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Fascinating as always.

Again, this is more a customer issue than anything. The idea that anything that doesn't have the official WotC stamp of approval isn't worth the time is the bane of the hobby. Again, you can shake your finger all you like. I mean look at 2024. Tell me how much innovation the fandom allows...

🤷 It's not really an either or thing is it? We getting some seriously high quality, diverse D&D titles every year. Of course, by diverse, most people seem to mean that they want exactly the same things that came last year and the year before because heaven forbid that we have anything new or...

Not really. As was mentioned upthread, we had two entire editions - AD&D 1e and 2e where non-swords were limited to +3 and only swords (by and large) had any special properties. There were a couple non-sword funky magic weapons, but, the vast, vast majority were swords. This is so deeply...

Faiths and Avatars. Powers and Pantheons. THose would be my choices.

Oh, that's totally fair. I was simply referring to the lack of planar travel. The whole "tracking ammo" sidebar I really don't care that much about. I never bother tracking ammo when I DM. I've had players who are meticulous about it, and others that don't care. Either way? I'm not too...

Heh. I'll give you a perfect example of how it goes when you try to move away from swords. Played a Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign. Tried to play a halberd wielding paladin. I wanted to do the whole Sentinel, Polearm Mastery thing. Hit about 4th level, DM was still handing out magic...

Roll your eyes all you like, but, the question was asked and that's the answer. Again, it's not like WotC's been coy about this. They've been 100% up front about how they are approaching marketing the game. People can obviously dislike the answer, but, that IS the answer to the question. And...

Your point? I know that Polearm Master works with spears. But, no one actually uses them because spears in D&D just suck so badly.

Really? My Candlekeep Mysteries campaign was constantly planar traveling. Phandelver:Shattered Obelisk takes place on the planes by about 10th level. Now, to be fair, my current Out of the Abyss game doesn't have much planar travel, but, the core element of the first third of the module is...

If someone had Polearm Master, they were using a polearm, not a spear. And, even then, I'm struggling to think of a single example over the years. Great Weapon Fighter? Oh yeah. Seen lots of that. Ohh, yes, there was a polearm master. But, again, halberd, not spear. Greek or Zulu warrior...

At the end of the day, this is how I feel as well. I don't care if you only speak in 3rd person or whatever. That's fine. I certainly don't expect Shakespeare. But, show a bit of effort. Put a bit of energy into it. That's all I'm asking.

Honestly? I think this is the primary motivation. Swords just capture the imagination to such an extent that basically no other weapons really exist.

Sorry, but, who didn't lug spears around most of the time? Nearly anyone who was headed out into the wilderness took a spear, starting all the way back in paleolithic times all the way up to Roman era and, depending on the part of the world, right up to the advent of gun powder weapons...

You do realize you can have sheaths for spears right? Or straps on your back? How long do you think these spears are? Do you think a standard D&D spear is a pike? A spear is only about 5 feet long. It's not hard to carry and you certainly don't have to always carry one in your hand. I...

No need to wonder. This is exactly the strategy they are pursuing and they have made no secret of that. Every release is an EVENT. None of this, "Oh, hey, we'll publish 100 books a year but only actually promote like six of them." thing anymore. Every single 5e release is a big deal. It's a...

Umm, if you can carry a sword and a shield while climbing, why couldn't you carry a spear? It's not like spears are harder to carry than swords.

Umm, you do realize that Chinese chess exists right? There's like a billion or so people who play it? Shogi in Japanese. Dunno what it's called in Chinese. But, in any case, it's chess without bishops.

This has long been a bugaboo of mine in the game. But, you smack right into the romanticism of the sword. Spears just aren't sexy. The image of shield and sword, or the samurai with his katana or Conan with his honking big sword is just far, far too ingrained into the minds of fantasy fans...

Sorry for the derail. Like I said, the whole "uphill both ways in the snow" myth of earlier edition play just makes me rather shirty.