Spears have never really been given a fair shake in traditional fantasy gaming.  A spear is somehow not as romantic as the "long sword," despite the fact that it figured prominently as a heroic weapon in the mythos of many cultures, including the Norse and the Greek, two popular sources of RPG root material.  Historically, the spear was the weapon to field, starting with the Greeks (before that, the club was the primary implement of killing the other guy, while the spear was primarily for hunting).  Rows of tightly packed spearmen was a popular and standard tactic from the earliest phalanxes up through companies of Swiss pikemen and the bayonet charges of the 19th and early 20th centuries.  A spear is simple enough to put into the hands of the greenest peasant levy, and versatile enough to have entire systems of combat based around it (especially by the Chinese).  In a one-on-one fight between a spearman and a swordsman of comparable skill, the spearman is the odds-on favorite to walk away.  Yet in all forms of fantasy gaming from Dungeons and Dragons to the MMORPG systems of Asheron’s Call and Ultima Online, the spear is disregarded as a decent weapon most of the time, and for good reason:  the weapon’s game statictics are always lackluster, always less effective than weapons like the sword.  Why is this?

First look at the predominant advantage of the spear in realistic combat.  A spear in its simplest form is a dagger on the end of a pole.  This was a simple method of increasing the reach of the wielder, allowing him to strike at a longer distance than a dissimilarly armed opponent could counter.  The spear immediately puts an enemy with a smaller weapon on the defensive, while at the same time increasing the wielder’s own defense by the virtue of being out of reach.  This is very important.  A swordsman or other enemy who wants to get to the spearman must first get past the effective range of the spear, which is daunting to say the least, as trying to slip in puts one at great risk of death or grievous injury, both paralyzing possibilities in mortal combat.  The advantage of superior reach led to longer and longer spears, eventually cumulating in the specialized awl pike at around 18 feet or so in length.

This strength becomes even more powerful when applied to mass combat.  A well disciplined line of spearmen all pointing at your line was a serious issue to contend with.  The concept of the spear phalanx was so central to mass combat that shieldbearers were enlisted to protect them.  A shieldbearer is a man whose only job is to plant a tower shield firmly into the ground in front of the spear line to keep enemies from penetrating the line.  The spear phalanx was the only tactic of its day capable of dealing effectively with a charge of heavy horse (archery could also deal significant damage to cavalry if they were not on the move yet).

The big problem with the misrepresentation of the spear in fantasy RPG’s is that there are almost no systems that reflect the power of extended reach in pen and paper, and none at all in MMORPG’s.  The best model of spear combat is in Shogun:  Total War, a strategy game.  Almost universally, the designers of fantasy RPG’s, computer or otherwise, have a vision of dark ages melee combat that comes from watching two actors bash each other with pieces of aluminum at theme restaurants like Medieval Times.  In these cases, the winner is not the one who has a better intrinsic understanding of the attributes of his chosen weapon, he’s the blond guy.

How then can the power of pole weapons be represented in simplistic engines and systems that don’t track the exact x, y, z location of the striking surface?  Engines like the Turbine engine 1.0, and most certainly the UO isometric engine, have no ability to know or care about how many feet and inches an opponent is from his target.  A simple way to reflect the reach advantage in games like this is to assign defensive bonuses to the man with the spear.  The spear is, after all, primarily a defensive weapon, aimed at keeping the enemy far away from the wielder.  In a more advanced model, weapons and techniques could have "reach" parameters assigned, and defense modifiers assigned to the person with the greater reach.  A system like this would also allow for considerations like proper greatswords, pikes, and the absurdity of charging into a battle with a ceremonial punch dagger, but would represent an additional drain on resources and bandwidth, important considerations given current wide area networking technology.