One handed Brace Weapons, a.k.a. why only the Trident?

[ddgon]

Looking over the weapon table I noticed that only the Trident was a onehanded weapon with the brace property. the shortspear dose not have this, and the spear and longspear both do, but they are twohanded weapons. So a trident only as brace so long as you don't take off the two side prongs?? Is this an error??

Also, didn't most common militaries in the day use Pikes or other reach-spear type weapons a lot? Or did they utlize shilds and sword (which in this system is soo bad :( )

[Alch]

The idea behind the 'brace' rule is that it uses the enemy's charge momentum to impale him.
This only works on weapons that fulfill 2 criteria:
- They need a upward facing sharp point.
- And they have to be long enough to plant the end of the haft into the ground.

The description of the trident says it's 4 feet long, while the description of the shortspear says it's 3 feet long.
Thus one can say that the trident is barely long enough to have the 'brace' rule. The shortspear is definitely too short.

[hogarth]

ddgon wrote:

Also, didn't most common militaries in the day use Pikes or other reach-spear type weapons a lot? Or did they utlize shilds and sword (which in this system is soo bad :( )

Yes, there were historical instances of soldiers using long(ish) spears with shields, which isn't possible if you're just using the core rulebooks (in 3E or Pathfinder).

I think both 3E and Pathfinder eventually came up with a splatbook option to allow it, however (either a feat or a class variant).