Lending Mercenaries different weapons?

[Daedalus]

. . . In the case of a Merc dying (not by betrayal!) next to an unarmed Hero, I would probably allow the Hero to equip the weapon from his fallen ally in that case only.. . .

I like that idea. The mercenary and weapon should be lost afterward as he can't be rehired. . . or did you have something else in mind?

[Kurgan]

Maybe the Guild of Mercenaries demands the weapon back to be buried with their fallen comrade in between quests, forcing you to buy your own replacement. That's fair. And if you equip a merc to replace a lost piece of gear, he gets to keep it permanently.

Makes it harder to "profit" from wasting your mercenaries recklessly anyhow with those terms in place...

Generally you don't get to loot monster bodies (unless they're carrying artifacts) so the same would be the case with these guys, unless it was a special case where you would be unarmed, and they can give you a basic weapon, but lose it at the end of the quest.

[Kurgan]

I am thinking that they really wanted the Mercs to have pre-defined powers much like monsters and NPCs. So except in very special cases you probably wouldn't under normal rules. A crossbowman is explicitly armed with a broadsword (for close attacks) and if an Ice Gremlin were to steal it (can't steal the weapon out of his hand, but let's say he's carrying the crossbow, otherwise he can grab the "off hand" weapon) then he's suddenly weakened (permanently?). I would say you could replace the weapon he was missing (without his broadsword his close attack would be 1 die).

Otherwise you can pass a potion to a Mercenary or cast a spell on them, otherwise they can't use stuff unless it was intended for them specifically or whatever. They can open doors, but otherwise they can only do the stuff it says on their card or in the brief description(s) at the start and end of the questbooks for WOM and BQP (the rules are slightly different for each pack). Individual NPCs in your quest? Do whatever you want, and put that in the quest notes! But other than the pre-set attack/defense and movement, they function like heroes (under the control of OTHER heroes) for purposes of reading cards I would say should be the general rule of thumb.

[Shark]

In the EU version of Wizards of Morcar under Men-at-Arms in Game it states “men-at-arms may not search for treasure, use any equipment or treasure cards and only scouts may search for and attempt to disarm traps.”

[Kurgan]

Good reminder about the EU version!

Zargon could certain allow the Mercenaries to be treated like empty vessels.. like weaker heroes.. that you could put armor on them, give them weapons, etc. and make them into whatever you wanted. Of course when you hire them, they come with their predefined skills. The default rules and how Avalon Hill reads them is that Mercs are supposed to be pretty much as is. Take it or leave it, what you see is what you get, etc. Yes, when it comes to the NA mercs, they have 2 BP, so in theory you could give them a potion that they could use for a death save. You can heal them up with a healing spell, or give them a spell bonus with Swift Wind (double movement), strengthen their attacks with Courage or their defense with Rock Skin, etc.

The general idea though is that unless something was created specifically for Mercs, they can't use it. They don't collect treasure (but they could retrieve gear from a dead hero and carry it rather than have it be lost forever). They are not heroes, but when a spell or other incident calls for a "hero" they can fill that role for purposes of the spell or whatever.

What's more interesting is how someone like Sir Ragnar works with these things. Some take the "empty vessel" approach, others want to limit him very much (of course you meet him so early in the game that you aren't likely to have much to use on him). But Zargon makes the call, if the heroes want to get creative and you think it's cool...

Looking again, the Animal Allies ("Into the Northlands") are given many limitations but the Frozen Horror (remake) mercs are not.

[Shark]

I have been trialling a standard Merc that starts as Att=0, Def=2, BP=2, MP=2; but armed with short sword, and allowed to be given equipment both permanently and/or temporarily, allowing them to act as a porter/bagman.

As a combatant I find them very weak in that 2 BP even with 4 or 5 CD Defence is likely to be killed easily. So they either stand back or to the side with a weapon that can attack diagonally to avoid getting hit. So rather make them useful as porters to carry stuff.

[Kurgan]

In the past I used the "blank slate mercenary" thing, where I had the solo Barbarian rescue some prisoners (as a way to make the solo quests a little more playable) and then equip them, even though I know that's not the usual way they're used.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Officially, are there any rules that prohibit lending a different weapon to a mercenary? For example, giving a scout a crossbow that you own.

. . . A mercenary does not receive any treasure.. . .

That includes weapons found as treasure in the current Quest or any previous one, even if held by a Hero. Weapons that Heroes pay a gold-coin cost for are also purchased with treasure, so they too should be disallowed; they still retain a resale value that can be redeemed at the Armory, just as with weapons found as treasure.

Assuming OP is using NA Edition rules...I'm not sure I agree with the above comment. Mercenaries don't receive treasure, but equipment is not treasure (although it is bought with treasure, but that doesn't make it treasure), so I'm not sure that rule would disallow mercenaries from using other equipment. I'm pretty sure you are not supposed to re-equip mercenaries, but I'm not sure if there is a specific rule that prevents you from doing so. Also could you remind me where the 'resale value' rule is in the NA edition as I can never find it, whenever I try to quote it, is it in one of the expansions perhaps...

EDIT: Found the slippery little bugger...Frozen Horror 9. Selling Excess items, I knew it was in there somewhere!

[Kurgan]

Revisiting this topic after an interesting discussion with Encarmine over the role of the Elven Mercenaries in the new Rise of the Dread Moon expansion. He asked me to examine what it says the mercenaries can do vs. what it says they can't. It got me re-reading the various sections. Now granted, Wizards of Morcar has not yet been remade and goes by the European ruleset rather than the North American that the remake is based upon. So I started gathering up the various sections to see perhaps a better way to understand them.

It sounds like he's saying their intention was to allow various things to be usable by the Mercs, which in that pack especially would be quite useful since there are so few of them and heroes will want to try to keep them alive rather than wasting them as cannon fodder.

Low res screen caps from ROTDM (2023) quest book taken from my videos, for research purposes on this point (not really a spoiler):

[Kurgan]

Comparing this with what we encounter in the Remake edition's first use of Mercenaries, the Frozen Horror (2022, which are officially allowed in the group quests of Mage of the Mirror remake as well, even though the 1992 edition didn't have any mercenaries). It's worth noting that the human mercs and Elven Mercs are not exactly the same despite sharing many similarities (despite my first impressions of the pack!).

The remake edition reproduces the 1992 Frozen Horror's text about mercenaries which I also share below for comparison: