[CONAN] The Spear

[Supplement Four]

Question -

In real history, the spear was the weapon of choice for ages--at least until the time of the Romans, when the sword began to be used more prominently. The hunting spear is not a reach weapon, and it is a one-handed weapon.

I was thinking: Should there be a slight bonus given to useing a spear? Do to its versatile reach (depending on where you grip the spear)?

I've been considering a slight tip of the hat in this direction by allowing any hunting spear user to only take a -3 penalty when Fighting Defensively rather than the standard -4.

Not a huge penalty, but it's someting.

Thoughts?

 

[Mach5RR]

No. No you should not. The advantages of the spear are already worked into the game.

Spears are super cheap, since they are so easy to make. The simplest spear is just a big stick, with one end sharpened, and usually fire-hardened. The standard one spends a little time balancing out the body, and attaching a spearhead. Spears range from 1sp (primitive version) to 3sp (standard warspear). In contrast, an arming sword costs 100sp. So, for the price of arming one man with an arming sword, a warlord could instead outfit 16 men with 3 hunting spears each.

Training. Spears are easy to use - anyone who picks one up can quickly learn to use one, hence they fall under the Simple Weapons Category. Swords require greater training and fall under Martial Training.

The issue here is with how d20 chooses to replicate this. The distinction between simple and martial ias almost ridiculous, with the only people not knowing how to use martial weapons are scholars, temptresses, and thieves (if greater than one-handed)