Hello! I played a commoner year or two ago before it was a class thing, I just fancied playing a farm girl, who was called Tansy. She was a Ranger, with a few rogue levels, which gave her the following talents that made her very useful around the farm:
1) Animal Empathy, which meant that if someone left there horse with me, I could take it to the stable for them. Also gave me good RP around being good with the animals of the farm.
2) Could tend to plants and make them grow faster. "Gift of Greenfingers" is great for this and since the ECL hit won't really matter to the commoner class from what I can tell, it seems like a good pick.
3) Animal Companion. I had a dog called Rascal, which really was a Wolf but as far as anyone was concerned was a Wolfhound. The -associate command and the player tool helped me RP just walking about with my dog, pitchfork slung over one shoulder, as I walked up the hill to sell my produce. Everyone loved the dog.
Of these three, one is something you can pick as a peasant but don't get as default. The other two are things you don't get as a peasant -at all-. For this I would recommend:
1) Offer a feat that allows the commoner to have an animal companion skinned as a dog. Or a cat, or even a squig for our friends in the UD. Maybe other feats that allow one to summon a pack ox, for long distance hauls between Cordor and Burrowhome (for instance). Bodyguards for merchants, a bit like Tribal Warriors.
2) IDK give commoners Animal Empathy? Can't be that bad can it?
Things I would really have liked when playing a commoner:
1) Ability to make drinks that felt more cool. When I played Tansy you could make one bottle of ale at a time. Now I think you can do five, which still uses berries for beer and fruit for wine (surely it would be berries for wine and like, grain for beer)
2) Speaking of grain, that. Ability to make bread and less generic food stuff. I think if commoners are going to be a thing, less generic mundane foods to add more flavour to the world should to. The meat pie is a good example! Fruit pies too, that you can eat rather than throw in someone's face. Loaves of bread. Cider from fruit, rather than beer.
3) Give Cordor its dairy cows back! being able to milk cows and sell it was mundane as hell but rather enjoyable.
4) The farm in cordor used to be an area you had to walk through to leave town unless you were going by boat. That meant that if you were RPing a farmer, you would be able to RP with anyone who went past. Now that it's only the route to leave by the swamps, there's less Commoner-adventurer banter. I have played farmers on both setups and I know this to be true! I guess give people more of a reason to walk by the farms?
5) Having some way of marking the character as a native of the settlement would have been good. So that NPCs don't treat you as a stranger but rather, get this, someone they actually know, or know of.
6) now that I'm playing an underdark slave, some more stuff to toil over in Andunor would be wicked.
Tansy had the luxury of also being an adventurer, of course, which was great from a narrative standpoint: Shy girl who has always dreamed of adventure, suddenly finding herself in the wilds! But the RP was always focused on what got done around the town. Complaining about the harvest or the weather. If I'd been playing a lumberjack or a carpenter I'd probably have a bunch of different suggestions on top of these ones. Anyway, there was always something to do. I hope the new commoners have as much to do as I did then!
