Reach weapons: polearms and flails *whizz*

[Boeroer]

Hello everyone,

I was just wondering if you guys at Almost Human are planning to introduce a polearm skill - or something similar that applies to accuray and attack power of reach weapons like spears or the like. In LoG1 we didn't have the possibility to skill that type of weapon.
I know that fighters are supposed to be in the front row - but some people (like me) played LoG1 a lot of times and tried all kinds of party constellations.
Sadly, using four fighters would not work very well during combat because you either have to swap the chars all the time or you have to use weapons (missile, thrown or reach) you don't get skills for.
Maybe the planned skill "two handed" (or what it's called, I forgot) could grant some bonuses for reach weapons like polearms. But while thinking about that another idea emerged (yeah, sorry for that):

Couldn't flails also by reach weapons? Most of the time their range is somewhat higher than that of normal maces because of the chain/cord. Also - and more important - I think that one easily can imagine that it's possible to swing over the front rows with such a weapon - if you're skilled enough. Whips could also be seen as flails by the way.

So my suggestion is to enable fighters to effectively attack from the back rows with the following tweaks:
- Polearms are considered two handed weapons and therefore also benefit from the corresponding skills (yes, also Orge's Grip). Two-handed swords could also be considered as reach weapons by the way.
- Flais (kind of maces) are considered reach weapons. Maybe you can only unlock their reach functionality with some skill point investment or so.

But maybe you already have the perfect idea for that in your sleeve - as you always had when I was posting suggestions lately, hehe.

Thanks for reading
Boeroer

p.s.: I have been in Suomi some years ago but only managed to visit Helsinki and Kuopio - but really liked your country. It would be awesome if you could post some pictures and infos about your city (and surroundings) in one of your future blog posts, if that's not an impudent thing to ask.

[Komag]

I agree about wanting a bit more in the way of reach weapons, something that was only teased in the first game. We can mod in more of them as we wish, but I'm not sure if any mods yet have done so.

[Asteroth]

It was sad that you had spears and they were a weird nonskill weapon.

[uggardian]

1. We need more spears!
2. Spears as a fourth weapon type for fighters! (spears part of the skill tree)
3. Throwing as a learnable secondary attack for spears
4. Spears rock!

EDIT:
Almost forgot. Imagine that using flail from the back row would have a small chance of hitting the guy in front of you, instead of the creature your trying to hit. That would be hilarious

[Boeroer]

Ooouuuh - hornets' nest...

[Asteroth]

I don't feel the whole flail reach thing. Other polearms would be better. Or whips and stuff, maybe even wierd things like kusari-gama's. Anyway I have seen a lot oof suggestions for spears or the like. Maybe we'll get them...

[Boeroer]

What about staffs? We had "staff defense" in LoG1 but no staffs (or "staves"? ). It's kind of a polearm - but if you give this skill to the fighter class mages would be left out in the cold.
I personally liked "staff defense" as idea - it was just too unimportant compared to the other mage skills that had to be raised or even maxed out. So if we had staffs as a type of reach weapon and something like "staff defense" would also affect accuracy and attack power (and/or speed) of staffs - that also would be nice.

p.s.: Sorry for being a pain in the a**, but I desperately want to have a signature so that I can put spam-links into it.
No seriously: I'm on vacation and just bored...

[Dr.Disaster]

What about staffs? We had "staff defense" in LoG1 but no staffs (or "staves"? ). It's kind of a polearm - but if you give this skill to the fighter class mages would be left out in the cold.

LoG staffs are similar to wands in other games. They are not ment for melee.

On the contrary a melee staff like the Shaolin's Bo or the Robin Hood classic used by Little John is definately no polearm. It's more like a two-handed mace with defence capabilities and requires a lot of space to use. If someone wants to use such a weapon from the back row he needs to knock out the front row first.

[Boeroer]

But you are not trying to use realism as an argument, are you?
The need of knocking out the front row before you can attack monsters with a quaterstaff from the back row defenetly became obsolete when rogues startet to use daggers and fists from the back row... what was fine for me.

I meant two handed staffs (like the quaterstaffs that you mentioned) and not wands.
I'm not begging for a new "offensive" staff skill (though it would be nice) but would like to see something like "staff defense" working with... well... staffs - if they are going to be in the game at all.

I tried one run of LoG1 with four mages and stopped in lvl. 3 because you constantly run out of energy and then you have no other option than to run away and rest - or drink potions all the time. Meeeh!

A "battle" mage who wields a staff in both hands and delivers some blows (from the front or the back row) when his energy is low would be awesome.
Imagine a three-staged skill for mages that enables you to 1) wield a staff more efficently, 2) hit with it from the back row, 3) benefit from defensive bonuses when wielding a staff.
Of course it must be possible to cast with the equipped quaterstaff.

[Dr.Disaster]

The need of knocking out the front row before you can attack monsters with a quarterstaff from the back row defenetly became obsolete when rogues startet to use daggers and fists from the back row... what was fine for me.

It's hard to imagine a rogue poking at something with a quaterstaff from the backrow; maybe because staffs are not made for such precise thrust attacks.

I tried one run of LoG1 with four mages and stopped in lvl. 3 because you constantly run out of energy and then you have no other option than to run away and rest - or drink potions all the time. Meeeh!

Seems you need more practice then

Naturally there are other options then running away. A young pure mage party is not different to any other young party beside it's using their fallback alternates more often. Grab and use any requirement-free weapon i.e. daggers, machetes, hand axes, all kinds of throwing stuff (my favorite with mages) or even bow and arrows. Works like a charm until energy is no longer a problem.