Join US
Do you want to build the fantasy world you’ve always dreamed of?
Subscribe to receive notifications when a new post is out and for our monthly newsletter!
You can always unsubscribe anytime.
Fantasy Spears: An Overview of the Popular Weapon
Sunfire
CONTENTS
Introduction
One weapon you see whether it’s a video game, novel, or any other media, is the fantasy spear. Consisting of a long, slender shaft with a razor-sharp pointy blade at its tip, the spear is perfect for waging battle from a safe distance. While not usually as powerful as swords, fantasy spears deal respectable damage to the target.
Fantasy spears are lightweight, meaning they’re not heavy to carry. However, their light weight means they have low attack power. While this is true for the majority of spears, there’s a good number that have higher attack power but the tradeoff is they’re heavier to carry. Those who use them prefer to fight from a relatively safe distance from their foe. They also prefer quick, successive strikes to weaken the foe before moving in for the kill.
Just like with the others, there are different kinds of fantasy spears such as javelins and halberds. Each one was designed to achieve a specific purpose. Nevertheless, they have two roles and they’re both on the battlefield. The first one is to incapacitate the enemy, making it easier to take him out. Eliminating him outright is the other purpose.
This is the fifth article in a series covering the types of weapons you see in fantasy. If you want to read more, please take a look at our other articles:
Before we explore the different types of fantasy spears, we begin with the basic one that works so well: the standard.
Standard Spears
True to their name, standard spears are just that. They have no distinguishing characteristics that make them stand out amid the crowd. Found practically anywhere from armor shops to lying on the road, these guys have low offensive stats which means they’re adequate enough to defend yourself from simple attacks.
The design is simple: a long, slender shaft with a sharp metal tip on its tip. The handle is either wood or metal though the latter offers a marginal increase in attack power. Iron is the dominant metal used in the tip, with steel a close second.
Armor shops carry an abundance of them in stock since they’re relatively easy to create and the demand for them never dies down. Employees gather the necessary materials and assemble them in the forges. In times of war, armies either buy up the bulk of spears from the shops or make their own with their forges.
Due to how simple the design is, many people, especially those who can’t afford to buy one, opt to make their own and put their own spin on them. All they need is the required materials and tools to put them into a working spear. This makes simple spears ideal to protect yourself from basic attacks without possibly getting hurt yourself.
Javelins
While the javelin is a type of a fantasy spear, it’s a step up since it has a higher attack power due to it being thrown from a distance. While many spears tend to be held by the user in a fight, javelins are meant to be slung towards the target with the intent of landing a fatal blow. The force of flying midair at a rapid speed is the reason why javelins are deadly with the target ending up lying on the ground.
Made with the same materials as standard spears, javelins can be deadly in anyone’s hands. All you have to do is sling it towards the target and hope it lands. Javelins with metal handles have greater offensive stats compared to their wooden counterparts due to their heavier weight. This makes them one of the most versatile fantasy spears.
Javelins see most of the action in battles, especially large-scale ones. Imagine seeing dozens of these pointy sticks raining upon you and your fellow soldiers? If you didn’t have armor, there was no chance you would make it. Despite their effectiveness in battle, armies carry only a limited number of javelins which means that once they used up all of them, they had to switch over to either bow and arrows or swords. That’s why many soldiers who learned how to use them properly were also trained in swords or another type of weapon so they could switch over once they had no more.
Since their design is basic, any kind of standard spear can be used as a javelin. However, armies and armor shops craft their own javelins, usually making them stronger than standard spears. Armor shops set the price for a javelin higher than a normal spear because they differentiate the damage output between the two. Armies will have an unit that specializes in javelins and another weapon.
Pikes
Another type of fantasy spear, pikes have long shafts with either an iron or steel tip. They were designed specifically for battle to be held by soldiers. In fact, there’s a type of soldier who specializes in this: the pikeman.
Pikemen have two duties: one as a guardsman or as a warrior. The former revolves standing stationery at a post or patrolling an area. Here he holds the pike upright, with the shaft resting on the ground. In battle, he uses it to attack his foes. The pikeman is attired in armor from the head to the feet and is notoriously difficult to kill with a bow and arrows and a sword.
Not just any spear can be used as a pike, at least in the military sense. Only military-approved spears can be used as pikes but the army armorers can create their own set of pikes to be used. Not many armor shops carry pikes; only those that supply the military do.
Out of the fantasy spears, the pike offers the most defense since they help protect its holder.
Halberds
Of the different kinds of fantasy spears, the halberd is considered one of the most powerful. That’s because it’s a fusion of a spear with a battle-ax. It combines the functionality of the spear’s shaft with the attack power of the battle-ax, making it a deadly weapon in battle. Metallic in nature, both the shaft and the blade are either iron or steel, making them a bit heavier to carry but the increase in attack power is worth the tradeoff.
Halberds are used exclusively in battle to quickly whittle down the number of enemy soldiers. This savage weapon enables the user to attack his opponents from a relatively safe distance. As such, those who are proficient in spear training are ideal candidates to wield halberds.
Since the halberd is exclusive to battle, it’s produced mostly by the military in their forges. You would be hard pressed to find an armor shop outside of those affiliated with the military that carries this product.
Magic Spears
The last major group of spears, magic spears are in an wholly different category than the others because their magic effects can greatly affect the tide of battle. Any spear, whether it be a javelin or halberd, can have a magic effect that benefits the user in one way.
For example, a javelin can have the power to be tossed from further than than it usually is or the tip could be enhanced to do even more damage upon impact. Perhaps when it strikes the target, shards of ice could fly off in all directions and smash into nearby people? The sky’s the limit with magic spears!
Consequently, due to how powerful they are, magic spears are quite difficult to find. Only a select few know about them and those in the know tend to be those who can do magic like wizards. Outside of the magical community, only a few know and they’re important people like leaders of major kingdoms.
There are two ways to create a magic spear. One way is to find an object that contains magic and a spear, any kind will do, and find a way to combine the two. It’s generally easier to have a wizard or sorcerer do it since they know how. The other way is to have the wizard bestow magic power upon the spear.
Tying it all Together
Like swords, fantasy spears are a mainstay. To bring them into your world, first realize that you won’t have just one type. You’ll use the ones we covered in the article and I know there are more than the aforementioned ones, this is just a general overview of the fantasy spear.
Having a mixture of spears, just like with any other weapon, adds a realistic touch to your world since in the real world they have characteristics unique to them. When designing them, consider the end user. A pikeman has different expectations on how it ought to look and feel when it’s used in battle compared to someone who’s just shopping around for a good one to have at home.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. (Note: this is an account-exclusive feature).
If you don’t have one, you can register here. It only takes a few moments of your time!
Liked this article and want to subscribe? All you have to do is fill out the form below and that’s it!
Thanks for reading this and until the next time,
Sunfire
DON'T MISS A POST!
Subscribing means you receive:
- notifications when a new post’s up!
- our monthly newsletter!
You can always unsubscribe anytime.
Share
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Print
Subscribe
Login
Please login to comment
0 Comments