Poleaxe

Game Stats

• Range: melee
• Base damage: 2d8 (slashing/crushing/impaling)
• Secondary: none
• Concealable: no
• Civilian Carry: no

Description

A poleaxe is a two-handed hafted weapon featuring an axe blade, often balanced with a hammer face and long top spike for thrusting.  It is the preferred weapon of Sevillan knights for foot combat against armored foes.

Use and Characteristics 

The poleaxe in its usual form is a combination of many weapons: battle-axe, spear, and warhammer.  Its weight and length, however, give it away as more than simply a generalist combination.  A typical poleaxe has a haft of two to three feet, and weighs about three pounds - a large weight for a weapon of its size, mainly due to the amount of metal needed to create three separate wounding implements in the head of the poleaxe.  The weapon is thus long enough and heavy enough that it is most comfortably used with two hands, but two-handed use of a weapon with such a relatively short haft restricts the wielder's reach more than would seem ideal.

The poleaxe proper (as opposed to longer polearms with similar combination heads) is thus a hard-hitting, versatile weapon that likely places the user within his opponent's striking distance.  It is designed to be used by heavily armored individuals such as knights (its original proponents were Sevillan knights) against other heavily armored fighters on the battlefield.  It thus combines the crushing face of a warhammer with a slim, stiff point for thrusting between armor plates, yet it is small enough to be carried by a mounted knight and used when hemmed in and outnumbered.  The spike can be used for quick one-handed thrusts to extend the weapon's reach, while the axe head increases the weapon's deadliness against lightly armored fighters so the knight is not forced to draw his sword.

A poleaxe's axe head can be used to hook an enemy's shield or weapon, and once the enemy is thus thrown off balance the spike can be used for a quick follow-up thrust.  The leverage of two hands on such a relatively short haft also makes poleaxes quick to strike and quick to recover.  Nevertheless, the poleaxe is primarily an offensive weapon, and its short reach makes it best used by those in heavy body armor.

Advantages

The poleaxe's primary advantage is its ability to deal with any armor type and its handiness in close quarters.

Disadvantages

The poleaxe is primarily an offensive weapon, difficult to parry with and with a short reach on most attacks.  The short reach of the weapon in particular makes it best used by those with heavy body armor.

Variants

Poleaxes are occasionally constructed without spikes or hammer faces, although most users feel that reducing the weapon to a literal axe makes it a pointless bastardization between a battle-axe and war axe.   Poleaxes may be made from a variety of metals, from bronze and low-quality steel (referred to as "iron" colloquially) to high-quality steel (referred to as "steel" colloquially).  These weapons are rarely used by those who cannot afford heavy body armor, so steel poleaxes tend to be more prevalent.  For the same reason, their axe blades and spikes are often edged in crystal.  A few famous poleaxes with heads of Dolotai steel belong to prominent knightly families in Sevilla.

One unusual poleaxe variant most common among Harkanian knights is the clockwork poleaxe, which contains a spring-loaded top spike that can be released at the push of a button.  The spring mechanism may have been intended to surprise an opponent, but in practice it does little more than make the weapon more convenient to carry.

Party Associations

None

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