D&D 5E Question About Reach Weapons

First time poster.

Sorry to ask such a simple question, but I was hoping to get some clarification on an issue. I would look it up in my PHB, but I don't have access to it right now. (I'm in the Army and currently away from home for a few weeks...)

Ok, so from what I understand about reach weapons in 5e from what I've heard from other people, is that there is no restriction or penalty (lance aside...) for attacking people within 5 feet. So can you attack foes that are both 5 and 10 feet away equally?

Also, has there been any clarification on if you can attack diagonally 2 squares with a reach weapon? Some versions strictly enforce the idea that since 2 diagonals = 15 feet you can't reach them. I know that at least one version had an exception rule for reach weapons to allow it.

Lastly, the brief chance I did get to look into my PHB I couldn't find any clarification on diagonal movement. All I recall is something briefly saying that each square would count as one movement for the sake of simplicity. Will this be built upon in the DMG?

Once again, sorry for the stupid questions, but the government computer I'm on limits what I can research, lol...

The default rules are that diagonals don't count as extra space. It does say the dmg may have alternative rules for greater realism.

So using the rules as written (RAW) you can hit someone 2 diagonal squares away when using a grid with squares. Note that this is in the section regarding the "option" of playing with a grid, as otherwise everything is described as "feet" not squares.

Also, yes, reach weapons have no penalty to hit an adjacent square.

Thank you very much epochrpg for the quick response!

The only reach weapon that get a penality for attacking at 5 ft is the lance.

Valador said:

Also, has there been any clarification on if you can attack diagonally 2 squares with a reach weapon? Some versions strictly enforce the idea that since 2 diagonals = 15 feet you can't reach them. I know that at least one version had an exception rule for reach weapons to allow it.

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3.5 had that exception specified in the closed content DMG. I'm guessing that was why the Pathfinder devs did not just copy and paste that into their ruleset. SKR eventually addressed the issue over a year later.

Another question that you gents can possibly help me with, also concerning reach weapons.

If using the Polearm Master feat to acquire the bonus attack, would this bonus attack count for the purpose of replacing it with a Shove action? For the shove action I remember it stating that if you can make more than one attack that you can replace an attack with a shove.

So I was just curious if you could attack someone and then shove them with the bonus attack. Probably not, but I thought I'd ask.

Valador said:

So I was just curious if you could attack someone and then shove them with the bonus attack. Probably not, but I thought I'd ask.

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RAW shove looks like it needs to be part of the attack action and not a bonus action. That said, I would probably allow it.

You could always use the bonus action to attack first, then your normal action attack as a shove.