Sacrosanct
Legend
Spawned by the Conan thread, I noticed that when we as gamers like to come up with D&D equivalent stats for literary heroes, we put them at a much higher level than what they've actually accomplished in the book. Some people automatically put them at max level builds. I didn't want to totally hijack that thread, but wanted a separate discussion about the various types of heroes and what levels they would probably be in D&D land based on what they actually accomplished.
As I said in the other thread, a 4th level PC used to be called a "hero", and to put it into context, a 4th level PC in 5e can go toe to toe with a brown bear. That seems pretty heroic to me, once you toss aside our subconscious influences of 4th level being a low level because there are 20 levels of play.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but here are my thoughts on some of the most famous:
Aragorn: an Urak hai was the toughest opponent. In 5e that's the equivalent to an Orc Eye of Gruumsh. CR 2. Worgs were a challenge, and are CR 1/2. He's definitely at least 5th level for the extra attack, but not sure how much higher he'd be than that. I'd probably go with a horde breaker ranger. This is true for the rest of the party as well. I suppose one could make the argument that he and Legolas are 11th level for the volley and whirlwind abilities, but there's no evidence that places them any higher than that. Dragon #5 had an article that had Gandalf at no higher than level 5, and Sauramon no higher than level 12 (in OD&D terms). I'll past that article below if you're curious
Conan: It's been many years, and I haven't read all the stories, but by my recollection, the toughest monsters he faced were a stegosaurus (CR 5, same as triceratops) that he couldn't even beat, but had to use poison. A huge ape (between the size of a regular ape and 5e's giant ape, so CR 4ish). He killed two frost giant brothers, but they weren't the 21' tall 5e versions. The best comparison I could find was that they were about the size of ogres. Atali (the frost giant woman) was about the size of Conan. That puts him at level 7-10ish, depending what sort of multi-classing you want to do.
Chronicles of Prydain series (Taran Wanderer): started at level 1, but were only level 5ish by the time the series ended. Taran as a fighter, Eilonwy as a sorcerer, and Fflewddur Fflam as a valor bard.
What others?

As I said in the other thread, a 4th level PC used to be called a "hero", and to put it into context, a 4th level PC in 5e can go toe to toe with a brown bear. That seems pretty heroic to me, once you toss aside our subconscious influences of 4th level being a low level because there are 20 levels of play.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but here are my thoughts on some of the most famous:
Aragorn: an Urak hai was the toughest opponent. In 5e that's the equivalent to an Orc Eye of Gruumsh. CR 2. Worgs were a challenge, and are CR 1/2. He's definitely at least 5th level for the extra attack, but not sure how much higher he'd be than that. I'd probably go with a horde breaker ranger. This is true for the rest of the party as well. I suppose one could make the argument that he and Legolas are 11th level for the volley and whirlwind abilities, but there's no evidence that places them any higher than that. Dragon #5 had an article that had Gandalf at no higher than level 5, and Sauramon no higher than level 12 (in OD&D terms). I'll past that article below if you're curious
Conan: It's been many years, and I haven't read all the stories, but by my recollection, the toughest monsters he faced were a stegosaurus (CR 5, same as triceratops) that he couldn't even beat, but had to use poison. A huge ape (between the size of a regular ape and 5e's giant ape, so CR 4ish). He killed two frost giant brothers, but they weren't the 21' tall 5e versions. The best comparison I could find was that they were about the size of ogres. Atali (the frost giant woman) was about the size of Conan. That puts him at level 7-10ish, depending what sort of multi-classing you want to do.
Chronicles of Prydain series (Taran Wanderer): started at level 1, but were only level 5ish by the time the series ended. Taran as a fighter, Eilonwy as a sorcerer, and Fflewddur Fflam as a valor bard.
What others?
