D&D 5E Fixing the polearm and taking back its seat as generally best nonprojectile weapon from the sword.

[Son of the Serpent]

Maybe, but I have seen a couple issues:
1) People seem to want to lunge with the spear (don't know why) and this puts them off balance, makes it easy to dodge the attack and then step inside the arc of the attack
2) It is not as easy to hit a person as you would think with a spear. A jab is easily dodged or deflected. If is deflected, it leaves you open for counter attack. A sweep takes a long time and is easily blocked.
3) Most people I have seen aren't able to recreate the quick multiple jabs and thrust seen in MA movies. They basically use it like a shield to keep people away (simply by pointing the spear at them) and look for an opening. If they miss that opening it is game over. And they miss a lot. It just takes more training to use a spear for 1 v 1 well, IME.

Now a wall of spears - game over

I counter your wall of spears with my SKY OF ARROWS

Im sorry. It was too perfect. I had to. Ok. Off to work with me.

 

[jasper]

...

Now a wall of spears - game over

Is that a 3rd party level five wizard spell?

 

[Mistwell]

I feel like I already saw this debate. In the 90s. On Usenet. Where martial arts amateurs also chimed in with "expertise" because their "sensei" told them spears were cool.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

This post SCREAMS FANBOY. You are trying to make them the sole weapon choice of the game. But to be nice, if you were homebrewing I would allow you to choose one of the seven.
As to the history not many fettbuches survived giving directions in sole spear halberd usage. Not many burials sites of great people has spears only. SWORD in the STONE. Not Spear in the Peer!

There are disadvantages that would still have them balanced with the adjustments i mentioned. Also i wasnt saying "WE SHOULD DO ALL THE THINGS WE LISTED. ANYTHING LESS IS FAILURE!" SOME of the things was my intention. They wouldnt be unbalanced at all. Although making something sloghtly better than most things is permissable. Perfect balance in the game is both unacheivable and would cause as much stagnation as overwhelming brokenness. Definitely not a fanboy. Do not assume. However i am a dm who favors realism. Realistically polearms and not swords are the stars of non projectile combat historically.

Ok. For real this time. Imma rip myself away from the screen and go to work.

Ps dnd already has horribly broken some weapons. Thats not what im shooting for. (But better than swords? Absolutely in most situations. Literally for realism. Screw hollywood's weird fascinatuon with swords.)

 

[Son of the Serpent]

This post SCREAMS FANBOY. You are trying to make them the sole weapon choice of the game. But to be nice, if you were homebrewing I would allow you to choose one of the seven.
As to the history not many fettbuches survived giving directions in sole spear halberd usage. Not many burials sites of great people has spears only. SWORD in the STONE. Not Spear in the Peer!

Ps. also there are TONS of people buried with just spears. Especially in cultures where the most worshipped god was primarily a spear weilder.

Hindu, norse, greek, CHRISTIANITY (yup. Yahweh is mainly a spear hurtler and a lightning thrower. Kinda like zeus. Though swords are mentioned its solely metaphor)

Bye. Gotta work.

 

[Blue]

From a game design perspective, I absolutely fight making anything "the best" regardless of historical accuracy because a large amount of the player base will gravitate towards it and there will be no variety. That is not what I want in my fantastical story telling, where everyone is the same campaign after campaign because there is a "best" option.

This is a consistent complaint from me, usually from the other side where I wish that a much of the currently disadvantaged weapons were more viable for play that someone didn't have to gimp themselves to be interesting and different. Stories with dagger throwers, or quarterstaff users, or whatever, flame our imaginations.

 

[dave2008]

This discussion got me interested in doing a bit more research on spears and I found this post which has some really interesting info about viking spears. It covers actual weapons, tales in sagas (and attempts to recreate them), and combat videos. Interesting stuff. Also, at the bottom there is some information about spear vs sword battles.

 

[David Howery]

this topic always falls astray mainly because of the difference between 'real world medieval combat' and 'small squad of adventurers'. Sure, pikes and polearms are great out on the battlefield, where it's you and several hundred friends to back you up. For an adventuring group, they may not be so handy. They are big, heavy, and hard to put aside to do other stuff. Regardless of how effective a sword is vs. a spear, you can at least put the sword into a sheath to free up your hands. Plus, when you are fighting in a tight corridor or cavern, there might not be so much room available to swing that halberd. If you're gaming out a battle out in the open someplace, then your character might find a poleaxe to be pretty handy. If you're out in the wilderness, having a spear to either throw or melee with is handy. If you're going to be underground for a long time and encumbrance is crucial, a sword might be best.

Once back in my DM days, just for the hell of it, I ran an adventure set in a big open keep with lots of space, where all the bad guys used all those unloved/unwanted polearms from UA (1E)… glaives, guisearms, voulges, etc. I made up a really awesome intelligent glaive, loaded with powers... which the PCs ended up selling, because none of them wanted to become proficient with a glaive.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Spears have been pretty darn good in 5e since the errata that allowed Polearm Master to work with them, though?

 

[Beleriphon]

Ps. also there are TONS of people buried with just spears. Especially in cultures where the most worshipped god was primarily a spear wielder.

Spears are exceedingly common because they are easy to make. Take a relatively straight stick, sharpen the end. You have a weapon. Want to get fancy? Chip flint into a spear point, you have a better weapon. Not good enough? Alright, we'll case some bronze, and stick that on the end. Still not working for you? Okay, we'll the pointy bit from hardened steel. What? You aren't happy? Fine, now its an axe and a spear! What, a hammer? Fine, we'll put one those on the other side. Why do you persist? Ugh, you know what, here's a gun go use that way more efficient.