[combat] giant issue in weapon reach question

[Kuroshima]

First, welcome to the forums. You'll find that we're a friendly bunch, though we can get involved in endless digressions only tangentially related to the thread at hand.

As for the issue you mention, well, that spear use, as others have mentioned, isn't just the Spear skill. It's Spear, plus some perks to switch freely to Staff, and to freely adjust range. It's also good player tactics. In fact, other than it's boring, having the character that goes first simply wait, and say "When he attacks me, I retreat, and then attack him, and step backwards" leads to either the "attacker is capped at skill 9" situation, the "Attacker must blow all his FP on Heroic Charges" situation, "The attacker must slam me, and get severely punished if the trick fails and he ends giving me free range at his back" situation, or the "Attacker must sacrifice defenses to get a decent offense, via All Out Attack or Telegraphic Attack" situation. GURPS, unlike other systems, doesn't abstract that much in combat. Actual player tactics are VERY important.