D&D 5E Why so few magic polearms in the DMG?

[Paul Farquhar]

There was a table for randomly generating the weapon type for magic weapons in the 1st edition DMG - does anyone have it? I remember that it was 70% longswords, I assume it must have been about 1% halbards.

 

[Tony Vargas]

There was a table for randomly generating the weapon type for magic weapons in the 1st edition DMG - does anyone have it? I remember that it was 70% longswords, I assume it must have been about 1% halbards.

There was no halberd on the 1e DMG magic item tables. There were spears, including a cursed spear, and there was a "trident (military fork)."

 

[Minigiant]

Just checking the MM and devils are polearm users.

Bearded devils have magic glaives that deal infernal wounds and are medium size.
Bone devils have magic hooked polearms that grapple and are large.
Horned devils have magic fork and are large.
Ice devils have magic spears that slow and are large.
Spined devils have forks and are small.

So if infernal weapons in your setting don't disappear upon death or banishment in your setting, you might have resized infernal magic polearms in your loot.

 

[Helldritch]

The PAM has the rule of cool but not the historical one. Pole arm wielders are great in great numbers. Pole arms were made for two thing. Blocking walls of infantry so that archers could shoot them. Second use was against cavalry (especially the Awl Pike). Pole arm users always had a back up weapon for the dreaded case when an infantrymen would get inside the reach of the pole arm. As long as the enemy is in the far reach of the pole arm, everything is fine. As soon as he gets inside the inner reach, drop the pole arm, get your short sword (or long dagger) and pray.

Reach weapon should be effective when the enemy is further than 5 feet of you. If the enemy is close enough to you, then you should attack at disadvantage as the length of the pole arm becomes detrimental to its user. Even then, a pole arm needs room to use with the wuxian martial art in mind. A 10 foot glaive guisarm/bardiche/halberd/bec de corbin/ranseur or whatever will require at least 10 foot clearance on all sides. This mean that a pole arm user will use a 10 feet radius about him self or a 5 square by 5 square area to use his "art" properly. Some pole arms were longer than 10 feet. Think of the Awl Pike! The Two handed sword user might not have reach but needs about 5 feet clearance to use properly or about the size of a dungeon corridor...

Of course doing that would eliminate the use of pole arms in D&D and the rule of cool. 5ed ignores the historical usage of pole arm and it is not bad. But I, for one, if you don't have the clearance to use your weapon properly then you are at disadvantage. Maybe it is why I have so few GWM and PM...

 

[Bohandas]

The PAM has the rule of cool but not the historical one. Pole arm wielders are great in great numbers. Pole arms were made for two thing. Blocking walls of infantry so that archers could shoot them. Second use was against cavalry (especially the Awl Pike). Pole arm users always had a back up weapon for the dreaded case when an infantrymen would get inside the reach of the pole arm.

Speaking of rule of cool and people getting inside the reach of polearms, I've got two ideas that, while probably not viable in the real world, would be a cool way for a fantasy setting to handle this issue

1.) A spear with some kind of blade on the shaft, either with razor blades set in like a macuahuitl, or with just a stupidly long sword blade as a shaft (which would probably require a material with a very high strength to weight ratio and not be viable for mass production, but would be viable as a custom job for a rich eccentric adventurer)

2.) Some kind of switchblade spear that retracts into what's basically a funny shaped dagger (or a funny shaped axe in the case of a halberd). In the real world this would probably break before too long; and the kind of tools and materials that would be required in the real world make one that would both work and not immediately break antedate the time of the polearm. D&D on the other hand has a bunch of superstrong materials, at least two races that traditionally specialize in mechanical BS (the gnomes and the kobolds), and a conspicuous lack of rules for mechanical items spontaneously jamming.

 

[Beleriphon]

Few of the magic weapons of legend were polearms.
At best, you'd get a magic spear.

Gungir comes to mind here, as does Gae Bulg. Arthur had Rhongomiant.

Japanese folklore has several. For example Amenonuhoko is variably a yari (spear) or a naginata. Tonbogiri is a spear with an edge so sharp a dragonfly landing on the edge would be instantly cut in half.

Wikipedia and an extensive list.

List of magical weapons - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The other reason is polearms outside of spears and pikes were mostly medieval weapons. So ancient and classical era heroes of myth didn't have them to inspire the D&D weapons.

Also that, by the time other polearms became common the idea of a magic weapon had fallen largely out of fashion. I can't think of any character that was known for wielding a bardiche.

That said, the Avernum series from Spiderweb Software has a number of magic polearms, with the Black Halberd being probably the best weapon in Avernum 3.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The PAM has the rule of cool but not the historical one. Pole arm wielders are great in great numbers.

That's the OA part of PAM. Enemies closing with massed pole-arm users couldn't circle them to get around the points, they had to hazard their reach advantage. In an open field, a lone bloke with a long weapon could be flanked by enemies with shorter weapons, negating that advantage vs at least one of them... he'd have to be really skillful to leverage the longer weapon vs multiple foes with plenty of room to maneuver. Thus PAM. Not too out of line, really.

But, in a massed formation - something PCs might on unfortunate occasions face, no such feat should be necessary to get the reach benefit & AoO.

Even then, a pole arm needs room to use with the wuxian martial art in mind....a 10 feet radius about him self or a 5 square by 5 square area to use his "art" properly.

For the double-weapon function of PAM, sure, you're spinning the thing around, you need room to do that.

But, between the two cases, the adventurer using a pole-arm should be able to make use of it, regardless. When in an open field, facing two or more enemies, he has room to spin the thing around and go all 3.x-spinnig-halberd/5e-PAM on them. When in a more confined space, as long as he can contrive to get the point facing the right direction in the first place, he can leverage the reach advantage, since enemies don't have the freedom of movement to flank and close without that AoO - the walls of the dungeon corridor fill in for the lack of a mass formation (frankly, it shouldn't take anything as advanced or optional as a feat for that).


But, y'know, if there are magic pole-arms in the setting, length-changing - like a cheap production model of the Rod of Lordly Might - would be an ideal enchantment. Mundane pole-arms were designed for versatility, with their multiple blades, spikes, hooks &c - magical ones probably should be, too.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Beleriphon]

But, y'know, if there are magic pole-arms in the setting, length-changing - like a cheap production model of the Rod of Lordly Might - would be an ideal enchantment. Mundane pole-arms were designed for versatility, with their multiple blades, spikes, hooks &c - magical ones probably should be, too.

Like a down market version of Sun Wukong's size changing staff?