Throwing Spears for Knights

First, allow me to say that I am well aware that the knight's focus relies in melee combat and not ranged but I figured that a 1 use ranged weapon similar in range with all the knight bombs (maybe a bit longer range) might be acceptable if it turns out to be really fun to use.

Now, back to the suggestion. I got inspired to post this idea by playing Volgarr the Viking (recent indie game, tough as hell but fun) where the main character had a throwing spear as a secondary weapon where you could embedded it in a wall and then use it as a foothold to climb up, similar to archer's arrows climbing but I would prefer to see the spear act as a platform and not something you 'phase' through up and down. Basically you would have to jump through it and high enough to land with your feet on it, similar to the one way wooden platforms we have in-game.

The spear would not disappear once embedded in a wall but could be destroyed by enemies, give it say 3-4 hearts of health? It would also occupy one inventory slot and it would not stack with other spears so a knight could hold a maximum of 5 spears; 4 in his inventory and one in his hands.

Furthermore, spear could only be used as a ranged weapon (no melee spears, sorry) and could be charged for maximum damage, distance and a few special effects but ONLY by standing still (no running around while throwing spears, that would be OP). Example:

low charge spear throw - 1 heart of damage, short distance

medium charge spear throw - 2 hearts of damage, medium distance

full charge spear throw - 3 hearts of damage, long distance, passes through opponents (unless they shielded) until it hits a wall or the ground

Note: the above damage is what I considered as 'balanced' for the moment but without any in game tests it is impossible to say if the numbers above are correct so those are suitable for change if needed and any spear that hits a shielding opponent simply breaks for obvious reasons (no stuns).

Of course the spear's ranged, when thrown at full charge would be shorter that that of a fully charged arrow, the spear would only be used as a close to medium ranged weapon.

All in all I can definitely see it as a nice little utility item (have a few knights stacking spears to climb up a tower) or as a nifty short-medium ranged weapon for knights.

So... opinions? Suggestions?

 

Not having stun on a throwing spear sounds kinda silly to me. Compared to arrows (which HAVE stun) throwing spears have a lot more weight and should have stun if they'd ever get added into the game or a mod.

Something that could be kinda fancy (but most likely would take ages to code) would be if those throwing spears would do less damage, and work more like actual pila did, meaning they would, for example, destroy or heavily cripple a knights ability to use his shield (which would make this kinda OP, I suppose).
Other than that, sounds like a nifty idea to me.

 

consider the following facts:
* Knights are extremely mobile
* Knights have a throwable bomb
* Knights have a shield to survive ranged attacks with

They are already extremely well-rounded in terms of melee and ranged combat + mobility.

 

I'd have spears if knights were slowed down a bit so it would compensate their ranged ability, at the same time having bunch of knights throwing them would be very good to break down bigger enemy groups as bombs tend to work like they do both ways.

 

Originally, I considered giving a fully charged spear throw a stun but... that would make it too OP. Imagine 3-4 knights throwing spears at the same time, fully charged... the first would stun the shielding knight and the rest would go right through the knight and everything else behind them. So I figured that removing the stun might be best.

I figured throwing the spear at a group that's already fighting might still offer the chance to hit people who are trying to charge a slash or in the middle of a fight with another knight (or hitting that pesky builder/archer behind the knights), thus making the spear a good weapon to use at unsuspecting targets that are busy fighting your team mates.

On a side note, allowing the spear to stun when fully charged and when at close range (similar to how arrows stun now) might help a bit. I'd still be against the stun at long range since it would be the whole alpha archers massacre all over again and nobody wants that.

Heavily crippling a knight (such as destroying their shield) might be a bit OP, I wouldn't advise it even if it would cost a lot since it would make it a very expensive weapon that only allows you to cripple one knight.

 

How about rip off the Amoury mod coming out sooner or later.

Otherwise, have the spears be a low item cap weapon-item, non-stackable, and probably be retrievable.
Make the attacks be [Jab on Low], [Toss on Medium], [Throw on High].
How about [Toss on Low], [Throw on Medium], [Pike on High]... with Pike being holding it out like a spike.

 

So knights will have arrow and swords? NOOO. I get killed easily with Arrows from archers please dont add spear for knights.