Anyone tried a fighter with reach yet?

[robsenworldaccount]

Quick Reply:

Warrior: Sweeping Strike.

Warlord: Vipers Strike.

Try playing a toon with a reach weapon exploring those two ideas. I <3 my reach Eldarin warlord!

You can really lock people up.

 

[Stalker0]

Well I doubt my group will reach paragon any time soon, so doesn't sound hopefully. But hey, I'll give it a try and see what happens.

 

[Ander00]

We had a spear-wielding fighter for one session of KotS, before he dumped the spear in favor of a weapon with a higher proficiency bonus. I was considering a glaive-wielding ranger for a high-level game but ended up playing a wizard instead, so I'm afraid I can't really comment on his effectiveness.


cheers

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'll be honest, I'm pretty biased against reach weapons right now. You give up a decent amount of damage, you no longer get reach outside your turn, and the fighter has to be adajacent to his enemies in order to get use his defenderish abilities anyway.

Still, I recognize that tactical movment is very important, and perhaps that extra square you don't have to get to, to hit a target makes a difference.

I'm thinking about trying one out, I was curious if anyone has any experience with them yet.

I've seen one in play. 6th level. I was playing a Wizard.

Nice thing about having reach is: If some of your allies (hint: Wizard) can knock down, immobilizes or dazes your foes, or creates a lot of difficult terrain, you and the rest of the party can take a lot less heat. A variant of "pro-active healing", I suppose. It doesn't work that well against foes with reach and ranged attacks, but it works often enough.

The party obviously has to use this well - it fails if everyone but the fighter stays adjacent to his foes. Teamwork, as usual, is critical for that to work.

 

[darkadelphia]

Quick Reply:

Warrior: Sweeping Strike.

Warlord: Vipers Strike.

Try playing a toon with a reach weapon exploring those two ideas. I <3 my reach Eldarin warlord!

You can really lock people up.

Play WoW much? ;-)

 

[PHGraves]

I can see 'reach warlord' much more than 'reach fighter'.
Too many of the fighter's exploits limit the range to adjacent.

 

[Stalker0]

So I tried out my new reach fighter tonight. My DM let me upgrade the regular maul to a reach weapon by taking the superior weapon proficiency feat. I played a fighter who was all about the big damage.

Overall, I got to use the reach a few times. Still, there were plenty of times were it was pointless.

The biggest thing for me wasn't that my fighter class abilities wouldn't work at reach, I could except that. The biggest hit for me was that I couldn't even cleave at reach! I can hit the first target at reach, but the second target has to be adjacent to me. That's just...lame!!

So far I think I could have gotten more bang for my buck by taking a different feat, but it fits the character so I'll stick with it. If it turns out not to work well, my DM might allow me a +1 or 2 to OA's with a reach weapon or something. I think that makes a lot of sense and would help to balance them out. But for now I'll continue as is and see what happens.

 

[ac_noj]

Stalker0, are you the tank of the group?
Maybe you could make a reach Fighter work if you weren't the tank of the group. I've been thinking, while Polearm Gamble + Combat Superiority is a bad combo when you're trying to hold the monsters attention, it could work quite well if you were just standing there while other players push monsters at you for extra damage. Plus you could use it to hold monsters in damage zones.

 

[icarusfallz]

The biggest hit for me was that I couldn't even cleave at reach! I can hit the first target at reach, but the second target has to be adjacent to me. That's just...lame!!

I know that the RAW says that the secondary damage from cleave must be adjacent, but as a DM, I would allow the target to be either adjacent to the player OR the target, as long as he was within reach See my poor attempt at a diagram.)

P = PC with reach weapon and Cleave
O = Original Target
X = Possible Cleave Target
# = Not eligible for cleave

#########
###XOX###
###XXX###
###XPX###
###XXX###
#########
#########

Of course, with this re-working of the rule, a fighter with a reach weapon also has this option for cleave if the original target is adjacent.

#########
#########
###XXXX##
###XPOX##
###XXXX##
#########
#########

 

[Ubermench]

If there was a feat that allowed you to have an reached threat area that would allow attacks of opportunity then it would be more beneficial for fighters to use reached weapons. Without the extended threat area reached weapons are most usefull for back tier characters.