Zaruthustran
The tingling means it’s working!
One of the improvements in 4E was an overhaul of Reach. Reach now simply allows you to attack nonadjacent enemies. It doesn’t automatically give you an AOO (or OA) on incoming medium-size creatures.
That is, unless you take the paragon feat Polearm Gamble.
This gives an opportunity attack when an enemy enters a square adjacent to you.
Fighters, by the way, have a class feature called Combat Superiority that gives +Wis to attack on opportunity attacks, and the additional benefit of “An enemy struck by your opportunity attack stops moving, if a move provoked the attack.”
The rules for Opportunity Attack say it’s an interrupt, meaning it interrupts the action that triggered it. This is further explained as saying that “if an interrupt invalidates a triggering action, that action is lost.”
You can see where I’m going with this.
A fighter with a reach weapon can effectively keep opponents at bay. Enemy moves adjacent to fighter, triggers OA, gets hit, is forced to stop moving--the move-to-adjacent is invalidated, and so the enemy is stuck out of reach of the fighter. On fighter’s turn, fighter attacks at reach and then shifts away, preventing the enemy from simply shifting into range next turn.
It’s the beauty of the spring-attacking reach fighter of 3E all over again.
Other synergy: stack the feats Combat Reflexes (+1 untyped bonus to OAs), Blade Opportunist (+2 untyped bonus to OAs with heavy blade), and Heavy Blade Opportunity (use at-will power with OA). If you’ve got the con to spare (this build doesn’t), throw in Potent Challenge (add Con to damage to OAs from Combat Challenge class feature). Use a glaive, since it’s both a polearm and a heavy blade.
This isn’t a magic bullet or exceptionally uber build, just something I found interesting.
Glen “the Glaive” Staverson
Human Fighter, Warpriest paragon path
Str 18
Con 11
Dex 13
Int 8
Wis 16
Cha 10
At 16th level, Str 22, Dex 15, Wis 19. Put the level 18 stat bump into Dex so you can qualify for Heavy Blade Mastery at level 21.
Feats:
1. Weapon Focus: heavy blade (human bonus)
1. Toughness
2. Multiclass: Cleric
4. Action Surge
6. Blade Opportunist
8. Combat Reflexes
10. Power Attack
11. Polearm Gamble
12. Heavy Blade Opportunity
Toughness to help offset the low Con. Multiclass Cleric because the more healing, the merrier, and because it unlocks Warpriest.
There are a number of paragon paths that would fit (kensai, the ever-popular pit fighter, sword master, etc.), but I choose Warpriest because it helps with AC, Extra Damage Action is always nice, and the reroll mitigates the disappointment of rolling a 1 when you spend your daily. But I choose it mainly for that 16th level class feature, Warpriest’s Challenge.
Warpriest’s Challenge is similar to the fighter’s Combat Challenge, but with two important differences:
1. Instead of granting a basic attack if a marked enemy shifts or attacks someone other than you, it grants an Opportunity Attack.
2. There’s no requirement that the OA be made against an adjacent marked enemy.
Those two differences are very important to this reach-equipped, OA-optimized character. Especially #2; the general requirement for Opportunity Attack is "Able to Attack: You can’t make an opportunity
attack unless you are able to make a melee basic attack and you can see your enemy." With a reach weapon, you're able to make a melee basic attack against a nonadjacent foe (that's the point of reach). So off you go, nailing the enemy you stopped last turn when he tries to shift away (or attack someone else).
The mitigating factor is the third difference: unlike Combat Challenge, the mark for Warpriest’s Challenge doesn’t get placed unless you hit with an at-will melee attack. Fortunately, thanks to Heavy Blade Opportunity and Polearm Gamble, you’ll be making lots of at-will attacks.
It’s pretty cool. It lets you really control the battlefield, and put that reach weapon to devastating use--each OA from Warpriest’s Challenge can be a cleave or reaping strike.
Also, the utility power is very useful for this relatively low-AC, damage-prone fighter: if an enemy does manage to close (which is tough), he’ll be hit a LOT. But even though Battle Cry and Battle Pyres both key off Wis instead of Str, Glen’s Wis is pretty high--and the Effect of Battle Cry, a mass healing surge for you and your bloodied friends, doesn’t require a hit.
So there’s a fighter optimized for reach and OAs. Polearm Gamble is also an interesting choice for paladins, clerics, and warlords. Honestly, if you’re going to use a two-handed weapon it might as well be a reach weapon, and if you’re going to use a reach weapon there’s no better feat than Polearm Gamble. So if you’re thinking of building one of those classes, give consideration to the choices made by Glen.
-z
That is, unless you take the paragon feat Polearm Gamble.
This gives an opportunity attack when an enemy enters a square adjacent to you. Fighters, by the way, have a class feature called Combat Superiority that gives +Wis to attack on opportunity attacks, and the additional benefit of “An enemy struck by your opportunity attack stops moving, if a move provoked the attack.”
The rules for Opportunity Attack say it’s an interrupt, meaning it interrupts the action that triggered it. This is further explained as saying that “if an interrupt invalidates a triggering action, that action is lost.”
You can see where I’m going with this.
A fighter with a reach weapon can effectively keep opponents at bay. Enemy moves adjacent to fighter, triggers OA, gets hit, is forced to stop moving--the move-to-adjacent is invalidated, and so the enemy is stuck out of reach of the fighter. On fighter’s turn, fighter attacks at reach and then shifts away, preventing the enemy from simply shifting into range next turn.
It’s the beauty of the spring-attacking reach fighter of 3E all over again.
Other synergy: stack the feats Combat Reflexes (+1 untyped bonus to OAs), Blade Opportunist (+2 untyped bonus to OAs with heavy blade), and Heavy Blade Opportunity (use at-will power with OA). If you’ve got the con to spare (this build doesn’t), throw in Potent Challenge (add Con to damage to OAs from Combat Challenge class feature). Use a glaive, since it’s both a polearm and a heavy blade.
This isn’t a magic bullet or exceptionally uber build, just something I found interesting.
Glen “the Glaive” Staverson
Human Fighter, Warpriest paragon path
Str 18
Con 11
Dex 13
Int 8
Wis 16
Cha 10
At 16th level, Str 22, Dex 15, Wis 19. Put the level 18 stat bump into Dex so you can qualify for Heavy Blade Mastery at level 21.
Feats:
1. Weapon Focus: heavy blade (human bonus)
1. Toughness
2. Multiclass: Cleric
4. Action Surge
6. Blade Opportunist
8. Combat Reflexes
10. Power Attack
11. Polearm Gamble
12. Heavy Blade Opportunity
Toughness to help offset the low Con. Multiclass Cleric because the more healing, the merrier, and because it unlocks Warpriest.
There are a number of paragon paths that would fit (kensai, the ever-popular pit fighter, sword master, etc.), but I choose Warpriest because it helps with AC, Extra Damage Action is always nice, and the reroll mitigates the disappointment of rolling a 1 when you spend your daily. But I choose it mainly for that 16th level class feature, Warpriest’s Challenge.
Warpriest’s Challenge is similar to the fighter’s Combat Challenge, but with two important differences:
1. Instead of granting a basic attack if a marked enemy shifts or attacks someone other than you, it grants an Opportunity Attack.
2. There’s no requirement that the OA be made against an adjacent marked enemy.
Those two differences are very important to this reach-equipped, OA-optimized character. Especially #2; the general requirement for Opportunity Attack is "Able to Attack: You can’t make an opportunity
attack unless you are able to make a melee basic attack and you can see your enemy." With a reach weapon, you're able to make a melee basic attack against a nonadjacent foe (that's the point of reach). So off you go, nailing the enemy you stopped last turn when he tries to shift away (or attack someone else).
The mitigating factor is the third difference: unlike Combat Challenge, the mark for Warpriest’s Challenge doesn’t get placed unless you hit with an at-will melee attack. Fortunately, thanks to Heavy Blade Opportunity and Polearm Gamble, you’ll be making lots of at-will attacks.
It’s pretty cool. It lets you really control the battlefield, and put that reach weapon to devastating use--each OA from Warpriest’s Challenge can be a cleave or reaping strike.
Also, the utility power is very useful for this relatively low-AC, damage-prone fighter: if an enemy does manage to close (which is tough), he’ll be hit a LOT. But even though Battle Cry and Battle Pyres both key off Wis instead of Str, Glen’s Wis is pretty high--and the Effect of Battle Cry, a mass healing surge for you and your bloodied friends, doesn’t require a hit.
So there’s a fighter optimized for reach and OAs. Polearm Gamble is also an interesting choice for paladins, clerics, and warlords. Honestly, if you’re going to use a two-handed weapon it might as well be a reach weapon, and if you’re going to use a reach weapon there’s no better feat than Polearm Gamble. So if you’re thinking of building one of those classes, give consideration to the choices made by Glen.
-z
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