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Dwarvin Polearm build--HELP PLEASE

Kithas

First Post
Question: my DM is getting angry. I have the polearm mastery. When a creature reaches the 10 feet in front of me. I use my AoO. When it comes in my reach I use my attack and second attack from the other end of the Boolean and then second wind using those two attacks doing a bunch of damage. That is a correct sequence of events, right?
Mostly.
So I'm assuming you meant action surge, not second wind. If you did mean second wind then you don't have 2 bonus actions and your attack with the polearm butt is a bonus action.
If you meant action surge then you would have a max of 4 attacks in that round. 1 as an opp attack when he enters your reach, one for your attack action, one for your bonus action(butt) and one for your action surged attack action. Once you get the Extra Attack feature this goes up to 6 since both your Attack actions hit twice. The butt attack is a bonus action and does not benefit from action surge. It also takes the same economy as second wind.
 

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Lejaun

First Post
Question: my DM is getting angry. I have the polearm mastery. When a creature reaches the 10 feet in front of me. I use my AoO. When it comes in my reach I use my attack and second attack from the other end of the Boolean and then second wind using those two attacks doing a bunch of damage. That is a correct sequence of events, right?

The creature comes within reach of you, an attack of opportunity is triggered by the polearm mastery. In your attack phase you attack once with the main polearm as an action and once with the butt end of the polearm as your bonus action. If you action surge, you get a second main attack with the polearm, but you do not get the bonus action again.

For fun and games, use the Pushing superiority dice attack to repeat that sequence next round.
 

Question: my DM is getting angry. I have the polearm mastery. When a creature reaches the 10 feet in front of me. I use my AoO. When it comes in my reach I use my attack and second attack from the other end of the Boolean and then second wind using those two attacks doing a bunch of damage. That is a correct sequence of events, right?
I think you're confusing Second Wind with Action Surge. Action Surge only grants one extra action, meaning that you'd only get to attack with the main part of the weapon. Therefore your Action Surge round would be Attack + Attack + PAM bonus action attack. You would have to have Extra Attack to get more than one swing out of Action Surge. Other than that, you're playing it fine.
 

asjwolverine

First Post
You are right. I confused the two. Thanks for clearing that up. My DM is gong to be frustrated. It seems like we are pretty powerful even at low levels. Do you see the same thing?
 

Lejaun

First Post
It is very powerful, especially in hallways and tunnels where the enemy can't get around you without provoking an attack, but there are ways around it. A smart NPC will recognize your reach advantage and grab his bow/crossbow/magic and make you come to him. Your large weapon can also be cumbersome for some dungeon crawls and it also takes both of your hands to wield and carry normally, reducing the options you have to do other things.

A creative DM might place you in a narrow tunnel with little room to turn around in and a low ceiling. You will then be forced to use the sharp end to attack one direction, but without the ability to use your bonus action attack. If enemies come from behind, you have no way to turn your weapon the other way. This kind of scenario fudges on the rules some, but for the sake of realism you should be tolerant of your DM on this.
 

Kithas

First Post
You are right. I confused the two. Thanks for clearing that up. My DM is gong to be frustrated. It seems like we are pretty powerful even at low levels. Do you see the same thing?

I would advise your dm to do one of 2 things.
1. Remember that the 'normal' adventuring day that the encounter guidelines are based around assumes 6-8 encounters. He is probably using too few.
2. Make the encounters harder. He's the one who controls the difficulty so just throw more mobs at em, remind him that in 5e lots of little guys is much harder than one or two big ones. The number advantage is very real.
 

3. Accept that PCs will win most fights. And every bit of damage and spells the PCs use will add up.
Where we are back at 1. There is more than one encounter going on every day. Especially when they are going fpr the BBEG. If you somehow get around all other fights, you deserve an easy fight at the end of your camapign.
 

CapnZapp

Legend
I would advise your dm to do one of 2 things.
1. Remember that the 'normal' adventuring day that the encounter guidelines are based around assumes 6-8 encounters. He is probably using too few.
2. Make the encounters harder. He's the one who controls the difficulty so just throw more mobs at em, remind him that in 5e lots of little guys is much harder than one or two big ones. The number advantage is very real.
Although point #1 is much much harder to do than to say.

There's a limit to the number of quest givers you can have that add "... Oh by the way you must complete your mission in 24 hours for a made-up reason I can't remember right now"

And there aren't any mechanical rules to force players to do more encounters than they like. And it's rather easy to make a "short rest party" anyway.

So a more honest piece of advice is to say "yes, you should assume players to be at top strength most of the time, so don't hesitate to blow the encounter guidelines right out the water; the PCs can handle much more than the DMG admits to"

Regards
 


zaratan

First Post
Although point #1 is much much harder to do than to say.

There's a limit to the number of quest givers you can have that add "... Oh by the way you must complete your mission in 24 hours for a made-up reason I can't remember right now"

And there aren't any mechanical rules to force players to do more encounters than they like. And it's rather easy to make a "short rest party" anyway.

So a more honest piece of advice is to say "yes, you should assume players to be at top strength most of the time, so don't hesitate to blow the encounter guidelines right out the water; the PCs can handle much more than the DMG admits to"

Regards

you always can impose some problem that prevents the PCs to take benefits from short or long rest.
 

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