By Cirsova:
(First, I’d like to apologize for never finishing my Liches vs. Vampires series. I had a lot of work to do that kept me from devoting the time I needed to on it, and by the time I did, I found that a lot of my notes and maps had been thrown away. I tried piecing things back together, but ultimately gave up. Sorry if anyone was really dead set on finding out how the party did against Kadesh. Short version: the elven Vampire wins, and Liches in D&D are too broken to bother with)
If you’ve played a lot of games, you come to think that there are 3 principal hand-to-hand weapons: Longswords, Battle-axes (the giant double headed kind), and Warhammers (a long pole with a cinderblock at the end).
Now, the Longsword is hardly the quintessential medieval weapon. What a historian calls a longsword came about in the late 15th century. It is not particularly meant for use with a shield, but to be used with two hands on the handle for chopping and thrusting or one on the handle the other on the blade for blocking. What most people think of when they hear ‘Longsword’ is actually the Arming Sword, a fairly long blade wielded in one hand with a shield or buckler in the other. And most other fantasy swords, regardless of what they’re called in game, tend to be variations on the Spatha. Yes, that’s a Spatha your dude is holding there, NOT a broadsword.
But that’s sort of getting away from the topic.
One thing you’ll almost never find in a fantasy RPG taking place in some nebulously Iron Age fantasy setting is an average Fighting Man equipped the way one would expect an average Fighting Man. The typical fighter build looks something like this: Medium to Heavy Armor (bleh, let’s leave discussion on the pros & cons of plate & hauberks for another day), a shield and a longsword. Sometimes they have a crossbow. This is the sort of level one mook who garrisons the legendary Keep on the Borderlands.
What you almost never see are polemen. Spears, javelins, and pole-axes were the bread and butter of the infantryman, such to the point that some people actually thought bayonet charges were a viable tactic well into the 20th century (protip: they’re not).
Large groups of fighters with long sticks with sharp things at the end, for the majority of warfare’s history, have held advantage over large groups of fighters who did not have long sticks (or sticks as long). Some ancient warriors, such as the Greek Hoplites, were loaded for bear with their armor, shield, longspear & side-arm (sword). The Celto-iberic Carthegenian army lead by Hannibal Barca were able to easily pick apart the Roman Legionaires; the Gladius wielding Romans proved unable to deal with the reach of the Hannibal’s spearmen, both in mass and single combat. Well into the late middle ages, ‘Billmen’ used a state-of-the-art variation on the spear featuring a heavy head with the piercing power of a spear, chopping power of an axe, and a hook for pulling mounted soldiers from their horse.
In almost any combat situation, you’re better off with a pole-arm than a sword, especially in a fantasy setting! It’s a lot easier to keep an ogre at bay if you have a few guys with 10 foot spears than with swords. I wouldn’t even think you could REACH a dragon unless you had a pole-arm. Actually, if I had to fight a dragon, I’d probably forgo all armor (I mean, what difference would it make), and chuck as many spears at it with an atlatl as I could.
The variable weapon damage that we see in early versions of D&D have somewhat soured people on anything but the sword (not specified as a ‘longsword’ per se, but a ‘sword’ distinguished from ‘shortsword’, therefore implicating its longness), because the (long)”sword” is the only 1 handed weapon that does 1d8 damage (see Moldvay, page B27). A “Short Spear” is 1d6, as is (the implied to be longer) “Spear”. This may have been an oversight, as that means there are two mechanically identical spears, while swords are mechanically distinct. I don’t know, maybe “Spear” can be used in lieu of a 10-foot-pole for trap finding?(WHICH IS ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO HAVE A SPEAR!) The “Polearm” is 1d10, but considered a two handed weapon. Maybe some longspears such as pikes (which can be up to 25 feet long!) fall under this, but the Hoplite’s spear, which is still pretty long, is meant to be a one handed weapon. The only other weapon that’s 1d8 is the two handed battle axe, and the only other 1d10 weapon is the “Two-handed Sword”, which very well may be meant to be interpreted as covering longswords, zweihanders and such. By 3e, however, the “Longspear” is a 1d8 weapon that can be used with one hand, so you should definitely feel free to house rule your spears to have the appropriate damage.
The next time you feel like playing a fighter, consider some of the following builds:
Hoplite:
Heavy Armor (doesn’t necessarily have to be bronze; treat as the best available plate for the setting) + Shield
Spear + Sword combat package.
Billman:
Medium Armor
Polearm + sword combat package
Halberdier:
Heavy Armor/Full Plate
Polearm
Light Spearman/Scout:
Light Armor + shield (optional)
Throwing Spear + short sword combat package
I also think that you should consider house-ruling in some initiative bonus or something to reflect the range advantage any spear-wielding character would have over something with smaller weapons, or, if the system you’re using takes opponent size into account, perhaps let the spear act in some way to balance the mechanical difference.
