# Spears
*The Fantasy Armory, Eighty Melee and Thrown Weapons for Exodus NDS. Source: https://exodusnds.com/sourcebooks/fantasy-armory/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 ยง5.0). 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
+1
4
Engaged, Short
2
Light Melee
5
Common
Thrusting
Reach, Inaccurate 1, Fragile 2
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
+3
3
Engaged, Short
2
Light Melee
90
Common
Thrusting
Reach, Brace 2
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
+3
3
Engaged, Short
3
Heavy Melee
100
Military
Thrusting, Cutting
Reach, Brace 2, Sweep 1
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
+3
3
Engaged, Short
3
Heavy Melee
100
Military
Thrusting
Reach, Brace 3
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
+3
3
Engaged, Short
3
Heavy Melee
110
Rare
Thrusting
Reach, Ensnare 1, Disarming 1
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
+4
4
Short
5
Heavy Melee
40
Common
Thrusting
Reach, Brace 3, Cumbersome 3, Awkward 3, Prepare 1
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.
#####
Lance
Kontos, Cavalry Lance, Jousting Lance, Heavy Lance
+4
3
Short
6
Heavy Melee
75
Military
Thrusting
Reach, Momentum 3, Fragile 1, Cumbersome 3, Awkward 3
Twelve feet of tapered ash with a small steel head and a guard for the hand, carried couched under the arm. It is the only weapon in this book worth more to the horse than to the rider.
**Momentum 3 is the highest in the book** and it is the entire weapon. A lance that is not closing is a pole with a spike on the end. **Awkward 3** covers every corridor, doorway, stairwell, and press a character is likely to fight in, which on foot is most of them.
*A lance cannot attack a target at Engaged range at all. Once the charge is spent, most riders drop it and draw something else.*
