D&D 5E Why is the pike 18 lbs?!?!?

[Greenstone.Walker]

But this one has only 10' reach. And is 18lbs. So which is it?

Both.
It is 18 feet long but is too heavy to hold by the very end, so the head of the weapon is only 10 feet in front of you while the butt is five feet behind you, perhaps grounded.

That said, 18 lb seems way too much, especially when a maul is only 10lb. I suspect a pike should be 8lb.

 

[MG.0]

The "weights" in D&D were originally intended to be a combination of both weight and bulk. In D&D a 10 pound bag of feathers would have a much higher "weight" than 10 pounds because it would be enormous and difficult to carry.

In the early days this was made clear, but unless you've played D&D for a very long time, it is not obvious.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Okay so I just realized an NPC in my party is encumbered because their pike, which is a maximum of 10 feet long, weighs 18 lbs.

Googling says an actual pike at maximum length (25 ft) weighs 13.5 lbs. Doing the math, the D&D pike should be...33 feet long!?!?

What's the deal? And what does this 10 foot, 18 lb pike look like?

The default D&D setting takes place in 130% of Earth gravity. That's why dragons can fly, because the heavy gravity builds up their muscles enough to make flying easy.

 

[Andor]

The "weights" in D&D were originally intended to be a combination of both weight and bulk. In D&D a 10 pound bag of feathers would have a much higher "weight" than 10 pounds because it would be enormous and difficult to carry.

In the early days this was made clear, but unless you've played D&D for a very long time, it is not obvious.

While that's true, it was always a stupid idea. It works fine when you're dealing with actual encumberence, but then some guy always has to load the cart, or use Tensers floating wheelbarrow, or jury rig a balance scale out of two pikes, some twine, and an unfortunate goblin. And then the whole things collapses into discussions about real weights, density calculations (See this thread for example), and in the pre-internet days arguments about half-remembered trips to the museum vs some guys uncle who used a movie prop once....

 

[Azurewraith]

Im fine with an 18lbs pike maybe its just heavy. Is what really bugs me is that a medieval level of tech society has managed to create a wrist mounted flamethrower that has a gas tank so small it isn't mentioned anywhere and how the flames don't singe the wielders hand even just a little bit, never mind how they managed to get the same launcher to shoot sleeping gas and laughing gas where the hell is the tanks for all this stuff kept.

Sorry its early in the morning or what my son would call morning needed a good giggle on a serious note weight in DnD is a encumbrance value.

 

[Carlsen Chris]

But this one has only 10' reach. And is 18lbs. So which is it?

Whatever it is, it's barely a pike. Check out some photos of pikes used by English Civil War reenactors.

 

[Imaculata]

I encounter this problem in dozens of other role playing systems as well. I recently made a big list of real world weapons, for a modern day zombie campaign. And none of the weights listed (in OGL Horror or Call of Cthulhu) for existing modern weapons matched up (their range didn't match up either, but that was obviously for the sake of ranged combat rules). All it took was a few Google searches to get the correct weight for an AK47 or an MP5 (and many others). Their clip sizes were also incorrect.

 

[delericho]

The "weights" in D&D were originally intended to be a combination of both weight and bulk.

This. Indeed, they probably shouldn't be using "lb" at all - in fact, old editions used to measure things in "coins" for exactly this reason.

Plus, modern designers are even as obsessive about history as Gygax was... and anyway Gygax was known to make mistakes.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Their clip sizes were also incorrect.

Magazine sizes if we are being nitpicky.

 

[jodyjohnson]

Regarding the original conundrum. Just assume pikes in use (being wielded) are braced or butted against the ground reducing their carried weight by half and alleviating Encumbrance issues. For purposes of moving them use the book weight.

Drop your packs, put that monkey down, and brace those pikes and tower shields.