First off note that Conan abandons the concept of CR, EL and balanced encounters entierly. You, as DM, need to rely on eyeballing the situation as it relates to your particular group to decide if the encounter is going to produce the results you want.
Secondly remember that there are a few rules that make mooks more deadly in conan than otherwise: for each ally that attacks a target after the first they get a cumuliative +1 bonus to hit and a character who does not have an ajacent space either free or occupied by an ally takes a -2 to Dodge DV. Flanking and aid another can also come into play here. Most classes get TWF for free and using a light weapon that means a 0/0 penalty so even low level mooks can get multiple attacks. Clever use of reach weapons, readied attacks, and formations can really punish a character. Heavy armor and large sheilds can greatly increase the duribility of even low level mooks unless your PC's are prepared to crack armor. Grapples and triping reward mob tactics. And lastly, sooner or later a crit is going to force a massive damage save. In short don't undersell the mook.
Having said all that I am going to start one of my favorite rants now. Feel free to skip the rest of this post if I bore you :?
I loathe the pardagrim that 90% of npc's are supposed to be 1st level. I abhore the idea that most people are built with a 12 point buy. And I despise the Commoner class with a ferocity that most people usually reserve for child molesters. In short; my hat of DMG standard demographics know no limit. :evil:
The purpose for these demographics is to make the GM's job easier. If 99% of the population of your world is a 1st level commoner with a 10 or 11 in every stat then it is easy for a GM to use the rules to calculate the behavior of unprepared NPC's in improvised situations. Unfortunaetly it also causes the game world to break down once the PC's pass 6th level (unless the PC's are the first people ever to pass 6th level). Instead of this madness I propose a different, but equally GM-friendly, solutioun.
If a NPC isn't important enough to be at least 3rd level and built with 20 points then he isn't important enough to have stats at all.
Sure there may be a first level stablehand built on 12 points somewhere in the world. But do I really have to know what his DV and attack bonus is to decide what happens to him? If ever someone should feel the need to fight this poor schmuck I will simply roll dice for sound effects and describe a dramitically appropriate outcome for him keeping in mind that he is a pathetic and unimportant individual destined to meet an equally pathetic and unimportant end. For skill checks and the like I can simply decide how good he ought to be at what he is trying to do (if I made a stat block for him isnt' that exactly the same thing? ) and give him a flat 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% chance.
IMC the average level is 3 and the only NPC class is Expert. PC's start at 3rd level or higher unless the player is a newbie in which case I have him make a first level character and run him through
The Burning Plague. Everybody should be first level and scared of a kobold at least once in their life... its a right of passage. That makes my demographics look something like this:
1: incompetent adolescent
2: newly-trained
3: competent young adult
4: experienced (most NPC's spend their lives at levels 3-4)
5: vetran
6: master (by normal standards)
So for the whole population percentages might look like:
1-3: 50%
4-6: 25%
7-9: 13%
10-12: 6%
13-15: 3%
16-18: 2%
19+: 1%
Finally if the NPC lives in a harsh enviornment (Bosonian Marches) or has a dangerous job (mercenary) and has survived give him 1 or 2 extra levels to represent him being tough. For me this give the game world a much more realistic feel than using standard demograhics; the PC's can still become uber-heroes but not every town guard or even dockhand is going to loose a battle to the death with the common housecat.
YMMV
</rant>