RPGs with spear combat

[__scribbles__]

Spears are pretty cool weapons, but they seem relatively underrepresented in cRPGs, so what are some games featuring them? Morrowind, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Fallout 2(only one at the very start though), and The Temple of Elemental Evil have them, but I have a hard time thinking of many others.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

 

[Maggot]

AoD, Atom RPG Trudograd, Underrail, Avernum

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Wizard's Crown
most blobbers that have positioning/rows have polearms

 

[Kruyurk]

Battle Brothers has one-handed spears that are good at keeping enemies at bay. It also has two-handed polearms giving a reach advantage while exposing the wielder to enemies that could close the gap. The polearms can be used by second row fighters protected behind the front row.

Kenshi has polearms that offer a bonus against animals while giving a malus for indoor fighting.

 

[Riddler]

All dark souls and elden ring have spears. Whether these games are RPGs or not is a different matter I suppose.

 

[Gregz]

Titan Quest, Diablo 2

 

[lukaszek]

i like when spears allow you to do weird things.
In morrowind you can bypass orc rage squishiness by staying out of range
In underrail you can make a nice spear thrower even if you dont have enough str to properly wield one
AoD had whole crowd control theme to it, which I loved

 

[Butter]

Mount & Blade
Dungeon Rats
Icewind Dale (maybe all the IE games?)

 

[blessedCoffee]

There's a number of spears you can equip your squad members with, in Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel.

https://fallout-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_Tactics_weapons#Spear

 

[Jvegi]

Icewind Dale (maybe all the IE games?)

For the awesome 1d6 damage!

 

[Turn_BASED]

Neo scavenger has them and they’re one of the best weapon types in the game.

 

[Wunderbar]

Fallout had only one spear weapon, which wasn't enough to make a spear build viable.

Fallout Sonora adds a bunch of other spear-like weapons for mid- and late-game sections (basically, a spear equivalent of power fist and super sledge).

 

[Arulan]

The spear in Fallout 1 & 2 was useful as an early-game melee weapon that you could also throw, but as already mentioned not much otherwise.

i like when spears allow you to do weird things.
In morrowind you can bypass orc rage squishiness by staying out of range
In underrail you can make a nice spear thrower even if you dont have enough str to properly wield one
AoD had whole crowd control theme to it, which I loved

Agreed. Standing on rocks poking mudcrabs never gets old.

Some games struggle with differentiating their melee weapons in meaningful ways, and it's a shame spears are often ignored when their differences (to Swords, Axes, Maces, etc.) are much more obvious and arguably easier to implement in most combat systems.

 

[buffalo bill]

ADOM, arguably the best weapon class in the game

 

[Late Bloomer]

Which of these so far does it best though? Sticking it as some glorified sword is poor design. They should be able to be thrown, used as a two handed defensive weapon, one handed with a shield. When thrown should it include your dex/agi as a requirement? Two handed uses str / end. Has anyone game done the spear justice?

edit

Not an RPG. Although Chivalry (didnt play 2 or Mordhau) used Javelines. Could throw and use as a melee. When throwing it there was a recovery time before you could use another. I believe archers started with I want to say five. I can't look it up atm. Also you could pick them up off the ground.

 

[laclongquan]

Fallout New Vegas. You can have several type of Spears AND Throwing Spears. Even special weapons. Sudden kill.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Wildermyth has spears as one of four basic categories of melee weapons alongside swords, axes, and hammers (each of which can be either one- or two-handed), with extra reach as the advantage for spears.

Image from Mobygames:

 

[Kabas]

Voidspire tactics and it's sequels have spear as one of the weapon skills.
I even distinctly remember a certain named one that boosts morale of nearby teammates each time you swing it, called heavenpiercer or something

 

[Konjad]

lots of RPGs have 'spears' but never use them as such, instead characters wave them like autists having a stroke. The only games with spear combat I can remember are Mount & Blade series, Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats.

 

[Tihskael]

Except for damage numbers, if you really want to make sense of different weapons usable in different scenarios, the Souls games do it well and so do the Monster Hunters. But you wouldn't class them as RPGs would you?

 

[Radiane]

The Krynn games revolve around the mystery of dragon-slaying spears, which are also a very competent weapon on their own against any enemy type, and those aren´t solely endgame weaponry, you can have those with your party for quite a long time.

 

[Gumsmith]

The few spearmen that exist in The Banner Saga can use them to attack targets from farther away as well as push them back.

Spears in Divinity Original Sin 2 have longer range as well.

 

[__scribbles__]

Thank you all for your answers, some comments below:

Kenshi has polearms that offer a bonus against animals while giving a malus for indoor fighting.

How are the spears in Kenshi? I haven't played much of it(maybe five or six hours) and I didn't see any, mostly staves. I assume they're pretty uncommon.

All dark souls and elden ring have spears. Whether these games are RPGs or not is a different matter I suppose.

I thought about mentioning them in the OP, but I've always considered them action games with RPG elements rather than full-on cRPGs.

Fallout had only one spear weapon, which wasn't enough to make a spear build viable.

This guy managed to complete Fallout 2 using only a spear, for what it's worth.

i like when spears allow you to do weird things.

You could hit enemies through walls with halberds in Ultima IV - Not hard to imagine something similar with a spear in a game with different types of wall penetration among others.

Some games struggle with differentiating their melee weapons in meaningful ways, and it's a shame spears are often ignored when their differences (to Swords, Axes, Maces, etc.) are much more obvious and arguably easier to implement in most combat systems.

I suppose it's a carryover from movies and tv shows. Spears aren't as flashy as swords or as easy to hurt an actor with, so swords and axes get the spotlight which influences future game devs.

Which of these so far does it best though? Sticking it as some glorified sword is poor design. They should be able to be thrown, used as a two handed defensive weapon, one handed with a shield. When thrown should it include your dex/agi as a requirement? Two handed uses str / end. Has anyone game done the spear justice?

I think Dark Souls and Fallout 2 come the closest to what you describe here(as far as I know, I haven't played many other games mentioned), but both only satisfy two requirements. It's not difficult to see them being implemented very well into a tactical game set in the middle ages.

lots of RPGs have 'spears' but never use them as such, instead characters wave them like autists having a stroke.

I think Fallout: New Vegas is the worst offender of this(sorry laclongquan) - every melee weapon shares animations, and that includes the spears in Dead Money. This is somewhat remedied by throwing spears, however.

 

[luj1]

ToEE does reach weapons (such as polearms) really well.

You can trip, disarm or sneak attack foes from back row.

 

[just]

assassin creed odyssey

 

[laclongquan]

True, the spear animation might be shared with other weapons. There is a mod that make new spear animation but I never use it so I dont know how that mod score~

BUT.

But Fallout New Vegas has a big variety of spears on vanilla alone: Knife spear of normal and cleaned version, throwing spear from normal, bladed, and poisoned.

The other comparable game to FNV would be Fallout Tactics Brotherhood of Steel. It has more variety but it lose in term of animation~