Spear

Version 0.16: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Name	Spear
Skill	Polearms
Damage	6
Accuracy	+4
Base delay (%)	11 (110%)
Min delay	5 at skill 12
Hands	1H
Size	?
Ranged?	No

A hunting weapon consisting of a wooden shaft with a pointed metal head fastened on one end. "The halberd is inferior to the spear on the battlefield. With the spear you can take the initiative; the halberd is defensive. In the hands of one of two men of equal ability, the spear gives a little extra strength. -Miyamoto Musashi, _The Book of Five Rings_, 1645.

This weapon falls into the Polearms category. It is a one handed weapon.

Spears are decent enough weapons in the early game for melee. They require little skill to achieve min delay, and their reaching capability is very useful for characters with fast movement speed, access to plentiful allies, or the Conjure Flame spell. However, unless you find a fantastic randart, you'll want to upgrade to a trident as soon as possible. If you're looking to start using Polearms, you can probably get at least one spear off of a gnoll pack in the early dungeon.

	Image
Mundane
Magical/Artifact

History

Prior to 0.14, spears were also considered Throwing weapons.

Prior to 0.9, spears had 7 base damage but lacked reaching.