The Farmer and Blacksmith

[Gold Bearer]

The weapons rack idea is very situational, but a I much prefer a blacksmith to fix things rather than improving stuff that isn't broken.

The best thing for a blacksmith would be to introduce a new mechanic that weapons and armour are damaged in you roll all black shields (making better stuff less likely to break). Then if there's a blacksmith in the party they could use their action attempt to fix broken equipment by rolling a combat dice, on a skull it can't be fixed, on a white shield it can and on a black shield it can be fixed well enough to be used for the rest of the quest.

That way you could use quest notes for weapons racks when you want to, like this rack contains a broken spear and a broken shield for example. The only problem with that is they could find themselves without a weapon to start with which would be annoying, and they would always want to keep their starting equipment as backup, which isn't really a problem but it would mean slower equipment progression early on.

Of course this is only if you're happy to add a broken equipment mechanic though.

[Sotiris]

I think the Farmer would work out ok, but I'm still a little iffy on the Blacksmith's ability. I like the idea of "crafting" but keeping it HQ simple. The key is, whatever it is, it should fit on this card in its entirety.

Your blacksmith and some cool ideas here inspired me to design one for me too!

Body: 7
Mind: 3
Attack: 1 (2 Daggers)
Defense: 3 (Helmet)
You are the Blacksmith, a master of the forge. You begin each quest with 3 Runes of Blacksmith.
When using a rune you may:

• recover one thrown weapon
• interrupt and blockade sorcery against weapons (Rust etc.)
• sell one equipment at its full cost (when finishing a quest)

[mitchiemasha]

The best thing for a blacksmith would be to introduce a new mechanic that weapons and armour are damaged in you roll all black shields (making better stuff less likely to break).

YEAH! 100% with ya!!!

[TMU]

I like the farmer most of these. Wish I had time and money to get all these characters included to my game

[QorDaq]

Somehow missed this thread previously.

One of the things I like about ideas like this is; even if not likely to be used as PCs, as NPCs needing the party's help they are pretty cool. Escort missions are generally tedious (in my opinion), though not always, and having a principle that can actually contribute somehow during a quest is bonus.

Alchemist, Blacksmith, Farmer, Miner, all cool ideas. I think adding a Butcher, Baker and a Candlestick maker would be cool too...*Grin*... Seriously though, why limit the potential NPC Pool. In fact, once there was a nice stable of these kinds of minor characters, perhaps once a given "Type" has been encountered and saved/escorted/rescued, they could then be added to the list of potential NPCs to hire? Much like the Men at Arms, Scouts, etc? Just a thought.

As to the Alchemist, I'd dig seeing some alchemical ingredient cards, much like the Farmers special cards, which could be added to the treasure deck. Have the Alchemists ability trigger off of those?

Blacksmith could easily have some variable abilities. In another topic where we were discussing conversions of Zombicide BP characters, my idea for the Blacksmith was to have them be able to "Sharpen" a weapon during a quest. Once sharpened the weapon would gain 1 CD until a Black shield was rolled. Possibly allow for up to three times per quest? I suppose alternately "Reinforcing" a piece of Armor (1 DD until a Black Shield is rolled) is an obvious option as well. And, I really like the idea mentioned above of being able to recover "Repair" thrown weapons otherwise lost. So maybe a combination of abilities along these lines that could be used sort of like spells. They get 3 or 4 cards each of which is a one use action?

The Miner could be a limited Sapper? Explosive traps anyone?

Some interesting potential here...

[GimmeYerGold]

Here's the Blacksmith card. I thought the "craft weapon or armor at any time" could be a nice perk if you're stuck in a dungeon and got plenty of gold but are lacking good weapons or armor, but that's not super great on its own, so I added the temper skill, to temporarily improve any number of weapons or armor for half its cost.

This could be a nice perk, it's not too OP in my opinion, and it can act as a gold sink.

The greatest exploit would be tempering daggers for about 12 gold a pop, and having a nearly perfect chance of scoring at least one hit each time it is used, either by regular combat or throwing.

I'm not sure if this is so bad, as most Heroes would prefer to bulk up to stronger equipment beyond the dagger anyway.

Currently, I have retrievable thrown weapons as a turn burn, no damaged-equipment mechanic (other than the rust spell) and I'm going to keep those as is. Any modification to this particular tempering skill would be to the duration of the effect, and must fit on this card alone.

Thoughts?

[Daedalus]

Your Farmer and Alchemist look great. I see you haven't set the Blacksmith's stat total at 9 like the other two--is this intentional? The Blacksmith is also lacking a signature weapon or item like the others. If these three are considered a set of lesser Heroes, it might be nice to stat and equip the Blacksmith in a similar manner.

A hammer and tools suggest themselves thematically to me. Perhaps include a 2AD hammer equipment card that works like a shortsword (with a 10 stat Blacksmith) or hand ax (with 9 stat Blacksmith.) As an ability, allow a Blacksmith to lessen an armored monster's Defend Dice by one as he can exploit armor weaknesses. Tools could allow bladed weapons to be conditioned before a Quest. My opinion is to cheapen the cost but shorten the duration. This accessibility should mean fun with more weapons at an earlier time.

All this means added word count. I'd drop the weapon creation ability, as I feel it is too situational and is usually addressed in such linked Quests by including found equipment anyway. My attempt:

yourcon	A Blacksmith	YC
YC	y You are the Blacksmith, forger of steel. Your insight forces armored opponents to defend your attacks with 1 less combat die. You also may improve any edged weapons for a cost of 25 gold coins each before a Quest. A Hero may reroll 1 Attack Die with such a blade at least once, then until he rolls a black shield. yet	YC

You could change "...Before a Quest..." and the 25 gold coin cost if you prefer. The benefit shoudn't last long, so I went affordable for beginning Heroes. Loaded Heroes can buy spare weapons for the Blacksmith to condition as an ace in the hole..

The NA Wizard without the Wizard's Staff benefits the most from an improved dagger, though any Hero will get to throw and retrieve them in your game. A battle axe will hit all the more effectively, but likely for a shorter number of attacks--maybe just one.

[Anderas]

Good that Daedalus revived this thread:
Just to tell you that five of the cards of this thread made it into my game.

My Blacksmith has a background story inspired by the Zombicide Dwarf.

Story

You are the Dwarven Blacksmith.
You are skilled, but what really amazes
you is that putting some dwarven runes
on a piece of metal seems to make it
much more valuable in the eyes of a
human!

Ability

Dwarven Improvements

Instead of paying the hiring or the
upkeep of a mercenary, you may
discard an equipment card. With this
skill, you may hire mercenaries from
the beginning.

Maybe that rule could refer to weapon's racks as well. In my treasure deck you can find weapons with up to two combat dice, meant for selling as "more interesting" gold find.
The second part refers to the need of being a "Champion" before you can hire mercenaries.

I am not entirely happy with it yet, but ok.
Just to bring his equipment cards in line with the model, i also added
"Roll one more when attacking with a Hammer".
Now i have to invent a Hammer for the game with a unique profile. I don't just want to give it short sword or broad sword stats because that would make it a superfluous card.

[knightkrawler]

1) The hammer uses brute force to smash. Skeletons and Chaos Warriors and Gargoyles should suffer more from it than others.
You'd need to find some terminology for this. Maybe all of them or a choice of them defend with -1 or even half CD.

2) I take it the hammer should give 3 CD, one-handed, right?
3 in an attack with a hammer mean instadeath if the opponent isn't a named character.

[Daedalus]

More hammer ideas:

• armored opponents defend with 1 less combat die
• (armored?) opponent defends with 1 less combat die for each hit

• I think it could also be included as a home-brew Armory item:
  
  

  Warhammer
  550 Gold Coins
  Weapon

  This stone warhammer gives you the attack
  strength of 3 combat dice. It gives 4 combat
  dice against larger-than-man-sized monsters,
  which are less able to avoid it's heavy blows.
  May not be used by the Elf or the Wizard.