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Message: <blockquote data-quote="David Howery" data-source="post: 7831744" data-attributes="member: 17239">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.</blockquote>