Haft Strike + Spinning Halberd?

[Nowhere Girl]

I was just looking at these two feats ...

Can anyone think of a reason why they wouldn't stack to give you two extra attacks with a halberd?

[UserClone]

Um, could you describe them, or in which source you found them?

[Lord Tataraus]

GAAAAAHHHH!!! That's what that feat is called, I've been looking for Spinning Halberd. Anyway...*looks it up*

By RAW, yes. It gives an additional attack, not an off-hand attack. These feats (along with the one that lets you use a shield with a Halberd) are why the Halberd is the best polearm ever.

Edit: Spinning Halberd is in CW and Haft Strike is in Dragon Compenduin/DR331

[Townopolis]

Wait what? What is this feat that allows you to use a halberd with a shield? Book reference... must... have...

@.<

[Lord Tataraus]

Wait what? What is this feat that allows you to use a halberd with a shield? Book reference... must... have...

@.<

Shield and Pike Style from DR338, don't know why its not in Dragon Compendium since there are tons of other polearm feats in there, but crystalkeep has it. And it works for any piercing polearm and light shield.

[Thespianus]

I was just looking at these two feats ...

Can anyone think of a reason why they wouldn't stack to give you two extra attacks with a halberd?

Resurrecting this thread:

What about Spinning Halberd + Haft Strike(Dr331) + Pole Fighting(Dr331)?

Pole Fighting allows you to use Flurry of Blows with a polearm, Spinning Halberd and Haft Strike each give you one extra attack. To me, this seems to sum up to a lot of attacks. :)

[Faleldir]

Shield and Pike Style from DR338
That only works with reach weapons, which a halberd is not.

[TSED]

... What? Halberds have reach.

[PurinaDragonCho]

... What? Halberds have reach.

I would have a very happy fighter if you could show me this is the rules.

[Talya]

Halberd isn't a reach weapon. Strange, as it's an axe/pike combo on a really long pole, but it's not listed as a reach weapon.

[TSED]

...Huh. Never noticed that before.

Totally mind blowing since halberds were about 6 feet long I think, and then some of the other reach weapons are too, like ranseurs.

... Weird. Very weird. My bad.

[PurinaDragonCho]

...Huh. Never noticed that before.

Totally mind blowing since halberds were about 6 feet long I think, and then some of the other reach weapons are too, like ranseurs.

... Weird. Very weird. My bad.

Logically, they should be. I think they were intentionally nerfed (by taking away their reach) because you can trip with a halberd.

[Cyranojoe]

Wikipedia has halberds at 4-6 feet, while glaives are 6-7 feet PLUS the blade. Poleaxes are closer in length to the halberd, but still generally longer. That said, I agree with the nerfing idea as a contributing factor....

[RagnaroksChosen]

Resurrecting this thread:

What about Spinning Halberd + Haft Strike(Dr331) + Pole Fighting(Dr331)?

Pole Fighting allows you to use Flurry of Blows with a polearm, Spinning Halberd and Haft Strike each give you one extra attack. To me, this seems to sum up to a lot of attacks. :)

Isn't that thread necromancy... I belive you just cast Animate dead rather then Raise dead..

[Cieyrin]

Isn't that thread necromancy... I belive you just cast Animate dead rather then Raise dead..

It's more like Raise Unthread but anyways...

The halberd doesn't have reach, as otherwise it'd totally trump guisarmes. Guisarmes trip, have reach but do 2d4 slashing. Halberds trip, d10 slashing OR piercing and can be set against a charge (not that I've ever seen anyone ever set against a charge but the fact remains). Giving Halberds reach would be too many pluses on a martial weapon. To have reach as well would put it into Exotic territory. Making an exotic Long Halberd, sorta like the Complete Adventurer Longaxe, is totally within the realm of possibility, though.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[Thespianus]

...Huh. Never noticed that before.

Totally mind blowing since halberds were about 6 feet long I think, and then some of the other reach weapons are too, like ranseurs.

According to the PHB, the Ranseur/Guisarme/Glaive/Longspear is 10 ft long, the halberd only 6.

And stop talking about size, fellas. Respond to my question instead! ;)


What about Spinning Halberd + Haft Strike(Dr331) + Pole Fighting(Dr331)?

[Amiria]

Probably not a good idea, according to the forum rules...

Yup.

Anyway, if you want a halberdish weapon with reach pick up Exotic Weapon Proficiency for the Dwarven Warpike (Races of Stone). It is the swiss army polearm :smallwink:, one of the few exotic weapons that are worth the feat.

[Thespianus]

Probably not a good idea, according to the forum rules...

Oh.. Hmm, I figured it was better etiquette to resurrect a thread as long as u stay on topic than to create a new one on the same topic, but ok. My bad. I'm sorry.

[Cieyrin]

Alrighties, I finally figured out what feat you were talking about, which is Pole Fighter, not Fighting. It's essentially Unorthodox Flurry for polearms, so monk-only. It gets into the issue of monk flurries with two weapons, which is discussed in the D&D FAQ.

Let's say we go with the quickest way to get through all of these, which is 6 feats. Human Fighter 4/Monk 2 would have BAB +5 and let's say a Halberd +1 and Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Normal Attack bonus, using the elite array, so Str 17 and Dex 15, would be +10/+5. Flurrying with it is +8/+8/+3. Throw in Spinning Halberd for +8/+8/+3/+3 and then Haft Strike for +6/+6/+6/+1/+1. Looks like a flurry of misses, to me.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

EDIT: Throw Slashing Flurry into the mix and you'll have one more attack that'll make it even less likely to hit, though you'd need a couple more levels under your belt than the above example character has to get it.

[Thespianus]

Alrighties, I finally figured out what feat you were talking about, which is Pole Fighter, not Fighting.
Sorry. My bad.


Let's say we go with the quickest way to get through all of these, which is 6 feats. Human Fighter 4/Monk 2 would have BAB +5 and let's say a Halberd +1 and Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Normal Attack bonus, using the elite array, so Str 17 and Dex 15, would be +10/+5. Flurrying with it is +8/+8/+3. Throw in Spinning Halberd for +8/+8/+3/+3 and then Haft Strike for +6/+6/+6/+1/+1. Looks like a flurry of misses, to me.

Yes, it does, unless you get other circumstantial bonuses (flanking, lost dex bonus, etc).

I brought it up because..well, 5 attacks with a Halberd is pretty much for a 5th level character, and while not being a great primary attack choice, it could be good for the occational tons-o-hit flurry.

But, yeah, it's suboptimal, I agree. Thanks for the build sample, btw.

[AslanCross]

I just noticed that this thread was resurrected from 2 years of death.

[daggaz]

You guys serious? For spinning halberd, you have to invest in two crappy feats (weapon focus and two weapon fighting, the latter of which is probably not a central part of your build's theme if you are wielding a TWO HANDED WEAPON) all so that you can make an extra attack at -5? An extra miss, if you ask me. They had to toss in that extra dodge bonus to ac just to keep the other feats from kicking mud in this ones face and laughing it right out of the book.

You can keep all the extra attacks that will never land, or better yet, play a vanilla monk. :smallconfused:

[Cieyrin]

It's more a thought experiment, a what-if, as it were. As I mentioned earlier, it's not the greatest idea, as you take flurry penalties twice, meaning those extra attacks probably aren't going to land, let alone your normal ones.

Now, I wouldn't necessarily write off Spinning Halberd entirely, either, as flurries go, as an extra secondary attack that doesn't penalize any of your other attacks actually isn't bad. Better than turning your entire attack routine into a flurry of misses, anyways. It's also better than Lightning Mace (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Lightning_Mace,CW) is, which gives you extra attacks on a condition not likely to occur, given you'd have to throw Improved Critical, since you can't Keen it. Also, who really wants to dual wield light maces, anyways? Halberds are plenty awesome by themselves and I'm not gonna nitpick on a feat that benefits it a little bit more, even if the damage would have been better as a club of the weapon's size.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[Deepblue706]

Spinning Halberd is actually one of the better feats of that book. I mean, look at Defensive Strike. Get +4 to attack against someone who misses you on a turn you use Full Defense? As in, when you do nothing, but get a +4 AC bonus for a full round?

Spinning Halberd's only bad feat requirement is Two-Weapon Fighting, but that can actually be used to your advantage. In fact, I would recommend making use of that with Armor Spikes instead of multiclassing to Monk for flurry, because at least your BAB won't suffer, and you can continue taking other feats at a steady rate.

[Cieyrin]

True on the Defensive Strike. I'd rather go w/ Karmic Strike, anyways, as the feat that Robilar's Gambit tried to be and failed to do miserably.

Doing it with Armor Spikes I suppose works decently, though it isn't as stylish as doing it with the halberd but we'll let it slide. :smalltongue: I prefer using Armor Spikes with the Axespike feat but it's all good, anyways.

[Yukitsu]

Spinning Halberd is actually one of the better feats of that book. I mean, look at Defensive Strike. Get +4 to attack against someone who misses you on a turn you use Full Defense? As in, when you do nothing, but get a +4 AC bonus for a full round?

Spinning Halberd's only bad feat requirement is Two-Weapon Fighting, but that can actually be used to your advantage. In fact, I would recommend making use of that with Armor Spikes instead of multiclassing to Monk for flurry, because at least your BAB won't suffer, and you can continue taking other feats at a steady rate.

On the contrary, I prefer using monk, offhanding unarmed strikes, and getting to flurry with the unarmeds, while getting my halberd strikes in as well.

[Eldariel]

On the contrary, I prefer using monk, offhanding unarmed strikes, and getting to flurry with the unarmeds, while getting my halberd strikes in as well.

I thought Flurry said you can only attack with special Monk-weapons while using it (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/monk.htm#flurryofBlows), which pretty much nukes Halberd+US Flurry TWF.

[Yukitsu]

Probably. I do theory builds while drunk, and never actually play monks.

[Darrin]

I thought Flurry said you can only attack with special Monk-weapons while using it (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/monk.htm#flurryofBlows), which pretty much nukes Halberd+US Flurry TWF.

Pole Fighter (Dragon Compendium p. 105) lets you flurry with a polearm.

[WhiteDrag0n]

I am currently running a game where one of my players is mixing Spinning Halberd with a dash of Steel Wind from Book of 9 swords.

For those that don't know Steel Wind allows you to make two attacks against two different opponents, does this stack with Spinning Halberd for a total of 4 attacks?

[MeeposFire]

Holy double thread necromancy batman! (seriously epic timing too)

I don't think so since doesn't spinning halberd require a full attack action and that maneuver is a standard action?