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!
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!



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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).



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.

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 475"]
[TR]
[TD]
STR
[/TD]
[TD]
DEX
[/TD]
[TD]
CON
[/TD]
[TD]
INT
[/TD]
[TD]
WIS
[/TD]
[TD]
CHA
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
18 (+4)​
[/TD]
[TD]
14 (+2)​
[/TD]
[TD]
14 (+2)​
[/TD]
[TD]
12 (+1)​
[/TD]
[TD]
13 (+1)​
[/TD]
[TD]
10 (+0)​
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

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.


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.
 

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Mike Myler

Mike Myler

If you stat Gandalf as an NPC instead of a PC (and I think you should) a full CR 10 Deva plus 5 levels of your favorite casting class works quite well.

Edit: The true error lies in trying to base his levels off of just what spells he is shown to cast (which I think is foolish.)

Perfectly on point. The backstory from The Silmarillion makes it clear that Gandalf (and the other 4 wizards of Middle Earth) are minor angels and not wizards in the D&D sense, i.e. dudes who read a bunch of books about the occult.
 

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I disagree. In The Servants of Bit-Yakin, we are told "In his roaming about the world the giant adventurer had picked up a wide smattering of knowledge, particularly including the speaking and reading of many alien tongues. Many a sheltered scholar would have been astonished at the Cimmerian's linguistic abilities". In Beyond the Black River, Conan unexpectedly jumps into an extended explanation of the god Jhebbal Sag and his powers. Conan is very knowledgeable, and Howard, at least once, explicitly compares him to a scholar.

Good point, although in 5E he might well have used his downtime to pick up things like languages.



He is often portrayed as becoming the leader of others through force of personality, for example in A Witch Shall be Born or Queen of the Black Coast... though maybe its supposed to be that others intuit his manly competence just by looking at him :erm:

Heh. No, that "manly competence" is a high Cha.



These are good commentaries on the heists he attempts in The Tower of the Elephant and The God in the Bowl. We also don't really see him sneak attack his enemies in combat. Though Howard refers to him as a thief several times, Conan isn't the rogue class.

One reason I like him having a few rogue levels is because Expertise really gives him the ability to be bloody awesome at Athletics, which I really think is a defining feature, without being too sneak attacky. He's mostly operating on his own so it doesn't help him too much. Scout Rogue also gives some nicely enhanced mobility, which does feel pretty Conan. Unfortunately in 5E, being awesome at skills goes along with either being a bard (and casting spells, not Conan) or a rogue. If he convinced the DM to let him trade off Thieves Tools for something else that would fit even better, as he's not a lockpicker.



I would also hazard that some of the base class abilities don't fit very well either. Reckless attack, feral instinct, and relentless rage all seem a bit out of place to me. Conan doesn't attack recklessly, he is catlike, and, while he is noted in some stories as going into a rage-like state, he doesn't do it very often. He doesn't open a fight by using the rage ability and he doesn't use the rage ability to survive near death encounters. He just, sometimes, goes super saiyan so that he can wreck face harder. I'd say he has 1-2 barbarian levels at most. He multiclassed to fighter sometime around leaving Cimmeria/Nordheim.

I largely agree, though Barbarian was clearly originally built to simulate Conan :(



He does have a lot of adventures and accomplishments in his career but, even at an advanced age when he is king of Aquilonia, he is always dealing with grounded human concerns or minor encounters with the supernatural. All his adventures stay in sword and sorcery-land, he never goes to wuxia-land or epic fantasy-land. I don't think his level is all that high. <...> I think you guys are right on the money. Hyboria is a gritty, low-magic, sword and sorcery world; you don't need a lot of levels to be its greatest warrior.

Yeah, I don't think you need to make him insanely leveled but then again pretty high level characters can be really challenged by more mundane things if you (a) take away most magic, including gear, and (b) make them be alone or in a very small group. Still, if most of whom he encounters is pretty low level (or CR) he could be about 12th level and really do the job. The main thing is the fact that his stats are cranked in a way that most 5E characters are not. He also needs to have enough hit points to be able to survive hordes of guys attacking him.


I'd do a random roll to see what gear Conan shows up with. Maybe he's half naked and unarmed. Maybe he's rocking a sword, shield, and breastplate. The only thing he doesn't seem to turn up in is heavy armor.

I think when he's in King of Aquilonia mode he does actually show up with heavy armor but in general Conan prefers to travel light.



These all make sense, but I don't see him being high enough level to get all of them. Maybe in Conan's game, the DM has a variant rule for PCs to learn feats as a downtime activity. Or maybe Conan's in something like an E6 game and is gradually taking all the feats. Wait... that's it! He is 100% in an E6 game.

Not sure what E6 is. Elaborate?

The more I think of it, the more I like the idea of Barbarian 2/Rogue (Scout) 4/Fighter 6, if you want him 12th level, or thereabouts anyway.
 



Conan was ONE OF the characters that the barbarian class was based off of, but the earlier barbarian classes didn't have rage as one of the core class features.

True, "barbarian fiction" was a thing back in the day. I was thinking of the 1E Unearthed Arcana barbarian, which had a lot of pretty clear Conan-isms.
 

Clearly the only way to make this as bad@$$ as the real Conan is to make him Paladin 20. Because we all know that's completely OP. Homebrew an "Oath of Savagery" and refluff divine smite as Savage Attacks.

No need. He could be an Oath of Vengeance paladin, and his powers come from Crom. He just doesn't know he's Smiting. His holy symbol is his weapon, and the Vow of Enmity adds to his combat prowess. He sees his Laying on Hands as his fast recovery or second wind. And so on.
 

No need. He could be an Oath of Vengeance paladin, and his powers come from Crom. He just doesn't know he's Smiting. His holy symbol is his weapon, and the Vow of Enmity adds to his combat prowess. He sees his Laying on Hands as his fast recovery or second wind. And so on.

I think we're onto something.

This would explain how, in Hour of the Dragon, Conan kills the beast with one shot (with a dirk!) to the heart. He crits with a slot-5 Divine Smite (plus, by lucky coincidence, it turns out the thing is a fiend) so he does 14d8 + 1d6 + 9, and JUST HAPPENS to roll maximum dice. Because he's Conan. Yes, there's a 1 in 4 trillion chance of that happening (approximately) but I guess Conan is a 1 in 4 trillion kind of guy.

(Or maybe that story doesn't count because REH didn't write it so it's not REALLY Conan.)

EDIT: Oops I forgot the dice from Improved Divine Smite. That's 16d8, and 1 in 280 trillion chance of max damage.
 

If one wants to bump him up, one could make him a Barbarian 2/Rogue 2/Fighter 8 (Champion). Perhaps give him Keen Mind or Linguist feats. That would make him closer to his 'prime'. I try to avoid adding too many levels and additional classes, it's too easy to stat-out to level 20 by looking at everything remarked upon.

With regard to his knowledge of languages, in D&D it's been dumbed down quite a bit. The mechanics for knowing a 'smattering' of words and basic communications skills aren't there. You either know a language or you don't, whereas in the real world we can well know enough to read or speak basic sentences and still not 'know' a language. (As an example, I've studied Italian and Spanish on and off over the years and remember enough to be able to 'read' some portions of a news article in either language, but no one including myself can say I truly know Italian or Spanish.)

In the end what we write up are only approximations, as the writer never thought in D&D terms--it came afterward. Even material written after D&D has to be taken a certain way--Bruenor Battlehammer, for example, called upon his god to create Wulfgar's mighty hammer, but I wouldn't call him a cleric nor would RAS see him like that. Just as Liriel Baenre was never a Hathran even though she was able to participate in/utilize Rashemi magic ritual, however brief. A book is a book, a game is a game. Some things won't translate well.
 

Tldr:
Conan is playing in an E6 variant of 5e. He has 18s or 20s for all of his ability scores. He has one barbarian level and 5 fighter levels (and took mariner fighting style). His background is outlander. He has no consistent set of gear. And, since he spent so much time adventuring, he took a buttload of post-6th feats.

Nailed it. :D

Yeah, Conan's universe isn't one with level 11-20 characters running around in it.
 

He also needs to have enough hit points to be able to survive hordes of guys attacking him.

I'd say his hp need to be low enough that he fears defeat and uses tactics like putting his back to the mast in Queen of the Black Coast. Where he could kill a bunch of Belit's pirates but did not believe himself to have any chance of beating 50 of them; very unlike a 20th level D&D PC.
 

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