Paladin concept

[Terdarius]

Hey guys.
I am currently playing my first 5e character which is a gnomish paladin currently at lvl 3 with the Oath of Devotion. We’re doing a RP heavy campaign at the moment which means I’ve just done my first ever combat in 5e :P. What I noticed is that I’m action starved since everything costs my precious action…
However this campaign is meant as an introduction to 5e, and after this we are set to run the Curse of Strahd. We will get the chance to reroll our characters if we wish, so I’ve started to think ahead and tried to come up with a different approach for my pally.
In 4e I’ve played an Avenger and I really liked it, so the Oath of Vengeance appeals to me. However I tried making a pally wielding a great sword, but it just didn’t seem as great as I’d like.
What I end up with wanting to play is a defender type character which can dish out lots of damage as well.
Since we’re doing a Ravenloft campaign, I’m guessing it won’t be very caster heavy, so a good AC and reactions to melee attacks will be key.
So here’s what I came up with for a lvl 5 character.

Class: Paladin (lvl 5)
Race: Human (with feats)
Weapon: Rapier + Shield
Armor: Half plate

STR: 8 (-1)
DEX: 15+1=16 (+3)
CON: 15+1=16 (+3)
INT: 10 (+0)
WIS: 8 (-1)
CHA: 14 (+2)

Lvl 1: Sentinel feat
Lvl 2: Dualist fighting style (+2 dam)
Lvl 3: Oath of Vengeance
Lvl 4: Defensive dualist feat
Lvl 5: Extra attack

So the idea is to be in melee with at least one ally at all times.
This would give the monsters the choice to hit my ally, provoking an opportunity attack from me,
or the monster can try to hit me vs my decent armor class (19 without any magical items) + proficiency bonus (+3) due to the defensive dualist feat if the attack would hit. Our cleric could potentially increase it further with his spells making me very hard to hit.

Hunters mark might be nice to pile on the damage, but smite is probably better since it adds 2d8 for the cost of a spell slot instead of 1d6. But it could be combined to do 1d6+2d8 for 2 spell slots in 1 round. (with the 1d6 lasting until cancelled)
So an attack could potentially be: +6 vc AC (with advantage) Dam: 1d8+5 +1d6 +2d8 = 22 average damage (35 max)

HP would be 49 (we use averages), so if I do get hit I still have a decent health pool, and ofc. lay on hands to heal 25hp for an action.

I just wanted to see what people think of this concept. I’m especially interested in the combination of the sentinel and defensive dualist feat, since I couldn’t find any build that combined this. But it seems like a great combo to me. (Basically you always use your reaction. Either to attack or to increase your defense) Essentially locking down a monster with no good options for it to attack.
Have I overlooked obvious problems with this combination? Or would this work as expected?

Thanks for any insights.

[jaappleton]

Ok.

From what I gather, you always want to be able to utilize your (possible) actions to the fullest. I mean, you’re granted a Reaction and a Bonus Action, you might as well utilize them, right?

And it also sounds like you want to be a Tank. However, from what I read, it also seems like you weren’t impressed with a 2H Weapon. Since you said it’s your first foray into 5E, I’m going to cover both Sword n Board and 2H Weapon routes, and Devotion VS Vengeance. OK?

First, the Devotion Paladin. Your out of the box, Classic Pally. For Strahd, overwhelmingly, this is what I’d choose as my class and Archetype. You’re dealing with Undead, you’re dealing with Vampires. Read the lv7 ability of the Devotion. You can’t be Charmed. This includes Domination. You also get Turn Undead as a Channel Divinity, and +Cha to all Melee attacks as your other Channel Divinity. Note that Vengeance is Advantage only against one foe, that’s it. Devotion is for one minute, no matter who you hit. However, the spell list sucks, there’s nothing new for you here.

I’m going to pause for a moment to talk about something: You mentioned possibly going Sentinel AND Defensive Duelist. That’s two Feats. You need Str (or Dex), Charisma, and Con. There’s simply not enough room for all of that and your two Feats.

Now, Devotion Sword n Board VS 2H Weapon. If you go with a Glaive, you’d need to go Strength. If you take Sentinel, that means your Reaction Attack extends out to 10’, not 5’. If you forgo Sentinel and focus on Damage, I’d go for a 2H Heavy Weapon and take the Greatweapon Master Feat. After your +Cha to Attack rolls from Channel Divinity and casting the Bless Spell (Seriously, you or the Cleric should ALWAYS have this on), it negates the -5 penalty to hit. Now all your attacks do +10 damage. Remember, it’s nice to tank and mitigate damage, but dead enemies deal zero damage. If you go this route, take Defense as your fighting style. The 2H style isn’t very good. The GWM Feat also makes excellent use of your bonus action.

Now, Devotion Sword n Board. You can go Str or Dex. If you take the Shield Master Feat, go Strength. My issue with Defensive Duelist is that it requires you to be near an ally, making you an automatic target for AoE. It’s against a single attack, not multiple. And at lv5, it’s only +3 to AC. That’s not enough to be worth it, in my mind. For tankiness, instead of going high AC, focus on stopping enemies from getting to your squishiest allies. This goes back to the Sentinel Feat, with a Reach Weapon. The Dex based tanking is... Possible, but your options are more limited. Protection Style is your best route.

Now Vengeance. The spell list is loaded. LOADED. But the actual features of the Archetype... I find them a bit lacking. Much like yourself, I adored the 4E Avenger. This isn’t it. This is a hunt down the enemy Paladin, sure. But in practice, the lv7 rarely comes into play and the Channel Divinity isn’t as useful as it looks on paper. Sure, it’s Advantage, which rules. But there’s so many other ways to get Advantage, without sacrificing your core lv3 feature. Especially for Strahd.

Vengeance screams 2H Weapon, the Level 7 feature shifts you away from your allies, it’s just not a good Tank Archetype.

You said you can Reroll your character. Obviously a Gnome can’t do much with the Heavy Weapon options. So you’d have to become a different Race. If you can’t, or don’t want to, and want to Tank, you should give Ancients some strong consideration. That lv6 feature and a Channel Divinity to Restrain enemies is damn solid. And the spell list is great for Strahd, with Moonbeam. Find a choke point, cast Moonbeam, plant yourself just before it so enemies have to be in it to get to you. Restrain them with your CD so they all just roast.

[Terdarius]

Alright thanks for that.

I'm still a little confused about this though:


I’m going to pause for a moment to talk about something: You mentioned possibly going Sentinel AND Defensive Duelist. That’s two Feats. You need Str (or Dex), Charisma, and Con. There’s simply not enough room for all of that and your two Feats.


Can you explain a bit more why 2 feats is to much?
Is it because of the potential +1 ability modifiers on 2 stats?
That really does not seem that big a deal to me considering the advantages feats can give?

[Arkhios]

V.Human Paladin of Vengeance with the Dual Wielder feat can dish out very good damage while simultaneously being a decent block of AC.

Defense Fighting Style is your friend here. While wielding two weapons you'll have as much AC as you would have with sword and board. The key isn't in getting your ability modifier to off-hand damage. Instead, you'll want to keep either Divine Favor or Hunter's Mark up for as long as you can, because the extra damage applies to all attacks you make. Plus you effectively double your chances to land a smite on your turn.

Edit: as jaappleton below said, Divine Favor is actually the better one of the two choices. Sure, it does only 1d4 extra damage per hit, but the extra damage is radiant instead of the same type as your weapon, and radiant is one of the more rarely resisted damage types. And it's not tied to a single target at a time. I also agree that Oath of Vengeance is not exactly the most tankiest paladin option, but any paladin can fit the role reasonably well. If you're not set on the oath, I'd suggest Oath of the Ancients, because it's just that good as a tank. Of course, Oath of the Ancients divine channels are a bit on the weak side, but the 7th level aura is just amazing.

However, there is a reason to be a good aligned paladin of Oath of Devotion in CoS, but I won't spoil you further. :smallwink: For Oath of Devotion, Sword and Board with Dueling style OR two-handed weapon with either great weapon fighting style (if your DM lets you reroll even the smite dice) or defense style are the best ways to go, because Sacred Weapon Divine Channel applies only to one weapon at a time.

[jaappleton]

V.Human Paladin of Vengeance with the Dual Wielder feat can dish out very good damage while simultaneously being a decent block of AC.

Defense Fighting Style is your friend here. While wielding two weapons you'll have as much AC as you would have with sword and board. The key isn't in getting your ability modifier to off-hand damage. Instead, you'll want to keep either Divine Favor or Hunter's Mark up for as long as you can, because the extra damage applies to all attacks you make. Plus you effectively double your chances to land a smite on your turn.

A dual wielding Paladin is damn good, and in this regard, I’d tale Divine Favor over Hunter’s Mark every time. DF is simpler, doesn’t require you to move your Mark around through a bonus action like HM, it’s just ‘activate and swing away’.

(I don’t know how to quote multiple posts)

Regarding why I said two Feats is too much:

You get to pick either an Ability Score Increase of a Feat every 4 levels, give or take, right? So let’s say you start with 16 Dex, 14 Con, 16 Charisma. Now, bumping your Dex by 2 at lv8 and you’re Charisma by 2 at lv8, you’re at 18 and 18.

Well, that doesn’t seem like a big difference, it’s merely one point each, right?

That depends. Remember, at lv6, all Paladins add their Charisma mod to their saving throws. So your Dexterity Saving Throw went from +6 to +8. If your Devotion, after Channel Divinity, your Attack bonus went from (at lv8) +7 to +11. Without increasing your scores, it’s +6 and +9, respectively.

In my eyes, and I’m a self admitted optimizer, Accuracy is king. Watching all your allies do cool stuff to help, waiting around for your turn to contribute, and.... SWING AND A MISS. That’s a bad feeling. Especially when it’s multiple swings in a row. Everyone has bad dice rolls, but whenever you can boost your accuracy, do it. That’s my mantra, anyways.

And maybe it’s just me, but at lv8 with only a +6 to hit? That’s not cutting it. For a LOT of players, that’s not enough. And maybe you’ll have a +1 Weapon. But you can’t count on that.

EDIT: Another note, from experience: Don’t plan your build more than 4 levels ahead at any time. It’s futile to do so. Your campaign might break down for whatever reason, your character might not live long enough, etc. Maybe you get a great RP reason to Multiclass into something else, who knows?

[Nidgit]

jaapleton makes some great points. Vengeance is definitely the least tanky Paladin subclass and trying to go that direction, while certainly possible, could create some frustration. It focuses on mobility and solo play instead of teamwork, which works rather well for the edgelord trope it plays off of. That pushes it towards great weapons for eschewing defense and going on the attack.

Devotion is excellently suited for Strahd with all the undead around and nicely balances offense and defense, but if you don't want to stay with that, Oath of Conquest might be for you: a darker paladin with good tanking abilities and some dangerous spells. The other three oaths are more focused on defense; of them, Ancients is probably the best.

As for feats, Sentinel is obviously good. Defensive Duelist is okay but you should also consider Medium Armor Master for an extra AC point and the ability to use your DEX for stealth. Then you can focus on dishing out damage for your reactions.

By the way, your max HP at level 5 with those stats should be 49, not 45. Swapping CON and CHA could be pretty useful and would still leave you with 44 max HP.

[Davrix]

Conquest is also very tanky but takes a little longer to come online then devotion.

Sword and board is nice especially if you pair it with Shield master, which lets you knock things prone every bonus action and you can still take the Duelist trait for a +2 in damage.

Also you only get a feat at lv 1 if you are allowed the human variant rule unless your DM says everyone may take a feat at lv 1.

Me personally I let my players take a feat at lv one but they must reduce their racial bonus from a +2 +1 to a +1 +1 in the stats listed under the race. This works for most races except for some of the odd ball ones like a kobold.

[Biggstick]

I don’t know how to quote multiple posts

Right next to the button that says, "Reply with Quote," is another Quotation Mark button. Click on the Quotation Mark on posts within the thread that you'd like to quote in the order you'd like to address them. Once you've got all the posts you'd like to address, click the Reply to Thread buton at the bottom of the page.


Regarding why I said two Feats is too much.

I also agree with this. CoS is typically only to level 10, meaning you should be spending at least one of your ASI's as a Paladin on +2 to your attack stat and/or Charisma. Personally, I think you should go with both going to stats, but I can understand the appeal of a feat.

You're trying to focus on your ability to maximize combat capability. The best way to do that as a Paladin is to grab the Polearm Master feat. That gives you reaction attacks for newly approaching enemies and always available bonus action attacks (as long as you take the Attack action). Now you said you weren't a fan of doing this with the potentially new character, but you'd still like to be able to act as a Defender so to speak and attack enemies who attack your allies as a reaction. This only comes from the Sentinel feat (as a Paladin, other classes like the Totem Barbarian have this ability in the low teens). Personally, I think generating a bonus action that you can always use is going to be more valuable to your ability to tank, so my recommendation is going to be for Shield Master. It isn't as pretty or damage dealing as the other feats, but it does help you keep allies safe. Prone targets have to spend movement to stand up, meaning it's harder to get to your squishies. Prone targets also qualify you for advantage on attack rolls against them if you Shove first. You also gain a Pseudo-Evasion with feat if you make Dex saves versus AOE effects.

Now as to playing CoS, and having the choice of Vengeance or Devotion, I'd go Devotion 9 times out of 10. Not only will the Aura of Devotion (immunity to charm for yourself and allies within 10' of you) be extremely powerful, you're picking up a magic weapon for yourself (through Channel Divinity) and one for an ally (level 2 spell Magic Weapon, which is admittedly on all Paladin spell lists). You're grabbing Sanctuary on your always prepared list, which is a great spell if you're trying to protect someone (costs a bonus action, and doesn't require concentration). You're also playing an iconic Paladin archetype against an iconic villain in Strahd.

While this part is opinion, I think the fun of a Curse of Strahd campaign is trying to play through it as the "good guys." It's easy to play a bunch of morally ambiguous characters, and that can be done in any campaign. But this is Curse of Strahd! And in CoS, playing the good guys is tough. Strahd, and everyone else in Barovia, will be tempting you throughout the campaign, edging you closer and closer to an eventual fall from grace. The real fun is trying to complete the campaign while still remaining a "good guy." It's a challenge, as there are many characters who do fall to the darkness, or become dark and bitter by their experience/interactions with the peoples of Barovia. Strahd is great at sniffing out what people want, and giving it to them. IMO, the ideal way to play through CoS is to play it as a group of "good guys" who want to do what's right and resist the easy way out that Strahd will offer them.

As an aside, you could consider Oath of the Crown from SCAG as a tanky Paladin. Instead of an Aura at level 7, they gain the ability to literally take the damage an ally is about to take as a Reaction (only one attack though, as it costs the Paladin's Reaction). They also gain, from their Channel Divinity, the closest thing to a "Taunt" (to use MMO terms) there is in the game. Another great point for OotC is they gain the Spirit Guardians spell, which against the amount of Undead you can guess you'll be facing, is an amazing control/damaging spell for a Paladin to have at their disposal.

TLDR; Go Devotion Paladin for awesome archetype mechanics AND fun RP potential within CoS. Wear Heavy Armor. Go Dueling FS, and SnB. Take Shield Master as your Human feat. Use ASI's for +2 Str/Cha. You could consider trading out one ASI for feats like Sentinel (to reaction attack enemies) or Lucky (to protect yourself from enemy critical hits).

[Zanthy1]

I am going to echo many others here. Vengeance paladin is awesome, but not really a tank. I currently play a lvl 13 vengeance pally. I dish out the most damage and have the most hp, but when it comes to tanking im no where near as good as out fighter or monk. Vengeance paladins are like glass canons, except that the glass is reinforced with vibranium. Hard to kill and hitting hard. The epitome of "the best defense is a good offense"

[Chugger]

You're right that a lot of Pal options eat up your action, which sucks. A devo channeling to get a magic weapon, iirc, eats up an action. This is okay if you have a round to prepare for a fight, but you don't always get that.

Look at the options that work off bonus action or reaction. There is mark (veng), and I think Shield of Faith and Divine Favor are b.a. (book not on me so double check). Wrathful Smite and that entire line of damaging spells iirc works off b.a. Some of them are weak imo but situationally are very useful (branding to stop a creature from going invis can be nice).

Basically just go through and see which ones don't eat an action and mark them on your player sheet. I've found that often the best use of my limited slots is not in spell casting - or maybe in casting one spell - but saving my slots for Divine Smites. That's where the pal's damage-dealing really goes up, especially if you crit.

[Arkhios]

If you're not absolutely set on doing a dex based paladin (which I would personally advice against, imho), swap your str and dex and just take that easy way to the highest AC possible with heavy armor (right from the start, str 16 and heavy armor can get you a lot better AC than dex 16 and light armor). If you want to use a weapon that has a finesse property, you're free to do so. Finesse property only lets you use dex instead of str, it doesn't force you to do so. There are benefits in having high str as a paladin. one of them is that multiclassing to and from paladin requires a minimum of 13 in str (and cha), and with point buy that's a big investment. As a Devotion paladin taking two levels in fighter would give you extra Action with Action Surge (note: it's not just one more attack, it lets you do another full Action). You could use your Action Surge to use Sacred Weapon and attack during the same turn, which is pretty damn awesome. While CoS gets you only as high as about 10 to 12th level, there's no reason why you couldn't continue beyond that with another adventure, and so in the end, you could potentially still get the 30 ft. improvement for your auras with a Paladin 18/Fighter 2 combo.

Regarding your original build further, sentinel and defensive duelist both take a Reaction, and you have only one on each of your turns.
Lay on Hands, while it is great source of self-healing is better used to help others, and best used out of combat, in my experience. It's really good on your fallen allies because you can use it even if magic wouldn't work otherwise for some reason (it's not a spell so it works even in anti-magic field, iirc). You also don't have to spend it all at once. You could use it as little as 1 point at a time, and for an ally who is dying but not dead, even that 1 hit point brings him or her back.

[Terdarius]

Thank you all for the comments and insights.

While it might be my inexperience, there are some things that have been said that I doubt are truely the case if compared properly.
I have actually calculated some scenarios with different setups and as far as DPR goes on an average fight, the Vengeance oath actually pulls slightly ahead. (for best DPR i come to a 2 hander SoD build with Great weapon fighter feat, but it lacks AC and options)

While accuracy is a very good way to boost DPR, if it costs you a round of damage, it will be less effective if the fight is short.
At a +3 modifier the break even point seems to be at 5 rounds. Now i'm not sure how long most battles take, but i've looked at everything between 5 and 7 rounds as an average fight lenght.

Still I think I have finally "seen the light" and will most likely go for OoD with sword and board and a STR build.
The reason is that I just realised that Shield of Faith is a bonus action, buffing the AC of this build to 22 with optimal non-magical gear.
Even though the DPR is a little lower, the higher AC would be preferable to slightly higher DPR I think and it just fits more with the campaign setting.
(The fact that it's an automatic magical weapon also helps)
Also I do like the option of going with the shield feat to shove creatures and causing prone.

So thanks again for the suggestions and helpfull tips.

[jaappleton]

While it might be my inexperience, there are some things that have been said that I doubt are truely the case if compared properly.

I'm going to be brutally honest here....

This seems incredibly passive aggressive.

You admitted you're new to the system, which is totally fine. You asked for our help, which we're all happy to give, and you think (some of) our advice is inaccurate, especially after nearly everyone echoed my sentiments from my first few posts?

Whatever.

You can make your character however you want. It's fairly tough to make a bad character in 5E. You asked how to become more efficient, we told you.

But don't be all passive aggressive and say we don't know what we're talking about. Crunch theory all you want to, we've actually played.

[Malifice]

Strength 8 and half plate?

Might want to check those encumbrance rules bro.

[Terdarius]

I'm going to be brutally honest here....

This seems incredibly passive aggressive.

You admitted you're new to the system, which is totally fine. You asked for our help, which we're all happy to give, and you think (some of) our advice is inaccurate, especially after nearly everyone echoed my sentiments from my first few posts?

Whatever.

You can make your character however you want. It's fairly tough to make a bad character in 5E. You asked how to become more efficient, we told you.

But don't be all passive aggressive and say we don't know what we're talking about. Crunch theory all you want to, we've actually played.

It seems I have offended you for some reason... That was never my intention. So I apologize.
As stated I am thankful for the insights and suggestions, and even have changed my mind based on the advice.
What more of a compliment do you want... :smalltongue:.

Me being new to the system is true, and I fully admit that all my theory crafting might go out the window when actually playing.
I am by no means new to D&D though, since I've been playing every version since AD&D. I'm also an avid number cruncher and theory crafter.

Some comparisons just seemed overly simplified to me, or not have taken all factors into account.
I'm not attacking anyone, but I am weighing the advice given vs my own considerations/scenarios.

Still the net result is me taking the advice and going with the suggested route.
So thank you again for the suggestions and insights.

[Arkhios]

Oh, absolutely. Great Weapon fighter wins two-weapon fighter in DPR, regardless of Oath. I suggested two-weapon fighting (along with Dual Wielder feat) as a sort of mid-way solution between good offense and good defense.

Oh, and by the way! You're welcome.

[Terdarius]

Oh, absolutely. Great Weapon fighter wins two-weapon fighter in DPR, regardless of Oath. I suggested two-weapon fighting (along with Dual Wielder feat) as a sort of mid-way solution between good offense and good defense.

Oh, and by the way! You're welcome.

Yeah thanks a lot for that suggestion. I hadn't considered it yet, but it seems like it could be a fun and effective way to go.
It seems especially suited for Vengeance though with the ability to cast hunter's mark. (even though that would eat a bonus action)
I seriously considered going that route, but I settled on wanting more defence than offence.
And as people pointed out the setting etc. screams Devotion.

[Arkhios]

Yeah thanks a lot for that suggestion. I hadn't considered it yet, but it seems like it could be a fun and effective way to go.
It seems especially suited for Vengeance though with the ability to cast hunter's mark. (even though that would eat a bonus action)
I seriously considered going that route, but I settled on wanting more defence than offence.
And as people pointed out the setting etc. screams Devotion.

Yeah, you'll thank yourself later for choosing Devotion (and good alignment) for Curse of Strahd.

[jaappleton]

Yeah, you'll thank yourself later for choosing Devotion (and good alignment) for Curse of Strahd.

After you hit lv7, all allies within 10ft of you will thank you, too.

[furby076]

Why not ancients, sentinel, quarterstaff, and shield? Great ac, tripping, 3 attacks at level 5.

The level 6 buff (+cha to saves for u and ur friends) plus lvl 7 spell resistance buffs = awesome.

Ensnaring strike is awesome.

Misty step = screw u spell caster hiding in the back. I just used this ability, for the 1st time, on a shaman hiding behind his soldiers. I one rounded him (got a crit, and smited on all 3 attacks). DM never had the chance to use him to buff his allies. After the shaman died, his fighter teammates crumpled. Dm grumbled, and gave me bonus xp for the sick combo

[Arkhios]

Why not ancients, sentinel, quarterstaff, and shield? Great ac, tripping, 3 attacks at level 5.

Why quarterstaff, though? It adds nothing except being definitely flavorful choice for ancients pally.

...unless you unintentionally omitted Polearm Master which seems to be implied with "3 attacks at level 5", which is questionable with a shield in the other hand. While literal reading might support it, a DM might not see eye to eye with the idea of it. At least I don't.

As to why Devotion instead of any other oath? Let's just say that the adventure (Curse of Strahd) is written to reward someone with Turn Undead (any cleric) or Turn the Unholy (OoD paladin).


Misty step = screw u spell caster hiding in the back. I just used this ability, for the 1st time, on a shaman hiding behind his soldiers. I one rounded him (got a crit, and smited on all 3 attacks). DM never had the chance to use him to buff his allies. After the shaman died, his fighter teammates crumpled. Dm grumbled, and gave me bonus xp for the sick combo

How are you getting 3 attacks in the same turn you used Misty Step? It takes a bonus action to cast and teleport. Even with PAM you haven't mentioned (but clearly are implying) the extra third attack takes a bonus action - you only have one on each of your turns and NOTHING gives you another.

Unless someone else cast Haste on you in which case you get an additional attack as part of your attack action, but that is of no credit to your own capabilities as you can't cast haste on your own as an ancients pally and definitely not at 5th level of any pally.

[furby076]

Excuse me, sorry. Late night and phone typing. No intentional wrongdoing meant

Meant polearm master, not sentinal.

Quarterstaff is versatile, so 1 handed

Your right, misty step 2 attacks, my mount had the third attack. It came with the pally on misty step (find steed share spells)

Why would quarterstaff plus polearm master need interpretation? Qstaff is 1 handed (or 2), and polearm master is explicit that you get bonus action attack with qstaff


I will grab sentinal st next asi

[Arkhios]

Why would quarterstaff plus polearm master need interpretation? Qstaff is 1 handed (or 2), and polearm master is explicit that you get bonus action attack with qstaff

Because it doesn't make sense. Every other weapon listed for PAM are two-handed weapons but for some incomprehensible reason you could still make another attack with a staff's opposite end with one hand. Do you have any idea how long a quarterstaff is and how awkward it is to make an attack with just one end, let alone with both ends, when wielding the staff in one hand?


From Wikipedia: The term is generally accepted to refer to a shaft of hardwood from 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 m) long, sometimes with a metal tip, ferrule, or spike at one or both ends.

In other words, even the shortest version of a quarterstaff is quite probably longer than your character is.

[Nidgit]

From Wikipedia: The term is generally accepted to refer to a shaft of hardwood from 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 m) long, sometimes with a metal tip, ferrule, or spike at one or both ends.

In other words, a quarterstaff is quite probably longer than your character is.
You mean I can have a weapon and a ten foot pole all in one tidy package?

[Arkhios]

You mean I can have a weapon and a ten foot pole all in one tidy package?

I suppose you could, but is a 10-foot pole wieldy enough to be used as a weapon? I'm guessing you weren't all that serious, but I'd ask my DM if I were you, just in case.