Cimmerian Defenses Battlemap

Level 1 Defenses

Level 2 Defenses

Level 3 Defenses

Simple Battlemap for defending a section of perimeter against incoming attack.

Cimmerian village setting. Simple defenses using logs to create choke points. Archers are rarely used by barbarians, and Cimmerian villages aren't particularly well defended. Mostly used as a lookout to send for reinforcements.

The defenses of the players village can be upgraded to three stages.

Defenses 1 Adds a simple wall to the hillside from which a watch can be posted.

Defenses 2 Adds more walls, creating choke points and a little better defenses for the watch to hold until reinforcements arrive.

Defenses 3 Adds triplines in the trees, creating additional choke points and hazardous terrain. It also adds spikes to the front of the walls, so they are unscalable, forcing infantry through the choke points. Also, the players have access to large rocks, which they can throw down the hill as improvised missiles.

Cimmerian Fighting Pit Battlemap

Starting to really get a feel for designing battlemaps. Decided to make a fighting pit for my campaign. I am toying with the notion of letting one of my players roll as a Vanir or Aesir instead of Cimmerian. I could use this map to introduce the character (have him fight for his freedom). The other possible use is to have players with a criminal background start off fighting for a crime. Or even to have players who commit a crime fight to remain free. So many possibilities.

New Battlemap - Cimmerian Hills

New Battlemap - Cimmerian Hills.

Designed for possible ambushes. Hill with treeline on upper left. Cliffs to right.

New Battlemap, Cimmerian Forest Creek

I've created another battlemap and added a few handy features. For scale I've added Icons above the movement scale to show relative sizes for creatures and PCs. From Tiny to Huge for this map.

Starting to get a better hang on map creating. Going to have this one laminated by tomorrow so I can give it a few tests.

Features a creek running through one side with a choke point crossing (fallen log). Scattered trees provide ample cover and ability to break LoS.

First Battlemap for Playtesting - Field of Snow

I decided to work on a battlemap so I can playtest some of my NPCs and the Hyborian Age combat mechanics. Here's my first attempt at a Frazetta-like painting of an icy battlefield.

Features include Snow Drifts, Rock Protrusions, and an Icy Stream cutting through the middle.

I decided not to include a hex overlay, or a square grid, because I am going to encourage gridless combat. A scale is provided to show 30 ft, so movement in turns can be guessed at. The map is designed to be printed out on A4 paper. I'm having it laminated so I can track the battle using dry erase markers instead of icons.

Aquilonian Race breakdown for 5e

Aquilonians

The mightiest kingdom of the west, the foremost of the Hyborian kingdoms of Conan's day, Aquilonia is a commercial and military giant with a high level of civilization. Only Nemedia, Aquilonia's rival, boasted of a richer cultural diversity.

Aquilonia is, overall, a land of pleasant temperate climate. The Aquilonians are tall and varied in complexion, but all are steadfast in their devotion to Mitra. In matters of war, Aquilonia puts their trust in a heavily armed cavalry and a strong infantry. The Imperial troops are called the Black Legion, and the king's personal bodyguard are known as the Black Dragons. Tarantia, the seat of power in Aquilonia, is a center of romance, adventure, wisdom, and wit. Tarantia also houses the grim Iron Tower, a notorious prison.

There is a shortage of good farmland in the interior of Aquilonia because the great lords of Aquilonia have sequestered much of the cropland for personal use (such as privileged hunting preserves), creating a never ending movement of pioneers toward the Westermarck, the frontier between Aquilonia and the Pictish Wilderness.

Classes Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Bard

Traits

Ability Score Increase - Everything increased by 1

Alignment Lawful Good

Size The Aquilonians are a tall race, standing between 5 and 6 feet tall.

Speed 30 ft

Skilled laborers: Aquilonians gain proficiency in an additional skill of your choice.

Noble Feats: Choose between Mounted Combatant, Inspiring Leader, or Martial Adept

Languages: Aquilonian + one other language of choice

Subraces

Gunderman

Only in Gunderland is the pure Hyborian stock found unblemished. Gundermen are uniformly compactly-built, tall, tawny-haired and gray-eyed.

No infantry was a match for the wild Gundermen,  who, born and bred to battle, were the purest blood of all the Hyborian peoples

Gunderman are the infantry of the Aquilonian army. Usually wearing chain mail, with pike or shield and battleaxe in hand.

Additional Feat: Polearm Master

Bossonians

The Bossonians are of medium height and complexion, their eyes brown or grey, and they are mesocephalic.

They live mainly by agriculture, in large walled villages, and are part of the Aquilonian kingdom. Their marches extend from the Border Kingdoms in the north to Zingara in the southwest, forming a bulwark for Aquilonia against both the Cimmerians and the Picts. They are stubborn defensive fighters, and centuries of warfare against northern and western barbarians have caused them to evolve a type of defense almost impregnable against direct attack.

The Bossonians are particularly well versed with a bow. They are known as some of the best rangers in the Hyborian world, only challenged by the Shemites.

Bossonians tend to wear chain shirts with longbows and short swords.

Additional Feat: Sharpshooter

Hyperborean Race breakdown for 5e

Hyperboreans

The first of the aboriginal Hyborian tribes to discover the use of stone in building, the Hyperboreans abandoned a primitive, nomadic way of life to settle in huge walled dwellings of stone, consequently founding the very first, but most isolated, of the Hyborian kingdoms.

The citadels of Hyperborea are impressive even by Hyborian standards. They are made from mortarless stones carefully fitted together and dressed smooth to give no foothold for a climber. The walls are turreted and crenellated, fifty feet high and twenty paces thick, giving the fortresses a squat appearance. Windows and arrow-slits are set into the walls, too high to be entered, but low enough to allow effective defense. The ironwood gates are protected by iron portcullises and decorated with protective runes formed by patterns of iron nails.

The people are pale-skinned, extremely tall and gaunt, with white hair and cat-green eyes. Many are as tall as seven feet. They are a superstitious lot who live as serfs in huts and hovels beyond the stone walls where they eke out meager livings from gardening the stubborn soil and herding small numbers of shaggy cattle and reindeer.

Hyperborea is ruled by the White Hand - a coven of sorcerers not unlike the Black Ring of Stygia or the Scarlet Circle of Khitai. The White Hand "Witchmen" are the priests and priestesses of Louhi, the ever-reincarnating goddess of the Hyperboreans, as well as accomplished sorcerers. Their magic focuses around the cold of their land and control of the dead. Hyperborean sorcerers are highly prized in the northern wilds, but they are little respected in Hyborian lands.

Hyperborea also hosts several bands of hardy slave raiders who make repeated forays into Cimmeria to fill their slave pens.

Classes Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer

Traits

Ability Score Increase - Constitution +2

Alignment Lawful Evil

Size The Hyperborians are a tall thin race, standing nearly 7 feet.

Speed 30 ft

Frost Resilience: Hyperborians are Resistant to Cold and Cold effects

Feats: Choose between Savage Attacker, or Charger

Languages: Nordheimr, Hyperborian, Cimmerian

Subrace

Witchman of the White Hand

Additional Ability Score Increase: Wisdom +2

Additional Feat: Ritual Caster