Conan retains his panther-like relexes, mighty thews, barrel-chest etc that he started with. He ends up as a king but his essential abilities are not noticeably diffeent. It isn't like he had Cut Bloody Swath: 5W when he left Cimmeria and bumped it up to Cut Bloody Swath; 5W3 by the time he was King of Aquilonia.
Frodo starts the LoTR without much, gains the One Ring, a magic sword and a mithril-mail shirt. I do not see his abilities, such as they are, increasing. (in HW I guess he would gain a few relationship abilities). In fact one of the benefits of him being a hobbit is that he resists the change that the ring would have on more powerful person.
I have never read any Robert Jordan so cannot comment, but I do not think that Cugel the Clever, Malygris the Magician, Lord Gro or Elric of Melnibone, significantly improve during their adventures. At leas the increase is not so great that the character at the start of the series is not even in the same league as the character from the end.
This is probably getting off-topic, but I think is just about relevant.
Keith
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