Pure Commoner!!!

[Xantor_Stromgate]

Help! I don't know how to be average!!!

[Zavandar]

can't go wrong as long as you cap craft mastery

otherwise i'm gonna quote red green:

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

if you want to be brought along for anything, cap out leadership (to buff allies and sell heads for more), cap out search (more drops), lore (more drops, use scrolls to buff people), cap out appraise (sell things for more). wait for your specialist dip to get open lock/disable trap so you can be invalidated by a wizard with a pixie. get some umd if you want to supplement your lore. heal if you want to be the designated heal kit spammer.

because of all this i recommend getting enough int to get the skills you want, str to carry crafting supplies around, and then dump whatever else. you really don't need much con because you shouldn't be getting hit by anything.

EDIT: also get sf: craft mastery and esf: craft mastery. 15 points in tumble to avoid aoo's is nice QoL. some hide/ms to avoid mobs while you're farming can also be useful.

[Hidden in the Sand]

Pure Commoner gains nothing over 20/10 Commoner/Specialist, because Specialist gives everything commoner gives and more.
Race doesn't matter, but the ""best"" base race for Commoners are Humans and Sun Elves, because they get the most skill points per level innately. In reality, you'll have so many frigging skill points it's almost not even funny.
Gift of Crafting is mandatory. I strongly recommend gift of INT for more skills, and either gift of STR for carrying capacity or whichever minor gift fits your roleplay. INT > STR > CON > everything else: I'd stat INT as you level but if you find you have too many skills then probably STR or CON if you aren't hauling stuff.

Here are the feats I recommend.
1. Silver Palm: +2 Appraise.
3. SF: Craft Mastery
6: SF: Appraise
9: SF: Search
12: Toughness or SF: Hide
15: SF: Set Trap, Lore, or above
18: Brew Potion (if Herbalist), Stealthy (if you want to be all sneaky-beaky like) or above.
21: ESF #1, recommended Craft Mastery
23(spec): ESF #2, recommended Appraise
24: ESF #3, recommended Lore
26(spec): ESF #4, recommended Search
27: ESF #5, recommended Heal
29(spec): ESF #6, recommended Set Trap
30: Epic Will, for having boldly gone where few men have gone before ESF #7, recommended either Hide or Taunt, depending on your playstyle.

Side notes: Prior to the Persuade > Leadership change, 33 ranks capped out the sales benefit. I do not know if this is still the case, and if it's not then you may wish to consider (E)SF Leadership, as well.
Gear-wise you want skills and CON, mostly. Try to get Merchant's Rings and Greater Gloves of Appraisal ASAP, and you'll want to hotkey one of them to juggle sales prices (since it rolls instead of taking 20). Goggles of Minute Seeing also benefit you greatly. If you're ever out exploring, then you want search (there are short swords with a bonus to it called Seeker, you want these), lore, stealth (if you're buying stealth), and a gear-swap for roguish activities.
Unlike most characters, you can actually afford to sink 33 ranks into Open Lock, which has some pretty neat FOIG benefits.
You can make good use of Sleight of Hand if you're not afraid of getting one-rounded if you accidentally swipe something from a ranger.
SF + ESF Lore makes 80 Lore very attainable for a high-INT character.

[Flower Power]

Former L30 Commoner weighing in here.

1) As above, Commoner/Specialist is the preferred mix - I recommend going 21 Commoner/9 Specialist just because 10 specialist doesn't get you anything special, but 21 Commoner gets you the "Fortunate Commoner" feat and that's hilarious.

2) You can't go wrong with Commoner/Specialist as long as you max Craft Mastery, Search and Appraise. I recommend skill foci (normal and epic) in all of them.

3) Commoners are actually peak adventurers - they're obnoxiously useful utility characters. Maxing Lore lets you be everyone's pocket scroll-wizard. Getting that epic UMD dip from Specialist lets you be a wand-buffer. Going hard in OL/DT lets you spring open every chest and recover every trap. Grabbing heal lets you keep the actual fighters at max HP really easily.

4) I recommend HIGH INT and then mid/high STR/CON so you can carry and survive the occasional odd swing that gets thrown at you.

It's actually hard to play a commoner wrong as long as you go really high INT and pick up utility skills. My Commoner was in higher demand as an adventurer than any other character I've ever played, just because of how useful they are. I don't really think you need (or benefit that highly from) Hide/MS/Set Trap, because you're going to be in such demand that you'll have no trouble never having to solo - you can free up those ranks to get other useful skills (like OL/DT, Leadership, Climb [always be the first one up the slope! Help everyone else!], etc.)

[Xantor_Stromgate]

I'm gonna quote red green:

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

Thanks everyone for the advice. But this quote of a quote right here ... just ... I think I'm gonna cry ... and then fix everything with duct tape and a sledgehammer!!!

[Gouge Away]

I just wish there were other creative ways to gain XP as a commoner. I started one a while ago and when it dawned on me how long it would take to level I just couldn't do it. Not getting XP for kills is ok but maybe there could be something beyond crafting-- courier writs? Bartending (IDK maybe that does)?

[Xantor_Stromgate]

... gain XP ... Not getting XP

As one of the finest players I ever had the privilege to RP with told me once: "RP > XP".

[Gouge Away]

As someone wise ought to say so I can condescendingly quote them too, "just because you spot a chance to RP shame someone doesn't mean you have to take it."

[Xantor_Stromgate]

As someone wise ought to say so I can condescendingly quote them too, "just because you spot a chance to RP shame someone doesn't mean you have to take it."

Well, it wasn't meant like that, but I can see how it could've been interpreted as such. Apologies.

[Gouge Away]

It's cool! I get defensive about being accused of not caring about RP.

I wouldn't be interested in commoner if I didn't want to explore the role playing potential but this is a game built around progress and I think if we're all honest with ourselves even the top-notch RPers like gaining levels and don't want the upper potential of a character to be forever out of reach. I think the commoner just stagnates at a certain point (low to mid teens?) and that's where most players shelve the character. Slow XP gain is fine but it would be nice if there were more tasks that could give even small XP payouts so you could feed that sense of accomplishment we're all addicted to and so getting to epics felt like a possibility. Like, all crafting gives a very minimal amount of XP (instead of just XP boosts for first time crafting an item), courier quests could be open to commoners at reduced XP, bartending and other work.. I dunno. Maybe commoners could even trade large amounts gold or turn in high value crafted items to some commoner NPC for a little XP gain.

As it is the character I wanted to play as a commoner just works better as a rogue with a low class commoner background and heavier investment in trade skills than usual, because I can only play 10-15 hours a week and this might not even be a main so if I played commoner they'd probably be forever level 6 hanging around town as basically a PC-controlled NPC but never involved in much. Just having a few more ways to boost XP would make a world of difference in giving them purpose.