Today I broke out the battle grid for the comic. It's not something I want to do often because it looks really lazy, but in this case it helps explain what's going on here. A character can only take two actions during a round, and moving a certain distance counts as one of these actions. So because Thomas has to move further than his normal speed allows, he wouldn't normally be allowed to attack.
Charging is an exception to this rule. It's a full-round action (which basically means it counts as two actions), that allows a character to move up to double their regular speed and still make an attack action (or a bull rush, overrun, and I believe sunder). The upshot is that you basically get an extra action, and a shiny +2 on your attack roll. The downside is that you take a -2 penalty to your armour for one round, and this special rule about readied spears.
Readying an attack against a charge with a spear is perhaps the greatest part about spears. Add to it that a longspear has a 10-foot reach instead of the standard five foot, and you have a very useful character for defending an area. A clever DM can catch a party member with this trick once, but you can be sure they'll remember it for next time and be more careful.
For those curious, "a bunch of damage" is 2d6-2.
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