Monday, February 9, 2015

Conan's Rogue Levels and Features for 5e

Any Conan build would have to feature some levels in Rogue considering there are a number of Conan adventures that capture his life as a young thief after leaving Cimmeria. After looking at what Features and Abilities I would need to recreate a fully developed level 20 King Conan character, I decided that 5 Levels of Rogue would be appropriate to capture the character's early days as a thief.

Hit Points: 50 total
Hit Dice: 5d8

As a Rogue Conan would also gain several Class and Archtype Features that would add to his character.

Red = Ability Necessary to capture the ultimate feel of Howard's depiction of Conan
Orange = Ability useful in a 5e mechanics
Light Blue = Ability not really necessary to capture Howard's Conan

Class Abilities:
Expertise 
Sneak Attack
Thieves' Cant
Cunning Action
Uncanny Dodge

Thief Archtype Features:
Fast Hands
Second-Story Work

Given that Conan is not primarily a thief character, but a Barbarian who was a thief early in his career, it is natural for some abilities to be more essential for a true Conan build than in the other classes. Again, most the essential features are what round out a Conan character's flavor, not necessarily optimizing him for 5e play.

Expertise - This ability is pretty much a mechanical one. It is helpful to round out his Ability Checks, but not necessary to flavor a Conan playstyle.
Sneak Attack - I am split on this ability. Most players aren't going to go wielding a knife or short sword with Conan, but if you read the Conan stories carefully, you'll notice there are many times he is forced to fight with little more than a knife or broken sword. So the ability to do even 1d6 extra damage with these weapons is a plus to capture the flavor of Conan.
Thieves' Cant - Again a mechanical bonus that might or might not be helpful actually playing like Conan.
Cunning Action - Quintessential Conan ability. A properly played Conan would have to have the extra option to Dash, Disengage, or Hide during combat. This is especially useful for a flavor play style because there are several Conan stories where he is forced to run and hide against supernatural or overwhelming odds.
Uncanny Dodge - Again, for a Conan play style this reaction is pretty essential. Reckless Attack and then having Uncanny Dodge as a fallback is a pretty definitive tactic for the way Howard's Conan would fight. 

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