D&D 5E Lance is not a heavy weapon - Ergo halflings with lances. :D

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
Woah. I just realized something. Any creature that closes with a lance-wielder provokes an opportunity attack, right? "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach." They moved out of your reach when they left 10' away and entered 5' away, right? [Edit - no I am wrong, see below]
 
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Capricia

Banned
Banned
Woah. I just realized something. Any creature that closes with a lance-wielder provokes an opportunity attack, right? "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach." They moved out of your reach when they left 10' away and entered 5' away, right?

No, because they're still within your reach. You just have disadvantage on the attacks.
 

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
No, because they're still within your reach. You just have disadvantage on the attacks.

Ah right, damn! That's on me for not reading it again.

You could go reckless attack as a barbarian, giving you advantage on your melee attack to cancel out the disadvantage on the lance attack, and then just dash away (disad on the opportunity attack for you leaving). Though I suppose if you're going to do that, you might as well just step back 5' drawing the OA at disad, then attack with actual advantage, and then move or dash away.
 
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Tony Vargas

Legend
Yes, but you have spear as a separate weapon, with different qualities - the spear is versatile (so, the idea of using two hands on a spear is already there), and can be thrown.
But not reach, the raison detre of the spear since the stone age. Admittedly, /that/ is primarily an issue of granularity. In a more granular system an axe would have reach over a dagger, a spear over that, and a very long spear called a lance or pike would beat out a regular spear. A binary reach (for pikes, lances & whips) / no reach (for everything else from spears & greatswords to daggers & head-buts) loses a lot of that. FWIW.

It's been an issue for like 3 eds, now: no spear (the broad category of long, pointy weapons, not a specific weapon entry called that in D&D) w/ reach if you're using a shield. Well, unless you get on a horse, then it's OK. Phalanxes? Nah, hobgoblins use flail & shield to form those (a flail? in a phalanx?).

It's just one of those weird little blocks systems develop sometimes. One-handed spear, with reach, and a shield is somehow unthinkable. Whip or kusari-gama or something weird being one-handed with reach, sure, but not a spear.

:shrug:

Not a big deal, just a funny little rut the game's been in for like 12 years.
 




Draegn

Explorer
I house ruled that the maximum size weapon one can use can be no more than 3x their height. Anything greater in length is too bulky to effectively use.
 

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