A few moderately sized fishies in a tiny pond

>>54447180

You could have a serial killer mystery where you set everything up to be a confrontation with a werewolf.

Only for it to turn out to be a really pissed off house cat.

I'm honestly surprised that Commoners survive to adulthood being so fragile.

I mean, a first level mage can huck a stone from the ground at them and outright kill one on a good roll.

>>54447293
A single well-aimed rock in the head can easily knock you unconscious, which is really what dropping to 0 hp means. Even causing internal bleeding in the brain that leads to death - if the target is frail or you strong, or if you crit, causing you to bring them straight to negatives - is more than plausible.

Yes, humans are pretty fragile.

>>54447761

Do you think the humans are so fragile because it makes the more brutish races appear tougher, or because it means that every village the PCs enter is one step-away from becoming a hilarious rube-Goldberg machine of death and destruction?

>>54447761
This. There have been documented cases of housecats killing people.

>>54448732
Maybe most Commoners aren't level 1, though? Maybe they gain class levels as they get older and more experienced, and gain skill ranks in repair (farming tools) and craft (weaving)

>>54448814
The majority of commoners are still level 1, but it doesn't mean all of them would be. I'd imagine some of the wise elders could be level 3 or even 4.

>>54448846

What would a high-level peasant even look like?

Would they be something to be fearful of?

Perhaps they might even be able to take a punch from a level one barbarian.

File: 9a475c636ff1ddd4c2f4613527cf53cd.png (238KB, 405x402px) Image search: [Google]

238KB, 405x402px

>>54447293
0 Hp is really just where you're getting potentially serious injuries, but I don't think peasants are known for having long lives
>>54448814
Higher level commoners was really only a 3.5 thing, and a pretty nonsensical one at that unless they actually wanted players to use the class

>>54448920
>What would a high-level peasant even look like?
An experienced village constable, a canny old brothel madam, or the previously mentioned surprisingly tough village elder.

>>54448920
>What would a high-level peasant even look like?
The landlord of the local inn, who's gained experience from his business trips and his youth as a caravan guard.
The grizzled farmer who manages to catch enough game to build some decent muscle.
The village strongman, whose elaborate moustache is only matched by his ego and his ability to restrain an angry ox. He mostly spends his time working on a farm, waxing his moustache, showing off for the local girls, and training for the next regional contest.

There'd also be the old soldier who lives at the tavern, and works on the farms for drinking money. He got press-ganged to fight in a war, he's seen some serious shit, and he tried to return to the village where he grew up to marry his sweetheart, only to find that he couldn't figure out which village was the one he remembered, and that nobody recognised him anyway. The tavern is just where he ran out of money and desire to move on.

>Would they be something to be fearful of?
It you're level 1, sure.

>>54448971
>>54449102
None of those would be higher than level 5, 6 at most.

>>54451154
You don't tend to find higher-level commoners, though. They either max out after a few levels, unable to grind enough XP murdering game and getting the harvests in, or get a career change.

>>54448971
>drunken, affable captain of bumbling local ruffians
>60 year old Christmas cake half-elf who's the forgotten bastard kid of the last wizard to pass through town
>Dubious friar that seems to have missed every seminary lesson past basic literacy, reads but can't write
>Dubious money changer with dubious mastery of the abacus and even more shifty general knowledge of numeracy
>competent and utilitarian local blacksmith

>>54448971
>>54451154
Unless every PC and noteworthy NPC in your game is a titled aristocrat, that's just not true. In terms of roleplay, pretty much every guardsman, merchant, townsman, and vagabond you might encounter will be a commoner. Most will be pretty unremarkable, but being a peasant or commoner is a background, not a measure of power. You could easily have epic PC leveled peasant folk-heroes in every village ready to flog aggressive wanderers, they would still be peasants.

>>54451662
Quoted the wrong posts, meant for>>54451471 and
>>54448920

>>54451539
>>54451662
Some of those would be warriors or experts, not commoners.

Wonder how an epic level commoner would look like...

>>54453614
The best farmer in history, or the grandmother that writes all those cookbooks.

>>54451154
Not much of a problem you know...
In 3.5 you can build level 1 commoners capable of killing armies of demigos and sunderings planets apart with a single punch

>>54453562
Mechanically maybe, but fluff wise if they aren't clergy or nobility they'll almost necessarily be commoners, possibly bourgeois merchant men or scholars. If they live off the commons or a lord's land instead land of their own holding they're a commoner, be they a rich dignified townsman who could afford a title or a feckless country bumpkin. Their social background is not altered by combat ability.