D&D 5E Polearm master for Adventurer's League - lvl3-4

[brehobit]

My only AL character is a barbarian 1/Warlock X polearm master. It's huge I say. Rage plus Armor of A. is one of the best combos ever if you have a tough melee fight. It certainly suffers from MAD. I think I start at S 16, I 8, W 8, D 12, C 14, Ch 15 as an alt human (may have con and Chr backwards) which means he's not doing great in medium armor. But good enough.

Fun build. Extremely solid in melee, fine at range. Can't really be disarmed and does okay unarmored for a STR build. With enough random and fun warlock abilities to just be fun (speak with dead at will is just fun to play with if you've a bag of holding and the DMs argee that a skull is enough to speak with...)

 

[Dastion]

That's an interesting question- I don't have my PHB in front of me, but reading it last night the text for the reach property refers to "when attacking", not the more specific "when using an attack action" they usually use when they want to specifically tie something to the attack action during a players' turn. In the "opportunity attack" section in combat there's no reference I could find to reach not applying.

It's possible there's some clarification from the designers somewhere that states it clearly, but I can see a case for both arguments. Our DM so far has allowed me to use the reach for opportunity attacks, but I'll point him towards Dastion's post and let him make the call.

As far as the archer statement, I'm not sure I understand that one: isn't the disadvantage on ranged weapon attacks just down to whether you're within 5' or not, regardless of the reach of the target?

The Archer bit is saying that if reach always applied then you wouldn't be able to mess up any Archers/Eldritcj blasters because they could step from 5ft to 10ft without provoking and no longer have disadvantage.

Natural reach works as you say it does, so big creatures have a bigger area for you to maneuver around them - which makes sense. However the reach property states it only works when you attack with it. Opportunity attacks occur when it's not your turn so you're not actively attacking. it doesn't say the 'attack action' specifically because there are other ways to attack. The bonus action from Polearm master being a relevant one, or hasted action, or the action to command a ranger pet to attack (which grants you an attack as well if you have extra attack).

Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford have given conflicting answers on this - I suspect there will be official errata that clarifies it. But by the raw and the fact that it worked the same way in 4e (reach weapons didn't extend your reach for OAs at least) that's the way our store plays it.

However, one happy medium you could argue is that by the rules an OA occurs just before the triggering action. So it occurs as an enemy attempts to enter your reach placing them still at 10 feet - which the reach property of your weapon allows you to reach. This means that it technically doesn't work with staves - but when I asked Jeremy about this specific issue he said that the feat is specific and overrides the normal rules so the OA doesn't occur until they are actually within your reach. But I could see an argument that it works as normal for reach weapons and you can wait until their within reach for quarterstaves because the feat says it works for them.

 

[Grumbleputty]

The Archer bit is saying that if reach always applied then you wouldn't be able to mess up any Archers/Eldritcj blasters because they could step from 5ft to 10ft without provoking and no longer have disadvantage.

Natural reach works as you say it does, so big creatures have a bigger area for you to maneuver around them - which makes sense. However the reach property states it only works when you attack with it. Opportunity attacks occur when it's not your turn so you're not actively attacking. it doesn't say the 'attack action' specifically because there are other ways to attack. The bonus action from Polearm master being a relevant one, or hasted action, or the action to command a ranger pet to attack (which grants you an attack as well if you have extra attack).

Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford have given conflicting answers on this - I suspect there will be official errata that clarifies it. But by the raw and the fact that it worked the same way in 4e (reach weapons didn't extend your reach for OAs at least) that's the way our store plays it.

However, one happy medium you could argue is that by the rules an OA occurs just before the triggering action. So it occurs as an enemy attempts to enter your reach placing them still at 10 feet - which the reach property of your weapon allows you to reach. This means that it technically doesn't work with staves - but when I asked Jeremy about this specific issue he said that the feat is specific and overrides the normal rules so the OA doesn't occur until they are actually within your reach. But I could see an argument that it works as normal for reach weapons and you can wait until their within reach for quarterstaves because the feat says it works for them.

Thanks Dastion- I'm going to definitely point my DM to this thread and have him make a ruling. So far we've played with range always being active, and it doesn't seem to be too overpowered- mainly because the character is so specialized that his suffering in other areas (no ranged attack, hands too full to carry a torch or cast spells beyond verbal) seems to compensate. But he'll need to make the call, so I'm glad I can show him how your store plays it.

We're not playing AL ourselves, it's just a monthly basement get-together, but rules are rules!