Thoughts on spears...

[Tetsubo]

The spear is arguably the oldest and most common weapon used in war. I've never been happy with the way D&D handled them though. It always came off as a subpar choice when in reality it was the warriors "go to" weapon. So hear are a few thoughts on how I might handle them in the future...

Toss the shortspear. The javelin does the job better, I don't see a need for it.

Keep the spear as is but add a feature. When used by a class with Martial skill in can be held in one hand (effectively becoming a one-handed weapon). This reflects the use of a shield and spear as seen in most ancient armies.

The longspear would also remain a Simple weapon. But when used by a class with Martial skill the user can also wear a Light or Heavy shield. The weapon remains two-handed but the user gains the benefit of the shield as well. trying to reflect the phalanx of history...

Any thoughts?

[PWD]

I like where you're going.

[Scarbonac]

Not bad.

I've always thought that the shield has been undervalued in D&D, as well...

[Ancalagon]

this makes sense to me!

The shield is underpowered, perhaps because you can slap a +5 AC bonus on it if you have enough magic juice.

I much prefer how they did it in warhammer RPG.

[Lisa Nadazdy]

The spear is bad, but the shield is handled even worse. Through out history, the shield has been man's principle armor, and yet it's treated in most games like an afterthought. I'd like more games to treat the venerable shield with more respect.

[Atticus_of_Amber]

I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record on T20 ( a game I've read but never played) but ... IIRC ... the way they got round it was that the shield provides a cover bonus, whereas armour increases your toughness save.

I think Troy did a lot for my mental image of the spear being a very useful weapon.

The snippets I've seen of 300 have a similar effect.

[doc]

I like the way the now defuct Gaurdions of ORder did armour in Game of Thrones

[Dacke]

One of the things mentioned about 4e is you can make different moves with different weapons. Apparently the longsword will have the most options, but they did mention that spears will have the ability to bypass AC and something else.

[Harry]

Heck-fire, if it's good enough for Odin and assorted Christ killers it's good enough for me!

Actually, several characters ago, in Beale Knight's last game, my character was a long spear wielding Cleric. He rocked, and I never had a problem with using a standard D&D spear. Granted, he made it to about level 9, and the best weapon he had at that point was the same Masterwork Longspear he picked up at second level, but no matter. He was a Cleric... Able to leap tall buildings and out fly fiery dragons by that point, whilst blasting them with all kinds of Divine goodies.

[Janos]

I'm in the "love spears, D&D treats spears like a red-headed stepchild" camp.

The option we used for several campaigns was that a regular spear gave 10' reach but could be used adjacent with a swift action to lose reach, and a long spear gave 15' reach, with the same.

They later created the Short Haft feat to do the same thing without reach but it has sucky prereqs.