Polearm Master - Feats in Dungeons and Dragons 5e
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarte... An in-depth look at the Polearm Master feat in Dungeons and Dragons 5e.
We discuss the classes, build options, equipment, feats, and other abilities to make the ultimate melee damage dealer in D&D 5e. Then, we’ll cover strategies to get the most from the Polearm Master feat. Finally, we’ll look at roleplaying ideas to visualize your character, connecting their battlefield tactics to their personality, image, and outlook.
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Guess what! The official November 2018 Errata has added Spears to Polearm Master! media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf
Dungeon Dudes Good job updating this, guys.
You should make a video on sentinel. If you do, cover how mage slayer gets so much more powerful when combined with it.
Thank god. millinos of raging historical gamers can finally rest.
do heavy armor master next please.
As I read it, to include errata/FAQ, if you have the Polearm Feat, you can use a spear and quarterstaff single handed and still get the attack of opportunity if they enter your reach (5ft). Nowhere does it specify that the weapon has to be two-handed or using two hands (versatile).
One thing you forgot to mention about the combo with Sentinel feat is that, when they approach you, you hit them with that Opportunity Attack, stopping them dead in their tracks, then on your turn you have your three attacks, then shuffle backwards. Then on their turn again they have to move into your range again, and you can hit them with an OA again, and if you ever end up in a 1 on 1 with a melee opponent, you can become very difficult to even swing at, let alone hit.
Lynneiah or at max lvl as a fighter, 5 attacks or even 10 attacks with action surge, then you spend your superiority dice if you go Battlemaster and also use great weapon fighting and just obliterate a dragon in 1 turn.
Dancing like Oberyn Martell with the Mountain. Just don't get too cocky...
The Push Battlemaster manuever's also a pretty sweet addition- not only do you stop them dead in their tracks, but you can also help set up better AoE's for the party's casters!
@@TheRedAzuki Action Surge does not grant you additional Bonus Actions, so it's 4+1+4=9
Out of all of those though you only get one reaction or am i wrong
The PHB has an errata that says that Spears are apart of polearm mastery.
Yup! We are so glad. we made this video a few months before the errata dropped.
And of course UA:Feats gave up spear master, which i personally prefer over pole-arm mastery when i'm using spear
@@destinedlight606 UA is overpowered that why it's UA.
@@LockSteady Guess we can't play artificer cause it was ua... too OP, how dare they make good variant rules with playtesting in the UA!
@@destinedlight606 You can't play??
Polearm master + Sentinel would make for a good miniboss, or regular boss
Or an order of warrior monks, battle monks that protect a string of monasteries.
One order for polearm mastery, others for hand to hand. Others for archery..
Even in the context of a boss fight, for higher level boss encounters, give one both of those feats, and have the one a ranged combatant, or support. A powerful sorcerer and his trusted body guard, or a warlord and his bardic hype-man or propaganda master
@@HunterHerne warlord and his bardic hype man.... I like that
Polearm Master and Warcaster are a tough combo too. Try letting a fighter see how rough it is to take a spell to the face when they move within 10 feet lol
HunterHerne that sounds like the Dragonrider boss fight in castle Drangleic in Dark Souls 2. One dude is wielding a halberd and a shield, and the other has a bow and is up on a platform where you can’t reach him, sniping the heck out of you.
Some famous historical pole arm centric soldiers would be the Landsknecht. German mercenaries who were some of the most famous soldiers of the late 15th and 16th century. They famously used halberds and zweihanders to augment their pike blocks.
Great historical example!
Also the Swiss
One person... Guan Yu.
Zhao Yun on Changban Bridge
Lu Bu!
Dont forget cavalier
Polearm master
sentinel
And with their special reaction on every round at higher level
You are a one man barrier
(Bonus points screaming you shall not pass)
Can't believe we missed this! bonus points for style, too.
Play it with the bugbear race to increase the radius of your area of fuckery ceasing by 5 ft
moving tabaxi rangers -> drow wizards-> flying wyvern mob with sting tails-> ghost possession-> succubi charm -> straight up vanilla wraith -> sea hag death glare-> hill giant boulders-> gang of goblins with poison arrows, and bear traps/nets(metal wire ones?)/wild dogs(wolves?worgs?dire wolves?)/molotovs
I really wish they specified spears as a reach weapon and a polearm. It's frustrating using a spear that does 1d6 and doesn't reach any farther than a dagger. I think the 1d6 is enough to allow a spear to have reach while still using it one-handed with a shield. I cant see any game breaking issue here or where it would get picked too much over other polearms. I think they deflated the spear pretty bad.
These seem like totally reasonable house rules to me.
thats how you end up with quarterstaff and shield cheese
The thinking in 5E is that if the spear is long enough to categorise it as a reach weapon, it can be categorised as a pike and therefore as a halberd. It also wouldn't be feasible to throw. So they have separated pikes as spears with reach, and spears as shorter weapons that can be thrown.
I think there are multiple angles that came together for making spears work the way they do in 5e.
1. All Reach weapons also have the two-handed and heavy properties, and I think they wanted to keep true to this design choice while still making Spears compatible with using shields to get that hoplite and legionair feeling.
2. When you look at where you grab a Spear to wield it, you realize that you're actually holding it quite near to the center of the shaft, which generally results in the point not being all that much further away than the point of a Rapier. That's due to the fact that you need to balance out the weight of the shaft in front of you with the length of the shaft behind you. While metal is generally heavier than wood, you can get a very sturdy structure out of a thin stick of metal, that's still lighter than the wooden shaft you'd need for the same sturdiness of that legth.
3. While you could hold a Spear similarly to a Halberd or Glaive, you'd do that mostly for fighting behind a line of allies, because the damaging end of a Spear is generally only designed to stab and not cut. Thus you wouldn't gain that much reach in single combat, since it's a bit more unwieldy to change style from close melee to more ranged melee with a stabing Spear in comparison to a cutting Glaive.
In conclusion, I think that it's not that far fetched to not give the Reach property to Spears. You could give them the Special property and allow for a reached attack if wielded with two hands though.
Also, I totally agree that Spears should be categorized as Polearms and thus apply to being used with the Polearm Master feat.
Which almost works but totally losing the properties of a spear. The spear has historically been a polearm. Which is able to be thrown and reach and be held one or two-handed. That is the spear. There is also a long spear which is fine to call a pike because you have to use two hands with it and it's not able to be thrown. It seems the lower damage stat for the spear is enough of a counterbalance to separate it from the other polearms for its throwing range is pretty short anyway. I still say they over nerfed it to the point that I ask "Why did they even put it in 5e". Better range with javelins and can throw just as far with a handaxe?? Of course, they won't be able to be totally accurate with weapons, its a game, but the spear is the oldest weapon and most iconic in human history. It seems so simple to have avoided it being nerfed so much that its a sacrifice to use in the game.
One of the main reason that Mankind has used spears is that they're easy to make. A spear is a long stick with a point at the end. A GOOD spear has a tip of hard material (stone, metal, bone). Cavemen have used these for many thousands of years. Making a sword is HARD, just ask anyone who has tried to do it.
Quite true, but even when you had one, a sword (especially a 1-handed one) was almost _always_ a backup weapon. Even used 1-handed, a spear outperforms a sword at reach and punching through armor.
The standard weapon kit for pretty much every soldier from the bronze age to the dominance of gunpowder warfare breaks down into ranged/reach weapon, sword/axe/mace/etc as backup, and dagger(s), and untill the development of the bayonet, spears of some length were ubiquitous on the battlefield.
Cost is an important factor, but spears are also just _really_ good (to the point where given equivalent skill and no armor, a fighter with a spear should beat a fighter with a sword almost every time).
And in medieval times, if you look at halberds, the gap between the spear point and the axe blade is usually designed so you can catch enemy weapons and disarm your opponent by knocking their weapon aside or even breaking it
@@dynamicworlds1
Blunt weapons are good for fighting against armor. Because armor does not protect against them nearly as effectively as it does against blades.
@@theuncalledfor Which is why some polearms had an axeblade on one side and a hammer on the other
@@bigboi4193
Yes! Exactly!
dude, im a For Honor Lawbringer (heavily armored, halberd/poleaxe wielding warrior) main , and seeing this video, it just gave me a way to using my favorite class in the FH game into D&D, and i thank you for that, and good thing is, he won't be as bad as in FH. I can imagine, when i meet with my D&D/RPG group, myself making my lawbringer fighter and RPing it on game, GLORIOUS, DEUS VULT.
Great video guys, im new to the channel and i intend to keep coming from time to time. :)
Dragortius Lawbro!!!! Hell yeah man! That's my main as well haha
This is exactly what my character is. He is a oath of the crown paladin lawdaddy ots amazing
How do you fee about the Lawbringer update happening?
Dragortius also, as a battle master with riposte, you can shout “AD MORTEM INIMICUS!”
Dragortius also, as a battle master with riposte, you can shout “AD MORTEM INIMICUS!”
I don't know if either of you have any experience with the Stormlight Archive, but one of the main characters, Kaladin Stormblessed, would be my go-to inspiration for a polearm master.
I don't but I'm always looking for more good novels! I'll have to check it out.
Dungeon Dudes It's very long, but very rewarding! And get ready to get sucked into the Cosmere at large.
Sanderson is phenominal. OP beat me to this comment. I am about to roleplay my spinoff of Kaladin. Hexblade really gives you some of the feel of a shardblade. To bypass the spear thing as polearm master I am going Pike or Partizan
I just am imagining the Dio "oho, you're approaching me" meme and its absolutely great thank you
Ranger/wizard fighter for a "stand" (companion/familiar) and the meme you're talking about
Even better, monk has a subclass that is basically star platinum
At 18, Knight (Fighter Archtype from Unearther Arcana) gets:
"You can use your reaction for an opportunity attack even if you've already expended your reaction this round, but not if you've already done so this turn."
AKA, 1 AoO per turn, including enemy turns.
Add Polearm Master and Sentinel to that.
oh fuck yeah level 18
I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT NOW MUAWHAHAHAHAHA
(i'm the DM)
....you already use reaction as an attack of opportunity. Making an opportunity attack uses up your one reaction per round.
Thats always been one use of a reaction... and the source of the AoO.
Perhaps you quoted it incorrectly?
@@corwyncorey3703 media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/2016_Fighter_UA_1205_1.pdf
Nope. That UA subclass specifically overrides the rules you mention, allowing you to do an AoO as a reaction once per turn, even if you have already expended your reaction. (essentially allowing one reaction per character turn, limited to only AoO)
@@brannontirin you mean an EXTRA reaction, limited to AoO only.... since AoO is already a reaction.
Ok, sure. The text, RAW, reads more like "You may make an AoO at reaction speed once per turn even if you've already expended your reaction" than "you get an extra reaction each turn for AoO only", but... same diff mechanically.
Reason enough to go plumb the earliest additions for forgotten polearms... the bec de Corbin, lucerne hammer, glaive guisarme, the man catcher and I dont even know how many others. It seems that back in the day, they were putting all sorts of weaponry at the end of a pole.
5e really paired down the weapon list, and even still there's lots of weapons that don't really have a mechanical distinction. The DMG is also very supportive about using weapon stats to represent a different historical weapon, as well.
It sure did, but I feel that's been in slow decline since Gygax first added so much content. Your reply did remind me of the srd, though. Chock full O' goodness.
www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/Weapons/#martial-two-handed
It's under war hammer now I think. There's a picture in the PHB.
I recommend the Donnie Yen scenes in Jet Li's movie 'Hero' for some incredible polearm work
even one of the crouching tiger, hidden dragon fights has a sick spear VS sword battle that is just cool so cool
Wish there was more Magic Polearm available in the DMG.
Agreed! Here's hoping we get some new magic items in one of the new sourcebooks due out later this year.
Many magic items specify that they can be any weapon. If not just transfer the magic item stats to the polearm. ex: A Vorpal Glaive, Halbert of Warning, or Holy Avenger Glaive. Just adjust dmg stats accordingly.
They need a +5 Vorpal Lifestealing Polearm.
the pole arm would just need a blade on the end
Just make your own magic items for your players. In fact, open up and make things so your players can't quote what an item is verbatim. My favorite is to have EVERY powerful item sentient with their own ajendas. I pesonally think it's a lot more entertaining and fun.
Polearm Master
Sentinel
Hexblade Warlock, Blade Pact.
Repelling Blast.
Ama Yad this is better with warcaster. Use your reaction to cast eldric blast push them out of range, or don't push and just do damage
War Caster (instead of Sentinel) also an option, yes, and works a treat for artillery warlocks that want to keep beasties back. As a hexblade bladelock, though, my weapon is for killing, my spells are for control. I use Sentinel to stop their movement on a magical bonfire.
If you cast a Repelling Blast on them when they enter your reach, then you push them back before you can hit them with your big nasty poleaxe - so you might as well use a different kind've Warlock with a quarterstaff.
COME AT ME BRO! moving tabaxi rangers -> drow wizards-> flying wyvern mob with sting tails-> ghost possession-> succubi charm -> straight up vanilla wraith -> sea hag death glare-> hill giant boulders-> gang of goblins with poison arrows, and bear traps/nets(metal wire ones?)/wild dogs(wolves?worgs?dire wolves?)/molotovs
I COULD KEEP GOING! Good DMs can Always challenge a player, not matter what.
(lol hopefully the DM doesn't power game you TOO brutally, we should always make sure our players are having a fun time, and killing a player should be saved for boss fights only)
Sentinel + Polearm Master + Great Weapon Fighting + Tunnel Fighter + Battlemaster
You can get this combo as a level 6 variant human fighter, and you'll destroy everything
wait till lv 8 and go bugbear for 15 ft reach
Yeah as a GM I hate this combo. Because encounter balancing is super difficult. He either kills everything in one to two turns or the monster kills him.
He rolled a hero character. (All 4 d-6 dice) and got super stats, maxed strength and Constitution on level 4.
He killed a cr4 in 3 turns. This creature also had +10 regen on his turn.
@@dragonhearthx8369 Can make it even more broken by running Hexblade multiclass(3 lvls maybe) as a Half-Elf and picking up Elven Accuracy. Then cast Darkness on yourself with Devil Sight. Taking the highest of 3 dice rolls per melee attack, OA's up the wazoo, triggering hex/hexblades curse constantly.
moving tabaxi rangers? drow wizards? flying wyvern mob with sting tails? ghost possession? succubi charm? straight up vanilla wraith? sea hag death glare? hill giant boulders? gang of goblins with poison arrows, and bear traps/nets/wild dogs(wolves)/molotovs(?)? hmmm let's see what ELSE can i destory you with as a DM? hmm you're level 6 so we can have so many things fight you, so many many things :3
how do you even get more than 1 fighting style as a battlemaster??, then adding greatweapon fighting on top of that???
I'd like to add one note to this: you don't necessarily need stronger monsters, but MORE monsters to throw at the party :D
Remember, you only get 1 reaction per turn.
Give your bad guy a host of goblins or stirges to use as expendable meatshields to use up the fighter's reactions per turn before you send in your big bad guys, I.E. Orcs.
As a DM I've never really been worried about strong characters. I just add more monsters and of different types to my encounters, with the added effect that battles become more epic!
The only issue I really have has got to be Rogues with 12+ to Stealth who regularly roll in the 30-40s with buffs, especially when they want to try to exploit their stealth skill to the fullest o.O
Check out our video on Stealth for tips for working with Rogues. The rules give you as the Dungeon Master ultimate authority on when a character can and cannot hide!
As for the bad guys, swarming a Polearm Master is a great tactic! That said, Polearm Masters tend to have the volume of attacks to deal with weaker minion-types quite handily. They are strong characters, but it is totally possible to overwhelm them: I like using tough "solider type" foes with a high AC who can still take 2 or 3 hits each, and sending them in as a group, like Orogs.
SinerAthin a high level Cavalier Fighter gets more one reaction attack as long as they on different enemies.
while you only get one Reaction a turn, as a DM, if you have a player who wants to play a pole arm fighter, be wary of them asking to use UA playtest rules - specifically the tunnel fighter fighting style: it allows players to make Opp Attacks WITHOUT burning the reaction - very broken with this feat
Well, as a pc I would let the mooks run past and deal little damage to the party and then stop anything that looks like a threat
Well, the horde isn't useful if the fighter has the tunnel fighter fighting style.
Did you know you can wield a spear or quarterstaff in one hand with a shield in the other and still get all the benefits of Polearm Master?
Running a war cleric with spear n shield and polearm master for a spartan hoplite flavor
Yes, but then sentinel becomes less crazy since you stop them within combat range of you. Having them stop at 10 ft and then not being able to strike you is the biggest benefit of the sentinel+PAM combo
I am a Tiefling Hexblade that wields a Glaive. I took the Polearm Master and Sentinel feats. In response to the "ranged attacks are this players bane," What I did was I took the Eldritch Invocation Grasp of Hadar for my Eldritch blast. So now if I face a flying foe, I'll cast Eldritch blast, pull the target 10 feet towards me into my range, and since it entered my ranged, I get to use my opportunity attack on it, and then use my bonus action for the extra attack. And now since its within my range, it has disadvantage on any ranged attacks until it moves out of range, and then it provokes another opportunity attack.
Matthew Osborne
Interesting concept, but illegal in two different ways. First, involuntary movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks, so you don't get that attack after eldritch blast suction. Second, the disadvantage on ranged attacks is always 5' and has nothing to do with being in your reach or not. It's still a good approach to combine an always-ready ranged attack like eldritch blast with disruptive melee abilities though.
fluffysheap
Thank you for pointing that out! I'll be sure to fix that in my campaign
Make that illegal in 3 ways. You have to use your Action to Attack with the polearm to be able to use your Bonus Action to make the extra attack. Since you are using your action to cast Eldridge Blast, you will not get the Bonus Action attack on that turn.
Any flying foe that only maintains 20' distance deserves this to happen to them. Seriously no caster should be that stupid.
Also, you only get one reaction per round of combat.
Dont forget about Great Weapon Fighting, re-rolling 1's & 2's on a d4 is boss!
If by boss you mean upgrading the average value of a D4 from 2.5 to 3, then sure.
@@mavoc3094 3.5?
@@AllThingsFascinate A number does not make for a valid question. Please use some words if you want a useful reply.
While I agree that more words would have been nice, the intent behind the question is still clearly evident. To answer the question. The likelihood of the die to roll another 1 or 2 does not change. This results in an increase of the average to 3 and not 3.5.
@@GeneralAvispa I was wondering if he was referring to something in 3.5e. Or perhaps he thought the reroll was added to the original 1 or 2 and therefore thought the damage increased by 3.5 instead of only 0.5, which if true would also be wrong as it is a 3.75 increase. I had other less likely theories, but I didn't find the "intent" anywhere close to "evident" due to not understanding the logic that arrived at a 3.5 average.
The UA Tunnel Fighter breaks the Polearm Master/Sentinel build even more - unlimited Opportunity Attacks.
Also, Bugbear adds another 5ft to your range with this, which is hilarious.
The bugbear only gets additional reach on its turn, so it doesn't work with opportunity attacks
moving tabaxi rangers -> drow wizards-> flying wyvern mob with sting tails-> ghost possession-> succubi charm -> straight up vanilla wraith -> sea hag death glare-> hill giant boulders-> gang of goblins with poison arrows, and bear traps/nets(metal wire ones?)/wild dogs(wolves?worgs?dire wolves?)/molotovs
And then add Battlemaster with lunging attack for 20ft of attack
Stretch Armstrong much
"While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, quarterstaff, or spear, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter the reach you have with that weapon."
I don't see why it wouldn't work with bugbear it doesn't give a range.
That's actually one of the next characters I've been working on
I didn't think DM's wanted you to play you an UA tunnel fighter. BTW Battle Master has lunch which gives you an additional 5 ft on an attack. So yeah that's 20 ft
A spear can be used one handed and thrown. If it's longer (and has reach), it must be used two handed and would come under the category polearm (i.e. it's a pike). That's why spear isn't included.
More interesting is the difference between trident and spear, which seem sadly unfair.
From personal experience, a 2.4m long spear works fine with one hand, a bit clumsy, but works and a 1.8m spear is perfect, which just happens to be a good length for a pollaxe. Also, the feat already includes quarterstaves, which are basically spears without the metal point. Furthermore, a pike is used very differently to a spear or quarterstaff, the two of which can be used effectively for both striking and thrusting, whilst a pike is mostly just used for thrusting due to the length. Finally, the length of what most people who refer to "pikes" mean is far longer than most spears. 4-6m would be a reasonable length for what we today call a pike.
The dory and sarissa would like a word with you about spears that can be used with a shield not being able to hit at "reach" distances. Especially with the back spike on the dory shifting the point of balance back
Dang I had no idea polearms were so versatile! Really cool. I'm glad you guys make focused-down videos like this--really helps me think of new DM ideas I doubt I would've stumbled on myself.
Yeah! We had fun making a really focused video like this one :)
What feats or spells would you like to see us cover in-depth in a future episode?
Dungeon Dudes something I never see discussed is the cleric Divine Intervention feature, considering it's basically a wish spell available at level 10.
Dungeon Dudes Anything related to colouring melee is fantastic. Do you think shields get enough attention?
We will be touching on how to handle Divine Intervention in our Cleric Guide :)
They really don't get a lot of love. We could focus on them in an episode around Shield Master though!
I always play in games that don’t use feats so I’ll have to let you know once I cross that bridge, but this has definitely piqued my interests
Polearm Master + War Caster on a Warlock with Repelling Blast, and having an Arcane focus that works with Polearm Master = Sending your enemy flying off 40 ft just for approaching you
Its funny seeing videos like this from four years ago and noticing how over the years it seems like you've only been able to get along more and communicate better with one another. Love you guys keep up the good work!
I immediately think of the Viper in GoT. Not that things ended well for him there, lol
Oberyn Martell. Although I'd say while it's referred to as the spear if the red Viper, it's more of a Partisan, so you have the thursting, as well as slicing ability too.
"You raped her, you murdered her, you murdered her children!"
Red viper totally should have won. The only reason he lost was story-related. Had he inflicted that level of damage even the mountain would have died rapidly and been too weak to effectively counter-attack.
I am actually playing this build in a campaign, to get around the ranged weakness I took eldritch knight at lvl 3 with firebolt as one of the cantrip and chromatic orb for one of the spells. But yes, polearm master tank ftw
Great video! I like the idea of a Polearm Master with a home-brewed background of dockworker (Acrobatics & Water Vehicle Operation) who used the reach weapon to balance on floating objects like a tight-rope walker, vault between boats, push a skiff like a gondolier, and knock opponents into the water at a distance. 😊
Nice. I'm stealing this.
ua-cam.com/video/upsZZ2s3xv8/v-deo.html
I Have an NPC that is a Cavalier from Xanathar's and Pole Arm Master. To be honest, it is so much more powerful than I expected.
I've been watching since you guys began posting and noticed how much your subscribers had grown. The videos are excellent please keep up the great work and take encouragement from the growth it takes a while to grow an audience.
Thank you! We are so excited at the growth of the channel so far. Thanks for being with us from the start!
I’ve had a player with polearm master and sentinel who possessed the cube of force wondrous item. He would activate the cube side that blocks living matter and he would use reach to hit people and never got touched. Arrows and spells worked against him great though 👍🏽
Very creative use of the Cube of Force (which is a pretty powerful item on its own)
Isn't it strange, that the spear isn't included in the polearm master feat?
I agree, it's strange...
Well, I guess it has to do with the strange division into simple and martial weapons in D&D, Dudes. No idea why a trident (martial) is supposed to be more difficult to handle than a spear (simple). Some WotC design decisions are still beyond my comprehension. :-/
Pjotr Frank clearly a trident has far more pointy bits then a spear. I kid but I think their real reasoning is simple weapons are weapons a peasant might know how to wield and martial weapons are weapons a trained solider/ fighter would use. Like a sickle would probably be harder to wield then a sword but a peasant would have more experience with a sickle. As for Polearm Master they also don't count pikes or tridents, even a lance would have a meaty pommel you could swack someone with. I think they chose not to include any piercing weapon because you would be thrusting and not swinging your weapon so it would be harder to hit with a back swing. That said, how someone hits with both ends of a polearm from ten feet is beyond me. DnD's weapon system could use some overhaul but it's what we know and love. In my opinion spears should have reach and be finesse weapons but that's me.
I agree completely. By definition, spears *are* polearms.
Note that from a historical perspective, spears tended to be a soldier's primary weapon while a sword was a sidearm for use when the spear wasn't available (although there were exceptions). Any HEMA practitioner could tell you that having a spear against someone using a sword gives you a definite advantage. This is probably why spears continued to be widely used for hunting and military engagements for millennia after the sword was invented.
For some unfathomable reason D&D has always seemed to undervalue the spear when compared to how effective it was in real life.
It's good to know that I am not the only one who thinks the way weapons are currently handled by D&D is somewhat underwhelming - and maybe a little weird. But I guess tradition made WotC exclude them from their 5e easy-to-play philosophy. After all the simple/martial groups exist since 2nd Edition, as far as I know. But unlike magic, melee weapons have a RL equivalent, and as a HEMA practitioner the almost esoteric D&D approach makes me yearn for an overhaul of the weapons chapter pretty badly. Who is to say that our favorite RPG system can not have a few realistic things in it? I know, game design aspects and balancing are important as well, but now that weapons have properties, wouldn't it be great, if we purge the ancient simple/martial sh*t altogether, and just work with heavy/finesse/reach/… instead? It would be so much more elegant, and simpler too. I see a lot of untapped potential, that could lead to exciting battle strategies and captivating combat narration. *sigh* But I guess I will stop my rant and take my meds. ;)
This feat was updated to include a Spear.
The 300 animal reference you were thinking of is where one of the Spartans kills a charging rhino by throwing a spear into its eye and it slides to a stop a few inches away. They also force an elephant to rear up and fall backwards off a cliff by stabbing towards it with a bunch of spears.
Dual Wielder and Blade Master. Use your bonus-action for an off-hand attack with a Longsword or something of the sorts with a +1 due to Blade Master. Use reaction on turn to give a +1 to AC then with two weapons in your hand you naturally get another +1 to AC so that's +2 AC added on top of your normal AC.
Also if you want to work with a player that wants to use a pole arm and spear use a Pike...It's a big spear.
My character right now uses a Pike and a Glaive and it's basically a Dragoon adapted to D&D..I won't really get to use all those feats really since I'm a Dragon Born and going to leave that character behind for a bard but I really got to experience some of that awesomeness...I don't really see the point in using Great axes and Great Swords anymore to be perfectly honest.
My Aasimar Paladin uses a halberd, but also has a longsword and a shield taken from an armoured vampire spawn. In indoors close quarters combat it didn't make sense to be swinging a polearm, and my DM was super frustrated with the higher AC I gained by switching to sword and board.
I actually used this feat while wielding a glaive in a campaign. It was really useful!
I'm kind of happy I found these interactions myself during Dungeon Master prep time and now, my first own PC is a halbert wielding, soon to be, oeth of vengance Palladin.
this is my favourite feat combo!! the only thing that keeps it not OP is that there is no way to have more than one reaction a turn.. It suits a fighter better but a Ranger Hunter can take Horde Breaker and Escape the Horde that are extremely good with range weapons, it s also the only way to have the old school Whirlwind attack :D
Well if you look at the Unearthed Arcana Feat "Tunnel Fighter" it becomes absolutely ridiculus. But I sure hope they will adjust that before releasing it in an official book.
Tunnel fighter is a fighting style, not a feat.
Cavalier + Polearm Master + Great Weapon Fighter. Cavalier's "Vigilant Defender" gives you a reaction on every CREATURE's turn except yours. It has to be an OA and you can't use reaction for anything besides an OA that round. The Arch basically gives you sentinel, marking, and crowd control unlike any other. Only thing I would change is the mounted stuff and just be a King's Shield or some other name.
Then add the Tunnel Fighter style. And yeah, they will need to adjust that style or the polearm cavalier will be the god of war.
"Would you want to that close to a dragon? Would you c want vto get that close to a Mind Flayer?"
Doesn't matter, they have attacks that vastly outrange your polearm any way.
To deal with burst damage like action surge abilities you can always throw in a red herring boss fight to bait resources
Don’t give anyone ideas I like slicing through bosses like butter 😂
I put a polearm in the hands of my Bugbear and it's a great combo.
Quarterstaff also should have Reach if two-handed to be honest.
Really depends if you're talking about a European quarterstaff/short staff of 7-8 ft or a Japanese Bō which is typically 6 ft. Considering the typical polearm was 7-8 ft of haft and greater than that length when including the implement affixed to the haft, I'd wager you'd have to reach the extra 0.5-2 ft the affixed head provides. That could be accomplished in numerous ways: 1) use a Longstaff instead of a quarterstaff and apply the heavy affix, 2) Decrease the damage die when using the quarterstaff to 1d4 to simulate the loss of power for overreach, or 3) decrease accuracy by imposing a penalty whilst keeping the damage die unchanged.
I'd wager 2 is the most likely as adding the heavy affix has a design implication of downsizing the damage die and the only penalties applied within 5e are disadvantage and that seems heavy-handed, whereas, 2 could be the result of bringing the damage more in line with the PAM feat (1d4 butt-end bludgeon) as well as acting like an improvised weapon (also 1d4).
Thanks for the great insights on this my friends! =)
Being that it's a simple weapon, if you made it have reach it'd be a Martial one.
Having said that, there should be a martial option. I often flavor halberd's and glaives as doing bludgeoning damage and then make them into blunt weapons in this case.
elgatochurro because you have to hold the staff.
the traditional european quarter staff was generally 1 hand length taller than it's wielder, so a shorter or taller person would have a staff of varying length (someone who is 5 feet tall with a hand length of say 5 inches with have a staff that is 5'5" where as a person who is 6 feet tall with an 8 inch hand length would have one that is 6'8") it is pretty variable where as most asian bo staffs i have seen were never more than 6 feet. the two items also use two very different stances and styles of fighting.
Just started a new Gnome fighter. He's still low level, yet with only pole-arm master and a small homebrew archetype, he can hit everything that enters his reach with straight 12 damage, plus another 12 damage via the bonus action strike. I don't think my DM will let him last long...
Gnomes cannot use Heavy weapons because the race is so small ... basically any 2 handed weapon which includes pole arms is not available to a gnome for usage.
Gnome is small character, most polearms are "heavy" weapons, so would be disadvantage on all attacks... I did homebrew 'Solid Stance' to overcome that for my halfling great sword wielding barbarian
for anyone digging through the comments for it, Spears can be used, as of the PHB Errata;
[New] Polearm Master (p. 168). A second sentence has been added to the first benefit: “This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary attack.” Both instances of “or quarterstaff” have
You guys would like this.
Two of the player characters in my party Okay twin brothers. One a paladin, and one a circle of the moon Druid. We call them the “Druidin” build.
The Druid took sentinel, and the paladin took mounted combatant. Druid shapes into a dire wolf, paladin mounts him with a lance, and they cycle free opportunity attacks.
Look into it. It’s a complex build, but a very OP one. I’ve had to adjust several of my encounters to keep up with their damage and survivability.
Swords have mostly been sidearms throughout history (and largely available only to the wealthy). Spears have probably been the most common primary weapons: they are cheap to make and have a lot of advantages.
That's some quality content you guys have got there, keep it up 👌
Don't forget the amazingly derpy combo of Polearm Master, Warcaster, and Spellsniper with Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade.
When you said the Warlock with devil's sight, I smiled cause i knew what you were suggesting and it's basically my favorite combination ever but the only time I ever used it my DM decided "No, I am gonna throw 3 blindsight enemies at you even though you are low health, I used this combination to save my Warlock while we dealt with the goblins who broke our deal to defeat the big bad of the session, I of course did not have a high armor class cause all i had was leather and we were level 3s
TO ALL THE DMs HERE: if you are worried about this feat(or others) you do not use magic missile, bows and arrows, or breath weapons enough.
Polearm
Great Weapon
Sential
Reckless Attack
Smite
Barbarian/Paladin
moving tabaxi rangers -> drow wizards-> flying wyvern mob with sting tails-> ghost possession-> succubi charm -> straight up vanilla wraith -> sea hag death glare-> hill giant boulders-> gang of goblins with poison arrows, and bear traps/nets(metal wire ones?)/wild dogs(wolves?worgs?dire wolves?)/molotovs
Paladins of conquest who can reduce speed to zero when the target is afraid can be used with this and wrathful smite
It makes sense that this works with Spear now. Really excited to combine Polearm Master and Shield Master on my Fighter for our upcoming campaign.
How about making it more overpowered by selecting the Bugbear race to add +5 more feet reach to make it a 15 foot reach maybe (if your DM allows it) select the Tunnel Fighter fighting style do you can use you have opportunity attacks without using your reaction.
Bugbear's Long-Limbed trait reads more like the Lunging Attack Maneuver than the Reach Weapon Property, but "if you DM allows it" why not. Personally I'd just make it clear to my GM that all I want(ed for Christmas) in a magic weapon is a 15ft reach polearm.
Bugbears only get the extra 5 feet reach on their melee attacks during their turn. So attacks of opportunity and the like don't get the extra reach
I feel like tridents should be covered by the polearm feats. It’s just a triple tipped spear.
Not really, a lot of spear would have something over 12" of double edged blade that could be up to 4" wide.
Grim Reaper there is no reason that a trident couldn’t have three blades of a similar fashion to what you described in place of the typical head. It would be a bit heavier than your typical spear, but if you’re trained in how to use it properly (in terms of Proficiency), it wouldn’t be that hard to use.
Something I was a little surprised wasn't mentioned was the paladin's ability to cast divine favor to add 1d4 radiant to each hit for a minute. It's a level one spell for them. There's also their level 11 feature that adds 1d8 of radiant damage to all weapon attacks. So, if combined with divine favor, they would do 2d10 ±1d4 + 3*strength modifier in physical damage, and then an extra 3d8 +3d4. Add another 1d10 physical and 1d8 + 1d4 radiant if they get their opportunity attack that turn.
Really good guide to the Polearm Master feat guys! This is excellent info for all players who are interested in playing a melee fighter.
When I think about a paladin/fighter with this feat, my mind immediately goes to the lawbringer in for honor. One of their regular attacks even sees them using the blunt end of the poleaxe to poke at the enemy while they have it raised over their head. I also think of a few of the bosses in the dark souls series, Champion gundyr with his glaive, ornstien with his golden dragonslayer spear, or the black knights and their intimidatingly large halberds.
I also think that the fact that the bonus action attack is pretty sweet as a low level paldin. Because it is considered a melee attack, it means that you can technically divine smite with it letting a variant human paladin who took it at first level divine smite twice in a turn at level 2, dealing 1d10+2d8+1d4+6(assuming 16 strength) if everything hits.
All very cool polearm wielders!
My first campaign character is ripped from the Lawbringer. The GM is a close friend of mine and I talked to him. He let me make a Half-Goliath (because size), go to a blacksmith to add a hammer and spike on the halberd (I must specify what part i'm going to use before attacking) to make it just like in For Honor. He even looked into the Lawbringer and For Honor lore and made an order specially to support this build. This "Order of the Golden Dragon" basically goes to places and acts as the general law (Federal vs State). However to keep it balanced, there are many places that dislike the Order "moving in and throwing their weight around".
in 3.5 the spear has a 5ft reach and the long spear has a 10ft reach I think that is the distinction this feat is trying to express
My favorite synergy with polearm master is war caster. Your quarterstaff qualifies you with polearm master for getting the opportunity attack, and you now can use your reaction as a second full casting with the only restriction that it has to target the trigger entity. Polymorphing the combat grond that charges you (and Portent option can assure a failed save) lets you neutralize any foolish enough to try and melee with you.
We houseruled the quarterstaff as having reach property. Even if full combat damage isn't included out to 10', the touch/spell effect using the staff as magical conduit seems easy peasy to the 10' reach for spellcasting.
One thing that people don't realize about the sword is that, in its day, it was the equivalent of carrying a sidearm into battle. It's what you used when you lost your primary weapon. And most people didn't even have swords, because they were expensive to make and only the very wealthy could afford them.
Since the purpose of this feat it to make reach weapons worthwhile, would it also apply to whips, as they also have a 10 foot range? The first part wouldn't apply, but the second part with Opportunity Attack should.
The reason why spear is not listed is because pole arm use focuses more into hack and slash and spear focus more on the thrust. Spear used to slash isn't more effective than a heavy quarter staff. Also the blade part of a spear is less than other polearm that it is more of a quarter staff with pointy end. So technically you can allow character using spear to apply pole arm mastery, but the damage must be changed to quarter staff damage.
Very good point!
Try cutting a full side of beef in half with you quarter staff.
Spear is part of the polearm master in the phb errata. You can use it with shield and use the dueling style with it !
This build on a martial focused cleric with the Tempest domain. Nobody gets close to you, and if anyone DOES get close to you, you thunderwave to push them back again. Only downside is it takes 4 more levels because you probably also really want Warcaster for maximum effectiveness. Plus you can heal yourself. Possibly the ultimate tank character. PLUS, as an added bonus, the thought of a cleric with a glaive laying down a bunch of attacks with bonus Thunder damage is a damn cool visual. Heavily armored guy with a spear making loud sonic booms every time he attacks something, slinging some strategic spells when the situation calls for it, this is a movie I would pay to see.
Great videos but you record at such a low volume... turn it up
Using the sweeping attack maneuver with your opportunity attack means you can hit multiple creatures with your speed dropping, off the bat, at a distance attack, further bottlenecking your enemies
My Hexblade Warlock uses a Polearm. Because pact of the blade gives you proficiency in whatever weapon I form a pact with. The AMAZING part is I don't carry it around! I simply summon it when I want to. Meaning I can travel easier and perform more dexterous actions. Now I can use far step as a bonus action to be behind the target, and attack twice with the feat. I usually get advantage from the DM because I'm behind the target. Also, the basic hex adds damage on every hit, so now we are really rolling the dice.
Oh I love putting Polearm Master and Mobile on a monk. The AOs pile up so quickly.
Polearm Master + Sentinel. If you’re a paladin, cast compelled duel on the biggest, baddest guy in the room, opportunity attack when he walks over, stopping him in place. Take a couple more swings at him on your turn, either using your bonus action for thundering smite to knock him backwards, or using the blunt end of the polearm and then retreating. Defend your party by being a tar pit
Good video and good info. I'm glad I found yalls channel! Still catching up on all of them. Never gave this feat a chance but now I'm going to make a boss with this feat. Thanks!
One great thing is combo of Polearm Master and Sentinel feats they are running in at you and suddenly get hit and stop outside their range.
Three things work mentioning for this, especially if your DM is allowing UA. First up, the bugbear enhances your reach by 5ft and buffs your strength, making it a great race for a polearm fighter if you don't want to go variant human. You can even keep large creatures with reach at bay with a 15ft reach
Secondly there's the revised ranger hunter conclave. With the horde breaker, escape the horde and whirlwind attack features, you can make even more attacks against large groups of enemies and withdraw to set up sentinel again on the next turn.
Lastly, there's the tunnel fighter fighting style from UA: Underdark. By using your bonus action to enter a defensive stance, you can make a reaction attack against any creature that moves more than 5ft within your reach, and making opportunity attacks doesn't use up your reaction. Paired with polearm master and sentinel it's a vicious combination, and it's a fighting style rather than a feat, so you can still have sentinel, polearm master and great weapon master by level 6/8
The bugbear only gets to use the extra reach on his turn so it's not as effective as it would first appear...
If using unearthed arcanas you can use a Bugbear-Primeval Guardian with Tunnel Fighter and Polearm Master/Sentinel feat you get a 15 ft reach with all thefun
Hear a lot of fighter builds but here's one you can easily add to your Druid arsenal. Quarterstaff... with Polearm Mastery, Sentinel, and Shillelagh. makes a nice step up for your barb tank to double-team the mobs. Add barkskin for a lil toughness and have that guidance ready in case you need to make that check.
I just wanted to point out your comment on a Polearm Master Battle Master using the trip maneuver. If this is done with reach (10 ft) on your first attack, then all your subsequent attacks would be at disadvantage (at reach). Unless you close to within 5 ft range, which would then provide you with advantage but also would allow the prone target with an opportunity attack (with disadvantage) if you wanted to step away after the attack.
Polearms are my go to for a melee fighter class. This fet is a must for me when i play 5th ed.
When I think of fighters, I usually envision someone with an awesome sword. Watching your videos dealing with Polarm Master challenged me. Then I remembered some famous fighters who use spears: Oberon Martell from the Game of Thrones; Matrim Cauthon from the Wheel of Time; Kaladin Stormblessed from the Stormlight Archives; Xenophon and the Ten Thousand; Alexander’s phalanges; and the Swiss, Scottish, and German Pikemen who faced down knights.
Hex blade, polearm master, warcaster, spell sniper and booming blade. The come at me bro combo
If you're playing a beastmaster ranger with something like a wolf, you can have them flanking, have hunters mark going and because the animal companion is just sitting there, you still get all your attacks.
Something really interesting about Polearm Master is that it works with War Caster for attacking an approaching creature. Holding a (wooden) staff in one hand as a spellcasting focus, the staff counts as a quarterstaff which allows you to opportunity attack when an enemy comes within 5 feet of you, then you replace that opportunity attack with a cast spell using War Caster. Unfortunately, this does not work with Sentinel, because the wording of War Caster "replaces" the opportunity attack with a spell and Sentinel activates when an "opportunity attack" (not a replaced one) hits.
Also interesting about Polearm Master is that you can attack a creature with the Flyby trait when it flies toward you, but not when it flies away, due to the wording of Flyby: "[The creature] doesn't provoke an opportunity attack when it flies out of an enemy's reach".
Another really fun combination with Polearm Master is to use Slasher and Crusher. With Slasher allowing you to lower a creature's speed by 10 feet upon landing an attack that deals slashing damage, and Crusher allowing you to shove an enemy 5 feet as long as its only 1 size larger than you, it gives you a lot of battlefield control, as well as supportive value from the improved critical effects you get from Crusher and Slasher, causing all attack rolls against the creature to be made at advantage, or giving the creature disadvantage on all of its attack rolls. This is really fun as a Champion Fighter because the lowered critical threshold means you're more likely to activate those debuffs on the enemies. All around it keeps your party safe, and can also allow them to dish out more damage.
So.... I multiclassed as a battlemaster fighter/dragon sorcerer and plan on taking a level in barbarian for +2 defense. Adding in a sorcerer's haste spell adds an extra 2 defence, doubles your speed (huge plus for open fights) and adds in an extra attack per turn. And fireball really helps when you can push attack your enemies into a group... Also, push attack plus cloud of daggers makes you able to deal cloud damage twice before an enemy takes an action
Good analysis. For my next build I was leaning toward a Hexblade, Pact of the Blade, with PAM + Sentinel. I feel the Hexblade is the answer to the weakness against ranged opponents. First of all, even with a melee-centric build, I feel like I still have room to beef up Eldritch Blast a little, so I will have a decent range attack myself. However, I intend to add Grasp of Hadar to potentially pull a ranged attacker closer each turn, which would hopefully occasionally even trigger a PAM opportunity attack.
Absolutely. The Hexblade Polearm master is extremely compelling for the extra flexibility you gain from spellcasting and Eldritch Blast
Really interesting build.
One issue - Grasp of Hadar forces movement, which doesn't trigger opportunity attacks. The movement can't be forced.
You could attempt however to use something like Silent Image or a fear effect to get someone voluntarily running to you or away, which would proc an opportunity attack. This works in reverse too. Consider taking "Cause Fear" as it's a very underrated effect, as the frightened condition is actually very debilitating. If someone walks into your range and you stop them with Sentinel, fear them next turn. They can't move any closer to you, effectively keeping them at bay, and they can't move away without triggering an OOT. You can use this to control battles very well - and as you level up, it affects more targets. This can be very useful against a boss with legendary actions, they will desperately target you once all their legendary actions are nerfed by disadvantage.
I've had great success using simple Dodge actions on my turn to lure enemies in - you get advantage on Dex saves, don't forget. With Polearm master it can seem humble, but against hordes it's very useful.
Consider Darkness / Devil's sight instead. It's the perfect block against archers and ranged attacks, and many spells, because they can't see you. It's an old classic, but a great one, and for your purposes you defend it excellently. If you go Tiefling you get Darkness for free. The trick is to cast it offensively. If you are 90 feet away from an enemy, cast it 30 feet in front of them, between you. It'll cover most of your movement and allow you to correct as you move in. When you get to the end it'll cover the last part of your movement.
I'd also consider letting go of Eldritch Blast. It's an amazing cantrip, but it costs invocations to use it. You can easily spend those invocations on other things. Frostbite is an overlooked cantrip, and with the recent addition of Toll the Dead, you get a respectable damage cantrip that has an unusual damage type.
If you're investing so heavily in your polearm, you shouldn't split your resources - focus on using your tools to get in. Grasp of Hadar could do some significant pulling, so it's still a good choice. A lot of people freak out at the notion of dropping eldritch blast entirely, but it's very doable. That extra invocation can mean a lot - Silent Image for instance can be used to make incredible barrages to block attackers. Since you can manipulate it as your action, you can burn a lot of opponents time while you get in, and potentially more once you're there.
"A creature that uses its action to examine the image can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC."
First, they have to use an action so even if it fails, it cost you absolutely nothing to cast it with an invocation. If they attack it, it will be revealed, but they wasted their attack to do it - and that only stops the target that fired it, unless your DM has that NPC call out, which my DM's alllwwaaayyyys forgot. If you make it look like yourself, and instruct it to act as you would when hit (being pinned to the ground by an arrow per se) you can also get away with it occasionally hiding the fact that its an illusion. Try doing a Hold action to adjust the image as its hit.
One last thing - if you do take grasp of hadar.... make sure you take Fly at some point, or try to use it while above enemies. You can pull people with each hit, and it gives you an extra 1d6 and they usually fall prone unless they make their save from the 10 foot fall. It's hilarious.
Rules reference:
PHB p. 195 "You also don't provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction."
BigMac8000 WotC 5e Dev has tweeted that a grasp of hadar eldritch blast will absolutely trigger a opportunity attack ONLY because of polearm master allowing it. Normally the movement has to be willing, however with polearm master stating that you may make a OA when a creature enters your reach, it is a specific rule (polearm mastery) in conflict with a general rule (opportunity attack rules), and the tweet specifically states that in a situation like that, the specific rule wins out.
Feature, not a bug :)
I'm working so cba to find the specific tweet but I promise it's real from a dev, you can probably find it with a quick Google tho
18:30 Use pike. Spears in 5e are more like short spears, and pike is the proper spear with a long haft and for keeping space.
Had this for 2 years on a fighter so far. Spacing and control bar none, and consistent damage output. I use hex from magic initiate to burst damage and grapple and shove. Add to trip attack and go to town with action surge. You don't do the most damage on each hit but it has consistency that cannot be beat in terms of action economy and output each round. Buildout is 4 gloomstalker and 4 inquisitive rogue for speed and even more stackable damage.
I built a polearm master battle master fighter up from level 1 in my group's game. I found the mobile feat o be a better complement to the sentinel polearm mastery combo than great weapon master. I often found myself locked down if missed that reaction AOO, or was simply overwhelmed with the number of enemies charging into melee. Mobile allows you to get that reach advantage back without the need to disengage or risk AOOs yourself. Allowing you to keep control of the battlefield, and not take extra hits when you know this type of character is going to be as glass of a cannon as fighters can get. This feat was later combined with wingboots to devastating effect. Great weapon master's -5 proved to be too large of a penalty in practice to be worthwhile on anything but the bonus action attack 1d4, and would have been better used to buy a different feat or take an ASI.
So glad you circled around to pointing out that the player should be given room to feel powerful for their specialty with this one. So many DMs when faced with a specialist look so hard for ways to invalidate the specialty that they forget to leave room for the specialist to excel sometimes, and it winds up being a real dick DM situation.
One cool thing about a character with just polearm master while holding a polearm is that since you can reaction hit them when they enter you reach. Its almost the same as when you would hold your action to "hit a target that comes into your reach." the big benefit in this situation (which in my campaign it comes up a lot but yours might be different) is that you could take the dodge action instead, still get your reaction hit in, and be safe from the exact things that destroy this build.
Range attacks now have disadvantage to hit you, and its hard enough for them to have advantage anyway.
You will now have advantage on the dex based AOE's that wizard is planning to nuke you with.
The polearm feat alone is the best for giving a character (more-so a martial character) a better action economy with what they can do. Add on Sentinel and GWM, then dominate the battle field.
I love this... I am making a bugbear ranger. He gets +5 reach for long arms then +5 for pole arm and then makes a attack. So that would be 2 attacks of opportunity then 1 regular attack with a pole arm at first level.
Just remember that opportunity attacks are made using your Reaction, so you only get 1 per combat round. I'm not sure if there is a way to get additional reactions in 5e.
Dungeon Dudes thank you so much.
For some reason, they didn't mention adding Mounted Combatant at level 8 for the fighter wombo combo. This feat synergizes so well with Polearm Master + Great Weapon Master + Sentinel + Great Weapon Fighting Style for Fighter. You have advantage on melee attacks against anything smaller than your mount, which covers a fair few creatures, particularly minions but some more powerful ones too. Additionally, you can direct attacks away from your mount and to your much higher armor class, and if by some miracle you wind up with a sentient intelligent mount, it can attack on its turn while you dole out metric loads of damage on yours.
There was a UA with a fighting style called the tunnel fighter, which let you sacrifice your bonus action to make unlimited opportunity attacks, when you combine that with the holy trinity of GW fighter, sentinel and pole arm master you become death incarnate in any enclosed space.
Also, if your character is a Bugbear battle master fighter, then you become a CQC god.
Currently playing an Ancients paladin with PAM to give something to use as a reaction and for more battlefield control. The insane reach, opportunity attack, and extra chance to hit for a smite has been so beneficial.
The _Unlight_ of Darkness, if completely covered is blocked (it's negative light). And it can be case on "an object you are holding". So cast it on your Hexblade, and sheathe it as a free action; or an ring, gem, coin, stone, etc that you can hold in a closed fist, or a necklase, or anything you can cover. Or: *cast it on a coin, put it in your mouth*. Part your lips to cackle or grin, **_*Unlight_* sears forth; close your lips, your party can see. All of that info in the Spell description about the object being held, and that covering it "turns off" the effect, is there for a reason.
I love that they released errata for this feat so the spear counts now
One combo to go even further beyond would be the Tunnel Fighter fighting style, which lets you take infinite opportunity attacks without using your reaction, at the low low cost of your bonus action. Forget locking down and focusing one creature, and take on entire hordes! Combine that with an aura of damage and you're a walking meat grinder.
Spears likely aren't included due to their versatility - it can be wielded one-handed and even thrown, unlike the rest of the heavy polearms.
My human variant fighter, Malbandro, took polearm master at 1st with great weapon fighter and was able to do a lot of damage at the outset. It's only now at 3rd level with the battlemaster archetype that I'm finding the polearm master a truly
fascinating character - no more rushing thoughtlessly into combat!