An armorer is a blacksmith.

A weaponsmith is a blacksmith.

Most blacksmiths are not armorers or weaponsmiths. Especially a village blacksmith.

If you’ve ever taken a glance at the map of Phandalin, you may have noticed there’s a smithy located across from Barthen’s Provisions, but no mention of a blacksmith among the roster of NPCs for Lost Mine of Phandelver. So, what to do when a character wants to visit the smith for the purpose of silvering their weapons or bedazzling their armor with the treasures they acquired?

If you like a dose of realism in your fantasy, the village blacksmith is going to look up from his hammer and tongs at the character and say something like “You want me to what? Just where do you think you are, fella? Waterdeep?”

The blacksmith in a frontier town like Phandalin scratches out a living by crafting the things that are useful to the people most-likely to give him business.

• Farmers need horseshoes, cowbells, hoes, rakes, scythes, and plowshares.
• Miners need shovels, pickaxes, pans, hammers, pitons, and crowbars.
• Everyone else living in a village out in the middle of nowhere would need essentials like nails, door hinges, barrel hoops, chains, fishing hooks, knitting needles, cutlery, and cook pots.

The most specialized task Phandalin’s blacksmith would likely perform would be working with the Phandalin Miner’s Exchange, smelting ore so it can be melted down into ingots for trade purposes. What else is Halia Thornton going to do with the nuggets of precious metals that prospectors bring to the Miner’s Exchange? Perhaps you want to hint at the prospect of gold ingots at the Miner’s Exchange to players with larceny in their hearts, while conveniently leaving out that, as a sort of Zhentarim rookery, Halia has flying snakes hidden in every nook and cranny of the place.

If you’re in need of a name for your nondescript Phandalin blacksmith, A Song of Ice and Fire has more blacksmiths per capita than any other work of fiction I can think of. And there are some great names to pilfer from those pages that some player at your table may recognize, look up from their phone, and give a knowing nod: Mikken, Gendry, Donal (Noye), Hugh Hammer, Iron Belly, Steeley Pate, Nail, and my personal favorite, Ben Blackthumb are just a few to choose from.

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