A Commoner's Tale: Feedback on the Commoner

[Rogaku]

A Commoner's Tale:

Rogaku's perspective of the Commoner class..

Having now played a Commoner character to the end of their career, I can finally provide some perspective about them. It won't be a long and drawn out affair, but:

* Commoners are an invaluble class as part of the Greater world of Arelith, given their abilities with Crafting and Artisanry. Additionally, in the hands of a player willing to put the personality and perspective into them, they can be a lot more than what some might call glorified NPCs.

* They are also capable of great feats, if you know what you want to do with them and accept they aren't going to be the next Elminster, or other great hero of renown! It's something that does take a fair amount of player drive (and luck, Luck is invaluable)

* With the Specialist class thrown atop them, you can actually turn them into any skilled sort of individual albeit strictly in a mundane sense. How much of this will turn into 'Phat lootable skillz? ' .. PRobably not much. Adding to the Roleplay of Arelith though? VERY MUCH SO.

In short, it's a worthwhile play, if you don't mind having a different experience than your usual adventurer on Arelith.

[-slave]

I built my commoner into an insane merchant and search/appraise bot that made 1.8 million gold in like 3 weeks. You absolutely can turn a commoner into a better rogue than a rogue, it's all about how you want to build it.

Their power and utility goes -far- beyond just crafting. The amount of skills and epic skill focii they have available to them gives them options such as:

Setting Epic Traps
Removing all Traps
Picking any lock
Hitting a 100% Search
UMD to use any item
Insane Spot
Insane Hide
Insane persuade
Enough Lore to use 9th level spells.

I used to have groups bring him along to insanely dangerous places just so he could find them loot for them, and find vast quantities of wealth, for a share, of course.

To expand, he had a sell cap of about 800~ per item meaning not only did he find more loot 95-100% of the time each time he looted a body, but he also ended up selling most of that loot for anywhere from 2-3x the amount somebody else would normally get. At one point I think at least 60% of all items sold to a vendor in the UD went through my commoner for this reason alone.

The RP that they can have is fantastic, but they absolutely bring their own power and support most people haven't seen before on this server to the extent the commoner can do it.

[Flower Power]

Having taken a Commoner to L30, I can confirm that they make excellent adventurers, and I was in fairly high demand to assist with any number of trips.

[TimeAdept]

i'd love to see perspectives from commoners who are RPR 10 and 20 since common purveyance at this moment is "commoner is HELL unless you're 30 or 40"

[Gouge Away]

i'd love to see perspectives from commoners who are RPR 10 and 20 since common purveyance at this moment is "commoner is HELL unless you're 30 or 40"

Yeah at 20 rpr I wouldn't play one to level 30, I just can't see how I could possibly put in that many hours as an adult with a job and family.

However

I would consider a commoner with no expectation of epic levels and who's just a hang-out character who'll probably settle in the teens, or maybe just maybe reach early epic levels for a specialist boost in something. It wouldn't be my "main" but could be fun if I was in the mood for a crafting-based social character

I actually think the commoner could go further with the no-XP thing and remain a level 3 adventurer with absurdly low hit points and no combat ability but have their own version of progression as far as crafting goes get "epic" in their trade skills without the weirdness of being a level 30 epic character slash commoner. *shrugs*

[-slave]

I am a 20 RPR Commoner. It takes a very, very long time. The reality? A lot of idling. I found a safe place to hang out while I did other things, checked in when I could. I'm going to be really honest. Working from home is the only way this is feasible so, thanks for that COVID?

Mard was never intended to be my main. But hoo boy did that change when people really liked what he had to offer. I had to shelf every other character I had just to keep up. Everyone wanted him around any time they could, with constant requests for his services. It was frankly awesome. I was even able to get involved in politics, and even PVP. Yes. I've PVPed on a commoner. Sometimes you need to fight even as a non-combat class.

You can make it an exciting main character. But it's an incredible time investment. That being said, if you hit early teens you can still start really taking off on what a commoner is capable of. Don't be mistaken. Yes, their focus is RP. But I would -highly- recommend testing the builds you plan to use on the PGCC as an example, same as you would anything else, to make sure you're happy with what your commoner is capable of accomplishing. And boy, it's a lot more than you might suspect.

I have felt incredibly lucky. I've been told by four different people that my character inspired them to roll up their own commoners. I know it's a very long and painful road. But I genuinely think it was worth it in the end. Mard was probably the single most unique character I've ever played in my like, 3 years on Arelith.