The Fantasy Armory · Chapter 9

Spears

Spears are defined by Reach, which lets them strike at Short range, and Brace, which adds damage against an enemy that closes to Engaged. A spear rewards holding position and does nothing extra against a target that stays put.

Nearly every entry is Thrusting; the Winged Spear is the only one that also cuts. Prices are the lowest in the book for the damage on offer, because a spear is mostly shaft and is costed as Simple construction (see Chapter 2).

A shaft of ash and a hand's length of steel will hold a doorway against a far more expensive sword.

The Lance is the family's one inversion. It carries Momentum instead of Brace and is worthless standing still, which is why it belongs to the horse rather than to the wielder.

Construction: All entries are Simple (design-doc §5.0). A spear is mostly stick, and it is priced accordingly.

Skill: Light Melee for the first two, Heavy Melee thereafter. At tables using a single undifferentiated Melee skill, use Melee throughout.

Sharpened Stake

Fire-Hardened Spear, Pointed Stake, Improvised Spear

A fence rail with one end burned to a point. It costs nothing, it reaches, and it will not survive being parried properly.

Fragile 2: this weapon breaks outright on a Calamity.

Short Spear

Assegai, Yari, Hasta, Fighting Spear

The baseline. A one-handed spear light enough to carry with a shield, long enough to keep a swordsman honest, and cheap enough to issue to everyone. It costs less than an arming sword and beats one in a doorway.

Winged Spear

Lugged Spear, Partisan, Winged Lance

A broad leaf-shaped head with lugs at the base of the socket. The width lets it cut as well as thrust, and the lugs stop it burying itself past the point of recovery. The only spear that answers two damage types.

Boar Spear

Bear Spear, Hunting Spear, Crossbar Spear

A heavy hunting spear with a crossbar behind the head. The bar exists because a boar will drive itself up the shaft to reach the man holding it. Brace 3 is the highest in the book, and against anything that charges, this is the correct weapon.

Trident

Fish Spear, Retiarius Trident, Leister, Fuscina

Three points on a fork. It is a poor killer and an excellent trap: the tines catch a blade, foul a shield, or pin an arm long enough for someone else to do the work. An arena weapon and a fisherman's, rarely a soldier's.

Pike

Sarissa, Phalanx Spear, Nagae-Yari, Long Pike

Eighteen feet of ash with a spike on the end. A pike cannot attack a target at Engaged range at all, not even at a penalty: once someone is inside the point, the weapon is a pole.

Alone it is nearly worthless, which is why it is the cheapest weapon of its damage in the book. In a line of twenty it is the reason cavalry stopped winning wars.