shilsen said:
Frankly, most of my reading suggests otherwise to yours. I've read a lot of both the Mars stories and Conan (at least the Howard Conan), and while you may have segments in the stories where both Carter and Conan are described as tired and losing energy, both of them always seem capable of continuing to kick just as much ass in any fight as ever.
This is very subjective and difficult IMO. Howard's descriptions seems to switch perspective between Conan's and an outsiders, meaning that at times you don't know what is going on or whether Conan really is tired or not. For example: the frequent passages that describe Conan with an analogy like "like a wounded tiger" or something. That sort of thing is very much an external perspective on his condition. Yes, he continues to kill people even when he's wounded or tired.
One good story to analyze as far as sheer fatigue would be "Frost Giant's Daughter". He's stumbling around chasing after a phantom, and though while it's a matter of interpretation, I find the story to work in part because you, as the reader, are left wondering whether or not Conan is hallucinating during the story as a result of fatigue and exposure. Then again when the Frost Giants jump out he dispatches both rather easily (compared to his more prolonged fights with man-like apes and such), in spite of the fact that he's been wounded.
There's another instance in a story I recently red ("Scarlet Citidel" I think) where the enemy wizard has Conan fight his warriors for a while, before stepping forward and felling him with a poison touch attack. You could interpret that as Conan being vulnerable to the attack because of fatigue (although the supernatural quickness of the wizard is referenced). However, I can't think of a situation where Howard is explicit about any of Conan's physical weaknesses - as I said he tends to change perspective to that of an observer when Conan is in desperate straights.
On the "Phoenix on the Sword" there is a point where a summoned demon is ready to kill Conan, he's laying on the floor and manages to get out of it at the last minute. Afterwards he is having his wounds attended to as they discuss the events that transpired. Seems like such a denoument is consistent with the idea that Conan is hurt and will rest for a while - otherwise why not just sling his sword over his shoulder and head down to the local tavern to talk about it? (Ok, he is king at this point, but I can still imagine him patronizing taverns.)
shilsen said:
I really can't recall a time in a Carter or Conan story where either of them is actually defeated due to tiredness.
Several Conan stories start with him waking up underneath of a pile of corpses on a battlefield.
shilsen said:
And if they're described as tired but it has no effect, then it maps very well to a per-encounter model.
The reader doesn't have access to Conan's stats. He doesn't really know what Conan's capabilities are because he can't re-run the battle with Conan fully rested. It's clear that Conan has superhuman stamina, but at the same time he is often described as being tired and I think it would be taken as a given that his capabilities would be diminished. I don't expect someone familiar with boxing and physical exertion like Howard to completely dismiss physical limitations in such a way. It's pretty much what I would imagine a high level fighter in DnD would look like, and the fact that he's low on hitpoints (hence the desperation in the narrative that you see when Conan has been in battle for a while) doesn't mean he's been defeated. Even Conan's bad days are better than other people's good days.
shilsen said:
True, but since people in D&D aren't realistically people as we meet in the world around us, especially once they have a few levels, how does that really matter? People in D&D, especially PCs, are much closer to mythical characters. And Cuchulainn, as far as I can recall, just about wrote the book on per-encounter abilities.
Cuchulainn is probably one of the most extreme examples you can possibly find. Borders on Pecos Bill riding around on a tornado. Cuchulainn holds off an entire kingdom worth of people just because of some curse - I'm sure you're familiar with all that. Bottom line is that this very much is a gaming style issue as well, certain for a game based on tall-tales or superhero comics, quicker recovery is more acceptable. It's a matter of opinion and degree otherwise.
