Spears are a primal weapon. It makes sense that barbarians would prefer to use spears

Last dwarf I played was thing. Growing up fighting in tight tunnels a single dwarf can hold off, or dissuade, many monsters with a properly set up shield and spear

Dwarves use axes because Gimli used an axe, and Dwarves are doomed to forever be a race of Gimli clones.

Because spears work best in formation fighting which goes against the undisciplined thing which barbarians have going on. Axes on the other hand are a relatively simple weapon and one where you're primarily trying to hack limbs instead of target vital regions which causes it to be seen as inelegant and lends to the idea that an ax wielder is in some way less skilled than a sword user

Spears are great barb weapons in 4e though. Good for charge optimization synergy. Run a nigga through while howling bloody murder.

I imagine the problem in other editions/systems is that weapons have very little to differentiate then, so you just default to the biggest dice

It's the same things with armour. Cloth armour/gambeson is wonderful, but never a viable option

>Implying having a spear doesn't mean you can run at them screaming and turn them into a human shishkebab

axes are tools. spears are weapons.

>Not using javalins
B-but it's not brutal like my ace
>Not running at your enemy and throwing a javlin right through their fucking chest cavity.

Because fantasy gaming uses the term "Barbarian" in a very confused, and confusing, way. It mostly refers to a class of super-tough, super-strong heroes that are capable of channeling their rage into reckless, brute force. But they also use it to refer to northern tribes that have a variety of roles and daily activities and paradoxically usually a very sophisticated culture, but then also use it to refer to a variety of tribes worldwide that are noted for their remote, simple villages and preference for a hunter-gatherer way of life.

All 3 are valid usages since the word itself originally meant "non-Greek," but over time they all sort of just get mushed together into one word that sort-of means a lot of things but is mostly unconscious baggage. The result attempting to re-fix it back into a more nuanced and accurate picture of any of the three tends to feel "off" compared to the standard, if inaccurate, character type.

>Two dwarves get into a fight
>Dwarven armour is the thickest strongest shit around
>They try to poke each other with spears
>Nothing happens

>Two dwarves get in a fight
>Dwarven armour is the thickest strongest shit around
>They come at eaachother with axes
>Dwarf one breaks dwarf two's knee with a blow
>Dwarf 2 hooks dwarf 1 by the armour with the hook of his axe and yanks him down
>Dwarf two manages to strike dwarf one in the head as he sturggles to get up snapping his neck.

>axes are tools
so are barbarians - explains why the two fit together so well

Speaking of barbarians, I'm gonna do a human one in an upcoming campaign. 3.5, levels 1-30.

Besides frenzied berserker, what other multiclass options should I be thinking about?

This is why sidearms exist, user.

>Two dwarves get in a fight
>They come at eaachother with axes/great hammers
>The weapons hit the tunnel walls every time they try to swing
>Same thing happens when trying to repel invaders
>Glorious Dwarven Empire falls to a bunch of tribal kobolds who were smart enough to use spear wall tactics in tunnels.

You're being stupid

SPEARS? What kind of Umgi foolishness is this? My father didn't need spears to fight the grobi, and me grandfather killed about a million Urks with his bare axe, and back in HIS grandfather's day they hadn't invented the axe yet so he cleared his hold of their filth with his bare hands! Spears! Listen, beardling, the day we need spears to deal with the Urks is the day we might as well shave our beards off and move in with the Umgi.

Because spears are d6 and battleaxes are d8/10.

Simple.

Are you basing this entirely on Space Wolves or what? At any rate, axes are cold climate weapons. They don't need to be sharp either to break wood into burnables pieces or an enemy's bones.

Spears also suck in confined quarters unless your opponent is slow.

Dwarves all having beards ON PAIN OF DEATH is stupid and boring, especially all having ridiculously long beards to make up for the fact they are short buggers with tiny pricks that they then trip over leaving the stunty buggers on their rotound bellies vainly struggling to right themselves as their collapsing underground shitholes are overrun by random evil vermin they unearthed through their overwhelming racial greed.

Axes suck in confined quarters too though.

Barbarians are typically understood as being individualists. A spear is first and foremost a formation weapon--it's most effective in the hands of a group of soldiers formed into ranks. That's not to say it's ineffective on its own, just that that's a context in which it's not typically seen.

Individual fighters, unique weapons. Group fighters, formation weapons.

Depends on the axe really. Smaller ones like hatchets have throwing and one handed variants. Something like a huge battleaxe would probably not be effective either.

Haave dwarven tunnels ever struck you as super narrow?
Got an explaination to that or are you jsut a religious spearfag?

>axes aren't weapons

Because you have all the imaginative capacity of a rock, you fucking mindless drone.

Whatever.

Barbarians are based on the mythical baresark/berserker. They are mentioned in the viking sagas. Whether they ever existed is uncertain. The viking "noblemen" used swords as a sign of their station in society, but the elite viking fighters mainly used axes (one handed axes with shield or the two handed Dane axe).

Spears were the weapon that was typically given to unskilled fighters so I imagine it has gotten an image of being a weapon for noobs as well.

"Haha lol nice spear fag. Hey, check out the noob with his gay little spear!"

Haha the truth, user. You speak it.

axes are both. spears are sharpened sticks

>enemy gets behind spear dwarf
>spear dwarf can't turn around