Henchmen advancement

[parcival42]

Before Frostgrave was even released I started thinking about how to make the henchmen more interesting.  I had heard that they didn't have any special abilities and were only differentiated by their stats and weaponry.  That seemed boring, so I started spit balling ideas while at work that would give them more character and came up with a the following list.

I came to realize that their stat differentiation was really enough to make them unique and forgot about this list.  But, after reading Calmdown's campaign "fixes" and all the other ways that people have suggested modifying the game, I figured why not add to the mayhem.  Frostgrave is just so wonderfully house ruleable!

The best way I could see using something like these is making them abilities that you could upgrade your henchmen with.  It could be as easy as 100gc buys a new ability, or you could integrate them more into Calmdown's campaign system and maybe have a chart of available trainers.  There could also be an opportunity cost involved: the henchman must miss the next game while he trains his new abilities.

My goal was to come up with 2 abilities for each type of hireling, but I drew a blank for some of them.  Please make suggestions and give your opinion on the idea.  Heck, play test them if you feel really adventurous.


Thief       The Thief does 2 extra damage in any combat he wins in which he gains an outnumbering bonus.         You receive an extra 15gc for every opponent killed by the Thief.
Archer      
Crossbowman      
Infantryman      
Tracker   Add one to your initiative rolls each round while tracker is active and on the board.   The Tracker may deploy 2" beyond your normal deployment area.
Man-at-Arms   The Man-at-Arms gains +2 armor against ranged attacks.   
Treasure Hunter   Extra 25gc for any treasure token carried off the board by the Treasure Hunter.   
Knight   Once per turn, the Knight can take a hit meant for another model within 1" of him.         Opponents do not gain the outnumbering bonus against the Knight.
Templar   The Templar does +2 bonus damage against Undead and Demons.         Once per game, if a hit would take the Templar out of action, he instead remains alive with 1 Health.
Ranger   The Ranger does +2 damage against Animals.                               The Ranger ignores all difficult terrain.
Barbarian   Once per turn, the Barbarian can spend 3 health to make an additional attack.   
Apothecary   The Apothecary gives a +2 bonus to Brew Potion spells cast by the Wizard as long as he is in the Warband.   
Marksman   The Marksman ignores intervening terrain.   

[Darkson71]

Archer - if makes a half-distance move, doesn't have the -1 to shoot
Crossbow - can make a half distance move and still reload
Thief - may climb at normal movement rate


I wouldn't use any of them, as I like the henchmen as they are now, but just throwing some ideas out there.

[JohnDSD2]

Introduce an 'Aim' action for bow armed soldiers that gives a positive modifier to their shot.

So first action of an activation is 'Aim', second action is the shot at +1 to the shoot score and +1 to damage to indicate the extra care taken to hit and to hit something vital.

[Philhelm]

Introduce an 'Aim' action for bow armed soldiers that gives a positive modifier to their shot.

So first action of an activation is 'Aim', second action is the shot at +1 to the shoot score and +1 to damage to indicate the extra care taken to hit and to hit something vital.

That would make the bow much better than the crossbow, since the +1 shoot and damage would translate to +2 damage if the hit succeeds, not to mention that the bowmen would have a slightly better chance to initially overcome the target's Fight value and score a hit.  Furthermore, there would be the tactical option to move and shoot.  There would be no reason to take a crossbow.

[Elbows]

Is anyone advancing henchmen into other (more expensive) henchmen categories?