Polearm

A polearm is literally a weapon on a pole. There is an abundance of polearms in NetHack:

Monsters will attempt to use polearms in the following order: halberd, bardiche, spetum, bill-guisarme, voulge, ranseur, guisarme, glaive, lucern hammer, bec-de-corbin, fauchard, partisan; and so this list is roughly from best to worst.

The lance is, in real life, a polearm, but in NetHack it uses the lance skill instead of the polearm skill, due to its very different usage: by mounted soldiers instead of against them.

Polearms were developed in warfare for combatting mounted soldiers, and those with heavy armor. The polearms (arms on poles) increased leverage for cutting the armor, and increased reach for reaching above the horse.

As time went on the various different weapon types borrowed heavily from each other and began to look like each other, which has lead to a great deal of confusion over classification. If you search the internet now for examples of these weapons, you are likely to see weapons completely mislabeled as something different.

Halberd

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Name	halberd
Appearance	angled poleaxe
Damage vs. small	d10
Damage vs. large	2d6
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	10 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	150
Material	iron

Origin

The halberd was a mainstay weapon in many armies for a long time. The halberd is a poleaxe, meaning an axe on a pole. It's main identifying feature is that the blade is always angled slightly downward, which explains NetHack's description of an angled poleaxe. In addition to the axe, halberds also have both a spear tip, and spike or hook on the rear for penetrating armor or hooking. A nice three-in-one weapon. Due to the popularity of this weapon, there are a wide variety of different styles, although some of the coolest were only parade weapons. The halberd is one of the best NetHack weapons, and this is consistent with its role in real warfare.

Bardiche

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Name	bardiche
Appearance	long poleaxe
Damage vs. small	2d4
Damage vs. large	3d4
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	7 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	120
Material	iron

Origin

NetHack calls the bardiche a long poleaxe and that is exactly right, if you assume that the "long" applies to "axe" and not "pole". A bardiche is nothing more than a long axe blade on a stick. The cutting blade was typically two feet long or more, and usually attached to the pole in two places (in the middle and the bottom). But it is mounted on one of the shortest poles for a polearm, only about five feet. So "short poleaxe" would be accurate also. This simple weapon's advantage was in its size and weight, not its subtlety. NetHack gets the weight wrong - a bardiche should be heavier than a halberd.

Spetum

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Name	spetum
Appearance	forked polearm
Damage vs. small	d6+1
Damage vs. large	2d6
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	5 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	50
Material	iron

Origin

The spetum is a spear with two more knife blades stuck on the sides. NetHack's "forked polearm" is vaguely accurate, but forked weapons would more typically have side prongs that reach all the way up to the top. Over time variations were added and it more strongly resembled the ranseur. (The spetum may have grown into it, they may have been developed independently). NetHack gives this an advantage with large monsters, which doesn't quite make sense, as it is supposed to be a lighter polearm.

Ranseur

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Name	ranseur
Appearance	hilted polearm
Damage vs. small	2d4
Damage vs. large	2d4
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	6 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	50
Material	iron

Origin

The ranseur, the hilted polearm, is essentially a spear with a hilt. The hilt served primarily to block opponents weapons and possibly trap the weapon for disarming. The hilt was sometimes also used secondarily as an alternate way to attack. The hilt often hooked backwards also, so that it could be used as a hook. The ranseur was probably an all around better weapon than the spetum, but this is not the case in NetHack. In a perfect universe, NetHack would give this weapon an advantage when fighting monsters that use weapons, as that is where the hilt is useful.

Partisan

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Name	partisan
Appearance	vulgar polearm
Damage vs. small	d6
Damage vs. large	d6+1
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	10 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	80
Material	iron

Origin

The partisan also winds up looking much like the ranseur and spetum. Originally the partisan was a spear with small double axe blades added below it. This basic form is shown in the first partisan above; however you won't likely ever see a partisan that looks like this. The other forms are more typical. Note that while some of them look like spetums, they present broader protrusions than the knife-like spetum prongs. The partisan is also more likely to have a flat bladed tip, rather than the spiky blade of the spetum and ranseur. Over time partisans (or weapons called partisans) became more ornamental and ceremonial, which may explain why it is one of the weaker polearms, and also why it is referred to as a vulgar polearm.

Perhaps one good way to differentiate between the spetum, the partisan, and the ranseur is to look for the edges on the prongs. Typically, a ranseur would have no edges, a partisan would have edges only facing out, and a spetum would have edges on both sides of the protrusions.

Voulge

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Name	voulge
Appearance	pole cleaver
Damage vs. small	2d4
Damage vs. large	2d4
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	5 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	125
Material	iron

Origin

NetHack has it just right referring to the voulge as a pole cleaver, as this weapon probably was invented as a meat cleaver on a pole. The voulge may look somewhat like a bardiche, but the blade is much shorter and the shaft is longer. It also may tend to look like the glaive, but would generally have a broader blade.

Glaive

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Name	glaive
Appearance	single-edged polearm
Damage vs. small	d6
Damage vs. large	d10
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	6 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	75
Material	iron

Origin

If you could put a cleaver on a stick, why not just a knife? The glaive, is basically just that, a knife on a stick, or as NetHack calls it, a single-edged polearm. Glaives were not the best weapons, and NetHack gives them too much credit. They should also be one of the lightest polearms.

In NetHack the glaive is called a naginata if you are playing as a samurai. However, a naginata was actually a Japanese polearm which used (the equivalent of) a top-quality samurai sword at the end of the pole, and the weapon was backed up by a long-developed and rigorous martial art, and when combined with this expertise it was a formidable weapon. Perhaps this is why NetHack gives the glaive so much credit. But they should perhaps be two different weapons.

Encylopedia entry

       A Japanese pole-arm, fitted with a curved single-edged blade.
       The blades ranged in length from two to four feet, mounted on
       shafts about four to five feet long.  The naginata were cut
       with a series of short grooves near to the tang, above which
       the back edge was thinned, but not sharpened, so that the
       greater part of the blade was a flattened diamond shape in
       section.  Seen in profile, the curve is slight or non-
       existent near the tang, becoming more pronounced towards the
       point.

       "With his naginata he killed five, but with the sixth it
       snapped asunder in the midst and, flinging it away, he drew
       his sword, wielding it in the zigzag style, the interlacing,
       cross, reversed dragonfly, waterwheel, and eight-sides-at-
       once styles of fencing and cutting down eight men; but as he
       brought down the ninth with a mighty blow on the helmet, the
       blade snapped at the hilt."
       [ Story of Tsutsui no Jomio Meishu from Tales of Heike ]

Fauchard

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Name	fauchard
Appearance	pole sickle
Damage vs. small	d6
Damage vs. large	d8
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	5 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	60
Material	iron

Origin

While we're sticking random things on poles, lets talk about the fauchard, which NetHack calls a pole sickle. This is because this weapon had a curved blade, with the sharp edge on the inside of the curve. This was a really stupid weapon design, and NetHack rightly doesn't give it much power.

Guisarme

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Name	guisarme
Appearance	pruning hook
Damage vs. small	2d4
Damage vs. large	d8
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	5 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	80
Material	iron

Origin

The guisarme like the voulge, started out as a peasant's weapon, made from a tool on a stick. In this case the tool is a pruning hook, which is where it gets its description. While it was a somewhat useful cheap weapon, the lack of a spear point was a significant liability. It was good for pulling riders off of their mounts, but what do you do once they're off? It evolved to some degree, sometimes adding a reverse spike, but eventually guisarme became a generic term for any weapon with a hook, such that you had voulge-guisarmes, and glaive-guisarmes.

Bill-guisarme

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Name	bill-guisarme
Appearance	hooked polearm
Damage vs. small	2d4
Damage vs. large	d10
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	7 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	120
Material	iron

Origin

This leads us to the bill-guisarme. Bill hooks were English weapons similar in shape to the guisarme, but perhaps with somewhat less hook in general. They followed a different evolution, such that any weapon that was similar to a glaive or fauchard, but with extra bits thrown in, was often called a bill. So, in terms of origination, bill-guisarme would be a bit redundant, but in terms of later meaning, a bill-guisarme was a bladed weapon with multiple sharpened edges and spikes, and with a hook. NetHack should give these weapons more credit - they were very versatile, and used over long periods of time, second only to the halberd.

There is a lot of confusion out there on guisarmes and bill-guisarmes. Often the bill-guisarme is called simply a guisarme. Also, many pictures purporting to be guisarmes are actually fauchard-forks, which is a fauchard, with a sharp spear point added to the back of the blade.

Lucern hammer

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Name	lucern hammer
Appearance	pronged polearm
Damage vs. small	2d4
Damage vs. large	d6
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	7 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	150
Material	iron

Despite the name, the lucern hammer is not really a hammer, and does not use the hammer skill. This confusion may have been responsible for the creation of Thunderfist.

Origin

The lucern hammer is vaguely similar to the halberd, only instead of an axe blade, it presents a three-pronged hammer to its victim (hence the pronged polearm designation).

Bec-de-corbin

) File:Bec-de-corbin.png
Name	bec-de-corbin
Appearance	beaked polearm
Damage vs. small	d8
Damage vs. large	d6
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	polearm
Size	two-handed
Base price	8 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	100
Material	iron

Origin

The bec de corbin looks extremely similar to the lucern hammer; however the hammer side was sometimes blunt instead of pronged. The distinguishing characteristic though is that the spike was a thick beak-like shape designed only for puncturing (armor, or whatever). This is why it is the beaked polearm. The beak was the primary mode of attack; the hammer or claw was secondary. The spear tip was also generally less pointy than that of the lucern hammer.

This page is based on a spoiler by Tom Fine, available at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~fine/Fun/polearms.html