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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Griffith Dragonlake" data-source="post: 3737570" data-attributes="member: 40379">I used to think the same after watching all those Robin Hood movies.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />   However, I was reading an account of a murder trial in the 1500s where the perp alledgedly crushed the head of the victim using his quarterstaff as a poll arme.  I then did some research among the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Talhoffer" target="_blank">fightbooks</a> (13th, 14th, and 15th C. fighting manuals  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> ) and noticed that all the staff fighters gripped their staves like poll armes, i.e. the lower half of the staff and shifted the top hand as necessary.  And then I started noticing the same position in other Mediæval and Renaissance illustrations.All in all, I agree that the quarterstaff can be used in many ways — like a poll arme, greteswerde, speare, or double weapon.  Although I have never personally trained in the use of the quarterstaff as a double weapon, I can certainly hold my own using it as a poll arme, a speare, or even as a greteswerde.  Game-wise I would allow a fighter to use it as any one of those weapons but require an exotic weapon proficiency to use it as a double weapon.Interestingly enough, according to <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/quarterstaff" target="_blank">Dictionary.com</a>  the quarterstaff word dates from circa 1550, was between 6' and 8' in length, and tipped with iron.Also, you'll notice in the fight books that the fighters shifted their hands with the greteswerdes even to the point of gripping the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricasso" target="_blank">ricasso</a> which is more of a poll arme style of fighting although the distribution of weight in a greteswerde is the exact opposite of a poll arme, e.g. bottom heavy instead of top heavy.</blockquote>

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