[Calanor]

Originally posted by LordArioch:
I'd think once you got past the guy's spear a dagger would work as well as a sword, and maybe even better (less unwieldly at close range).
Of course I don't have much melee weapon combat experience here so I'm not sure.

I most certainly agree, but you have to get there first. As I mentioned in another thread, I would certainly be clapping my little hands if soldiers with unwieldy weapons would have to draw a secondary blade when forced into close-combat (e.g. a pikeman would have to switch to a shortsword), but I am not sure that such a feature could be easily implemented.

Alternatively, one could skip the whole secondary weapon approach and simply reverse the roles - the pikeman would now have to make rolls in order to distance himself from his attacker.