Exile 1 One-Handed Spear

[Cinoo]

I managed to pick up an item, steel spear, which is a one handed weapon. It was dropped really early in the game, in the bandit fort south of the first Nephilim fort. Was this item accidentally included, or has anyone encountered this item in a play-through? Now my Slith fighter could theoretically dual-wield (with a non-polearm) or carry a shield. This item appears to be different from the steel tipped spear that you can buy in Fort Draco. 

[Fireball Fodder]

It's been a long time since I've played, but I believe that the first Exile game has both one- and two-handed versions of each spear. Check out the "item info" when you pick up a spear - it should tell you whether it's one- or two-handed (might have to identify it first).

[Cinoo]

It seems you're right. In the meanwhile, I've found a few more. Looks like I was just too used to Avernum, where, as far as I am aware, they're all two-handed weapons.

[Thaeris]

Huh - to me, what you say is odd. I had the BoE demo back in the day, and I recall all of the spears being two-handed. In old-school Nethergate, all of the spears were two-handed. In (original) Avernum, they changed to one-handed weapons.

 

...Therefore, I find it interesting that Exile had one- and two-handed versions of spears. So, just so I know, how do the stats differ between the one- and two-handed weapons?

 

That said, I do wish more games were a bit more "dynamic" when it came to weapons use. In Mount & Blade, weapons handle differently when used with two hands as opposed to one (and are pretty much always better for it). Having less protection (no shield) is the obvious trade-off. Weapons that get better in real life when used with two hands as opposed to one are generally spears and longswords (in the HEMA and German sense - swords which you could use in one hand but are meant to be used in two). I suppose Jeff did simulate this in a way by incurring a to-hit penalty when using heavier and heavier shields. However, I'm not sure swords or spears get all that much of a boost when opting to not use a shield - perhaps I'd have to try that concept out some time to see for myself?

 

The next games that come to mind are the Baldur's Gate games, where... let's just call them hand-and-a-half swords so some language filter doesn't come in and flag me for something unwarranted... are only treated as one-handed swords. There really should be a boost to speed, precision, and power when using one of those swords with two hands! Likewise, true one-handed weapons might benefit by some margin if you can get a second hand on them by some means, but they're designed to be used in one hand and generally don't need much help from the second. In that regard, the games are probably doing just fine with those matters and have been for some time.

 

...That said, my nerdy martial arts musings have caused a rant! But, I do find it an interesting discussion regardless.

[Cinoo]

They both appear to have 10 damage and 3 bonus. I'm not sure how the damage is calculated in Exile 1, so perhaps there is some mechanism for it to inflict less damage?

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, while armour is just complex enough to make different armours valid choices (or at least look like them), weapons (until you get weird magic stuff) are very simple, and it's very easy to see which are just better than others, which I always felt was a shame, but would need a big change in how they work to get around.