impossible being accomplished with a bit of ingenuity and some skill. He represents everything that humanity has to offer and is the most worshipped god locally amongst all five.

He is a god of good, water, poison, creativity, craftsmen, protection and strenght.

He is worshipped by over eighty percent of commoners for being a champion of the common folk. His clerics perform village functions like officiating marriages, delivering babies, healing the sick, performing burials and the like.
 
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[x] John Smith
[x]Male
[x] Ordinary Village

[x] Generic Normal Everyday Person whose Skill is just being Mediocre and Average

-is this fine?
 
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[x] Generic Normal Everyday Person whose Skill is just being Mediocre and Average

If nobody wants a certain feat, or skill ranks or anything like that I'll be the one making the character build, but only voting for a skill, or a feat will work as well, I'll just fill in the blanks myself for everything that people forgot to vote for (like attribute points).

Oh and @butchock ? You're not getting in the spirit of things. The commoner community that's perfectly average is a quest by LeonCross on spacebattles.

This is the optimised village where most people can spew acid and have psion powers or other crazy shit like that.
 
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Y'know, I'd really like to play as a village of mage-programmers using various golems. Maybe have leader be classic hero that is not bright enough for golemancy but is not socially inept as rest of village.

How doable is this?
 
Y'know, I'd really like to play as a village of mage-programmers using various golems. Maybe have leader be classic hero that is not bright enough for golemancy but is not socially inept as rest of village.

How doable is this?

If you can find a feat, any feat at all from any book in D&D 3.5 then I'll allow it.

Off the top of my head I can already see that this would require hiring a lot of people that can create golems, and that costs a lot of gold, so it would be a while before it becomes viable. On top of that most people in the village might have at most the ability to cast one or two level 0 spells until they level up into a non-NPC class.
 
I'm really not into D&D and have no idea about its rules, which is why I asked you about it.

How about summoning? Elementals, demons and so on.
 
I'm really not into D&D and have no idea about its rules, which is why I asked you about it.

How about summoning? Elementals, demons and so on.

One of the most exploitable options availble to commoners with some feat optimization actually.

Summoner peasants are really, really good.
 
So Codex Alera is a go?

Sounds good. Anyone willing to actually make a sheet for that?

[X] Sarah Noelson
[X] Female
[X] Wellsprout

[X] Eldery baker-summoner. Person who summons things that bake bloody good bread.
 
[X] Sarah Noelson
[X] Female
[X] Wellsprout

[X]
 
I think an elven blacksmith that sing while she hammer down her latest creation and routinely scrap blades if they don't make a pleasing enough sound when struck or when cutting through the air could be interesting. As for the MC, I have no idea yet. I'll have to think it over some more.
 
I think an elven blacksmith that sing while she hammer down her latest creation and routinely scrap blades if they don't make a pleasing enough sound when struck or when cutting through the air could be interesting. As for the MC, I have no idea yet. I'll have to think it over some more.
Interesting? yes. Efficient? NO, THIS LEVEL OF WASTED RESOURCES AND TIME IS UNACCEPTABLE!
 
Smelting items back to component =/= wasted resources

Elves =/= Bothered by time.

So? :p
You're wasting fuel each time you re-melt the blade. Charcoal is a limited resource. My point still stands.

(I suppose I just lean more towards the 'self-replicating doom machine' or 'Dwarf' mentality, rather than the 'elf' mentality.)
 
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You're wasting fuel each time you re-melt the blade. Charcoal is a limited resource. My point still stands.

(I suppose I just lean more towards the 'self-replicating doom machine' or 'Dwarf' mentality, rather than the 'elf' mentality.)

The more frequent smiting leading to higher skill in forging and the care for quality and reducing of mistakes may be more economical in the long run, though.
 
The more frequent smiting leading to higher skill in forging and the care for quality and reducing of mistakes may be more economical in the long run, though.
If the result is reasonably serviceable, it shall be put into service. Being overly perfectionist just reduces the percentage of product that gets through quality control.
 
Gonnna optimize a little for this..

[X] Beathan
[X] M
[X] Spark Point

[X] The healer, who's also pretty good at weather forecasting.

Race: Strongheart Halfling
Age: Venerable
Stats: STR 3, DEX 6, CON 4, INT 14, WIS 14, CHA 13
Feats: Skill Focus: Heal, Self-Sufficient, Hidden Talent (Touch of Health; Life Mantle), Focused Skill User (Heal/Survival/Profession(Herbalist)).
Flaws: Non-combatant, Vulnerable.
Items: Healer's Kit, Masterwork Survival Items (A compass & various meteorological instruments), Masterwork Spot Item (Monocle), Masterwork Profession(Herbalist) item (A herb garden)
Skills: Heal 4 Ranks + 3 Feat + 2 Feat + 2 Feat + 2 Healer's Kit + 2 WIS= 15, Survival 4 Ranks + 2 Feat + 2 Feat + 2 Compass + 2 WIS = 12, Spot 4 Ranks + 2 WIS + 2 Monocle = 8, Profession(Herbalist) 4 Ranks + 2 WIS + 2 Herb Garden + 2 Feat = 10)
 
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