[3.X] An Argument Against 5th Level Commoners

Fully fleshed NPC classes, such as the aristocrat or commoner, are a bad idea. This is obviously within the context of D&D 3.X, but the argument can feasibly be applicable to any level-based RPG.

By the nature of the beast, a level 3 Expert is better than a level 1 Fighter; more and better skills, higher base attack bonus, better saving throws, better gear, etc.

Games such as D&D posit that PCs are individuals who matter at the beginning of their career (level 1), and this is something that even ‘gritty’ settings do in practice if you look at the adventures described. This is something inherent in the genre.

This facet will be countered if you do not simultaneously posit that third level Experts are uncommon; and tenth level Commoners absolutely must be highly rare. If your typical man on the street is a plurality of levels higher than you, even with a sub-optimal class like the Expert, then your PC begins play as their cohort or squire. When orcs invade the town, you do not send out the PCs, you send out Billy the Roof Thatcher. The party of combines their martial training, bardic music, and mystic knowledge to augment the raw power of Dread Thatcher Billy.

Sure, your PCs will eventually be better than the majority of NPCs, at like level 6 or something. I strongly doubt your players are interested in roleplaying the years of apprenticeship and character building to be better than the guy who flips the switch for the Bat Signal (only it’s a guy with a trowel instead of Batman).

Now, rallying the peasants into a force that can fight back Team Evil is certainly cool, but that’s a completely different message from “Billy’s wife, Mary, can beat up your entire party with a wooden foot.”

What this means is that NPC classes need to exist on fewer levels. There is no reason for there to even be such a thing as a 10th level warriors or 6th level commoners. Simultaneously, NPC demographics need to be weighted strongly for the bottom levels.

In a personal plug for my own 3.X games, I have dumped the Warrior and Adept NPC classes as written for homebrew versions that are only five levels long and are implicitly faster to design than a PC class. The Commoner class doesn’t exist, and PC-races without class (hah!) get by with a single racial hit die and a simple list of ‘templates’ based on their livelihood. I will admit, due to time and such, I have not made a final decision on how to handle the replacement of Experts and Aristocrats.