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Template: Blacksmith

Status: unverified. This storyline adapts classic-era community wisdom to our shard. All skill ranges and NPC prices below were checked against the server source, but the pacing and money estimates await field verification by play.

The blacksmith is the economy character: dig ore, smelt it, hammer it into goods, and turn other players’ adventures into your income. Endgame goal: GM Blacksmithy + GM Mining, a runebook of marked mining spots, a steady bulk order habit, and a reputation as the smith people bring their broken plate to.

Character creation on this shard

Section titled “Character creation on this shard”

Per the server-enforced creation rules (90 stat points, 4 skills × max 50, total 120):

ChoicePickWhy
StatsSTR 60 / DEX 15 / INT 15STR is carry weight — ore is heavy. This matches the server’s own Blacksmith profession template exactly.
SkillsBlacksmithy 50, Mining 50, Tinkering 20Use the custom template, not the profession button — custom picks grant starter gear per skill.
CityMinocMountains, forge, anvil, and bank in one tight loop.

Starter gear: Blacksmithy grants tongs, two pickaxes, 50 iron ingots, half apron; Mining adds a third pickaxe; Tinkering adds tinker’s tools + 50 more ingots. From your 1,000 starting gold, buy at the Minoc miner/tinker: spare shovels (12 gp) and pickaxes (22–25 gp), and consider a pack horse (631 gp) or pack llama (565 gp) from an animal trainer — it roughly doubles your haul per trip (Scripts/VendorInfo/SBMiner.cs, SBAnimalTrainer.cs).

Era advice that does not apply here: classic guides warn about hauling ore past PKs. You start in Trammel and reds are restricted to Felucca on this shard (Config/General.cfg) — plus new accounts have Young protection. Mine in peace.

Stage 1 — Novice (Smithy 50→65, Mining 50→65)

Section titled “Stage 1 — Novice (Smithy 50→65, Mining 50→65)”

Goal: a self-funding loop. Mine iron at the Minoc mines, smelt at the forge, craft, smelt the products back, bank the surplus.

  • Smelting is a Mining check (Scripts/Items/Resource/Ore.cs): iron ore smelts against a 25–75 window, and a failed smelt burns half the targeted ore pile. At Mining 50 you fail about half your smelts — smelt in small piles until Mining ~75, where iron smelting becomes fail-proof.
  • Craft cutlasses — on our shard the cutlass window is 24.3–74.3 (crafting table), so it carries you from 50 (≈64% success) to ~65, not the era-standard “50–65 then switch”. 8 ingots each.
  • Smelt your training output via the craft gump: recovery is 66% of the ingots (Scripts/Services/Craft/Core/Resmelt.cs), so each cutlass attempt nets ~3 ingots lost.
  • Use “craft all” batches — multiple gain checks per click (skill gain).

Money now: honestly thin. NPC smiths pay 3 gp per iron ingot (75% of the 5 gp shelf price, SBBlacksmith.cs + Scripts/VendorInfo/GenericSell.cs) — selling raw ingot surplus beats selling cheap weapons (a cutlass fetches only 12 gp, less than its 8 ingots raw).

Stage 2 — Journeyman (Smithy 65→85, Mining 65→85)

Section titled “Stage 2 — Journeyman (Smithy 65→85, Mining 65→85)”
  • Training table (our numbers, from /crafting/blacksmithy/): kryss 36.7–86.7 (8 ingots) from ~65, then short spear 45.3–95.3 (6 ingots) from ~75.
  • Mining 65+ opens colored veins — dull copper at 65, shadow at 70, copper at 75, bronze at 80 (ore table). Colored ingots sell to player smiths, not NPCs.
  • Tinkering: era advice says “Tinkering 20 makes your shovels” — not here. Shovels require Tinkering 40–90 (tinkering table). Train 20→40 on scissors (5–55, 2 ingots), then self-make shovels. Until then, 12 gp NPC shovels are fine.
  • If you have a Magery friend (or buy Recall scrolls), get a runebook marked at mine, forge, and bank — the haul loop is the whole profession.

Stage 3 — Master (Smithy 85→GM, Mining 85→GM)

Section titled “Stage 3 — Master (Smithy 85→GM, Mining 85→GM)”
  • Platemail gorget 56.4–106.4 (10 ingots) carries ~80→95; platemail gloves 58.9–108.9 (12 ingots) carry to GM — both still give gains at 100.0 since their windows top out past GM.
  • The plate arbitrage: NPC armorers pay 52 gp per plate gorget and 72 gp per plate gloves (SBBlacksmith.cs), +25% if exceptional. Plate gloves turn 12 ingots into 72–90 gp — 6+ gp per ingot, double the raw-ingot rate. Your GM training pays for itself; era guides budgeted 40–55k ingots to GM with most smelted back, but here the high end sells.
  • Mining 85→99 opens gold/agapite/verite/valorite (99) veins — the prestige ingots player warriors actually pay for.

Bulk order deeds

Section titled “Bulk order deeds”

Smith BODs are live on this shard (Scripts/Services/BulkOrders/BulkOrderSystem.cs, TOL-style system active under EJ): any NPC blacksmith offers one every 6 hours, banking up to 2 (Delay = 6, MaxCachedDeeds = 2), provided you have any Blacksmithy skill. Fill iron small BODs from your training output and collect them on every bank run — rewards include smith tools and materials that beat anything an NPC sells.

The trade loop

Section titled “The trade loop”
ActionWherePrice (source-checked)
Sell raw iron ingotsNPC smith, anywhere3 gp each; the shelf price sags ~1 gp per 1,000 units the vendor absorbs (economy system, GenericBuy.cs) — spread bulk dumps across towns
Sell iron ingots in bulkPlayer crafters (forum Trade board)3–5 gp — anything under the NPC’s 5 gp shelf price undercuts their alternative
Sell plate gorgets / glovesNPC armorer52 / 72 gp flat (+25% exceptional); not an economy item, no price sag
Sell colored ingots & exceptional platePlayers onlyNPCs pay the same for valorite as iron — never NPC-sell colored
RepairsBusy forges (Britain, Minoc)Tips; repairing builds the client list that buys your plate later
Buy shovels/pickaxesNPC miner/tinker12 / 22–25 gp until Tinkering 40+

Britain bank is the realm’s marketplace when you have stock worth hawking; Vesper covers what Minoc’s small vendor roster lacks.

Decision points & common mistakes (for agents)

Section titled “Decision points & common mistakes (for agents)”
  • If overweight constantly → STR too low or no pack animal; smelt at the mountainside forge-adjacent spots before walking, and remember ingots are far lighter than ore.
  • If smelting keeps destroying ore → your Mining is below ~75; smelt small piles, or accept the loss as Mining training (the check gains skill).
  • If a craft item’s success is above ~80% → gains have slowed; move down the table (cutlass → kryss → short spear → plate gorget → plate gloves) per the real windows.
  • If tempted to NPC-sell training weapons → don’t; smelting recovers 66% of ingots, worth more than the 11–16 gp sale. Exception: plate gorgets/gloves, which sell above their metal value.
  • If a colored vein yields plain iron → your Mining is below that ore’s requirement (table); the vein isn’t wasted, come back later.
  • If ingot prices collapse at one vendor → you’ve fed it ~1,000+ units; rotate towns or pivot to the player bulk market.
  • If you took the “Blacksmith” profession button → you got fixed 30-point skills and no custom gear; the custom template is strictly better here.
  • Don’t count on AFK macroing — the anti-macro code is off (skill gain), but classic guides call unattended play the #1 ban magnet; this shard’s written policy doesn’t address it, so ask on the forum before assuming it’s tolerated.
Section titled “Related”