D&D General D&D Archetypes that spread out to other settings and media

[Seramus]

And is shield that iconic for Boromir? I literally do not recall him having it at all.

In the books? He's mentioned as having one, but it rarely comes up.

More of a movie thing, where it's very visible on him.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

What anglo-saxon heroes you mean? And is shield that iconic for Boromir? I literally do not recall him having it at all.

Any RL Anglo-Saxon warrior would have carried a shield, as the shield wall was their standard tactic. The idea that you didn’t have one would have seemed very strange to them. (NB longbowmen came later).

 

[Reynard]

What anglo-saxon heroes you mean?

 

[Tonguez]

The idea of Lich is a combination of many different elements from many different folklores, especially the Koshei the Deathless, with Jewish term phylacery thrown in, and we can see its influences in modern media, especially after The Lich being the main villain of Adventure Time, we can see influences of D&D-style Lich on many villains like the Beast from over the Garden Wall or Emperor Belos from the Owl House, and even somewhat retroactively modern interpretations of Skeletor (even though Mumm-Ra is argurably more lichy of the two 80's villains)

The concept of a "Simple Sword & Board Fighter", which people annyoingly demand even unrelated games like Draw Steel to adhere to, which to be perfectly honest, I have hard time actually finding in fiction from before D&D, where most archetypical knights or warriors either fight with a two-handed weapon, or use shield exclusively on a horse, with a lance. And some characters who do use shield, like Captain America, are not what I'd call simple.

This one may be more going off the vibes. The thing I see sometimes in media is when the story introduces a group that seems to lack any sort of initial cohesion and just gives a feeling of a misplaced D&D adventuring party - people of all professions, walks of life and aesthetics vaguelly filling typical d&d archetypes and giving a feel of fantasy characters, often feeling very out of place in the setting, whose members are of different species or, in humans-only stories, at least different ethnicities. Sometimes its done on purpose like monster hunters in Perdido Street Station. I'm not sure whenever it was intentional with other examples, like mercenaries in Netflix Yasuke, which include a muscular Russian werebear woman, an African Shaman, a scantily-clad assassin, a catholic priest and a freaking robot. The show takes place in Japan soon after death of Oda Nobunanga, btw.

First time I have gotten this "mispalced D&D party" feeling from a group of characters, however, was Marvel Comics' the Black Order, who barely seem to have anything in common aside serving Thanos and even then sometimes they do mercenary jobs.

Der Bremer Roland Statue with his sword and shield

Beowulf had an Iron shield specially made so that he could face the dragon and not have his wooden shield burn up.

The Greeks at Troy used Spear and Shield but I think that still counts. Ajax was renown for his massive Tower Shield and Spear thrusts.

1 Anyway The Lich is an interesting case, it was certainly standardized and fully defined by DnD, but it predates DnD via such examples as Vathek (1786) and RE Howards "Horror from the Mound" (as well as the Sorcerer Xaltotun who Conan faces).
Oh and Mumm-ra is a Mummy!! its right there in his name!

3 and back in the ancient Col_Pladoh Q&A thread I asked about the DnD random Party composition being a reflection of the Fellowship of the Rings mixed party of elfs, men, dwarfs, halflings and a semi-divine wizard. He dismissed the direct link claiming that any time a group of diverse species and skills gets together, without spotlighting a central hero, its going to look like that. So DnD didnt invent the mixed party, but neither did Tolkien.
indeed the Argonauts could be cited as an ancient example of the mixed group of champion, scout, seer and priest travelling from place to place solving problems. Jason was the main character but with Hercules, Orpheus, Atalanta and Medea on board he was far from being the central hero.