Polearms

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

The Polearms skill denotes how well your character uses long hafted weapons. Polearms tend to deal less damage than other weapon types, but have an innate reaching ability, allowing them to attack from 2 tiles away. It cross-trains with the Axes skill and the Staves skill.

You may reach with a polearm by pressing v, and any form of autofight (Tab) will do it for you.

Aptitudes

At	Ba	Co	DE	Dg	Ds	Dj	Dr	Fe	Fo	Gr	Gh	Gn	Hu	Ko	Mf	Mi	MD	Mu	Na	Op	On	Sp	Te	Tr	Vp	VS
-2	0	-1	-3	-1	-1	-2	0	N/A	0	-1	-1	8	0	-2	3	2	0	-2	0	0	0	-3	1	-2	-1	-1

List of Polearms

Name	Dam	Hit	Delay	Min delay	Hands	Size	Cuts Hydras?
Spear	6	+4	11	5 (12 skill)	One	Any	No
Trident	9	+1	13	6 (14 skill)	One	Medium+ for 1H	No
Demon trident	12	+1	13	6 (14 skill)	One	Medium+ for 1H	No
Trishula	13	0	13	6 (14 skill)	One	Medium+ for 1H	No
Halberd	13	-3	15	7 (16 skill)	Two	Medium+	Yes
Glaive	15	-3	17	7 (20 skill)	Two	Medium+	Yes
Bardiche	18	-6	19	7 (24 skill)	Two	Medium+	Yes

Strategy

Polearms are generally the strongest of the starting weapons. An extra tile of reach means you'll get 1 "free" hit against a melee enemy. If you are concerned about early Dungeon survival, then start with a polearm (spear or trident).

Polearms can reach over deep water, summons, and other allies. If you have a consistent source of allies, such as Summonings spells or the Hepliaklqana ancestor, then these weapons can do you well.

There is an odd lack of one-handed polearms. Until you have access to a demon trident, your next best option is the regular trident.

History

• Prior to 0.10, polearms could only reach if they had the reaching brand, but polearms dealt more damage overall.

See Also

• List of polearms
• Table of species aptitudes