Second feat for Polearm master barbarian

[Alerad]

I'm currently playing a (our world's equivalent of Chinese) noble with a glaive. I picked a barbarian as a class and the Polearm master at level 1. Playing human, although we decided to give a feat to everyone at level 1, so VHuman is not an option (2 feats would be way too OP).

Currently at level I took the totem barbarian - Eagle. :smalleek: From what I've seen the common opinion is that this is the most unpractical choice, but I like the idea of playing a weapon master who can later fly on top of the pine trees with his glaive :)

Armor - so far I'm thinking of sticking with medium armor ftw, so high Con is not a top priority. Unarmored defense is more of a backup option.

Anyway, I want to take another feat at level 4 before I start increasing my stats (maybe even feat at 8 - I don't know). Considering I'll go Eagle-Tiger-Eagle with my totem animals choices, what is a good feat that compliments Polearm master?

Sentinel - it only works on AO attacks. My reaction is often wasted intercepting enemies, so they can still get away sometimes. Still solid choice.
Great weapon master - increasing your damage is always good, but too much damage makes this feat obsolete, as it becomes better to not take -5 penalty to attack. It compliments my shaft attack (1d4 damage) quite well though. What's a good way to increase my attack bonus if I take this feat?
Mage Slayer - great feat, only problem I have is that I don't spend much time 5ft away from enemies. Usually 10-15ft to maximize my glaive reach.

[Foxhound438]

I'm currently playing a (our world's equivalent of Chinese) noble with a glaive. I picked a barbarian as a class and the Polearm master at level 1. Playing human, although we decided to give a feat to everyone at level 1, so VHuman is not an option (2 feats would be way too OP).

Currently at level I took the totem barbarian - Eagle. :smalleek: From what I've seen the common opinion is that this is the most unpractical choice, but I like the idea of playing a weapon master who can later fly on top of the pine trees with his glaive :)

Armor - so far I'm thinking of sticking with medium armor ftw, so high Con is not a top priority. Unarmored defense is more of a backup option.

Anyway, I want to take another feat at level 4 before I start increasing my stats (maybe even feat at 8 - I don't know). Considering I'll go Eagle-Tiger-Eagle with my totem animals choices, what is a good feat that compliments Polearm master?

Sentinel - it only works on AO attacks. My reaction is often wasted intercepting enemies, so they can still get away sometimes. Still solid choice.
Great weapon master - increasing your damage is always good, but too much damage makes this feat obsolete, as it becomes better to not take -5 penalty to attack. It compliments my shaft attack (1d4 damage) quite well though. What's a good way to increase my attack bonus if I take this feat?
Mage Slayer - great feat, only problem I have is that I don't spend much time 5ft away from enemies. Usually 10-15ft to maximize my glaive reach.

probably GWM; you get reckless attack at level 2, so you'll still be able to hit consistently enough.

[JumboWheat01]

I find Sentinel's more for more "Defender" based characters. Since you went Eagle rather than Bear, Defender isn't in your plans, so Great Weapon Master can definitely bring out the OOMPH in your attacks.

[GlenSmash!]

I'll second GWM. It combos well with both Reckless Attack and Pole-arm Master. It's honestly so good that it can actually be kind of boring. I find my Barbarian is now doing more grappling and shoving to break the monotony of just wreaking monsters :smallbiggrin:

[Lollerabe]

Well GWM or sentinel, the barb in my party has PAM and just picked up sentinel and the synergy is both funny and awesome. Don't underestimate that you get the reaction attack when they attack someone else than you, so first reaction attack when they enter ur reach where you stop them dead in their tracks, afterwards when they finally get close, you get attacks when they target another melee party member than you.

Otherwise a good old str bump is solid, and from a DPR perspective competitive with most options.

On the totem - you realize you don't have to pick the same totem if you don't want to right ? You could go wolf - bear - eagle or any other combination, in other words you didn't have to pick the lvl 3 eagle option (which indeed does suck compared to wolf or bear imo)

[Alerad]

Well GWM or sentinel, the barb in my party has PAM and just picked up sentinel and the synergy is both funny and awesome. Don't underestimate that you get the reaction attack when they attack someone else than you, so first reaction attack when they enter ur reach where you stop them dead in their tracks, afterwards when they finally get close, you get attacks when they target another melee party member than you.

Otherwise a good old str bump is solid, and from a DPR perspective competitive with most options.

On the totem - you realize you don't have to pick the same totem if you don't want to right ? You could go wolf - bear - eagle or any other combination, in other words you didn't have to pick the lvl 3 eagle option (which indeed does suck compared to wolf or bear imo)

Thanks, I forgot about the special sentinel reaction attack. I have one question. How does that work with reach weapons? Do you rule in your group that 5ft is within reach or use it as it is? They seem exclusive to me. When enemies provoke AO for moving away they'll be 10ft away from me. We still need to decide this for our group, but I like more opinions.

About the Eagle, that's why I said its unpopular choice. I know I'm not tied to one option or another, I just like active abilities. Bear totem is overestimated, if you can close the distance to spellcasters faster you can just kill them. Which is why I was entertaining the Mage slayer option.

Wolf is very good, and unlike bear also works with my character's RP concept. Again, like Sentinel, my only problem is that 5ft I not the distance I intend to keep. If it wasn't for the PAM/glaive I would have taken Wolf.

[Lollerabe]

Pretty sure there was an errata on the 5feet part regarding sentinel - so you should be golden there. To each their own, I just think the 3rd eagle option is super underwhelming, maybe ask your dm if u can use the scag elk one? 10ft more move speed when raging seems more aligned with your concept anyway, just refluff it.

I myself dislike the PAM + GWM combo since they somewhat overlap, there's no denying the DPR potential in the combo though. But yeah I think action economy and getting new mechanics are funnier than 'I hit harder', I designed the barb in our party (he's not comfortable with the rules yet) and I explained in great depth that GWM would be the DPR king, but he opted for fun and utility via sentinel.
Edit: oh you meant AOOs in general ? That's when they leave your range not 5ft

[MaxWilson]

Great weapon master - increasing your damage is always good, but too much damage makes this feat obsolete, as it becomes better to not take -5 penalty to attack. It compliments my shaft attack (1d4 damage) quite well though. What's a good way to increase my attack bonus if I take this feat?

There's two easy ways to increase your effective attack bonus via advantage: either Reckless Attack, or spend one of your three attacks (Attack + Extra Attack + bonus action haft attack) to knock the enemy prone while you use the other two to attack him at advantage. You can then move back out of range, and since he has to use half his movement to stand up, you'll be safe from his melee attack.

Reckless Attack is an all-out offensive maneuver; knocking prone + maneuvering is a more defensive tactic with still-excellent offensive output. A GWM Polearm Master barbarian can do either as appropriate.

There are some other ways to increase it (Bless spell, help from the wizard's familiar, someone wielding a net, etc.) but these are the easiest and most self-reliant.

[Lollerabe]

Pretty sure you can't use the haft attack for shoving though. I'm in no way certain but the feat allows you to use your bonus action to make that specific attack not any attack, which would allow shove. Again this is my reading of it, not an official rule (but PAM becomes retardedly good if ruled otherwise imo, it would basically just give the shieldmaster BA shove part then. Making almost any other weapon+weapon feat obsolete)

[Alerad]

Pretty sure there was an errata on the 5feet part regarding sentinel - so you should be golden there. To each their own, I just think the 3rd eagle option is super underwhelming, maybe ask your dm if u can use the scag elk one? 10ft more move speed when raging seems more aligned with your concept anyway, just refluff it.

I myself dislike the PAM + GWM combo since they somewhat overlap, there's no denying the DPR potential in the combo though. But yeah I think action economy and getting new mechanics are funnier than 'I hit harder', I designed the barb in our party (he's not comfortable with the rules yet) and I explained in great depth that GWM would be the DPR king, but he opted for fun and utility via sentinel.
Edit: oh you meant AOOs in general ? That's when they leave your range not 5ft

Thanks, the Elk actually adds 15ft as it turns out. I'm starting to develop the idea of a Kirin totem, monstrous beast which is part elk part eagle, it will play well with my backstory. We use SCAG, one of the other players is a Storm sorceress.

As for Sentinel, the errata rules that is indeed your reach, not 5ft range which ignores Disengage attempts. I was aware my AoOs trigger at 10, just the original rules in the PHB were badly written, hence the confusion.

Any ideas for 6th level totem? I was thinking of Tiger because I only have Athletics from that list. Although Eagle sight might also be good for human.

[Alerad]

Pretty sure you can't use the haft attack for shoving though. I'm in no way certain but the feat allows you to use your bonus action to make that specific attack not any attack, which would allow shove. Again this is my reading of it, not an official rule (but PAM becomes retardedly good if ruled otherwise imo, it would basically just give the shieldmaster BA shove part then. Making almost any other weapon+weapon feat obsolete)

I think he meant one attack out of three is a small price given that the other two will be made with advantage. Yes, otherwise the shaft attack is just a basic melee attack, you can't shove with it.

About what I said earlier, GWM is better for characters with high attack and lower damage. For my level with +5 to hit and 10.5 average damage with Reckless attack they are equal against AC 17. For lower ACs it's always better to take the -5 penalty, but for ACs of 18+ it's actually worse. Which places GWM as mob control. I believe the number a get better later, at lvl 20 the AC limit is as high as 22 so most enemies can be attacked with -5/+10.

[Lollerabe]

Was AFB 15ft ? That's really legit. Well tiger and eagle at 6 are both awesome, can't hate on more skills. The barb in our party went with eagle and it has been crazy good (to the point where I think the dm should add more hills and sand dunes to his landscape) since we are currently in a flat dessert - he is pretty good at finding that hidden oasis and or monsters :)

Yup GWM is a tad bit overrated imo, plus static modifiers tend to work well with PAM I.e strength bump

[RaynorReynolds]

As for Sentinel, the errata rules that is indeed your reach, not 5ft range which ignores Disengage attempts. I was aware my AoOs trigger at 10, just the original rules in the PHB were badly written, hence the confusion.

Your AoOs trigger at 5 feet, not 10. You wording is confusing so I wasnt sure if you understood that or not.

[MaxWilson]

Pretty sure you can't use the haft attack for shoving though. I'm in no way certain but the feat allows you to use your bonus action to make that specific attack not any attack, which would allow shove. Again this is my reading of it, not an official rule (but PAM becomes retardedly good if ruled otherwise imo, it would basically just give the shieldmaster BA shove part then. Making almost any other weapon+weapon feat obsolete)

I agree.

Sorry if that was unclear from my writing--I tend to assume that everybody already knows how the rules work ("obviously you can't shove with the haft, that wasn't what I meant when I wrote 'use one of your three attacks to shove'") but in a newbie-oriented thread like that one that's probably not a good assumption. Thanks for speaking up.

[Alerad]

Your AoOs trigger at 5 feet, not 10. You wording is confusing so I wasnt sure if you understood that or not.

I always thought wielding a Reach weapon (glaive) means your AoOs trigger at 10. I'll check into it more.

Edit: Found it.
https://thesageadvice.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/reach-opportunity-attack/

J. Crawford on the other hand said in another tweet that AoO with a reach weapon is up to the DM, so I guess it's valid either way. We just played it 10ft so far.

[RaynorReynolds]

I always thought wielding a Reach weapon (glaive) means your AoOs trigger at 10. I'll check into it more.

Edit: Found it.
https://thesageadvice.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/reach-opportunity-attack/

J. Crawford on the other hand said in another tweet that AoO with a reach weapon is up to the DM, so I guess it's valid either way. We just played it 10ft so far.

Reach weapons dont automatically extend your reach to 10 feet 24/7. It is only when you make an attack. So if someone moved from 10 ft to 15 ft away from you, you wouldnt get an attack. That is RAW. I havent seen the tweet fro Crawford. Do you have the link for it?

[Alerad]

It's this one:
https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/596930753063071745

I see what you mean. I thought it's the standard rules, but since there are different interpretations - we use reach weapon = 10 feet reach, just for clarification.

With this in mind, the second benefit of Sentinel seemed weird because of limiting the distance to 5 feet. As Lollerabe mentioned the errata removes the 5ft limitation, so Sentinel in its current form doesn't contradict the 10 ft AO reach interpretation, which works great for me.

[RaynorReynolds]

It's this one:
https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/596930753063071745

I see what you mean. I thought it's the standard rules, but since there are different interpretations - we use reach weapon = 10 feet reach, just for clarification.

With this in mind, the second benefit of Sentinel seemed weird because of limiting the distance to 5 feet. As Lollerabe mentioned the errata removes the 5ft limitation, so Sentinel in its current form doesn't contradict the 10 ft AO reach interpretation, which works great for me.

Ill have to show my DM this. I always thought that was the intent of reach weapons. Thanks for digging that up!