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So, I'm looking to make a decent Commoner. Which, I know, isn't possible. But, I'm trying anyway. Basically, like, a party of 4 Commoners, what's the best way to build them so they don't instantly die. Using any of the core races.
Also, I don't really want make a wand spammer, and likewise, I know Nature Soul and Boon Companion would be pretty decent, but that's also pretty obvious. Oh, and I'm not looking to multiclass or prestige class.
I'm looking more along the lines of equipment, feats, and generally overlooked stuff by PCs.
And now I will be a jerk for a second...
I AM 100% AWARE THAT ANY CLASS COULD DO ANY OF THIS BETTER. THAT IS NOT THE POINT.
Whew. Sorry. It's just that people here have the tendency to shoot down the suboptimal, even when it's just a creative thought exercise.
So anyway, I'm looking at stuff like Intimidate builds, net throwers, the Standardbearer Feat, interesting Eldritch Heritage stuff, Launching Crossbow with Focused Shot... Weird stuff like that. Thoughts?
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Level?
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Oh. Ummm... 7?
How about 3, 5, 7, and 10?
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Against enemies outdoors without battlefield control magic like entangle, mounted archers would be effective at level 3. You can just buy horses rather than get animal compaions after all. Staying out of range, carrying lots of anmo and slowly chipping away is the secret here. From level 5+ Fireballs become possible and dead horses make it impractical.
Indoors or otherwise trapped at short range at level 3 the same group probably wants to throw all the alchemical weapons at their disposal at enemies. Teamwork feats like volley fire and escape route are likely better than individual feats. I'd suggest a race with darkvision, probably half-orc for weapon proficiencies, sacred tattoo etc.
More later, got to go now.
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At level 5 alchemical weapons are still useful and slightly more affordable. Pack some shard gel to stop enemies charging especially. Continuing with the same group as above you might get potions of enlarge person for the frontline and reduce person for the back line. BTW, the likely traits are fate's favored and accelerated drinker. Your people will need another save bonus badly by now, the shake it off teamwork feat is the best answer I think.
By level 7 you have a problem. Alchemical weapons just don't do damage fast enough. I think it might be necessary to make a different group, I'll think about it.
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One resource that might be more useful for the Commoner-party than a normal group would be Occult Rituals. They'd give you a way to cast magic without having any actual casting classes; you'd still have to make sure you had enough skill ranks in the right skills to cast them, and they don't have the speed advantage of normal casting, but it's a well of magic for you to draw on.
Divine/Fiendish boon feats would be an alternate way to get everyone a few magic tricks that they could pull / special abilities they could use.
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One resource that might be more useful for the Commoner-party than a normal group would be Occult Rituals. They'd give you a way to cast magic without having any actual casting classes; you'd still have to make sure you had enough skill ranks in the right skills to cast them, and they don't have the speed advantage of normal casting, but it's a well of magic for you to draw on.
Divine/Fiendish boon feats would be an alternate way to get everyone a few magic tricks that they could pull / special abilities they could use.
Tell me more... /where can I find these on the PFSRD?
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The Adequate Commoner from Misfit Studios could be a good resource.
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Craft Traps and lots of downtime. Unlike PCs a Commoner has the time to spend all of their energy on crafting instead of adventuring. Crafting traps requires no magical talent, and the NPC has the chance to craft hundreds of traps given time.
This is especially true if they invest into Alchemy and can get access to alchemical supplies at a fraction of the cost with Master Alchemist. Unfortunately this makes the NPC fairly sedentary, but thats what it is.
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Master Craftsman comes on line at 5th, but useful at 7th when they can take actual Item Creation feats. Or maybe take Leadership at 7th.
At least they all have Perception as a class skill, so they will know when to run away!
;-)
The ritual magic upthread reminds me of Buffy, and more particularly, her Scoobies. :-)
Boosting Intelligence, taking lots of Knowledge skills and traits to make them class skills, and make it a mystery-based campaign might work. Plus some Social skills. Emphasize the Exploration and Social legs of adventuring, and de-emphasize the Combat leg. Maybe do some MacGyvering.
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By the way, I totally meant the Flagbearer feat in my original post. And the reason I emphasize things like splash weapons and nets is because touch AC is usually much lower than Total AC. And commoners have trash to-hit.
As soon as you can afford it: candle of invocation.
Now, "infinite wish" loops or whatever aside (I'm presupposing these aren't a thing in this scenario), this is a single-use skill-less gate spell, CL 17 of your choice. This and a tinder twig makes a pretty excellent, "Oh, carpfish!" button for when everything is falling to pieces around you, provided you aren't in an aquatic environment.
Also, consider retraining; not your classes, but your feats. Once the previous tactics stop working, you can shed the old feats like a bad habit (because they are now) and get newer ones that are more appropriate to your CR.
Most any method by which you attain either summoning or simulacra or both is not w bad method. Lots of controlled undead, too. Whatever you can do to boost your numbers.
Speaking of: Leadership is an incredibly important thing. I recognize you want to go all commoner all the time (which is fair), but were it me, I'd look into the possibilities of either thrallherd or noble scion as a method of shoring up leadership. Even if neither are allowed as PrCs, you may want to do something to allow imitations of their effects (though you'll likely not want to open an "infinite nobility" loop via Noble Scion). If you don't allow those, that's fine, but the Leadership fears need to be focused on crafting stuff (preferably using every trick in the book), and making money. This will be a huge help toward getting the stuff they need to survive and generating all the consumables that this party will use. Again, I am pediment these, too, must be commoner's; there are still lots of tricks that can be used, but it means that the followers should generally avoid combat (barring the thrallherd effect). If the GM does t allow them to be anything but commoner's and doesn't allow them to be crafters, this feat loses much utility, I'd either of those are not true, it's super strong.
Consider posing foes as two CRs less. You have to carefully examine if a foe's special ability can one-shot a party, but usually lowering the effective CR by two gets you a rough guesstimate of what the party can handle.
And at some point I transitioned into GM advice. Whoops!
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CR will definitely be lowered, if this ever actually transpires. And animal companions as well as leadership are obvious choices, but certainly good ones. I guess I was looking for something... A little more outside the box? And no disrespect meant, of course.
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I played in a campaign once with a guy who played a commoner for quite a while. I think he got to level 10 or so before he switched characters.
She had a sling and a ton of random alchemical items (tanglefoot bags, alchemist's fire, etc.). I think she might have also learned how to make traps at some point. Most of the enemies didn't bother targeting her because they were always more worried about the rest of us, so her survivability was actually okay. But that's not something you could count on if everyone is a commoner.
No disrespect taken!
Mostly, I give the general advice, because it's hard to know what people are aware of, or what they want.
Also, I ramble.
Though it's not perfect for what you're looking for - the PCs are technically not commoner classed - the adventures Uncommon Commoners are both hilarious and excellent for you. I'd recommend checking them out!
I'm not focused enough to come up with more, now, but I think without specific adventures, general advice is going to be your best bet.
I think, as well, advanced research and Retraining rules are the most important thing these people will have in the course of their adventures.