Where's the lance?

[UngainlyTitan]

Just skimmed the recent entries but the "Surely You Joust" article uses a longspear as a lance (with some suggested variations of tilting lance.

 

[JPL]

Isn't a longspear two-handed? So how is our jouster holding his shield?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Would you use a lance one handed in melee on foot?

 

[JPL]

No, but I also wouldn't joust without a shield.

Is there a rule covering this? Or should this be a tweak to the Mounted Combat feat?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

No, but I also wouldn't joust without a shield.

Is there a rule covering this? Or should this be a tweak to the Mounted Combat feat?

Yeah, you could just add a 'you may use a longspear one-handed while mounted'. I'm really not sure why they insist on it being a longspear though. The way the mounted combat rules work a regular spear will work fine.

 

[JPL]

Perhaps because the classic jousting lance is such a lengthy weapon? Still, I understand that the lances used in real combat would have been more manageable in size, sometime throwable.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Perhaps because the classic jousting lance is such a lengthy weapon? Still, I understand that the lances used in real combat would have been more manageable in size, sometime throwable.

Really depends on the culture, 'lance' can cover a lot of things ranging from an Apache warrior's javelin-like weapon to a late-medieval knight's jousting lance. I guess the question would be was there ever a lance that had a reach 10' beyond the head of the horse? I'm thinking not. In which case using a regular spear will mechanically work (and give you access to a shield). OTOH I don't see any reason not to just add the one-handed longspear thing to mounted combat, it certainly won't hurt anything and the longer lances are probably roughly the same size. So it is cool. D&D weapons aren't so specifically accurate depictions that there's any reason to nit pick.

 

[JPL]

Maybe not 10 feet, but I think of reach weapons as anything that can poke an enemy effectively from more than 5 feet away --- just enough to reach through that adjacent square into the next one.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

No, but I also wouldn't joust without a shield.

Is there a rule covering this? Or should this be a tweak to the Mounted Combat feat?

A lance used in mounted combat is a specalised hold under the arm. It is only used ofr the charge and I would see no problem with allowing the use of a shield. I really see no need of special rules to permit this.

Melee, even on horseback is a different thing.

 

[S'mon]

Really depends on the culture, 'lance' can cover a lot of things ranging from an Apache warrior's javelin-like weapon to a late-medieval knight's jousting lance. I guess the question would be was there ever a lance that had a reach 10' beyond the head of the horse? I'm thinking not.

Jousting lances went up to around 18' AIR, so easily more than 10' beyond horse's head. Even for a battle lance I think treating it as a reach weapon is only fair.

Personally I don't care about PCs using lances; how about my monsters?! Clearly a mounted knight type opponent should be able to do a lance charge encounter power for shedloads of damage!

Which brings up the point about increased damage - make a lance charge an encounter power (2W & knockback) and suddenly balance problems are gone.