When you have to start modifying your adventures to deal with one character, that is the definition of overpowered.
D&D 5E Warcaster, polearm master and learning to love the optimizing?
- Thread starter redrick
- Start date
When you have to start modifying your adventures to deal with one character, that is the definition of overpowered.
The Sage has spoken. I usually follow The Sage as they know the intent of feats. I don't allow players to rules lawyer me demanding I follow the exact wording of a feat. I must prefer to follow intent. If The Sage says the intent is only to allow the AoO with the weapon wielded, then that is the intent and that is how I play it.
I modify my adventures to deal with all the characters, published adventures are a great start but you have to tailor them to the group both in story narrative ways and encounter design. If the characters are all sneaky types for instance some encounters are just to easy or if they have no good ranged attacks some encounters will just kill them.
But yes if only one character in the group is optimizing for combat like this it does lead to trouble at the table, others feel like sidekicks or the optimizer who wants a challenge starts to find the combats boring. So yeah as always talk about this kind of stuff with your group and do whats fun, sometimes fun is disallowing cheesy combos and sometimes fun is embracing the powergaming. I normally fall into the second camp, but can have fun in the first too.
I disagree. Paladin's resources are limited. This guy is a fighter. So eventually he will be action surging with this combo. It will be an incredible opening combo. I do agree not so powerful in a long fight against a single opponent or anymore powerful than Polearm Master with Great Weapon Fighting (which I assume he intends to get). It's extremely nifty for trash fights and to open up in big fights. And its unlimited use.
Yep. Modifying for the individual choices of parties I think we all do, but being forced to modify to challenge one player is no fun as a DM. Fortunately, The Sage has killed this power gamer combo at its source. One additional thing I do like about 5E so far is the quick decisions on rules that prevent power gaming.
Kikuras
First Post
Out of curiosity, was there a clarification on defining 'reach' when wielding a reach weapon? I was never fully convinced that the AoO granted by Polearm Master could reach 10' according to RAW. That said, reading the rules on AoO, it's quite clear that a spell or ranged attack cannot be made as an AoO. I'm not overly familiar with Warlocks (yet), are they able to substitute melee attacks with casting a spell?
He's more of a glass cannon. With the feat investment he has taken he's not going to have the staying power in combat like a Paladin or Fighter, and they will do comparable damage in melee.
Also he's going to find melee pretty ineffective later on in all but tight quarters, dropping his DPR. Lots of stuff can fly, teleport, cast spells, and has reach.
With reach weapons the AoO happens at the 10' mark. http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/01/reach-weapons-10/
This build can use a spell for AoO thanks to the warcaster feat, the super cheesy part is using eldritch blast with it and possibly having repelling blast invocation to knock the enemy 10' back per hit. So the enemy comes within 10' provokes an AoO and gets hit with multiple blasts each knocking him back 10' possibly far enough away that he might not even have enough movement left to come in to finish coming into melee.
redrick
First Post
I'm responding on my phone so I can't easily quote all y'all in one post. Sorry. Scroll up to read everybody's comments.
First of all, Paraxis, I always appreciate your perspective on these things as I think you come from a very different mindset from my own, but clearly seem to be thinking with your group and your game at the forefront. I would be curious to play in one of your games some day. Also, pemerton and celtavian and others, helpful comments.
This player is definitely the only seriously optimizing guy in the group, though I think everybody would love combat excellence. He's just the only one to really have system mastery. To date, he doesn't seem to suck up spotlights more than anybody else, though he definitely tends to be a reliable hitter when he acts in the batting order. The running joke is that he's also terrible at saves, so he's frequently caught by effects requiring a wisdom save. Also, his strength was magically reduced by a bowl of salad, so he's not as strong as he'd like to be. But everybody seems to MVP their fair share of combats so far.
Re mike mearls and his advices. I read that before posting this, and, yes, it gives me an easy out if I want it. On the other hand, I'm open to exploring letting dude have his fun so long as it doesn't stomp ours. Hence this thread. At the end of the day, I'll throw Mr. Mearls's words out as quickly as the "raw" if it's getting in the way of our game.
Eldritch blast seems to be the sticking point. At 4th level, that's basically 2 opportunity attacks with some powerful side effects (knock back or something), where he would otherwise only have one. So suggesting that his cantrip damage not scale (just as a fighter doesn't get multiple OAs at 5th level) seems fair to me. He can always launch a high level spell if he wants to really break something.
I will probably let him run with it as is for the next session, but make it clear that the ability is on a trial.
Of course, next question is going to be how to be on upping my DM combat tactics game, but that's for another thread.
Ima hand out some XP as thanks tomorrow when im back at my computer.
First of all, Paraxis, I always appreciate your perspective on these things as I think you come from a very different mindset from my own, but clearly seem to be thinking with your group and your game at the forefront. I would be curious to play in one of your games some day. Also, pemerton and celtavian and others, helpful comments.
This player is definitely the only seriously optimizing guy in the group, though I think everybody would love combat excellence. He's just the only one to really have system mastery. To date, he doesn't seem to suck up spotlights more than anybody else, though he definitely tends to be a reliable hitter when he acts in the batting order. The running joke is that he's also terrible at saves, so he's frequently caught by effects requiring a wisdom save. Also, his strength was magically reduced by a bowl of salad, so he's not as strong as he'd like to be. But everybody seems to MVP their fair share of combats so far.
Re mike mearls and his advices. I read that before posting this, and, yes, it gives me an easy out if I want it. On the other hand, I'm open to exploring letting dude have his fun so long as it doesn't stomp ours. Hence this thread. At the end of the day, I'll throw Mr. Mearls's words out as quickly as the "raw" if it's getting in the way of our game.
Eldritch blast seems to be the sticking point. At 4th level, that's basically 2 opportunity attacks with some powerful side effects (knock back or something), where he would otherwise only have one. So suggesting that his cantrip damage not scale (just as a fighter doesn't get multiple OAs at 5th level) seems fair to me. He can always launch a high level spell if he wants to really break something.
I will probably let him run with it as is for the next session, but make it clear that the ability is on a trial.
Of course, next question is going to be how to be on upping my DM combat tactics game, but that's for another thread.
Ima hand out some XP as thanks tomorrow when im back at my computer.
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