Any reason to not carry around a longspear as a two-handed melee character?

[YossarianLives]

So, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but it seems like this could be an effective exploit at low levels to get off a free attack on anyone trying to get into melee range with you.

You enter every fight carrying a longspear, because of the reach you get an AoO on anyone moving within 10 feet of you. When your turn rolls around, you drop the spear as a free action, pull out your real weapon as another free action, and get down to business.

Am I missing something? I can't find a definitive ruling on whether dropping a weapon is a free action, but that seems to be the consensus online.

[flappeercraft]

Dropping an item is a free action. However drawing a weapon is a move action unless you either have the quick draw feat, have a specific augment crystal on your weapon or you take a move action to move and have a BAB of +1 or higher in which case you still require a move action.

Essentially it limits you since you are forced to do that move action. You can say goodbye to Full Attack or any Full-Round actions you might want to take like charging or some maneuvers, well at least for tbe first round but then again D&D combats are notoriusly short.

[frogglesmash]

Dropping an item is a free action. However drawing a weapon is a move action unless you either have the quick draw feat, have a specific augment crystal on your weapon or you take a move action to move and have a BAB of +1 or higher in which case you still require a move action.

Essentially it limits you since you are forced to do that move action. You can say goodbye to Full Attack or any Full-Round actions you might want to take like charging or some maneuvers, well at least for tbe first round but then again D&D combats are notoriusly short.

True, but at low levels you're not likely to have more than one attack, so wasting your move when your enemy is already in melee range isn't really a problem.

[flappeercraft]

True, but at low levels you're not likely to have more than one attack, so wasting your move when your enemy is already in melee range isn't really a problem.

Well that's true. But my point is that lots of times its very restrictive. If you don't mind those restrictions such as because you have no use for that move action then sure, go ahead and do it.

[YossarianLives]

Cool, cool. That's good to know. And yeah, it won't be helpful past like level four, but I think this could be good for killing goblins and such.

[frogglesmash]

Cool, cool. That's good to know. And yeah, it won't be helpful past like level four, but I think this could be good for killing goblins and such.

Another option is to just keep the spear/any other reach weapon and take a 5ft step away before you do your attack routine.

[Zaq]

Also, don’t forget that this won’t work on round 1 unless you have Combat Reflexes. You’re flat-footed until you take your first turn, and you can’t AoO while flat-footed.

As stated, this isn’t an awful trick if you can juggle the action economy somehow, but it’s likely to be difficult to juggle said action economy without investing more than was perhaps originally intended.

[Endarire]

For a similar amount of feats, you can use a spiked chain.

I agree though that reach weapons at low levels - especially with Combat Reflexes - are uber if done correctly.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

A two-handed reach weapon, such as a spear, glaive, or guisarme, pairs very well with armor spikes, spiked gauntlets, or an augmented unarmed strike (via IUS, if nothing else), and this has been known for well over a decade at this point.

Yeah, it's nice. It's one of those things that practically every melee-based character should do, with few but notable exceptions. Why not have reach when it's so beneficial?

[ericgrau]

A two-handed reach weapon, such as a spear, glaive, or guisarme, pairs very well with armor spikes, spiked gauntlets, or an augmented unarmed strike (via IUS, if nothing else), and this has been known for well over a decade at this point.

Yeah, it's nice. It's one of those things that practically every melee-based character should do, with few but notable exceptions. Why not have reach when it's so beneficial?

Usually I do go for reach. But at low level low op, +1.5 damage is kind of nice too.

Also note that sorcerers have longspear proficiency. Might as well carry one around at all times. You can hold (but not attack) with it in only 1 hand so you can cast. You may want a mithral buckler eventually too because it has no spell failure chance. But you can wield both at once. It's just a -1 to hit, and if you make an AoO you lose your buckler AC for the rest of the round. But hey, they're nearly freebies anyway so it's not like you're losing anything. Unlike someone who spends his standard action on his weapon each turn