I currently making a character for a very low power game. We start as lvl 1 human commoners we get a 0 point buy and all stats must be at 10 with one +2. What should I do for this?
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Ask your GM when you can take your first level in a PC class? What is the GMs intention of starting you all as commoners and what does he want all of you to do? Go around delivering pastries? Even rescuing people's cat up the tree might be a problem in trying to climb the tree..
I can deal with low stats, but not combined with being unable to take any PC classes.
Are you free to take class levels after this or are you sticking with commoner? Are you allowed traits? How combat orient is this? do you have any starting money?
If in combat...
First option be a jouster. Longspear on a horse (assuming you can afford one), take mounted combat and rider by attack (no prereqs besides 1 skill point in ride). Since you are charging on a horse you get 100 ft of move each turn which means most things can't reach you to attack you.
David (and Goliath): slings are a decent weapon at first level. decent range and str to damage. toss in point blank and precise shot and you have a pretty functional damage dealer.....nevermind, forgot about the low stats. Go light crossbow.
Tank: ok so assuming you want to melee, one of your feats should be on light armor proficiency. Second feat can be on getting a better weapon, perhaps a shield, or even toughness so that you don't die in 1 hit.
Teamwork: paired opportunist gives you a +4 on attacks of opportunity, and readying an action with a longspear against anyone who comes into range gives you 2 attacks (1 aoo at +4, 1 readied action with x2 damage if they had charged). Take armor as your other feat and you and a buddy can be combat gods (in this low power game at least)
support: so combat advice is a feat that lets you spend a move action to give +2 to an ally's attack. At this stage +2 is a huge boost and you probually were not going to be useing that move action anyway.
If combat is not a prominent feature of this campaign
skill focus or one of the +2/+2 skills can be useful. As can the feat "run" (getting out of danger is important for 1d6 hp people).
I suggest putting your 12 into a mental stat so that if the DM allows you to select a PC class later on you can be a spellcaster. Charisma might be a good choice since Summoner (Unchained or otherwise) would be more powerful by comparison in a low power game. If Summoner isn't available then Sorcerer or Oracle might be.
If you are allowed to buy an animal and train it for combat then Handle Animal and or Ride might not be a terrible skills to invest a rank in. It turns out that Commoners don't have Diplomacy as a class skill. I guess you could also consider putting a rank in Swim since a DM cruel enough to make you start as a Commoner with 0 point buy might be cruel enough to let you drown. Then again, drowning might be the fun part of this campaign.
On the other hand, maybe the DM has a really interesting story planned and this is just a way to get it started before letting you use some more generous character creation method to update your PCs.
sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread! these are some good suggestions, however only 1 trait is allowed and we have to take a drawback with it. he was unclear about the class levels but im going to assume yes we can eventually take them. so far the "wanna be cleric" build seems functional with all the restrictions.
thank you all for the great advice so far. please keep them coming!
Take the +2 to wisdom, put a skillpoint into handle animal, buy a dog. Now you have someone who can fight for you. Once you are allowed to take class levels become a hunter and take the dog at animal companion.
Animal focus allows you to get bonuses to some things when it is important. You have a pet and you can cast spells. And once you have outflank and pack flanking you always get +4 to attack when you both threaten, so even with low strength you have some chance to hit.
First off, it is completely fair to ask the GM for more clarification. Not 'spoilers' but a generic feel of what the theme of the campaign is, and how he expects the characters to develop. It is possible that he is planning on fairly quickly giving you better stats and class levels (the mystic tomb empowers your characters etc.) or it is possible he is expecting a long term very low power game. It is fair for you as a player to know in general what he is thinking, both so you can be sure it is a game you are interested in playing and so you can build a character that will fit with the campaign and be fun for you to play.
Once that is done, I advise you not to try to 'break' the game premises. If you buy into a campaign of ordinary folks, play and ordinary folk, not some special build that manages to get around the campaigns theme despite the GMs restrictions. Even if you 'win' at that you will probably lose out of the fun of the game.
In specific for your starting character, for the most part one point here or there (which stat you put the +2 into) isn't going to make much of a difference. CON is a pretty strong choice, but if the game is going to evolve into more standard characters, plan for that. If you are going to be a wizard eventually, then int for example.
If he is keeping the really low stats throughout the game and adding on class levels to your commoner level (or especially replacing), an animal companion will be quite powerful comparatively. This can be good and bad, good because it will let you be quite effective, but because anyone who doesn't go that route may well feel useless, which can quickly destroy a campaign. Before I choose something like that in a very low stat game I'd talk about it with everyone.
Find a new group
I mean, why bother trying to do something new and different? Obviously, there can be NO fun in that.
Ask if you can be point buy 3, like regular commoners? =]
-Nearyn