Ready Spear vs. Charge: double damage for AoO?

[TwentyQuestions]

Let's assume a elven warrior, Exemplar, has taken an action to ready his longspear. His orcish foe, Ow, obligingly charges with his battleaxe.

- Does Exemplar get a (partial) attack as soon Ow is 10' away (as if he'd readied an attack against the first opponent to come in range), or is the 'set spear' ready action somehow different from readying an attack?

- Would this readied attack do double damage? (I assume so from the rules on setting spears vs. charges).

- As Ow's charge must carry him to 5' away from Exemplar in order to use his axe, I assume Exemplar gets an attack of opportunity when Ow leaves the square he threatens 10' away.

- Does this AoO also do double damage as an attack with a set spear against a charging opponent?

I'd never really looked closely at longspears before, but one of my players is equipping an army to take out the slaver's stockade from the old A2 module (which is even more insanely dangerous when converted to 3E and allowed to make an intelligently concerted response to assault). If his troops can lure the enemy into charging and then make two double-damage attacks before risking a hit themselves, being a "spearcarrier" isn't such a death sentence...

 

[0-hr]

From the SRD:

A target can ready certain piercing weapons,
setting them to receive charges by using the ready action against
receiving a charge. A weapon of this type deals double damage if
the readied attack is successful.

Only the readied action gets the double damage.

Honestly though, as a DM I'd allow the AoO to do double damage as well (as long as the orc had moved at least 10ft by the time the AoO took place).

 

[Ranger REG]

Let's assume a elven warrior, Exemplar, has taken an action to ready his longspear. His orcish foe, Ow, obligingly charges with his battleaxe.

- Does Exemplar get a (partial) attack as soon Ow is 10' away (as if he'd readied an attack against the first opponent to come in range), or is the 'set spear' ready action somehow different from readying an attack?

If Ow is the first opponent, then yes. If Ow is not the first opponent, then no.

Be careful of how you declare your trigger.

- Would this readied attack do double damage? (I assume so from the rules on setting spears vs. charges).

If the opponent makes a charge attack against you, then yes.

- As Ow's charge must carry him to 5' away from Exemplar in order to use his axe, I assume Exemplar gets an attack of opportunity when Ow leaves the square he threatens 10' away.

Correct. So that's two attacks against Ow before Ow can swing his axe.

- Does this AoO also do double damage as an attack with a set spear against a charging opponent?

Unfortunately, no.

I'd never really looked closely at longspears before, but one of my players is equipping an army to take out the slaver's stockade from the old A2 module (which is even more insanely dangerous when converted to 3E and allowed to make an intelligently concerted response to assault). If his troops can lure the enemy into charging and then make two double-damage attacks before risking a hit themselves, being a "spearcarrier" isn't such a death sentence...

Well, while you do get two attacks on the charging opponent, only one attack -- the readied attack using the spear against a charge -- gains double damage on a successful hit.

 

[Sejs]

question: can you set a spear vs charge as an AoO? I don't have my books handy at the moment, so I can't check.


If you can't, and you can SEE the person you're going to charge set his spear.. why in the world would you charge him?

 

[Mahali]

No, setting a weapon against a charge is an action you take. Move Equiv IIRC.

 

[Dakhran the Dark]

Setting a spear is a Ready action, which is a standard action. You can do a MEA before you Ready your spear for a charge. Having a readied action allows you to take a partial action when the triggering event occurs, in the case of setting a spear, the trigger is when someone charges into your threat range. You then attack and do double damage. If your target continues to close, you can hit him with an AoO as he's moving through your threat range, but this doesn't do double damage.

I've seen a feat on the net somewhere that allowed you to set on an AoO if you hadn't already readied, it required Hold the Line and Combat Reflexes as prerequisites. I've been tempted to add that one to my campaign...

 

[0-hr]

you can SEE the person you're going to charge set his spear.. why in the world would you charge him?

You cannot necessarily tell what action a person has readied (nor can you really even tell that they have something readied). That whole "set spear" thing is really just flavor text IMO.

 

[Ranger REG]

Flavor text or not, By setting your spear, it means that with intention you ready to attack with said weapon against a charge attack and gain the benefit for doing so (i.e., double damage).

 

[TwentyQuestions]

why charge a spear?

As I understand it, setting a spear against a charge means planting its base in the ground so that it doesn't give way with the shock of the charge. I think it should be possible to see whether a spear is set (with a Spot check if you like). If the spearman just spent a round moving but not seeming to do anything else, that should give you a clue

Of course, no one wants to charge a spear - the idea is to have enough missile fire coming from behind the line of spearmen that it becomes imperative to engage them as soon as possible.

 

[Darklone]

Yeah, good old problem. If my players see someone with spears, they don't charge. If they have spears, they complain that the enemies don't charge.

How would you handle this?

I simply allow polearms to deal double damage against charging enemies, no matter if readied or not.