Fighting with spear and shield

[Noldor Elf]

I'm sendign this to general forum, because I'm not intrested in rules but style:

How one use spear in battle when fighting mounted / on foot and using shield?

 

[Zhure]

Medium-sized characters can do it with a halfspear (1d6, Medium weapon).

The technique is to use it in an overhand grip, like one would use to throw a javelin, with the butt back over the shoulder. It's wielded in a one-handed short thrust.

The shield is used normally.

On horseback, one would guide the mount using the knees.

Greg

 

[Mouseferatu]

At the risk of taking this thread off into the realm of House Rules (and my apologies for doing so)...

I think it's a bit silly that you can't use a shortspear one-handed. It wasn't an uncommon fighting style. Look at the Romans.

You know how some weapons--such as the bastard sword--are two-handed as martial weapons but one-handed as exotic? I'm doing the same thing, but taking it down a level, with shortspears. If you only have simple proficiency, you have to wield them two-handed; if you have martial, you can wield them in one.

Sorry for the digression.

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

I think it's a bit silly that you can't use a shortspear one-handed...If you only have simple proficiency, you have to wield them two-handed; if you have martial, you can wield them in one.

I feel the same way, and use basically the same solution--I treat the shortspear as being one size smaller when wielded with martial skill. (A medium sized character posessing only simple skill would suffer a non-proficiency penalty when wielding it one-handed.)

The technique is to use it in an overhand grip...

This is perfectly true. FWIW, I also apply the house rule noted above to halfspears; this effectively makes them small weapons when wielded with martial skill, and allows medium sized characters to finesse them. I think this is paticularly appropriate for recreating "Zulu" type warriors who wield it underhand, with quick thrusts and much feinting--basically, a poor-man's shortsword.

BTW, the longspear remains unchanged, requiring martial proficiency to use effectively even with two hands. Note: It should be possible for a warrior fighting in a phalanx to still gain the benefits of using a small shield, even though using two hands to wield the longspear--similar to the Macedonians during the time of Alexander. I don't allow this for the shorter spears (or longspears used out of formation) however--the style of use is too different from the straight ahead push of the phalanx.

Hope some of this proves useful

 

[Kannik]

Ever play Quest for Glory series by Sierra?

In QFG2, I believe it was, you could do combat practice with the (appropriatly) Zulu-like-inspired character, and she indeed used a spear and shield, in an overhand grip. Quite effectively too }

Ah what a fun game that was...

Kannik