Rust spell

[monnock777]

So when using a rust spell it it destroys most metal non artifact weapons. What do you do in your game when you use rust on a player and destory their only weapon. Does the weapon last until the end of the dungeon or do you destory there weapon and make them find a new one. When we play rust, your weapon is destroyed, you may find a make shift weapon or old weapon on the weapon rack on the dungeon if you can find it. When you do find it you find your weapon with your base weapon stats.

[Kurgan]

Depends. As written the Rust spell used (twice) in Wizards of Zargon/Morcar is much more powerful... applies to any piece of metal Equipment (evil wizard GM decides how that applies.. does shield have metal parts? crossbow?). I interpret "Equipment" to mean any item on an Equipment card (Armory board in NA version). So no Artifacts. The weapon is unusable once the spell hits, no questions asked!

The NA Game System (used twice in Kellar's Keep) Rust spell explicitly applies to "Helmets" and "Swords" only (and no Artifacts). So much less powerful.

According to the basic rules, it reduces the Hero to their base attack (with no weapon) which means 1 white die. If they get another weapon (or have a spare weapon) they can switch to that one.

Or another Hero could get adjacent to them (and no adjacent monsters) and pass them a piece of Equipment or Artifact to use as a weapon.

It sucks if they lost their weapon, but finding new weapons isn't that hard. Here is where some people implement a house rule where an unarmed Hero can loot a weapon off of a dead monster (decide how you want to handle that), but it's really not necessary...

If we look at the various rules for the quest packs from EU to NA, there's no need to invent any house rules to handle the situation, but of course this is Hero Quest, so if you want to add new rules, you are free to do so!

I do have a house rule where every Weapons Rack (that doesn't have a specific treasure specified in the quest) gives you a random Equipment card draw (at least on the first search). But even without that, surely SOMEBODY has gold between quests to buy them a new weapon. If not, it's a penalty for encountering a Chaos sorcerer with that spell! It's not that tough, unless this is the last surviving Hero who has now been reduced to 1 combat die.

One little cool possibility is that there is a "Potion of Alchemy" in the WOM expansion as a Treasure card. Many find this one "useless" (NA version explicitly allows you to sell back any piece of equipment to the Armory for half purchase value). But you could implement a "house rule" allowing it to turn a "rusted" piece of equipment to gold, so you could sell it between quests for 100 gold coins, instead of having it just disappear into nothingness.

[monnock777]

Typically I target the barbarian with the rust spell. Taking his weapon is a large hit to the party especially early on.

[Kurgan]

I forgot, in addition to KK, the Barbarian Quest pack could also feature the (Game System) Rust spell (if you choose it for the Frozen Horror's arsenal).

And any homebrews...

Later on the Heroes should be wealthy enough that they can easily replace any bit of equipment you happen to rust, they'll just have to be scared for a little bit.

[LucaRocks]

Quick question about Rust as my group is finally getting to Kellar's Keep. I know it works against helmets and swords (and the shield is wood) but will it work against armor and battle axes? I assume not even though these items are metal because of the wording on the card but I just wanted to confirm. Thanks for any help.

[Kurgan]

The NA Chaos Spell Rust only works against a (non-Artifact) metal helmet or sword. There are no swords or helmets in heroquest that are NOT made of metal, however. It doesn't work on anything except a helmet or sword.

Chainmail and Plate Mail are not helmets and they are not swords, so they are unaffected by this Spell.

[SirRick]

I really do wish the spell was a little more useful, such as helmets and metal weapons. Unless its introduced early, it will only be used to destroy helmets, since, by the time you encounter it in KK the heroes probably have battle axes, crossbows, and artifact weapons.

[LucaRocks]

Yes, it does not sound as useful as it should be. Although, longswords are popular in my group so that's an option. I will also try to nuke their base weapons just to mess with them LOL

Thanks guys!

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Depends. As written the Rust spell used (twice) in Wizards of Zargon/Morcar is much more powerful... applies to any piece of metal Equipment (evil wizard GM decides how that applies.. does shield have metal parts? crossbow?). I interpret "Equipment" to mean any item on an Equipment card (Armory board in NA version). So no Artifacts. The weapon is unusable once the spell hits, no questions asked!

The NA Game System (used twice in Kellar's Keep) Rust spell explicitly applies to "Helmets" and "Swords" only (and no Artifacts). So much less powerful.

According to the basic rules, it reduces the Hero to their base attack (with no weapon) which means 1 white die. If they get another weapon (or have a spare weapon) they can switch to that one.

If we look at the various rules for the quest packs from EU to NA, there's no need to invent any house rules to handle the situation, but of course this is Hero Quest, so if you want to add new rules, you are free to do so!

I agree with Kurgan, under NA Edition rules, Rust spell explicitly applies to "Helmets" and "Swords" only (and no Artifacts). And the rules for unarmed combat 1AD, 2DD are already documented elsewhere in NA Edition.

Under Second Edition (and Wizards of Morcar was only ever released under Second Edition)

Rust
This spell causes one item of equipment of the Evil Wizard player’s choice to rust and become useless. That equipment card should be discarded. Discard after use.

And the rules for unarmed combat, use stats on character boards, are also documented in the Second Edition

And I would say that in HeroQuest Shields do have metal components

Potion of Magic Resistance
You find a small bottle hidden beneath a rusty shield. You can drink the potion when a spell is cast on you and you may then ignore the effects of that spell. Discard after use.