D&D 5E Meet Achilles, Greatest Warrior of the Trojan War!

Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters, coming soon to Kickstarter, compiles Mike Myler's fantastic column here on EN World, with brand new art in a gorgeous full-colour book. Here's a quick look at a preliminary version of Achilles' entry.

Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters

Achilles. Lancelot. Robin Hood. Thor. Heroes, all.

The world is full of myths and legends which inspired those in our modern fiction and games. Iconic warriors and wizards, vampires and things from the deep, these legends are universally known.

Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters delves into these paragons of literature, fable, and folklore. From Ancient Greece to the Outer Realms, deepest Transylvania to the High Seas, you’ll meet champions and thieves, pirates and knights, demigods and fey queens, ancient evils and urban legends. Archetypal heroes meet exemplars of villainy like Blackbeard, Rasputin, Dracula, and Baba Yaga.

From Mike Myler’s popular column, this epic compilation of over 100 legendary heroes, villains, and monsters brings these characters to life for the 5th Edition of the world’s oldest roleplaying game.

 

[jerryrice4949]

This looks great.

 

[Hurin70]

Str: 16

Really? He was the greatest hero of the greatest epic of the ancient world. 16 is the highest you would go?

 

[Mike Myler]

Str: 16

Really? He was the greatest hero of the greatest epic of the ancient world. 16 is the highest you would go?

No stronger muscle in the body than the Achilles' Heel amirite?

 

[Hurin70]

Just for perspective, having only 16 strength means you are barely cracking the top 5% of ordinary human strength. That would mean that Achilles was not only not the strongest hero at the Siege of Troy, nor even the strongest hero in the Greek army, but that he probably wasn't even the strongest guy in his own boat. In every group of 100 soldiers in the Greek army, you'd find 4 or 5 stronger than Achilles.

 

[Waller]

Just for perspective, having only 16 strength means you are barely cracking the top 5% of ordinary human strength. That would mean that Achilles was not only not the strongest hero at the Siege of Troy, nor even the strongest hero in the Greek army, but that he probably wasn't even the strongest guy in his own boat. In every group of 100 soldiers in the Greek army, you'd find 4 or 5 stronger than Achilles.

He was the greatest warrior (and definitely the angriest!), but he wasn't the strongest man. Ajax was bigger and stronger. In other tales, Heracles is stronger, as is Thor. Achilles isn't a weightlifter. Top 5% seems fine.

 

[Mike Myler]

Just for perspective, having only 16 strength means you are barely cracking the top 5% of ordinary human strength. That would mean that Achilles was not only not the strongest hero at the Siege of Troy, nor even the strongest hero in the Greek army, but that he probably wasn't even the strongest guy in his own boat. In every group of 100 soldiers in the Greek army, you'd find 4 or 5 stronger than Achilles.

That sounds perfectly fine to me—I don't recall Achilles ever being depicted like Fezzik from Princess Bride and there should be some big lugs in ancient greco army.

Other folks stronger than Achilles: Amazon Queen Penthesilea, Harald Hardrada, Conan the Barbarian, Captain Nemo (albeit from a "magic" item)
People stronger than that: Gilgamesh, John Henry, Paul Bunyan
Stronger still: Beowulf
Strongest: Thor
Most Strongest: Hercules

Feeling pretty solid about the scale of Strength scores inside of this future supplement/column!

 

[jerryrice4949]

He was the greatest warrior (and definitely the angriest!), but he wasn't the strongest man. Ajax was bigger and stronger. In other tales, Heracles is stronger, as is Thor. Achilles isn't a weightlifter. Top 5% seems fine.

This is correct. He was never known for super human strength. Many great fighters are not the strongest. He was more athletic that pure strength.

 

[Tonguez]

this looks noice, it'll be a great resource

Just for perspective, having only 16 strength means you are barely cracking the top 5% of ordinary human strength. That would mean that Achilles was not only not the strongest hero at the Siege of Troy, nor even the strongest hero in the Greek army, but that he probably wasn't even the strongest guy in his own boat. In every group of 100 soldiers in the Greek army, you'd find 4 or 5 stronger than Achilles.

that's accurate to the story too, there were 4 or 5 stronger than Achilles. What I recall was that Achilles was more known for speed and accuracy anyway, so personally Id have made his Dex higher

 

[Morrus]

These are all PC builds, incidentally, so the ability scores can't be placed arbitrarily high like you can with monsters.