I’m a big fan of Conan. And, as AD&D goes, I’m a firm believer that the D&D leveling mechanic was inspired, at least in part, by the Conan character. Because, despite that many pulp heroes remain the same from story to story, Conan does not. Conan ages, gains experience and wisdom between stories. Conan changes from an inexperienced youth to a leader of men, to a conqueror, to a king. Conan is no ubermensch who starts invincible and remains invincible. It is my contention that Conan is a perfectly feasible character under the rules of AD&D 1e.

Sure, Conan rarely loses, and always survives. But, that’s not quite the invincibility one sees in other pulp heroes like, for example The Shadow or Doc Savage, or even John Carter. And, that’s part of what makes the character greater than those, also great, pulp heroes — Conan can lose, he might die at any point. But, he grows too.

It’s clear from the early days that people wanted Conan for AD&D. In 1976 the booklet Gods, Demigods, & Heroes presents a stat block for him. This was followed in 1980 with a Dragon Magazine article (issue #36) by none other than Gary Gygax himself. In the article, Gygax presents eight stat blocks to represent Conan at various ages. Gygax recognized the importance of progression of the character. Then in 1984, two modules were published featuring Conan. The two modules basically have the same Conan (the luck points aren’t in the second listing but are listed elsewhere in the module). Yet, of the three versions listed, no two are alike. And, none follow the rules of AD&D.

Conan, Gods, Demigods and Heroes, 1976

Conan — Dragon Magazine #36, April 1980

Conan, CB1, Unchained, 1984

Conan, CB2, Against Darkness, 1984

Gygax’s version is the closest of course. But, even Gygax breaks the rules of AD&D 1e to create his version of Conan. Gygax admonishes that there is no profit in quibbling over the details of levels.

And, Gygax is not wrong but I’m going to do it anyway. Here’s my attempt to create Conan, purely per the AD&D rules, as presented in each of the Robert E. Howard stories. This is based on the Gygax version and my reading of both the stories and the AD&D rules.

First the stories. For this exercise, I’m restricting myself solely to the Robert E. Howard stories and fragments. As to timeline, I’m using the Dale Rippke Chronology with one quibble. The quibble being The Frost Giant’s Daughter. For AD&D purposes Conan is just too formidable in this story for it to be the first. However, it totally makes sense for it to be the first for literary (and geographic) purposes. What to make of it? There are two possible approaches. The easiest, early in the story Conan is struck on the head, so it could be just a crazy vision. This approach pales because at the end of the story they do find the daughter’s dress in his hand — that’s the whole twist of the story. So, the second approach is to do what others have done, which is to place the story between Black Colossus and Queen of the Black Coast. This second approach matches his abilities more and equipment, that is, it explains the change from bascinet in Black Colossus to the horned helmet of Queen of the Black Coast. But, also, it turns out it doesn’t matter too much — one does not need to assume advancement in levels between either story necessarily. So, for this chronology, I’ve assumed a vision at Zero level for The Frost Giant’s Daughter, or if you prefer, you can slip FGD into between BC and QotBC without significant level advancement. Your choice.

Conan, Age 16 or 23

There are twenty-seven stories, some of which are merely fragments or in synopsis form. I am not going to justify the experience points to reach the listed levels. But, I will note that I assume these stories are the only supernatural monsters, wizards, etc Conan encounters in his career. Using the AD&D rules, for just these, it is obvious Conan cannot reach high level with just this set of experience points shown by the stories. The stories do briefly refer to other activities and battles. The only justification then for the experience levels I have is textual, that is how Conan’s abilities are described, and an assumption of a lot of grinding normal battles, thieving, etc in between stories. What the BROSR would call downtime play.

For my analysis I see three main groupings of stories. Conan’s early years at zero level, primarily the Venarium Raid, but also possibly including The Frost Giant’s Daughter as previously discussed. Conan’s thieving years, The God in the Bowl through Rogues in the House. Rogues in the House might be considered the transition to Fighting Man, the third grouping. However, I’ve placed it within the Thieving group because 1) It starts Conan having been arrested for thieving, 2) it features a lot of sneaking, and 3) I wanted Conan’s max thief level to be fourth level to allow some ability in Read Languages. It is after Rogues in the House that Conan makes the career change to fighting man.

Conan, as Thief

All the other Conan adaptions to D&D give Conan decent thief levels, 9th, 4th-12th, & 7th. I just don’t see textual support for this in the stories. Yes, Conan is a great climber, but climbing is pretty decent even at first level and improves from there. Yes, Conan, moves silently and hides in shadows on occasion, but you don’t see him picking locks, and he gets caught in traps probably more often than he finds and removes the traps. Many of his successes can be explained by just luckily winning initiative, winning surprise rolls, and successfully making saving throws. Gygax does the best with the thieving progressing Conan from 4th level when young up to 12th level. But, Gygax does this while also progressing as fighter. This is contrary to the rules of AD&D in that only demihuman can multiclass. Humans must pick a class and then are allowed only one transition to a second class (except for Bards who are special). For me, Conan gets to fourth level thief before he decides being a mercenary soldier is more to his liking.

Conan, Age 19

In AD&D, first level fighters can lead troops of up to 10 men as sergeants, second and third level fighters can lead 20 and 30 men. Levels fourth through 8th are Captains where a captain can lead 20 men per level. I put Conan at fourth level fighter for Queen of the Black Coast because that is the first story where he leads a sizable body of men (as a ship captain).

Conan, Age 24

Conan, Age 27

Conan as Fighting Man

I put Conan at 9th level in The Devil in Iron because in that one he’s described as having united and lead several clans of Kozaks, that is he exceeded the limits for Captains — and he’s attempting to carry out the abilities of a Lord.

Conan, Age 27

Conan, 28-33

Conan, despite his reputation of being a super-soldier, actually has really mixed success in the years past ninth level. Many times he forms coalitions and, inevitably his gets knocked down a peg. At one point, The Vale of Lost Women,he’s slumming it with the jungle tribes — here he has easy success in the barbaric villages but it’s unsatisfying and he burns it all down on a whim.

Conan, Age 34

For the rest of the stories I give him steady but slowing progression up to 17th level, which is the combat table maximum. He’s a king, but there is no reason to think he exceed more than the rare table maximum rather than the more godly or demigodly heights past 17th. Conan, for all his strengths, is but a man. This takes Conan through about age forty-five. Gygax provides stats for ages fifty, sixty, and seventy. Presumably based on the Carter and de Camp Conan of Aquilonia, and Conan of the Isles, but those novels are not canon so, I don’t go there.

Conan, Age 36

Conan, Age 43

For age, the DMG sets out various additions and subtractions from rolled attributes based on different age ranges. For strength, at age 21 a point is added. Then in the middle aged category it says to subtract half exceptional rating. Conan’s strength starts at 17, with maturity at age 21 rises to 18. Coincidentally, age 21 is when when he switches to Fighter Class so gains 00 exceptional strength, and then in middle age drops to 18/50. There is an argument that Conan does not reach 18/00 but only something like 18/90 as the published modules show. That is the story Shadows in Zamboula where Conan is nearly bested by the super strong strangler named Baal-Pteor. However, this success may be less a feature of being stronger than Baal-Pteor than having more hit points than Baal-Pteor. In any case, I chose a maximum of 18/00 because both Gygax and Gods,Demigods, and Heroes does.

Conan is a smart guy, but no scholar. He does exhibit facility for languages. However, I did not have the energy to dig through every story to total up every language he learns to speak. It’s something like four or five languages, so I start him at Intelligence 15, rising to 16 in middle age. Other than that, the thief Read Languages skill suffices to explain Conan’s ability to parse runes/glyphs, etc.

Wisdom is a tough one. Given Conan’s many risky life choices, one might question his wisdom. But Conan does occasionally show careful thought, though of a barbaric sort. I set it at 14, rising to 15 in maturity, and again rising to 16 in middle age. Mostly, as a means of getting a bit of saving throw versus magical attack adjustment, which Conan shows some facility at resisting magic. This is not strictly necessary, as one could assume mere luck in passing a few of the saving throws implied in the stories — in particular The People of the Black Circle.

Conan, as Leader of Men

There are no dexterity adjustments until Old Age which we don’t address here. Conan is described as marvelously dexterous. All the others give Conan eighteen dexterity or greater. In the stories, he’s often described as like a panther. But are panthers the most dexterous? Well, maybe not. What about a praying mantis? Or, one of those weird shrimp? I suppose those creatures could have dexterity of greater than eighteen. Yet, Conan is often going without armor. The Prince of Thieves, Taurus of Nemedia, in The Tower of the Elephant arguably might be considered to be more dexterous than Conan. Yet, Conan needs that AC bonus, heck with it, eighteen down the line it is. In Hour of the Dragon, I do seem to recall some grousing as to stiffness in the aging Conan; it does wrangle a bit to not lower it with age. But, that’s how Gary wrote the rules.

Conan Thieving Abilities by Age

Constitution and hit points. A key thing about Conan is he’s robust. So, yes, Conan starts with eighteen constitution, dropping to seventeen in middle age. During his thieving youth the eighteen constitution grants him +2 hp per hit die, then after he switches to being a fighter, the eighteen constitution grants him +4 to each hit die but not until after he’s exceeded the level of thief he obtained. So, no new hp or constitution bonus until he hits fifth level fighter. Then after the drop to seventeen constitution in middle age, he loses one hit point from each of his fighter hit dice. So, just before Phoenix on the Sword, Conan sees a dip in hit points as he enters his middle age crisis. But with the help of Epemitreus the Sage Conan recovers from middle age to gain a a few hit points back as he hits seventeenth level just in time for The Scarlet Citadel and Hour of the Dragon. Also, for the hit point totals except for the transition from zero to first level, where I assumed maximum allowable hit points, all other hit point totals assume average rolls (i.e. four points for each thief level, and six points for each fighter level) plus Constitution Bonus. This puts him at a peak hit points of 146, just a bit under Gygax’s max, but well above the others despite them giving his more levels in general.

Finally Charisma. Charisma is a bugaboo ain’t it? The others are a bit all over the map — from 15 through 18. But, like dexterity charisma doesn’t change with age. So, where to put it? Conan is a likeable guy with definite force of personality. You see this, maybe the most, in The Black Stranger, where Conan is intimidating the other pirate captains. And, the ladies seem to like him. Or, do they? The most common reaction from the damsels Conan meets is fear and repulsion which is only later overcome by his 1) helping them, and 2) being the only game in town. And, by the next story, none of the gals seem to be hanging around. And, while he does seem to repeatedly attract various henchmen and followers, they don’t seem the most loyal. Often stories start with him being betrayed by his companions. I’m not convinced by the eighteens. Gods, Demigods, and Heroes puts charisma at 15 and I think that’s about right.

Conan, Age 45

As to Height and Weight (which are important parameters used in AD&D unarmed combat) there is only one textual descriptions which is six foot and 180 pounds at age 15. The stories just refer to him with various descriptions of large (giant, etc.). AD&D does not account for changes of weight or height with age, so I will not do so here. However, AD&D does have a method of improving these statistics for PCs beyond the rolled values (p.12/13 DMG) which is discussed on pages 11/12 of the DMG. That method allows the addition of 2-20 inches of height, and10-200 additional pounds. Online discussion gives a wide variety of ranges from anywhere up to seven feet in height and from 235 to 300 pounds. I used the general height and weight charts. You know, for fun! The one data point available puts Conan in about the 97th percentile. Extrapolating the curves would then give a fully grown height of 6’3″ and 220 pounds. This falls within the ranges available in AD&D and I think makes him sufficiently giant-like for a time period where people were a little smaller than today.

Weapon proficiency. By the time Conan reaches his maximum level, the weapon proficiency tables allows him nine slots. While weapon descriptions in the stories aren’t uniform, sometimes things are called both a long sword and a broadsword for example. Being generous with the interpretation (saber might be considered a scimitar in AD&D terms for example), I found Conan has filled eight of the nine available slots: broadsword, dagger, short composite bow, saber (as scimitar), hill knife (as short sword), hand axe, long sword, and lance. It could be seven if the hill knife (likely akin to an afghan Khyber knife, choora, or pesh-kabz) is called a dagger rather than a short sword. The lance is based on Conan, as king, attacking along with his knights who are lance armed. There isn’t a direct description of Conan ever using a lance or spear but I’m willing to go with him using a lance if he’s charging with his knights. Also, despite artistic license, Conan has only a single story where he is described using an axe — and it’s a copper axe taken from a Pict in desperation. Conan’s a barbarian but, not that much a barbarian. One might add club to round out the nine slots as he does use a beef bone a couple times to brain opponents.

Conan, as King

Conan with an Axe, it better be copper

You can see that Conan, while gifted with great stats, is a perfectly feasible character within the scope of the rules of AD&D 1e. One need not make special exceptions to the rules for him. No need to rule zero Conan. No need for a special Barbarian Class. Roll the dice, and with luck, and some skill at playing, we all can be Conans.