Commoner NPC Stat Block 5e: Mobs, Hostages and Villagers

The Commoner is the 5e NPC stat block for ordinary people: farmers, servants, pilgrims, shopkeepers, the crowd in the market square. It is CR 0 (10 XP) with AC 10, 4 hit points, straight 10s in every ability score, and a club that hits at +2 for 2 damage. Nobody builds a fight around one commoner. You need this stat block when ordinary people end up in the danger zone: an angry mob, hostages in a bandit camp, a village that has to help hold the wall. The 2024 Commoner adds one trait, Training: proficiency and Advantage in one skill of the DM's choice, which turns every villager into someone who is good at something.

Table of Contents

• •Commoner Stat Block (2014)
• •The Commoner in the 2024 Rules
• •What the Commoner Stat Block Is For
• •How Commoners Fight: Mob Math
• •Running Hostage and Village Defense Encounters
• •How Players Beat Commoners (and Keep Them Alive)
• •Commoner Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Commoner Stat Block (2014)

Every number is the baseline. Ability modifiers of +0 mean every check and save a commoner makes is a flat d20, plus 2 on its club attack from proficiency. 4 hit points (1d8) is less than an average hit from almost any weapon in the game, so assume one hit kills one commoner.

The Commoner in the 2024 Rules

Training is a small change that makes the block much more useful out of combat. A commoner with Training in Survival rolls d20 + 2 with Advantage on tracking checks: average result about 16, better than many level 1 characters. Pick the skill from the job: Animal Handling for a stablehand, Insight for an innkeeper, Persuasion for a merchant, Medicine for a midwife, Nature for a farmer who knows which mushrooms are safe. The trait gives you a reason to involve the villager in the scene instead of the party doing everything.

What the Commoner Stat Block Is For

Use it whenever you need numbers for a person who isn't a fighter:

• •Crowds and mobs. Peasant uprisings, a lynch mob at the jail, cultist congregations (the true believers who aren't armed cultists).
• •Hostages and bystanders. The fragile things the party has to protect. Their 4 hit points are the source of tension.
• •Defense scenarios. Villagers who can carry water, hold ladders, spot raiders and swing a club when the wall is breached.
• •Hirelings and guides. Porters, torchbearers and wagon drivers. With 2024 Training, a guide who knows the marsh is a guide who rolls well.
• •Disguises. A shapechanger, a spy or a copper dragon wearing a human form looks like a commoner. The stat block tells you what it would look like if the disguise were real.

How Commoners Fight: Mob Math

A commoner's club hits at +2. Against a level 1 wizard (AC 12) it needs a 10, 55% of the time. Against a fighter with AC 16 it needs a 14, 35%. Against plate and shield (AC 20) it needs an 18, 15%. A hit averages 2.5 damage (1d4).

A Medium creature can be surrounded by at most eight others. So eight commoners mobbing a fighter with AC 16 land about 2.8 hits for roughly 7 damage per round. That's a threat to a level 1 character over three rounds and a nuisance from level 3 up.

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide (not the SRD) has a faster method for big mobs: instead of rolling every attack, group attackers by the d20 roll they need. A creature that needs a 13 or 14 lands one hit for every three attackers, so those eight commoners score two hits a round. It's a good shortcut when twenty villagers storm the manor.

Mobs break. Commoners aren't soldiers. When the first two or three fall, or when someone casts a loud spell, the mob makes a choice. Most run. A few get angrier. A crowd that panics becomes terrain. In 2014 you can move through a nonhostile creature's space, but it counts as difficult terrain (double movement). In 2024 you can pass through an ally's space but not a Medium stranger's unless it's Incapacitated, so a packed crowd is a wall. Either way, a fleeing crowd blocks a chase.

Running Hostage and Village Defense Encounters

XP. A commoner is worth 10 XP. Under the 2024 XP budget (SRD 5.2.1), twenty hostile commoners (200 XP) are a Low-difficulty fight for four level 1 characters. The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide multiplier (×4 for 15 or more creatures) rates the same mob at 800 effective XP, twice the Deadly threshold for that party. Both numbers mislead. The real difficulty of a mob fight is whether the party is willing to kill ordinary people. Our encounter calculator shows the 2014 math if you want it.

Commoners as hostages or allies don't count toward the budget. They change the fight in other ways.

Hostages. A bandit's scimitar (1d6 + 1) kills a 4-hit-point hostage two times in three, and a thug's mace (1d6 + 2) five times in six. A hostage next to an enemy is a threat that works without the enemy attacking. Give the captors a clear demand and a clear line ("one step closer and she dies") and let the players solve it.

Area spells. A commoner has 4 hit points and +0 to every save. A Fireball (8d6) kills one even on a successful save. Burning Hands kills on a failed save almost every time and on a success about five times in six. Tell players before they cast that the villagers are in the area; the choice is the interesting part.

Village defense. Give each group of villagers a job and a short rule instead of a full initiative entry:

Raiders who reach the villagers kill one per hit. That keeps the stakes visible without running twenty extra turns.

Death saves for named villagers. The 2014 SRD notes that most monsters die at 0 hit points, but special NPCs can fall unconscious and make death saving throws like player characters. Use that for the blacksmith the party has been drinking with all campaign. It gives the cleric a chance to be a hero. See the death saving throw rules.

How Players Beat Commoners (and Keep Them Alive)

• •Don't kill them. Any melee attack that drops a creature to 0 can knock it out instead. A party that wants a clean conscience punches the mob instead of stabbing it.
• •Use social skills and fear. Intimidation, a show of force, or a Prestidigitation light show can end a mob scene before it starts. Command ("Flee!") and Calm Emotions work on Humanoids, and every commoner save is +0.
• •Shield the bystanders. Hostage scenes reward Sanctuary on the hostage, readied actions against the captor, and anything that moves the captor away from the victim.
• •Pick spells that don't splash. Single-target spells and control effects keep villagers alive. Hold Person on the captor stops the knife without putting the hostage in an area of effect.

Commoner Encounter Ideas

The jailbreak mob. A crowd of thirty villagers wants to hang a prisoner the party believes is innocent. Six of them are angry enough to attack. The rest are watching to see what happens. If the party hurts anyone, the watchers join in.

The ferry. Bandits stop a river ferry with eight passengers aboard. Two bandits hold knives to passengers. Every turn the fight goes on, the ferry drifts closer to the rapids.

Harvest night. Raiders will hit the village after sundown. The party has one afternoon to organize twenty commoners: who digs the ditch, who rings the bell, who hides the children. The fight goes better the better they planned. The 2024 Training trait matters here: the old trapper (Survival) can rig snares, and the miller (Athletics) can drop a cart across the road.

Need a name and a face for the villager who survives the raid? The NPC generator makes one in seconds, and Loreify can record your sessions so the miller the party saved shows up in your notes next week.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a commoner in 5e?

The commoner is a CR 0 NPC stat block for ordinary people (farmers, servants, merchants, pilgrims) with AC 10, 4 hit points, a +2 club and no special abilities. The 2024 version adds the Training trait.

How much XP is a commoner worth?

10 XP, in both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

What does the commoner's Training trait do?

In the 2024 rules, the commoner is proficient in one skill of the DM's choice and has Advantage on ability checks using that skill. Choose the skill that matches the commoner's job.

How do you run an angry mob in 5e?

Use commoner stat blocks, cap attackers at eight around a Medium target, and have most of the mob run when the first few fall. For big mobs, the mob rule in the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide (not the SRD) groups attackers by the d20 roll they need instead of rolling each attack.

Can a commoner make death saving throws?

By default, monsters and NPCs die at 0 hit points, but the SRD lets the DM give important NPCs death saving throws like player characters.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.