Where are hte polearms?

[haakon1]

Total war. Knightly orders, wizard units, clerical support, peasant levies, shadowdancer assassins, teleport strikes, evening green slime bombings, blights, incorporeal undead plauges, inhuman allies, giants as artillery, manticore air support, frenzied berserkers on unicorns, warblades and marshals leading charges, elemental and xorns engaged in deep earth sapper battles, weather control, hostile wishes, helms of brilliance, iron golems on the front line, dragons battling in the skies, sauguin raiders vs merfolk defenders battling over shipping, gated outsiders, summoned godly aspects, the unleashed might of an elder Druid, werefolk hired to give quick powerups to legions of peasants, trolls used as siege weapons, artifacts unleashed, sladdi dropped behind enemy lines, deals with devils, angelic counterstikes, war elephants, doppleganger agents, alt-prime mercs, temples desecrated, half-dragon rustmonster breeding programs.....

Depends on how the level of magic in the campaign. In a relatively "low magic" campaign, of Tolkien-level magic or so, a lot of stuff just woulldn't happen.

My campaign is Greyhawk-level magic, which means much of that could and would happen except: warblades and marshals (I ban most Prestige Classes, as I don't see a need for anything beyond whats in the DMG), xorns are unlikely (not sure how you'd get or control one), artifacts are unlikely but interesting, slaads and devils/angels are not going to happen in any significant numbers, dopplegangers have no reason to work for humans, and half-dragon anything is completely banned.

Otherwise, it sounds like a lot of fun to me. Consider your ideas snipped.

 

[haakon1]

I still think that defensive positions would be useless, outside of the occasional strategic valued building, ie a building so important that it would warrant the expenditure of the funds/magic to make it proof against well - everything.

What would "proof against everything" mean? I've sometimes pondered what Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD command center) or the Greenbriar Hotel basement (secret bunker for Congress) would look like in D&D terms.

How do you proof a castle or bunker against magic?

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Keep in mind that there are many *types* of polearms. ... (snippage of lots of good stuff) Banshee

Thanks, that makes sense. I guess when I hear "polearm" I think of pikes and other stuff over 8' long. Anything under 8' seem like it's in a different category to me, whatever the official definition may be.

 

[werk]

I think maybe another reason that polearms see less use in play is pointed out in a thread in the rules forum by FranktheDM.

They are quite easy to sunder.

Combine that with the difficulty in finding polearms as loot, and it gets even worse.


That said, my current fighter character, a duergar, uses a polearm reach weapon, but the DM NEVER sunders and I have yet to see another weapon like mine in the game.

 

[Zaruthustran]

For those wondering about the practicalities of polearm in 1 on 1, search Youtube. There are plenty of SCA videos out there.

Pole vs. sword and shield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUvt8WnM1hg

Overview of SCA combat (starts with a pole vs shield)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQjh8EQ5h40

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How do you proof a castle or bunker against magic?

Magic. Magic. More Magic.

It would be a perpetual arms race as researchers figure out how to breach and/or defend that castle from a kind of breach...new spells in constant development...variations on prismatic walls/spheres & anti-magic zones.

And I'm sure that it would involve cooperation between arcane and divine casters.

 

[Hussar]

One advantage of a static defense is time. Presuming that the castle manages to stand for a couple of decades, you can add layer after layer of magical defense, Hogwarts style. Moving armies would be somewhat of a disadvantage that large, permanent immobile effects don't help them. When you have the resources of a kingdom and a couple of decades worth of casting, you should be able to come up with some SERIOUS magical defenses. Epic level spells, True Rituals, actually creating magical items as part of the castle.

Imagine a series of Lyres of Building, reshaped into honking big horns that are permenantly affixed to the battlements. You can rebuild your broken walls, repair damage and even make your walls totally impervious to all effects for a short duration. Bad guy dumps an Earthquake, you blow the horn and wait it out.

 

[Banshee16]

For those wondering about the practicalities of polearm in 1 on 1, search Youtube. There are plenty of SCA videos out there.

Pole vs. sword and shield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUvt8WnM1hg

Overview of SCA combat (starts with a pole vs shield)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQjh8EQ5h40

That's interesting....the guy with the polearm seemed to basically control that entire fight from start to finish. If they were real weapons, that bout would have been over 30% of the way into it, when he hit the swordsman in the "hole"...

Thanks for the video....it was an interesting watch.

Regarding Sundering polearms, the fact that they're wood is definitely a point against them....but as shown in the Weapons that Made Britain, they showed that many polearms had steel reinforcement of the wooden haft. That would make it a lot harder to sunder the shaft.

Banshee

 

[howandwhy99]

I'm really interested in learning why different polearms were created. The sheer variety of the form denotes their popularity. I've been mulling over mass combat rules for months now and anything that can give a good historical explanation for how different polearms offered different mass combat options would be kick ass.

Imagine a series of Lyres of Building, reshaped into honking big horns that are permenantly affixed to the battlements. You can rebuild your broken walls, repair damage and even make your walls totally impervious to all effects for a short duration. Bad guy dumps an Earthquake, you blow the horn and wait it out.

This is another aspect of mass combat I'm not seeing in most games. High level spells certainly do make a difference, but where are all those "sacred defence of the kingdom" magic items? They don't all have holy hand grenades from Antioch, y'know.

 

[Andor]

I'm really interested in learning why different polearms were created. The sheer variety of the form denotes their popularity. I've been mulling over mass combat rules for months now and anything that can give a good historical explanation for how different polearms offered different mass combat options would be kick ass.

The thing to recall there, is that a lot of the various polearms were shaped in the way they were because they were made by thousands of local blacksmiths who each had their own ideas of what made a good polearm. Standardization of design was not really a medieval concept. There were distinct types of weapons, spears, axes, hammers, etc. but you would see much local variation. It was more of a factor in tourneys, but even then people often showed up with somewhat different weapons. You can find quite a good discussion on the variations in shape and form of one such polearm, the pollaxe, here, along with some discussion of it's period uses and even some displays of technique.