Shield + Spear Penalty

[Pdogg5954]

Is there or is there not a speed and damage penalty when equiping a polearm and a shield?

I have heard both stated hear on the forums.

EDIT: Also, personally testing I can not see the speed penalty, simply through playing it *feels* like there is a damage penalty, but what do I know

[KaMiKaZe_JoE]

I am almost certain there is. If you go to the suggestions forum, you will see a post of mine which includes copoius bitching regarding the subject. It requires far too many stabs/glances to kill somebody, using spear and shield, for there not to be a penalty of some sort.

From my experience, I would say that there is both a shield and a damage penalty.

[MaHuD]

I think the penalty was added to the game more than 2 years ago...
I can't say if it's still there, but it should be.

[Seawied]

Some do, some don't.

I think the actual animations are slower across the board than regular spear animations. I might do some testing to confirm this

[Kryser]

Polearms take a 30% ish reduction in damage and speed, this has been discussed many times, try the Search bar at the top right part of the page.

[justme]

except war spear if im right?

[Kryser]

   no

[Spawny]

I always thought the penalty was only supposed to apply to polearms used with a shielder with a reach longer than 150.
That would make the spears useable with a shield and render the awlpike rather useless.

It would impact cavalry too, as their lances would get a damage and speedreduction too if they choose to use it with a shield.

Implement it!

[IG_Saint]

"Penalty with shield" has not done anything since the beta. It was left over code, and the cRPG team recently removed the flag from the item file as it does nothing. Holding a polearm in one hand causes it to do 30% less damage and reduces the attack speed significantly. The speed penalty makes the faster spear weapons used with one hand as slow as the slowest one handed weapons, and the slower spear weapons used with one hand are as slow as the slowest two handed weapons. I have posted exact numbers for the speed penalty elsewhere.

[Pdogg5954]

Yeah, I saw the above arguments and I *did* search, I was just looking for something more definitive, but I guess that isn't to be had...

[Canary]

http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,2624.msg46112.html#msg46112

and

http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,4098.msg76776.html#msg76776
(the cmpx quote)

Polearms in fact receive a 30% reduction to damage when held in one hand. More specifically, this means when used with a shield or when used on a horse, or when used with a shield on a horse, and there is no stacked penalty for both horseback and shield.

This is regardless of length and regardless of any "penalty with shield" the website lists them as having. It's universal. The tag incidentally does nothing and should be disregarded.
*although I believe the iron staff isn't subject to the penalty for some reason.

They also receive a significant reduction in speed.

I always thought the penalty was only supposed to apply to polearms used with a shielder with a reach longer than 150...

Everyone thought this, as the tag was put on polearms usable with a shield above 150 length. The penalty applies to weapons of any length, however, and the tag literally did nothing.