On Choosing a Spear as your Main Adventuring Melee Weapon
Throughout history and in every ancient culture, the spear has been there. It has served well as a main weapon in more battles than any other weapon. And yet, it doesn’t seem to get much use by adventurers, who typically choose the biggest sword their skills and characteristics allow.
I’m sure part of this is based on media: books, movies, and other forms of stories glorify the classic knight with a sword and shield as the prototypical medieval hero - and everyone wants to be a hero. But some of those stories do tell of heroes who used a spear. And most ancient folk would have access to a spear, but until fairly recently they would not be anywhere near as likely to have a good sword.
My current campaign world is based on Viking-age Europe. Because of that, I try to limit equipment to somewhat reasonable historical accuracy. This means no greatswords, which didn’t exist until a few hundred years later. Also, no halberds, which are essentially a combination of the greataxe and a spear, but weren’t invented until much later.
Greataxes, which can also be called Dane axes, are appropriate for the Viking age. In fact, the year we recognize as the end of the Viking age saw one of the greatest uses of a Dane axe at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. I do find it interesting that this courageous and skilled warrior was supposedly brought down by a spear. But Dane axes were fairly rare and required a lot of training to use effectively. I’d be happy to see a Barbarian, Fighter, or Paladin wielding one, but it probably wouldn’t be appropriate for other classes.
Longswords would also have been rare during the early Viking age, but they might be appropriate for characters with the Noble background. Most anyone else simply wouldn’t have been able to afford one.
So I was happy when my son chose a spear as the main weapon for his most recent character. The background he chose was Soldier, so the spear certainly fits well there. And since the character is a Warlock, I ruled that his spear can be his arcane focus, allowing him to cast his spells, such as Eldritch Blast, through the spear. He gets to roleplay his character as pointing the spear at his target and blasting away like he was Odin shooting energy beams from Gungnir in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But is the spear really a good weapon for an adventuring character in D&D? Well, let’s see what Lindybeige has to say about the spear.
Spears are better than swords is a half hour long video testing spears against swords, with and without shields. He also has another half hour long video describing how spears probably would have been used with shields. After watching both of these (among others), I think it is safe to conclude that, if given a choice, a knowledgeable adventurer might prefer wielding a spear two-handed, but wouldn’t realistically find a spear & shield combo to make sense for most typical adventuring encounters. The spear & shield together is best used in battles with formations of troops, which is a rare occurrence in most D&D adventures.
According to the D&D rules as written, a two-handed spear does 1d8 of piercing damage. That is better than a shortsword and comparable to a longsword when used one-handed. So far it looks like a pretty decent choice, especially if the character isn’t proficient with shields.
One thing to keep in mind is that unless you have the Warcaster feat allowing it, attacks of opportunity need to be made with melee weapons. You can’t use a cantrip or other magic as your reaction to someone moving out of your reach. Having something like a spear handy is a good thing, even for characters that mostly use spells.
In addition, a spear can be used as a ranged weapon. Sure, that range is pretty small, and then you’d be out your primary weapon. But I can think of some instances where doing that might make for a great story and a fun time at the game table.
I think by now it’s obvious that a spear can be a good choice for an adventurer, especially if backed up by a secondary weapon like a seax (i.e. shortsword) for a Viking age campaign or a gladius (also a shortsword) for a Roman age campaign. So please consider grabbing a spear for your next D&D character. You might find it to be quite a good fit for a hero.