Level Up (A5E) My New Favorite One-handed Melee Weapon

[VenerableBede]

Adventurer's Guide, 311. On the weapon chart, under "1d10," sits the Pike. Defensive (Heavy), Heavy, Reach... and nothing else.

MY BOY IS A ONE-HANDED REACH WEAPON THAT CAN BE USED WITH A TOWER SHIELD. AND IT DEALS D10 DAMAGE PER HIT.
Put this on a Dwarf heritage (speed is not reduced by heavy armor/tower shields) with a Tunnel Halfling culture (speed increases to 35 feet), slap on full plate and a tower shield with this pike, and you have a short-range walking tank. If you want to lean into being a living spiked wrecking ball even more, become a Berserker with the Juggernaut armor option—since your Pike is Heavy, it still meets the requirements for Furious Criticals, despite being one-handed.

My enemies will soon know what it is like to become a pincushion.

A comment that makes this post a little more general: what changes to the weapons, equipment, and items lists have given you character inspiration, whether that be story-related or build-related?

 

[Steampunkette]

Worth noting: Because it's Defensive (Heavy) means it's supposed to be used with a shield, which means it -has- to be one handed, yeah.

That's crazy cool!

 

[Stalker0]

In general I really like the fact that the different weapons will have my fighter switching things up in different fights or even in the same fight.

Against one big monster, bring out the big parrying greatsword! Dealing with a hoard, sword and board. Fighting a knight with a big magic shield, I'm bringing out the flail to take that shield down!