pumpkin said:
the fluff suggests that watchmen might well be armed with halberds (presumably as a deterrent to someone committing a crime) but all the criminal needs to do is arm himself with a spear to already get "one up" on the watchman! ..
Who says crime doesnt pay?
in players guide spear is listed as CR3 not 2 and gains unreliable to represent breaking
thus spear is 20 silver
5/3 fast, unreliable, one handed
6/3 fast, unreliable, two handed
can be thrown at 5/3
vs
halberd 75 silver
5/3 fast, one handed (unreliabe?)
6/2 two handed
cannot be thrown
spear as a ranged weapon is always listed as 5/3
does not conflict with hand weapon or rapier as many of those actions require hand weapon or rapier
a crit ratting of 2 is really good and makes up for the price diference
so comparing hand weapon, rapier, spear, halberd and great weapon
hand weapon 25s 5/3
rapier 90s 5/3 fast
spear 20s 5/3(6/3) fast, breaks (cant use acrobatic strike, nimble strike, dramatic flourish or insulting blow)
halberd 75s 5/3(6/2) fast,(not when 2 handed) and cant use those actions either
great wep 100s (7/2) cant use listed actions
havent looked at way of sword,little man or tree hugger action cards
carring a spear around a city would make you look quite suspect if you were not in a uniform, barring laws you could get away with the others
as for quater staff i wanted a little john like character from robin hood. so i would start out with a big branch/pole/staff like thing as a two handed weapon not a little parrying stick. maybe if wield two handed it could gain fast aswell
they have sort of combined parrying shields/sticks and staffs into one . athough now that i think of it the stats are right as anyone the wants a parrying stick just gets a buckler by a diferent name and 4/4 is right when compared to real weapons…still should have fast if two handed.
trouble for posting stats…pfffff as if
take back that parrying stick as a buckler as a parrying stick would only work during a parry not a passive defense
quaterstaff in 2e was two handed
assuming a halberd(or other polearm) was on a shorter shaft and the head was not a crazy heavy axe( more like a glaive) it could be used one handed like a spear or two handed to chop but would that warrant a CR of 2
basically i would like my charater to be able to be part of a shield wall but then break out and go chopping things up in great reckless cleaves( or thunderous blows)
some of the bretonnian are armed with glaives as opposed to halberd and billhooks
if an 8 foot spear can be used one handed i dont think it is to much of a stretch to a well weighted glaive could be used both one handed to stab and two handed to chop
I believe that the spear is unreliable as well, making it a slightly "risky" choice as it might break mid combat making you unarmed, that might be very dangerous as it also leaves you with low DR and poor choices of action cards. I might also allow creatures (and players) to attack a spear to break it, which is a quite simple and useful tactic when fighting spearmen. The Halberd on the other hand doesn't suffer from these penalties.
Also, remember that spears were in fact dangerous, versatile, cheap and easy to manufacture but also broke fairly easily. I feel that the rules does a fairly good job of representing just that. But then again I don't feel that the weapons need to be balanced in price or effectiveness. The players should simply pick what suits their character.
According to the FAQ and errata download the spear is 'fast, unreliable 2' so the downside compared to using the halberd or most other weapons is the risk of it breaking. I'm only reading through the rulebooks at present so I'm not sure just how significant that is as a disadvantage but at least it's a potential negative. How significant will depend on the odds of rolling a break and whether the GM sees it more like an assegai where the player can carry a spare or two reasonably easily, or a more bulky weapon for which they would need a pack mule to carry spares.