Whither the lances?

[DNH]

Why are there no lances in the 4e rulebooks? There are all sorts of rules for mounted combat but no mention (no stats) of lances, surely the canonical weapon of mounted combat. All I can assume is that the lances are scheduled to be included in the martial power sourcebook to be released later this year, but not including a line of weapon stats for a basic weapon in the core PHB is near inexcusable.

For what it's worth, I was thinking of something along these lines: 1d8 damage, auto-crit on charge, reach of 2 squares, 1h when used mounted, cannot target adjacent foes.

Any thoughts?

 

[Zurai]

Mounted combat is very much an afterthought in 4E. It's no surprise that lances are nowhere to be seen. Maybe in the Martial Powers splat.

 

[generalhenry]

mounted combat in the PHB consists of one feat.

4E assumes 95% of the time combat will be on foot. And enforces it by removing wardog mounts. Only large creatures can be mounts and large creatures and mostly incompatible with dungeons.

 

[Danceofmasks]

And druids. Yeah. That's the real reason they aren't in the PHB.

 

[Snotboy]

I dunno, do you think the longspear, or the one handed spear, would be a sufficient substitute? To paraphrase, would a lance, by any other name, pierce as sharply?

 

[Mr. Teapot]

auto-crit on charge, reach of 2 squares, 1h when used mounted, cannot target adjacent foes.

Auto critting is a horribly broken mechanic at levels higher than 11. When I first looked in the book, I though "what's with all the focus on critting in the Paragon and Epic feats?" Then I statted up a higher level PC and saw that my damage multiplied many, many times on a crit.


Bringing back 3.x style reach is ugly as heck, too. Just use the stats for a longspear. It's balanced and does everything a lance needs to do.

 

[Grazzt]

Mounted combat is very much an afterthought in 4E. It's no surprise that lances are nowhere to be seen. Maybe in the Martial Powers splat.

Speaking of...kinda...anyone notice that spears have no range. Looks like no throwing spears. Javelins seem to be the new ranged spear-like weapon.

 

[hong]

For all practical purposes, a javelin _is_ a throwing spear.

 

[med stud]

I'd say a spear is good enough. If I would make a classic lance, I would go for this:

Lance
Military weapon
Works like a spear when used on foot.
When used from horseback by someone with Mounted Combat it deals [2W] damage on a charge.

There you have essentially the same weapon as in 2e.

EDIT: Yeah, the javelin seems to have taken the role of all one handed spears.

 

[Byronic]

I think it's odd that spears don't have reach as well. What happened to the idea of a spear bearer behind a Sword-and-Shield Defender? I thought this was supposed to be a tactical game