Thinking of Starting a Fantasy Hero Campaign. Some questions...

[Urien]

Hi!

 

I am considering starting a fantasy hero campaign. I have used hero system in the past for Super Heroes, but have never gone the fantasy route. I have always wanted to try a fantasy hero campaign, but I have a few questions I was hoping you might be able to answer for me before I begin, based upon your own experiences.

 

1) 5th or 6th Edition? I own both, but I only have 5th in dead tree version (I own both 6th edition core book PDFS, and a PDF of Fantasy hero). If I go with 6th edition, how is Fantasy Hero Complete?

 

2) Campaign life and Advancement. I like playing in campaigns that progress slowly over time. My typical campaign runs for several years. One of my bigger concerns for fantasy hero would be the linear experience point increases of characters, and the concern of a character getting to good to quickly. For anyone who has played in long term FH games, has this brome an issue, and if so what have you done to address it?

 

3) What supplements would you recommend? Ive listed the books I have here. Are there any others you would recommend? The world is largely a gritty lower powered medieval fantasy. I expect I;ll need to pick up the bestiary. Anything else?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Urlord]

Hi!

 

I am considering starting a fantasy hero campaign. I have used hero system in the past for Super Heroes, but have never gone the fantasy route. I have always wanted to try a fantasy hero campaign, but I have a few questions I was hoping you might be able to answer for me before I begin, based upon your own experiences.

 

1) 5th or 6th Edition? I own both, but I only have 5th in dead tree version (I own both 6th edition core book PDFS, and a PDF of Fantasy hero). If I go with 6th edition, how is Fantasy Hero Complete?

 

2) Campaign life and Advancement. I like playing in campaigns that progress slowly over time. My typical campaign runs for several years. One of my bigger concerns for fantasy hero would be the linear experience point increases of characters, and the concern of a character getting to good to quickly. For anyone who has played in long term FH games, has this brome an issue, and if so what have you done to address it?

 

3) What supplements would you recommend? Ive listed the books I have here. Are there any others you would recommend? The world is largely a gritty lower powered medieval fantasy. I expect I;ll need to pick up the bestiary. Anything else?

 

Thanks!

 

Hi Urlien - Us folks with user names starting with "Url" must stick together...

 

I have run several long term FH campaigns and your concerns are valid. I will try to address each one in it's own paragraph.

 

• 5th or 6th Edition - If this is your first jaunt into a FH campaign, I would just stick with 6th edition.  But keep the 5th edition stuff handy because there is good stuff in there and most isn't hard to convert over to 6th edition rules.  I have FH Complete, and it's not too bad.  I would have liked to see more things in there, but I'm not one to second guess a publisher.

   

• Campaign Life and Advancement - This is a pretty big issue with any Hero campaign that lasts more than a hand-full of adventures.  However, I do have a House Rule that is tried and true, because I used it with my longest lasting FH campaign (5.5 years with mostly the same characters).  Some did die and were replaced, but they were replaced at near the same point level as the other characters.  Here is the House Rule, which you can tweak for your own campaign...
  • Experience Points & Levels for Fantasy Hero - This system uses an XP and Level system to for advancement of Fantasy Hero characters. It's designed to keep the characters from gaining too many character points too fast and out growing the campaign world.  For combat encounters, the number of XPs the GM gives out is equal to half the Character Points of the enemies they fight. For non-combat encounters, the GM should give out whatever they feel is appropriate. There should also be XPs given out for Story Awards.

     

    When a character accumulates enough XPs to advance to the next Experience Level, they gain character points to spend.  This system allows for 100 (or 60) CPs of improvement over the course of a long-term campaign (levels 1-20).  The XPs and Experience Levels are listed below:

     

    __XP__        LEVEL       CHARACTERS_POINTS

         0          0         Starting CPs for the Campaign

       500          1         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

       750          2         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      1000          3         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      1500          4         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      2000          5         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      3000          6         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      4000          7         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      6000          8         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      8000          9         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     12000         10         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     16000         11         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     24000         12         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     32000         13         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     48000         14         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     64000         15         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     96000         16         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

    128000         17         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

    192000         18         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

    256000         19         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

    384000         20         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     

• ​As far as supplements, use any and all that you have or can find.  That's what I do.

 

I hope this helps!

[Scott Ruggels]

I would kiiiinda recommend 5th, only because I am not that familiar with 6th, and it would make conversion to the older  (thicker) supplements  for FH. The Bestiary is kind of necessary. But anything m0ore, do you have an idea of what sort of magic do you want?  You also need to figure out how much  of the background , and NPCs you want to design yourself, or if you want a published back ground. Figure these questions out, and we can make things more detailed?

[Christopher R Taylor]

1) 5th or 6th Edition? I own both, but I only have 5th in dead tree version (I own both 6th edition core book PDFS, and a PDF of Fantasy hero). If I go with 6th edition, how is Fantasy Hero Complete?

 

 

Either one is fine.  6th has slightly more flexibility and more fantasy hero support.  Fantasy Hero Complete is basically the guts of Fantasy Hero and HSR pared down to simple and brief as possible

 

2) Campaign life and Advancement. I like playing in campaigns that progress slowly over time. My typical campaign runs for several years. One of my bigger concerns for fantasy hero would be the linear experience point increases of characters, and the concern of a character getting to good to quickly. For anyone who has played in long term FH games, has this brome an issue, and if so what have you done to address it?

 

 

I'm the same way, I like long-term campaigns.  Just keep the xp payout slimmer and more spread out.  I recommend giving it away in blocs, like 10 at a time over several adventures and limit what people can buy at a time as if they are "experience levels."

 

3) What supplements would you recommend? Ive listed the books I have here. Are there any others you would recommend? The world is largely a gritty lower powered medieval fantasy. I expect I;ll need to pick up the bestiary. Anything else?

 

 

You will want the bestiary, if there's magic the grimoire has a lot of options.  I have several adventures out you can take a look at (see signature below) and a spellbook and bestiary that might be useful to you as well.  If you don't have it, the Hero Combat Manager and Hero Designer are both good programs.

[mallet]

For the Campaign Life & Advancement I think there are a lot of factors that you should fully consider before the campaign (or even char gen) begins. Most importantly how powerful do you want the characters to be at the beginning of the campaign, and how powerful by the time they reach the end. This will give you a general idea of how the progress should go. 

 

According to 6th Ed rules 175cp is a "standard" heroic character and considered the starting point for beginning characters. I personally feel this is more powerful then what I like starting out in a FH campaign, but maybe it is what you like. Most (all?) sample characters (from Fantasy Hero) and most of the creatures in the Bestiary seems to work based off of this starting point, so you have to factor that in when designing adventures using any of that source material. Someone once posted that a starting "standard hero" in FH is the equivalent of a 6th level character in D&D, I don't know how that calculation was made but it seems reasonable from what I remember from my D&D days.

 

If you you use that as a base, and decide to start your players at a lower point total, say built with 75cp, then if they eventually earn 100 xp, that would make them only 175cp characters which is actually what the base starting FH character is recommend to be and (as stated above) about 6th level in D&D. Is that how powerful you'd like them to be at the end of the campaign? If so, and you plan of playing roughly once every two weeks for for 4 years then the players should get about 1.25 xp a session (20 sessions a year * 4 years = 80 sessions/100 xp = 1.25). 

 

But if you want them to end up more powerful then 175cp, maybe at 275 cp then you would double the xp given per session to 2.5 xp. 

 

But you also have to decide if the players will need to spend xp on magic items or not (both ways have advantages and disadvantages) and how much stuff like learning new spells costs the magic using characters. With hero some spell effects can be very expensive (The Turakian Age setting got around this by apply a solid "divide spell real cost 3 to get the cost the players pay". That does help keep things in alignment with other non-magic using characters, but rubs some people the wrong way and can still be very expensive. 

 

All these things have to be considered before the players make their characters and the campaign begins, if you really want to evenly spread out the xp you are giving out over the course of the campaign. 

[Ninja-Bear]

Since you own a lot if the rulebooks, Fantasy Hero Complete isn't going to add too for you. Christopher Taylor summed it up nicely. As to 5tg or 6th what do you feel more comfortable with? Seriously I'm using 5th but helping my brother make a campaign using FHC and we're convertingthe old fantasy hero for 4th. They are really fairly compatible.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Another way to control bloat is to have caps: no more than x damage, no more than y CV, etc.  That way characters have have a fairly high point total but not be gaudy in power level, just breadth of abilities, contacts, followers, etc.  Give them things to spend points on other than being more deadly -- and encourage them to do so.

[Urien]

 

• • Experience Points & Levels for Fantasy Hero - This system uses an XP and Level system to for advancement of Fantasy Hero characters. It's designed to keep the characters from gaining too many character points too fast and out growing the campaign world.  For combat encounters, the number of XPs the GM gives out is equal to half the Character Points of the enemies they fight. For non-combat encounters, the GM should give out whatever they feel is appropriate. There should also be XPs given out for Story Awards.

     

    When a character accumulates enough XPs to advance to the next Experience Level, they gain character points to spend.  This system allows for 100 (or 60) CPs of improvement over the course of a long-term campaign (levels 1-20).  The XPs and Experience Levels are listed below:

     

    __XP__        LEVEL       CHARACTERS_POINTS

         0          0         Starting CPs for the Campaign

       500          1         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

       750          2         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      1000          3         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      1500          4         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      2000          5         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      3000          6         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      4000          7         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      6000          8         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

      8000          9         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     12000         10         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     16000         11         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     24000         12         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     32000         13         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     48000         14         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     64000         15         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

     96000         16         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

    128000         17         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

    192000         18         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

    256000         19         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

    384000         20         +5 CP (+3 for a low-powered campaign)

 

This is an interesting approach which I think I like. Do you award any individual points for any milestones or such, or is everything received through leveling?

[Urien]

I would kiiiinda recommend 5th, only because I am not that familiar with 6th, and it would make conversion to the older  (thicker) supplements  for FH. The Bestiary is kind of necessary. But anything m0ore, do you have an idea of what sort of magic do you want?  You also need to figure out how much  of the background , and NPCs you want to design yourself, or if you want a published back ground. Figure these questions out, and we can make things more detailed?

 

I was interested in expanding and using "The Gift" in FH 5th and 6th editions. For the one mage in the party, who is considered a full-blooded sorcerer. NPCs would have their own lesser systems for the most part.

[Urien]

Since you own a lot if the rulebooks, Fantasy Hero Complete isn't going to add too for you. Christopher Taylor summed it up nicely. As to 5tg or 6th what do you feel more comfortable with? Seriously I'm using 5th but helping my brother make a campaign using FHC and we're convertingthe old fantasy hero for 4th. They are really fairly compatible.

 

The only reason I was thinking of getting FH Complete was so we could have a physical book we could reference at the table, since I only sadly have the PDFs. I really wish they could reprint the books in their full color glory...

[Urien]

Another way to control bloat is to have caps: no more than x damage, no more than y CV, etc.  That way characters have have a fairly high point total but not be gaudy in power level, just breadth of abilities, contacts, followers, etc.  Give them things to spend points on other than being more deadly -- and encourage them to do so.

 

I was thinking of tho option, but when I used it bak in the day with Fuzion everyone always seemed to think that meant you needed to buy everything to those levels to be effective. With the way the point system works in Hero System (no escalation in point value for the higher the ability), it means that it is pretty easy to reach those benchmarks.

[Urien]

For the Campaign Life & Advancement I think there are a lot of factors that you should fully consider before the campaign (or even char gen) begins. Most importantly how powerful do you want the characters to be at the beginning of the campaign, and how powerful by the time they reach the end. This will give you a general idea of how the progress should go. 

 

According to 6th Ed rules 175cp is a "standard" heroic character and considered the starting point for beginning characters. I personally feel this is more powerful then what I like starting out in a FH campaign, but maybe it is what you like. Most (all?) sample characters (from Fantasy Hero) and most of the creatures in the Bestiary seems to work based off of this starting point, so you have to factor that in when designing adventures using any of that source material. Someone once posted that a starting "standard hero" in FH is the equivalent of a 6th level character in D&D, I don't know how that calculation was made but it seems reasonable from what I remember from my D&D days.

 

If you you use that as a base, and decide to start your players at a lower point total, say built with 75cp, then if they eventually earn 100 xp, that would make them only 175cp characters which is actually what the base starting FH character is recommend to be and (as stated above) about 6th level in D&D. Is that how powerful you'd like them to be at the end of the campaign? If so, and you plan of playing roughly once every two weeks for for 4 years then the players should get about 1.25 xp a session (20 sessions a year * 4 years = 80 sessions/100 xp = 1.25). 

 

But if you want them to end up more powerful then 175cp, maybe at 275 cp then you would double the xp given per session to 2.5 xp. 

 

But you also have to decide if the players will need to spend xp on magic items or not (both ways have advantages and disadvantages) and how much stuff like learning new spells costs the magic using characters. With hero some spell effects can be very expensive (The Turakian Age setting got around this by apply a solid "divide spell real cost 3 to get the cost the players pay". That does help keep things in alignment with other non-magic using characters, but rubs some people the wrong way and can still be very expensive. 

 

All these things have to be considered before the players make their characters and the campaign begins, if you really want to evenly spread out the xp you are giving out over the course of the campaign. 

 

I hear you. Since it is been a while since Ive played Hero system, I'm still trying to get a rough feel for power levels. This helps!

[knasser2]

For the Campaign Life & Advancement I think there are a lot of factors that you should fully consider before the campaign (or even char gen) begins. Most importantly how powerful do you want the characters to be at the beginning of the campaign, and how powerful by the time they reach the end. This will give you a general idea of how the progress should go. 

 

According to 6th Ed rules 175cp is a "standard" heroic character and considered the starting point for beginning characters. I personally feel this is more powerful then what I like starting out in a FH campaign, but maybe it is what you like. Most (all?) sample characters (from Fantasy Hero) and most of the creatures in the Bestiary seems to work based off of this starting point, so you have to factor that in when designing adventures using any of that source material. Someone once posted that a starting "standard hero" in FH is the equivalent of a 6th level character in D&D, I don't know how that calculation was made but it seems reasonable from what I remember from my D&D days.

 

If you you use that as a base, and decide to start your players at a lower point total, say built with 75cp, then if they eventually earn 100 xp, that would make them only 175cp characters which is actually what the base starting FH character is recommend to be and (as stated above) about 6th level in D&D. Is that how powerful you'd like them to be at the end of the campaign? If so, and you plan of playing roughly once every two weeks for for 4 years then the players should get about 1.25 xp a session (20 sessions a year * 4 years = 80 sessions/100 xp = 1.25). 

 

But if you want them to end up more powerful then 175cp, maybe at 275 cp then you would double the xp given per session to 2.5 xp. 

 

But you also have to decide if the players will need to spend xp on magic items or not (both ways have advantages and disadvantages) and how much stuff like learning new spells costs the magic using characters. With hero some spell effects can be very expensive (The Turakian Age setting got around this by apply a solid "divide spell real cost 3 to get the cost the players pay". That does help keep things in alignment with other non-magic using characters, but rubs some people the wrong way and can still be very expensive. 

 

All these things have to be considered before the players make their characters and the campaign begins, if you really want to evenly spread out the xp you are giving out over the course of the campaign. 

 

Seconded on the CP totals! I recently started a port of D&D to Hero 6th and have set "first level" to be 100CP. Even within that I had to put some boundaries around how it was spent. I.e. a first level character in my game picks from a pre-defined list of species, each of which costs 20CP. This affects characteristics and provides some special abilities such as nightvision or whathaveyou. Then they buy a cultural package, which also costs 20CP and this brings some talents or skills. Then they pick a character class which also brings them 20CPs worth of powers or characteristic adjustments. Finally the 100CP startling level is rounded out by bonus characteristic points (10CP's worth), skills (12CP's worth), abilities (10CPs worth from a pre-defined list of powers and talents) and then finally starting equipment.

 

As you can see, I have locked everything down WAY more than is normal and I have starting points significantly below recommended levels even for low power play. I'm sure some would read the above and think it's badwrong control freak DM'ery that makes players miserable with their lack of options. It isn't - it's a way to get everyone up and playing without spending two weeks focusing on the mechanics of their characters and it produces the feel I want which is heroic but vulnerable protagonists venturing through a dangerous world, rather than Hollywood badasses slaughtering minions.

 

I don't recommend you lock it down as much as I have - mainly because it's a massive amount of effort to create all the "classes" and "powers" on behalf of your players, but if you want 1st level D&D or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay style low-levelness, then chop the recommended CP levels off at the knees, is my advice. And still be careful that nobody over-focuses on one area because it can make them too powerful too quickly. In particular look out for armour. As written it's spot on for how I want it, but make sure starting level PCs can't get their hands on too much too quickly. I converted my existing D&D group over and let them keep the same equipment for the sake of story continuity. That Paladin in chainmail is frightening in how much damage they can shrug off!

 

Healing in Hero is also rather hinky in comparison to D&D. I think the reason is because it's not normal for powers in Hero to be rationed on a daily basis so healing powers would therefore allow PCs to prolong a fight indefinitely. So they introduced an arbitrary "can't be healed more often than" restriction on the recipient end. Unfortunately this clashes with a five-encounters-a-day style D&D play.

 

Hope this helps. I've basically just started doing what you're doing and am about three weeks ahead of you down the road, so take my advice with no more confidence than it deserves, it's just what I've found so far.

[Urien]

Seconded on the CP totals! I recently started a port of D&D to Hero 6th and have set "first level" to be 100CP. Even within that I had to put some boundaries around how it was spent. I.e. a first level character in my game picks from a pre-defined list of species, each of which costs 20CP. This affects characteristics and provides some special abilities such as nightvision or whathaveyou. Then they buy a cultural package, which also costs 20CP and this brings some talents or skills. Then they pick a character class which also brings them 20CPs worth of powers or characteristic adjustments. Finally the 100CP startling level is rounded out by bonus characteristic points (10CP's worth), skills (12CP's worth), abilities (10CPs worth from a pre-defined list of powers and talents) and then finally starting equipment.

 

As you can see, I have locked everything down WAY more than is normal and I have starting points significantly below recommended levels even for low power play. I'm sure some would read the above and think it's badwrong control freak DM'ery that makes players miserable with their lack of options. It isn't - it's a way to get everyone up and playing without spending two weeks focusing on the mechanics of their characters and it produces the feel I want which is heroic but vulnerable protagonists venturing through a dangerous world, rather than Hollywood badasses slaughtering minions.

 

I don't recommend you lock it down as much as I have - mainly because it's a massive amount of effort to create all the "classes" and "powers" on behalf of your players, but if you want 1st level D&D or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay style low-levelness, then chop the recommended CP levels off at the knees, is my advice. And still be careful that nobody over-focuses on one area because it can make them too powerful too quickly. In particular look out for armour. As written it's spot on for how I want it, but make sure starting level PCs can't get their hands on too much too quickly. I converted my existing D&D group over and let them keep the same equipment for the sake of story continuity. That Paladin in chainmail is frightening in how much damage they can shrug off!

 

Healing in Hero is also rather hinky in comparison to D&D. I think the reason is because it's not normal for powers in Hero to be rationed on a daily basis so healing powers would therefore allow PCs to prolong a fight indefinitely. So they introduced an arbitrary "can't be healed more often than" restriction on the recipient end. Unfortunately this clashes with a five-encounters-a-day style D&D play.

 

Hope this helps. I've basically just started doing what you're doing and am about three weeks ahead of you down the road, so take my advice with no more confidence than it deserves, it's just what I've found so far.

 

That sounds like a good start, but how are you going to distribute EXP during play. That's my chief concern for campaign longevity.

[Ninja-Bear]

Hey knasser2 fwiw if that level of play works for you then I say all is good!

[knasser2]

That sounds like a good start, but how are you going to distribute EXP during play. That's my chief concern for campaign longevity.

 

Well I looked at the power levels as described in the book and figured 200CP was around where I wanted the initial campaign to wrap up as being around 10th-level D&D. I have scope for Paragon level play which is levels 11 - 20 if I choose, but I'm not factoring that in right now. So knowing I was starting at 100CP and progressing to 200CP, I simply kept the level progression and XP from D&D 5e and everyone gets 10CP per level. I've done similarly with Damage Classes, Active Points, OCV / DCV and Skill rolls to roughly grade where I think they should lie at different points on levels 1-10 and am using that to handle what and stat boosts powers get introduced when. I should have a better mathematical foundation for all this based on dice probabilities that let me create monsters and classes more easily in the near future. (Working out the chance of causing damage from 1-36 PD / ED on 1d6 to 20d6 for each combination was a fun challenge! :/ )

[Doc Democracy]

Another way to control bloat is to have caps: no more than x damage, no more than y CV, etc.  That way characters have have a fairly high point total but not be gaudy in power level, just breadth of abilities, contacts, followers, etc.  Give them things to spend points on other than being more deadly -- and encourage them to do so.

 

Two ways to do this.  Frustrate them with problems they cannot hack their way through.  Do not regularly set them up against foes that are clearly superior combatants than they are.

If the players see they are among the greatest swordsmen/magicians in the realm but cannot solve their problems due to a lack of other kinds of resource, like access to a good library or a decent line of credit, then you know where experience will and will not be spent...

[Christopher R Taylor]

Right, and if you benefit people who bought off-kilter skills and bits like "Geology" and "Favor from the monks of Blesheam" for their purchases, making them useful and even important, that encourages people to move in that direction.

 

An important tip though, that any experienced GM already knows:  don't hammer the combat monster who" hates that other crap and only plays to beat up the bad guys" for not wanting to buy the other stuff.  Having one Conan the Barbarian with a bunch of Elrics and Frodos is fine.  He can be the one who doesn't know any other languages and can't find his way through the city, but is deadly in a fight.  Just encourage others to be more.

[Cantriped]

I am considering starting a fantasy hero campaign....

I use Champions​ and Fantasy Hero Complete as my primary rules references and I've been very happy with them so far. I cannot recommend them more strongly. The Hero System Bestiary is definitely the next most useful supplement for running a Fantasy Hero Campaign (followed by Fantasy Hero​, 5th or 6th edition. They are basically the same, and I actually prefer the 5th edition version despite some game elements being out of date).

 

Regarding D&D style "Character Levels" and their Hero System equivalents. My analysis indicates that 1 character level is equal to 25 character points. So a "Standard Heroic Character" (175-points) is equivalent to a 7th level D&D Character.

[Lucius]

Having one Conan the Barbarian with a bunch of Elrics and Frodos is fine.  He can be the one who doesn't know any other languages and can't find his way through the city, but is deadly in a fight.  Just encourage others to be more.

Funnily enough, Conan knew dozens of languages (at least well enough to swear in them) and found his way in and out of lots of cities. He wasn't illiterate either.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Know, O Palindromedary...

[knasser2]

Funnily enough, Conan knew dozens of languages (at least well enough to swear in them) and found his way in and out of lots of cities. He wasn't illiterate either.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Know, O Palindromedary...

 

Indeed. The literary Conan is sharp-minded and filled with pithy insights. My favourite, one that I've come to believe is true, is Conan's comment that "uncivilised man is politer than civilised man, because the uncivilised man knows that an insult might be met with having their skull bashed in.". Also, when younger he was less of a warrior and more of a thief, iirc.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Funnily enough, Conan knew dozens of languages (at least well enough to swear in them) and found his way in and out of lots of cities. He wasn't illiterate either.

 

 

Yeah I couldn't think of a good dumb brute character off the top of my head.  Groo the Wanderer, then