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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ashkelon" data-source="post: 6981527" data-attributes="member: 6774887">Polearm master is a great feat for sure. In fact it is another feat I have issue with for being unbalanced, but that is a topic for another thread.But even so, opportunity attacks are still being overvalued here. As another poster said, 2 were made in his last session. Two whole opportunity attacks. In my last session, I lost 9 attacks as a fighter because enemies were too far away. Even if polearm master gives you 2 free OAs per combat, that would still only amount to 8 total attacks over that same gaming period. It still doesn't make up for missed out damage from being unable to attack for a few rounds.And yes, the melee warrior still will carry a ranged weapon, but he is far more penalized for fighting at range than the ranged warrior is for fighting in melee. For example my fighter with his 12 Dex would have to drop his +1 greatsword (a foolish idea by any right) to attack with a longbow for 3 attacks with a very low chance to hit for only 1d8+1 damage each. Alternatively he could draw and throw a single spear. Either way, my fighter is roughly 25% as capable at ranged combat as he is in melee. On the other hand, the archer can make OAs at about 70% of the efficiency of my greatsword fighter. Next you have the strange false dichotomy going on where people are saying monsters can use advanced tactics to fight the ranged crossbow fighter, but blindly move into melee combat with the polearm warrior. Any intelligent enemy will simply fight with ranged weapons and wait for the polearm fighter to close with them to avoid taking any OAs.Finally, you have to realize that the archer fighter can fight at point blank range just as well as the melee fighter. So saying the archer will have times where he is unable to meaningfully act means that the melee fighter will be definition also be unable to meaningfully act. For example an enemy is 20 feet away and behind full cover, the melee fighter can just walk up and hit him. Well so can the archer fighter. If the enemy is 50 feet away and behind full cover, neither the archer nor crossbow fighter will be able attack that turn. If an enemy is prone, the crossbow archer can simply move into melee to gain advantage in attacks, just like the melee warrior. So any argument that there are instances where the melee warrior can act but the archer cannot simply do not exist. The reverse situation is far from true however.</blockquote>

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