The Tavern

Barring a bad aptitude, why not go for polearms all the time? Reaching is great, you get a free shot before they can hit you. And a Spectral Weapon will help you even in corridors from behind your back.

No brainer? What's the catch?

The catch is - at the same amount of skill as counterparts in long blades / maces, they provide worse base damage.

also there's no polearm analogue to scimitar/morningstar if you want to go for one-handed weapon for some reason

So the main drawbacks are two-handed only, like with good axes, and lower base damage. Benefits are reaching and a souped-up Spectral Weapon. Without Spectral, I can see why one would opt for something else.

tridents aren't that bad if you find a good one and aren't planning on using melee as your main offense

Many characters will invest into a ranged option as well anyway. So you can just apply your ranged attack until the monster is close. In that sense reaching isn't so much better.

My only winner had some success with monsters in Pan that would blink away, but would still remain within reaching. It also helped when you wanted to kill a nasty one behind a monster.

Most help was from the Spectral Weapon behind you who would score hits, and Polearms is the only skill that can do that.

Spectral Weapon is by no means guaranteed, though, unless you're a Skald (it's only in the book of Battle).

True dat, my first and only win was a human skald. A holy bardiche with a spectral pal is a ass-kicking combo. Even I could go and win with it.

Have you ever considered merfolk Ducks? If you like the feel of polearms, there's not much like an EV-based spell-compatible fighter race with +4 polearms aptitude. They're one of the best Skald races.

byrel, thanks for the suggestion. Never played them so far but I shall give it a shot.

I'd go as far as to say Merfolk are the best Skald in the game. Skald has a lot of XP to spend everywhere early game, and Merfolk have that +4 polearm apt to make it much easier to get magic skills up without neglecting your weapon.

Find condensation shield, ozocubu's armor and haste spells, and you're pretty much set for three times.

I prefer minotaur skalds. I just pretend I'm a MiGl with slightly worse apts, but I get regen much earlier than usual. Plus spectral weapon is pretty great in the midgame. Finally, that charms training stays relevant for haste.

I think my preferences come from a place of laziness rather than optimal play though. I hate playing anything if I can't just lean on the tab key.