>Language and writing were also made available; the poetry

>>51206080
Even Barbarians like nice soft lavatory paper.

>>51206080
Honestly, Conan barely fits the modern D&D barbarian in terms of actions. He has the outward appearance, but he's got a serious cunning and philosophical outlook going on.

>>51206281
Wasn't he also a very calculating fighter, rather than being swept up in a berserker rage?

Love Howard's narrative voice but only ever read the first short story, where he's already king and he kills some shadow demon mummy thing a Sorceror from the pre-Egyptian culture summoned, and I remember his approach to battle being very cerebral.

Conan is most likely a Rogue with 18 in Str, Dex, Con, and Wis

>>51206281

This. Conan wasn't probably the type to enjoy a nice tea, a fireplace, kittens and tea, but he was fluent in at least half a dozen languages and knew very well how to read and write.

>>51206373
Guess that's kind of the issue.

Barbarian's almost become synonymous with berseker in D&D terms despite the fact that the two words were originally used for very diffrent things.

>>51206281
Conan was a fighter that dropped a few levels in rogue for good measure.

He's strong as fuck, but the stories make more mention of his agility and resolve.

Also, he only wears a loincloth in one story, and that's only because he lost his armor in a swamp before the story begins.

>>51206080
Actually the Dungeon World Barbarian is pretty close to this. For a kind of shit rpg that game had some good class design

>>51206373
Yeah. Conan's barbaric side mostly came out in his utter contempt for civilized men and their laws. When it came to combat, he was very cerebral and tricky. He was also an adept commander.

>>51206479
I like Conan a lot, but he's kind of an ur-mary sue. It was much worse in the Savage Sword comics, but it comes out sometimes even in the original stories.

>>51207337

I wouldn't call Conan universally beloved nor think that he always get what he wants.

>>51207358
No, he's like a lot of contemporary pulp heroes.

Coincidence often turns in his favor and he's either hyper competent, or constantly thrust into situations where his skills and philosophy are just what's required to win the day.

It's all part of the fun. I would say it's out of fashion but I would guess that licensed genre fiction and blockbuster films would demonstrate otherwise.

>>51207579
The comics and fan books may be like that, but the REH short stories definitely are not.

Conan ends up broke and chased out of most places by the end, or sometimes even the beginning of most of the stories.

Even when he's king conspirators use a popular bard to turn the people against him and paint him as a brutal usurper, even though he's been a fair and decent king.

He's mary sue in the comics and fan books because they are written by lesser writers.

File: Elric_cleric_battle_oath.jpg (580KB, 990x1489px) Image search: [Google]

580KB, 990x1489px

>>51207579
>>51207337
Conan is like that, but like a lot of Pulp heroes, Conan often wins, but also loses.
Its often that he gets 2 of 3 things he wants, or 1 of 3 things he wants.
And then he runs away, or has to deal with his grief.

I.e
1. He fins the bored immortal blue northeren master race, like he wanted to
2. but he also has to run away, and almost gets killed thrice doing that
3. he loses The Girl due his arrogence
4. And he only gets what he carries on him, so he lost treasure and weapons

Conan is a hero that uses guile and wisdom to win, but he rarely gets a complete victory.
Its almost always Pyrrhic, even in the best of circumstances
Even Moorcock's Eldric is more of a mary sue, because Eldric only loses bigger objectives, unlike Conan who struggles at each point

>>51206080
>...goes limp as though it were a doll whose neck he had just broken.

Whoever wrote this needs to spend some quality time hitting the books. They could learn something from Conan.