Mythological Figures: Conan the Barbarian (5E)

WHAT IS BEST IN LIFE? Click here to find out! This week's Mythological Figure is one sure to generate a lot of discussion, as we delve into Conan the Barbabarian!

If by some strange chance you are not already familiar with this wildly popular character my first recommendation is to check out any of the Conan the Barbarian films (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger), but there’s also a Conan RPG from Modiphius and a relatively recent Conan video game. I’m not going to summarize his history -- as far as I’m able to tell there are at least 13 different public domain works featuring Conan.

If you read this column for the context this just isn’t your week but for the stat junkies, behold!

Design Notes: Conan here is one of the most hotly contested character builds for fantasy RPGs. It’s opinions, @$$#%^&$, and Conan builds out here: everybody has one. At one point or another I ran across a rationale I thought was pretty good and made a comment in my working document about it. If you are the person who posted this on Facebook or elsewhere on EN World or wherever it is I saw it, thank you:

“First thing - no more than 1 level of Barbarian class. Barbarians from Hyboria aren't D&D Barbarians. You just need it to reflect that he was formidabble even without any armour. So Barbarian 1 and no more. Second thing - Ranger 1. Conan was good tracker and knew how to take care of himself in the wilderness, his favoured enemies should be humans and human-abomination hybrids. Third - Rouge 3 with Thief Roguish Archetype. He spent a lot of time as ordinary thief. Rest should go to Fighter with Champion as Martial Archetype as Conan was more interested in crushing his enemies (and seeing them driven before him) as quickly and effectively as possible.”

For his Challenge Rating I erred on the side of caution and rounded up to 9 because he’s got a ton of features, can leap like a monster, and has incredible mobility (and if you are going to cry fowl about needing a higher Strength or Constitution, drop Mobility and increase one or the other by +2).

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Conan the Barbarian
Medium humanoid (human), neutral barbarian 1/ranger 1/rogue (thief) 3/fighter 11 (champion)

Armor Class 14 (hide)
Hit Points 118 (1d12+12d10+3d8+32)
Speed 40 ft.

STR​	DEX​	CON​	INT​	WIS​	CHA​
18 (+4)​	14 (+2)​	14 (+2)​	12 (+1)​	13 (+1)​	10 (+0)​

Saving Throws Str +9, Con +7
Skills Athletics +14, Intimidation +5, Sleight of Hand +7, Stealth +12, Survival +6; disguise kit +5, thieves’ tools +5
Senses passive Perception 11
Languages Common, Thieves’ Cant
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)

Background: Guttersnipe - Urban Knowledge. Conan and his allies (while outside of combat) move at double their normal speed when traveling between two locations in the same city.

Action Surge (1/Short Rest). Once on his turn, Conan can take an additional action on top of his regular action and a possible bonus action.

Cunning Action (1/Turn). Conan can take a bonus action to take the Dash, Disengage, Hide or Use Object action, Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, or to use thieves’ tools to disarm a trap or open a lock.

Favored Enemy. Conan has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track humans and human-abomination hybrids, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.

Feat: Mobile. Conan can Dash through difficult terrain without requiring additional movement. Whenever he makes an attack against a creature, he doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature until the end of his turn.

Feat: Power Attack. When Conan makes his first melee weapon attack in a turn, he can choose to take a -5 penalty to his melee weapon attack rolls in exchange for a +10 bonus to melee weapon damage. In addition, Conan can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack after he uses a melee weapon to reduce a creature to 0 hit points or scores a critical hit with it. Conan can only use this feature on his turn.

Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting. When Conan rolls a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack he makes with a melee weapon that he is wielding with two hands, he can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for Conan to gain this benefit.

Indomitable (1/Long Rest). Conan can reroll a saving throw that he fails but must use the new roll.

Natural Explorer: Mountains. When Conan makes an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to the forest, his proficiency bonus (+5) is doubled if he is using a skill that he’s proficient in. While traveling for an hour or more in his favored terrain, Conan gains the following benefits:

• Difficult terrain doesn’t slow his group’s travel.
• Conan’s group can’t become lost except by magical means.
• Even when he is engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), Conan remains alert to danger.
• If Conan is traveling alone, he can move stealthily at a normal pace.
• When he forages, Conan finds twice as much food as he normally would.
• While tracking other creatures, Conan also learns their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

Rage (2/Long Rest). On his turn, Conan can enter a rage as a bonus action. His rage lasts for 1 minute, ending early if he is knocked unconscious or if his turn ends and he hasn’t either attacked a hostile creature since his last turn or taken damage since then. Conan can also end his rage on his turn as a bonus action. While raging, he gains the following benefits.

• Conan has advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
• When Conan makes a melee weapon attack using Strength, he deals 2 extra damage.
• Conan has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Remarkable Athlete. Conan adds +2 to any Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution check he makes that doesn’t already use his proficiency bonus. In addition, when he makes a running long jump, the distance he can cover increases by 4 feet.

Second-Story Work. Climbing does not cost Conan extra movement. When he makes a running jump, the distance he covers increases by 2 feet (with Remarkable Athlete, 6 feet).

Second Wind (1/Short Rest). On his turn, Conan can use a bonus action to regain 1d10+11 hit points.

Sneak Attack (1/Turn). Conan deals an extra 7 (2d6) damage when he hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of Conan that isn’t incapacitated and Conan doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.

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ACTIONS

Multiattack. Conan attacks three times.

Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.

Dagger (4). Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4+4) piercing damage.

Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8+2) piercing damage.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

Never perfect LOL

? No clue what you're getting at there. We may be having a case of vehement agreement, here.

Learning animal languages was something ANYONE in that setting could do the dwarves knew many dialects... just didnt know thrush.

I'm not sure that's true, but even if it is, magic in Middle Earth runs on fundamentally different premises than D&D. In many cases the practitioners of magic deny they're doing magic at all---it's just something they do, a technique they've learned, or something in their nature. In general, sorcery is an "art of the Enemy." (Tolkien is not entirely consistent, though. Luthien sings songs that are an awful lot like spells.)

Spellcasting as it works in D&D is an artifice of the game rules. It clearly shows its war-game roots and was largely a lift from The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. No writer needs to be nearly as consistent as a set of game rules and, by and large, they are not.

I mean if you want to be fairly loose about it We might call his herbalism = kings magic to make what everyone knew a useless weed into something useful (its symbolic of the ability of Nobles to improve those around them via inspiration)

Aragorn's use of athelas is a sign of him being the True King and is clearly described as such.

One might also call his rallying the unforgiven dead a form of that same thing, kings magic to marshal up some troops, neither is magic in the traditional sense

That's handled quite explicitly in LotR. The men were Oathbreakers to Isildur who are fulfilling their Oaths to escape undeath. Aragorn is the proclaimed Heir of Isildur. Once again, this is a sign of Aragorn being the True King. It's not a class feature, as it were, as there does not appear to be any suggestion that other rangers make use of it. Perhaps they're lower level and can't cast spells yet. However, the 1E ranger did get followers at high level, as did many high level 1E classes.

I should be 100% clear: The 1E ranger isn't Aragorn, it's just got a number of semblances of Aragorn. (Two weapon fighting rangers is a 2Eism, and it came from Drizzt.) Similarly, the 1E barbarian isn't Conan, but has semblances, just as the Paladin isn't Holger Carlson but has semblances. Many cleric spells are pretty much a lift from The Bible. The way magic-user spell casting works is like the wizards of The Dying Earth. The thieves' guild is a lift from Lankhmar and Conan.

Gygax told us his inspirations.

 

[Selvarin]

Indeed. And not all things that in a book or movie occur necessarily need to be made special abilities. Some are merely the outcomes of a successful skill check (paraphrasing). Ifd I have the Blood of the Kings in me and I go to where my ancestors lay buried, and they come out en mass, do I not have the chance to declare my bloodline and beseech aid? yes. Does it need to be a magical gift? No. It is a roleplay encounter whose outcome is determined by how well one argues the case. This isn't much different than going to the Captain of the Guard and RP'ing.

 

[Garthanos]

? No clue what you're getting at there. We may be having a case of vehement agreement, here.

Yes you got it, I might have thought you just under exaggerated the case.

Luthien sings songs that are an awful lot like spells.)

https://quizlet.com/76854882/gre-root-words-cantcent-chant-to-sing-flash-cards/

The words Chanting and Enchanting and Incantation and Canter so on all have the same root for a reason. Additionally in context the world in tolkien's cosmology was sung into existence it's a pretty consistent pattern ... its kind of why I find calling out the bards magic as music based seems a little odd at times

 

[Garthanos]

Indeed. And not all things that in a book or movie occur necessarily need to be made special abilities. Some are merely the outcomes of a successful skill check (paraphrasing). Ifd I have the Blood of the Kings in me

That right there in Tolkien's world meant you had special powers though ... so it's not that clear cut. I mean one could highlight it explicitly.

Arguably every Arthurian hero has a special bloodline of some sort and every hero in Greek myth or Celtic legend might say the same so allowing any player hero opportunities to do something like that is also reasonable.

Not arguing it cannot simply be improvised just maybe that it might only doable because the characters are of heroic stature. I don't want to say merely a skill check.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

Indeed. And not all things that in a book or movie occur necessarily need to be made special abilities. Some are merely the outcomes of a successful skill check (paraphrasing). Ifd I have the Blood of the Kings in me and I go to where my ancestors lay buried, and they come out en mass, do I not have the chance to declare my bloodline and beseech aid? yes. Does it need to be a magical gift? No. It is a roleplay encounter whose outcome is determined by how well one argues the case. This isn't much different than going to the Captain of the Guard and RP'ing.

Part of this is that generally the only way a game system like D&D has to handle things like this is through some kind of supernatural ability. Skill checks aren't supposed to be able to do things like that. Furthermore, having a character like Aragorn in the party is massively unbalanced and likely to create a good bit of inter-player issues in many groups. If you wanted Aragorn, you'd have to accept a substantial amount of imbalance among the characters or come up with another way to balance them. RPGs have fundamentally different premises than most fiction and thus there's almost always a good bit of distance between fictional inspirations and RPGs that try to emulate them. You can see this given how crazy the stats were for various fictional characters in the 1E Deities & Demigods.

Over on Cubicle 7's forum people have tried guessing the levels of the Fellowship using the AIME rules. The hobbits are pretty clearly low level at the start and certainly grow to being fairly capable over time. Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir are somewhere around 12th-14th level warriors and turn out to be simulated by the system fairly well in terms of the abilities they demonstrate in the book. Aragorn and Gandalf are just off the hook.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

Yes you got it, I might have thought you just under exaggerated the case.

I try not to overstate things online. People go ba enough as it is.

Additionally in context the world in tolkien's cosmology was sung into existence it's a pretty consistent pattern ... its kind of why I find calling out the bards magic as music based seems a little odd at times

I like the bard's magic as music or language. I think WotC lost opportunities to make it much more thematic, for instance having Power Words be bard spells and making Perform actually matter (at least for some builds) as opposed to being simply a fairly useless "ribbon."

 

[Garthanos]

Part of this is that generally the only way a game system like D&D has to handle things like this is through some kind of supernatural ability. Skill checks aren't supposed to be able to do things like that. .

I both disagree and agree. I know a couple 1e DMs and 4e Dms who might allow it improvisationally but without explicit precident and well defined limits (balancing) I think you are right it's in the probably not going to happen. In 4e I am actually working on a Marshal Troops practice (martial ritual if you will) which in Epic could be very similar to Aragorn rallying those soldiers.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

I both disagree and agree. I know a couple 1e DMs and 4e Dms who might allow it improvisationally but without explicit precident and well defined limits (balancing) I think you are right it's in the probably not going to happen. In 4e I am actually working on a Marshal Troops practice (martial ritual if you will) which in Epic could be very similar to Aragorn rallying those soldiers.

Yeah it could work but it would generally be some kind of "story mode" thing, possibly a high powered one use item or something like that, except in something like Epic Tier 4E (as you say) or similar high powered game. IMO it would be pretty rare to be a skill check alone, although one or more than one might be needed. Aragorn pretty clearly calls them to task for being Oathbreakers, which sounds Intimidate to me, and he did his research well to realize that he could do it.

Of course a BTB D&D Ranger would probably have Charisma as a dump stat and not actually be all that great at a skill like Intimidate. Furthermore, having as important a character as Aragorn in the party would be fairly unusual, although with the right group it could work. Most players aren't too happy being that level of third viola, though. Of course, we shouldn't forget that the real heroes are the little people---Frodo, Sam, Bilbo, and, Smeagol (at least on Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Saturday). All of Aragorn's might is but a side show to cover for the fact that the Ring is getting taken on a Hail Mary to the Crack of Doom.

 

[Quartz]

The match was never perfect, but the 1E Ranger has some decidedly Aragorn-esque features, such as the ability to use crystal balls.

In Middle Earth, anyone could use a crystal ball. Denethor did. One of the hobbits did (albeit very briefly).

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

In Middle Earth, anyone could use a crystal ball. Denethor did. One of the hobbits did (albeit very briefly).

Definitely, although Denethor was among the near-Wise. But in OD&D and 1E that was not true. Only magic-users could... and high level rangers.