If so, did you change or add anything to capture the feel? If so, what? And how is it working?
The first thing would be to, of course, disallow any race but human, but what about classes? There are no cleric types in the Hyborian age so those would be off limits.
Any other ideas?
Regarding races, it should be more fun to homebrew the races of Hyboria rather than using only human. Taking fitting parts from the different races of the PHB and call them "Cimmerians" "Aquilonians" etc.
If you're willing to be liberal like Age of Conan (I suspect not though) There is a little more to work with:
Clerics:
-Bear shaman: Straight up Battle cleric
-Priest of Mitra: Straight up Lazer Cleric, though all the radiant damage should be flavored rather subtle.
-Tempest of Set: This is also a Lazer Cleric, but shooting lightning and in a few cases poisons instead. Either simply reflavor the looks of the powers or make them to lightning damage straight up.
Paladin: Generally, a paladin is a "dead clown" in Hyboria. However, the class Dark Templar could be fitting, since Paladin no longer depend on alignment. Not much to change except flavor.
Arcane classes would be fitting the wizard schtick in AoC, though every single one probably also have made pacts, which is the Warlock schtick.
The hardest part would be to have the Divine and Arcane classes properly flavored and balanced in Hyboria, since it's at least 75 % Ritual Casting. It's actually easier to remove those classes, because you have a fully viable set of martial roles; Fighter, Rogue, Ranger and Warlord (Conqueror).
Of course everyone sees it differently, but the way I see the Hyborian Age, there would be no Divine classes.
And I would imagine saying that Wizard and Warlock are available only to multiclass into, not as a base class.
This is just a thought experiment, though. I want to see how other people view classes etc. in the Hyborian Age.
Regarding races, it should be more fun to homebrew the races of Hyboria rather than using only human. Taking fitting parts from the different races of the PHB and call them "Cimmerians" "Aquilonians" etc.
I was thinking about making a short description, like "This is what a typical Cimmerian is like, but you can do what you want. This is what a typical Aquilonian is like, but you can do what you want." etc.
But by Homebrew races do you mean decide the stat mods, give a racial Power and the whole bit?
Of course everyone sees it differently, but the way I see the Hyborian Age, there would be no Divine classes.
And I would imagine saying that Wizard and Warlock are available only to multiclass into, not as a base class.
This is just a thought experiment, though. I want to see how other people view classes etc. in the Hyborian Age.
I do disagree with the lack of Divine classes, though I base these assumptions on the comics, particularly the Dark Horse ones so that might be the difference.
I was thinking about making a short description, like "This is what a typical Cimmerian is like, but you can do what you want. This is what a typical Aquilonian is like, but you can do what you want." etc.
But by Homebrew races do you mean decide the stat mods, give a racial Power and the whole bit?
Yeah, it would add a form of diversity between the different human races of hyboria. I can see the Cimmerians would look a lot like warforged stats, minus the "living construct" of course, and the Aquilonians might look a lot like hobgoblins in stats.
But by Homebrew races do you mean decide the stat mods, give a racial Power and the whole bit?
Do them based on powers of MM and PHB races as a guide. A cimmerian could be +2 CON +2 WIS and have the hobgoblin resiliance, for example (ymmv, but you get the idea. Maybe you like more giving them +2STR instead of CON, and orc's Warrior surge, or whatever) Aquilonians might have the Eladrins "educated" and half elf "dilettante" powers, for example, Aesires might do second winds on minor actions, Picts might have some of halfling racial traits (but much worse attitude :P) and Bossonians might have the Elven Precission Trait.
In a game where only humans exist, I would make the humans to be different "races", for variety. Specially in Conan, since human races there are rather different cultural-wise
I also agree divine classes don't fit too well. Most "disciples of set" are people versed in sorcery, and more often than not, the regular "I'm the cultist of this serpent-gorilla-feathered elephant" guy is just a wizard or warlock of some kind, that worship a particular powerful demon or primitive monster.
I also think the DM was pretty boring but the rules were not as dynamic as I wanted them to be for Conan. I wanted more Pulp and Action than what the generic 3E system could give. 4E feels right for Conan IMO.
- Martial classes only would work, but I would probably wait to see what the PHB2 will bring to the table. There will be new Martial classes in it and the Primal classes may be worth a look. My concern is that there are too few Martial classes to support the idea right now.
- Spell-casting in the Conan universe was mostly ritual work. I don't recall any actual magic blasts in REH's work except in a reactionary form. The idea of allowing only multi-classing feats to dip into magic is definitely interesting and would be about as far as I would go. You could have people dipping into cleric, paladin, warlord, and wizard for some flavour. Otherwise, taking the Ritual Caster feat be the way most go.
- I would just use the human race as it is, but would fully incorporate the idea of regional backgrounds as put for in the FRPG. This would be the way I would bring the variety of cultures into the game.
Personally, I'm going to run a Conan campaign using the Savage Worlds rules, specifically with the magic system put for in the Solomon Kane Campaign book. I have the majority of the 1st edition Mongoose books for flavour, but I prefer the Savage Worlds system when I want a more pulpy feel.
Some good suggestions.
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[*]Martial classes only would work, but I would probably wait to see what the PHB2 will bring to the table. There will be new Martial classes in it and the Primal classes may be worth a look. My concern is that there are too few Martial classes to support the idea right now.
No martial classes in phb2. The martial classes are done, i think. PHB2 has primal(4), divine(2) and arcane(2)
No martial classes in phb2. The martial classes are done, i think. PHB2 has primal(4), divine(2) and arcane(2)
Right, don't know why I was thinking there would. I'm sure there will be more, though. Might not be until PHB III.
Right, don't know why I was thinking there would. I'm sure there will be more, though. Might not be until PHB III.
I cant think of any martial adventure niche that is not already covered with what we have. You can build almost any "cliche" of martial type with current classes and multiclassing I think. Those that arent represented are just a sub-set of the current ones (like Knight being a certain kind of Fighter, which is just covered by paragon paths), or will have their own source (such as primal Barbarians or Ki Samurai). But maybe WotC surprise me with a cool concept I havent thought of, who knows
I cant think of any martial adventure niche that is not already covered with what we have.
There's no martial controller (and I don't want to get into that debate again).
There's no martial heavy-weapon or sword-and-board striker. The Rogue does single weapon, but only uses lightweight weapons. The Ranger uses two weapons or ranged weapons. The Fighter uses heavy-weapon and sword-and-board styles, but isn't a striker (though certain builds can mimic striker damage).
The Barbarian is a heavy-weapon striker, but it's not martial.
Martial classes only. I could maybe see allowing the Barbarian, but I think the overtly supernatural "totem animal" flavor of the 4E barb is a little off for Howard's Conan.
Divine and arcane casters would be NPC bad guys--evil priests, cult leaders, demented sorcerers and the like.
A lot of monsters would be unique one-off bosses living in out of the way places, in some cases worshipped as gods by local cults. Occasionally there would be a small population of monsters infesting an isolated region.
No widespread, "common" monster races like orcs or goblins. Also very few "animal" style monsters except for prehistoric beasts and oversized versions of RL animals (giant serpents, insects, etc.).
Few to no magic items. Give the PCs level bonuses to compensate as per the DMG.
PC magic use handled through rituals. Possibly make rituals easier to access (lower feat prereqs?). They might also be more dangerous to use.
Only human PCs. Different nationalities might get different bonuses but I'm not sure if they should be full PH style races or just FRCG style backgrounds. Maybe somewhere in between. I like the idea of the Hyborean PCs having the versatility of the 4E human so I'd be hesitant to ditch the extra feat, extra at-will, and extra skill features.
Just my 2 cents . . .
if you don't mind picking up a GURPs book (and you can find it,) the Conan books which they made a few years back has a lot of good fluff info in it; enough fluff that it's useful even if you don't play GURPs.
I actually have ALL of the GURPS Conan books. :D
And Yes, the Yuan-ti are an ideal monster for the Hyborian Age.