I've decided to play a Polearm Master in an upcoming campaign, and I have this idea of how I want the character to play, but with such a wealth of viable feats I'm finding it hard to solidify a feat progression outline. (something I like to do for my characters before each campaign)
My goal, essentially, is to manipulate combat through use of Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard (buffed by the adopted Halfling racial trait, Helpful) by protecting allies and tying up enemies trying to harm them. I want to do damage, but it isn't my sole focus. There is some desire for Teamwork Feats, since I am paired with an Inquisitor.
I've looked over so many Polearm builds this past week, and while certain feats pop up consistently, it's a build that seems rather diverse. Here's my cheat sheet, what do you guys think?
Combat Patrol is very reactive. You may find it frustrating to use. And Whirlwind Attack doesn't do much unless you score a critical and you've reached at least Staggering Critical. Losing armor training means you can't take Advanced Armor Training which will be annoying, and while you keep something enough like Weapon Training that you should be able to take Advanced Weapon Training as a feat, you won't get free AWT at 9th, 13th or 17 level. You also lose bravery which means no Armed Bravery.
Basically this would have been iffy before the Weapon and Armor Masters Handbooks came out and is well below par now.
Combat Patrol is very reactive. You may find it frustrating to use. And Whirlwind Attack doesn't do much unless you score a critical and you've reached at least Staggering Critical. Losing armor training means you can't take Advanced Armor Training which will be annoying, and while you keep something enough like Weapon Training that you should be able to take Advanced Weapon Training as a feat, you won't get free AWT at 9th, 13th or 17 level. You also lose bravery which means no Armed Bravery.
Basically this would have been iffy before the Weapon and Armor Masters Handbooks came out and is well below par now.
I was thinking of using Whirlwind Attack to initiate trips on everything in range, and eventually to emphasize crits. Tripping Strike would synergize well, I believe.
I hadn't considered how good vanilla Fighter might be. but now that you've mentioned it I'll take a longer look at Weapon and Armor masteries. Ultimately I want to control combat, so I liked the Polearm Master's ability to flank from adjacent squares, and bonus to combat maneuvers. I was planning on making heavy use of trip, but I wonder how effective that route would be given its 3-4 feat cost.
bump
That's actually full of useful information. Thanks.
How did you get your Polearms at +5 by 13th level?
How did you get your Polearms at +5 by 13th level?
Expected wealth for a 13th level character is 140000 gp, while a +5 weapon cost about 50000 GP. That makes it very expensive but affordable at his level.
Expected wealth for a 13th level character is 140000 gp, while a +5 weapon cost about 50000 GP. That makes it very expensive but affordable at his level.
Oh, I was asking how he got his weapon training bonus to +5, not his weapon's enhancement bonus.
EDIT: Nevermind, I found it. Gloves of Dueling OP
Gloves of dueling give +2 to your weapon training bonus.
Tripping (with a weapon) is a reasonably useful maneuver most of the time. When it's useless though it's really useless (vs. flyers, vs. creatures without legs, vs. creatures with way too many legs, vs. spellcasters who aren't using their AC as a defence anyway, vs. archers a long way away, etc.) I suggest making sure there's other stuff you can do.
Glad it was helpful. I struggled a bit against enemies where tripping wasn't a sensible strategy until level 9 when I picked up Power Attack.
As a note it's been awhile since I played the character so those are pre-nerf jingasa and slippers of feather step.
He makes good use of his high attack bonus with dazing and power attack. (technically he can combat expertise is an option but I've almost never used it).
Tripping Bonus: BAB 13 + Str 4 + Dex 4 + Weapon Training 5 + Weapon Focus 1 + Greater Weapon Focus 1 + Maneuver Master 6 + Improved Trip 2 + Greater Trip 2+ Heirloom Weapon 2 + Enhancement 5 - Power Attack 4 - Dazing 5 = 36
Greater trip lets everybody provoke, including himself with a +20(after PA and dazing) to hit for 1d10+28.
Against enemies with higher defenses power attack and/or dazing attack can be dropped for up to +9 more to hit.
Getting extra attacks from AoOs and such gives dazing more chances to trigger, even if tough foes are unlikely to fail the save
He can also benefit from Bull Strength which at higher level its been possible to get a caster to devote a few second level slots for buffing for at least some of the day.
Corset of the Vishkanya is also nice for fitting into corridors while enlarged and the earth elemental belt can get him out of trouble or solve a variety of other mobility or exploratory problems.
Initiative +13 feels good as does a passable score on all knowledge skills, especially as a pure fighter.
Also gloves or dueling are OP.
My character is a gnoll (+2 STR, +2 CON) and while smart for his kind I don't think I want him to be bookish, so I've opted for vanilla Fighter I think, over Lore Warden. The issue is that I lose 2 feats (Level 1 human, and free Combat Expertise from Lore Warden) and finally, I want to include the Bodyguard feat.
As a result, I'm a little feat starved, so I can't seem to figure out how much emphasis to put on tripping, whether or not Whirlwind Attack is worth it with all the feats required (including Lunge) to pull it off. And I was considering using a fauchard for the 30% crit chance at level 8, and continuing on to grab crit feats (and tripping with Tripping Strike) but that's like a possible 5-7 feats.
SO MANY FEATS, SO FEW LEVELS =/
Whirlwind Attack depends a lot on whether your foes usually come singleton or in mobs. Thing is, if there are lots of foes, they probably aren't much of a challenge and you can mow them down with regular attacks; if there's only one or two big foes, you may to full attack one of them to death rather than only making one attack on each.
Fauchard is really nice, and probably worth it, but the extra feats pinch. I could go either way on this one.
Two things about the polearm master archetype. First, you completely replace weapon training, so you do not qualify for advanced weapon training, at all. Examples of archetypes that do not replace the weapon training are Dragoon and Two Handed Fighter. second, because you gave up weapon training, you do NOT get the +2 increase to weapon training from Gloves of Dueling.
Keep that in mind when looking at archetypes, your build plan, and the campaign's expected end level. If you are not going to reach a level at which gloves become affordable, that is not an issue, but it is something to consider.
Maybe something like this?
Class: Vanilla fighter for advanced weapon and armor training
Traits
Adopted --> Helpful (Hafling)
Fool for Friends
Feats
1: Combat reflexes
Fighter 1: Bodyguard
Fighter 2: Phalanx Formation
3: Power Attack
Fighter 4: Shield Focus
5: Shield Brace
Fighter 6: Advanced Weapon Training (Armed Bravery)
7: In Harm's Way
Fighter 8: Exotic Weapon Proficency (Fauchard)
9: Critical Focus
Fighter 10: Advanced Weapon Training (Warrior Spirit)
11: Improved Critical (Fauchard)
Fighter 12: Advanced Armor Training (Armored Juggernaut)
13: Bleeding Critical
Fighter 14: Critical Mastery
15: Staggering Critical
Fighter 16: Advanced Weapon Training (Weapon Specalist: Fauchard)
17: Stunning Critical
Fighter 18: Advanced Armor Training (Armor Specalist: Full Plate)
19: ???
Fighter 20: ???
Armor: Adamantine Full Plate
Shield: Darkwood Heavy Wooden Shield
Weapon Enchants: Benevolent. Maybe Fortuitous depending if your GM lets you use it with Bodyguard.
Armor and Shield Enchants: Benevolent.
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Glad it was helpful. I struggled a bit against enemies where tripping wasn't a sensible strategy until level 9 when I picked up Power Attack.
As a note it's been awhile since I played the character so those are pre-nerf jingasa and slippers of feather step.
He makes good use of his high attack bonus with dazing and power attack. (technically he can combat expertise is an option but I've almost never used it).
Tripping Bonus: BAB 13 + Str 4 + Dex 4 + Weapon Training 5 + Weapon Focus 1 + Greater Weapon Focus 1 + Maneuver Master 6 + Improved Trip 2 + Greater Trip 2+ Heirloom Weapon 2 + Enhancement 5 - Power Attack 4 - Dazing 5 = 36
Greater trip lets everybody provoke, including himself with a +20(after PA and dazing) to hit for 1d10+28.
Against enemies with higher defenses power attack and/or dazing attack can be dropped for up to +9 more to hit.
Getting extra attacks from AoOs and such gives dazing more chances to trigger, even if tough foes are unlikely to fail the save
He can also benefit from Bull Strength which at higher level its been possible to get a caster to devote a few second level slots for buffing for at least some of the day.
Corset of the Vishkanya is also nice for fitting into corridors while enlarged and the earth elemental belt can get him out of trouble or solve a variety of other mobility or exploratory problems.
Initiative +13 feels good as does a passable score on all knowledge skills, especially as a pure fighter.
Also gloves or dueling are OP.
Very similar to my 11th level fighter. He went Unbreakable fighter to make access to the old school Living Monolith easier. He gives up a little not taking Lore Warden, but you have to admit Swift Righteous Might is attractive. :)
He took the much cheaper and somewhat less cheesy Gauntlets of Skilled Maneuver -Trip. He does well in most mods, threatening things out to 20', but a recent unnamed PFS mod had mostly flying things and swarms and I had to work hard to contribute.