Heavy Lance vs. Longspear?

[MacMathan]

Is there anyting in the rules or errata I may have missed about a heavy lance being used one handed unmounted?

If this is possible then it completely supercedes the LongSpear as a foot weapon.



Thanks,
-MacMathan

 

[Zhure]

Not for Druids it doesn't!

But seriously, it really should be one handed while mounted only. The rules don't stipulate that, but they probably should.

Greg

 

[frankthedm]

But seriously, it really should be one handed while mounted only. The rules don't stipulate that, but they probably should.

I agree with that, chalk it up to the dumbing down of D&D for the mass market.

 

[Artoomis]

Oh, I don't know. It is designed for one-handed use, after all.

The real historical combat lance (not the tourney version) is not all that different from a spear except it is desiged to be used one-handed.

Of course, it would not be very effective in real foot-soldier combat as you could not hold it out for very long. But you could hold it up and lower it to charge, just as you would when mounted. It's a pretty silly image, though, isn't it?

Anyway, I'd allow it, but not for routine use. I'd say you could use it if, say, you got dismounted and still had a hold of your lance. No, it's not very realistic, but, hey, this is D&D ... what's more "heroic fantasy" than using your lance one-handed after falling off your horse?!?

I wouldn't mind, though, if the rules were changed and it was listed as a large weapon, but treated as medium when mounted.

 

[Dash Dannigan]

Is there anyting in the rules or errata I may have missed about a heavy lance being used one handed unmounted?

If this is possible then it completely supercedes the LongSpear as a foot weapon.

A heavy lance can't be set against a charge. It aslo costs twice as much (if you were fielding 500 men which would you get?).

 

[MacMathan]

Dash,

You are correct. I wasn't looking at it from a mass combat perspective but an individual PC thing. I should have said that the LongSpear would then be superceded as a choice for PCs.

Thanks,
-MacMathan

 

[hong]

chalk it up to the dumbing down of D&D for the mass market.

Jeez, don't you remember? The word you're after is MUNCHKIN.


Hong "always checks his mindless comments before posting to UNseboards" Ooi

 

[Malin Genie]

You'll find for that reason many DMs won't allow theone-handed use of a Heavy Lance on foot. If your DM does, and it fits your character, go for it! (I wouldn't try it in a Living campaign, though...)

 

[niteshade6]

Technicaly you can get away with it in living campaigns, since it is a medium weapon. However many DMs will forbid it anyway (which is technicaly against the rules of living games) or simply assign a ridiculously high circumstance penalty to hit (which is completely legal by the rules).

Skip Williams did once say that the heavy lance is an error, and that it was meant to be only usable one handed while mounted. However this has never been made into official errata, so it's unofficial. I certainly hope though that they fix it in 3.5