The god Crom

[S'mon]

On a non-christian approach, weren't there some holy warriors of Turan, Vendhya and Kosala in some of the stories?

jh

Well, Thuggee and Hashishim are 'holy warriors'.

As EGG has said, the Paladin class is modelled on the 'Perfect Christian Knight', and with all the baggage it carries I don't think it fits REH's world at all. Outside the Hyborean kingdoms I guess some areas might produce Paladin-like characters, probably a new Holy Warrior class would model them better though - lots of Will save bonuses, maybe a Dervish-style Divine Frenzy, but not actual spell-like or obviously supernatural powers - no summoned mounts, divine spells at level 4, immunity to disease et al.

 

[S'mon]

Holy Warriors:

Well, Thuggee and Hashishim are 'holy warriors'.

As EGG has said, the Paladin class is modelled on the 'Perfect Christian Knight', and with all the baggage it carries I don't think it fits REH's world at all. Outside the Hyborean kingdoms I guess some areas might produce Paladin-like characters, probably a new Holy Warrior class would model them better though - lots of Will save bonuses, maybe a Dervish-style Divine Frenzy, but not actual spell-like or obviously supernatural powers - no summoned mounts, divine spells at level 4, immunity to disease et al.

 

[S'mon]

Well, Thuggee and Hashishim are 'holy warriors'.

As EGG has said, the Paladin class is modelled on the 'Perfect Christian Knight', and with all the baggage it carries I don't think it fits REH's world at all. Outside the Hyborean kingdoms I guess some areas might produce Paladin-like characters, probably a new Holy Warrior class would model them better though - lots of Will save bonuses, maybe a Dervish-style Divine Frenzy, but not actual spell-like or obviously supernatural powers - no summoned mounts, divine spells at level 4, immunity to disease et al.

 

[S'mon]

Damn Damn the DP...

 

[Emirikol]

Priestly spellcasters certainly have a place, but the D&D magic system's arcane/divine distinction makes no sense in Hyborea, where magic comes from Forbidden Knowledge and Horrible Entities of the Outer Dark Man Was Not Meant To Know. A somewhat pumped-up version of the Call of Cthulu system would probably be most accurate. Psionics fit well into Hyborea, also, many wizards may be Wizard-Psionicists. No resurrection, healing magic may be ok but bringing people back from death's door should be harder than in 3e.

I hear you. The arcane/divine distinction doesn't even make sense for D&D! It's really just another complexity for complexity sake.

Healing magic may or may not fit the setting, but it definately fits gaming in Hyboria. With our group, we've found that the fun of Hyboria is derived from those nasty combats. Whether the healing comes from potions or a sorcerer, it matters not, as long as the game can continue. Raise dead is really a moot point. Characters NEED to die permanently in Hyboria. Raise dead, like most 'utility' spells cheapens the feel of the world. For the sake of player-fun, this is really one area too where a DM needs to get past the D&Dism of punishing replacement characters with a loss of level.

S'mon, you and I have discussed this in the past



..

 

[AFGNCAAP]

It seems that quite a few problems in developing a d20 Conan game go hand in hand with the problems I've experienced from trying to develop a d20 Lankhmar game.

It seems that such early sword-&-sorcery fare such as Conan & Leiber's Nehwon are essentially low-magic in comparison to the D&D standard. There really is no distinction between arcane & divine magic (as it is in the real world--more often than not, magic from a priest of an accepted faith is considered "holy," whereas magic from opposing faiths is considered "unholy," and often labelled sorcerers, witches, or wizards).

IMHO, the way the D&D version of Lankhmar dealt with this was to eliminate the priest classes altogether, remove the spellcasting abilities of the ranger, bard, and paladin, and rework the existing mage classes to fit the world of Nehwon--elemental mages (mainly fire & ice mages), white wizards (who used the divine spell list), and black wizards (who used the arcane spell list).

However, I wonder if d20 Modern (or d20 Ancient, in this case), may work better for these kinds of settings. Any spellcasters/psychics are treated as prestige classes, and it seems best suited to deal with a humanocentric setting such as these.

In addtion, Action Points seem to lend themselves well to "heroic" style play, the Defense bonus system can account for improved defensive abilities without relying on magic &/or armor, and the system practically encourages mutli-classing (IIRC).

It seems that this would be an easier option for such settings rather than trying to shoehorn D&D into a very different setting. Just MHO, though.

 

[S'mon]

It seems that quite a few problems in developing a d20 Conan game go hand in hand with the problems I've experienced from trying to develop a d20 Lankhmar game.

It seems that such early sword-&-sorcery fare such as Conan & Leiber's Nehwon are essentially low-magic in comparison to the D&D standard. There really is no distinction between arcane & divine magic (as it is in the real world--more often than not, magic from a priest of an accepted faith is considered "holy," whereas magic from opposing faiths is considered "unholy," and often labelled sorcerers, witches, or wizards).

IMHO, the way the D&D version of Lankhmar dealt with this was to eliminate the priest classes altogether, remove the spellcasting abilities of the ranger, bard, and paladin, and rework the existing mage classes to fit the world of Nehwon--elemental mages (mainly fire & ice mages), white wizards (who used the divine spell list), and black wizards (who used the arcane spell list).

However, I wonder if d20 Modern (or d20 Ancient, in this case), may work better for these kinds of settings. Any spellcasters/psychics are treated as prestige classes, and it seems best suited to deal with a humanocentric setting such as these.

In addtion, Action Points seem to lend themselves well to "heroic" style play, the Defense bonus system can account for improved defensive abilities without relying on magic &/or armor, and the system practically encourages mutli-classing (IIRC).

It seems that this would be an easier option for such settings rather than trying to shoehorn D&D into a very different setting. Just MHO, though.

I think you've got a very good point - in Sword & Sorcery stories _all_ the wizards are powerful characters, often physically powerful as well as magically capable. There really is no such thing as a 'first level Wizard' in the Conan stories, and nothing close in the Lankhmar ones - young Mouse(r) when first encountered might be merely an apprentice mage, but he still annihilates the Duke who's torturing him with a blast of dark magics! Making all spellcasting classes prestige classes would seem one good approach. Combined perhaps with a Cthuloid approach to magic it could work very well.

 

[Wraith Form]

The story you're thinking of is "Black Colossus".

Allow me to post an exerpt from the story...

Thanks, Jezter--that was like a breath of fresh air. I grew up on REH and Conan, so it's like walking down memory lane to read that stuff. (*sniffle*)

 

[William Ronald]

Most of the war deities in Deities and Demigods, with a little modification, would work for Crom.

The name is Irish. An idol known as Crom Cruach is mentioned in one story. The idol may have been associated with the Irish deitiy Dagda, who appears sometimes as a warrior and at others as a spell caster. For REH's Crom, Nuada would be a closer match. (Minus the silver hand.)

The name Conan is Irish, and a character of that name appears in the Finn Mac Cumhal stories.

 

[Valiantheart]

Wait a sec! I thought Falsa Doom was the quintessential cleric of an evil god. He was the chief cleric of Set and he behaved EXACTLY like an evil D&D cleric.