just starting a quick poll here (no pun intended, see below)
Who amongst us makes use of the various pole-arms as primary weapons in pathfinder? i mean, despite the fact that they ruled the battlefields of ancient earth they seem mostly sub-par compared to swords in pathfinder. so does anyone use them instead of swords as their primary weapons, and if so which ones?
Note: the primary strength of polearms in pathfinder is reach, which is also their greatest weakness. who here makes use of reach to get an advantage in combat? (my parties tend not to know the meaning of the word 'tactics' and thus not make much use of reach weapons)
My party has a glaive-wielding polearm fighter (rest of martial oriented characters are greatsword-wielding paladin and scimitair-and-shield ranger, oh and a very occasional greatsword-wielding barbarian).
I've seen a few polearm users,
We had a Naginata wielding samurai, a Bill fighter, a Glaive-Guisarme fighter and a Ranseur user.
Does the reach evolution count? If not, I haven't had a chance to use them yet.
Inside a pole arm users reach isn't that big a problem in pathfinder. YOu can 5 foot step back and whack, or get armored spikes as a backup, just in case.
I have almost never actually seen them in play. I've seen several proposed builds with them going for AoO. But none of them have been used. I would say this is at least partially because our group rarely plans or coordinates our combats well.
My first whack at PFS with a Glaive wielding pally went pretty well. Most of my attacks were on the "can make attacks of opportunity while flat footed" clause in combat reflexes. A monster got within reach, he just drew his backup club and whacked.
Looking forward to the armored spikes and enlarge person combo soon.
Guisarme for trip and reach; though it was designed as a two sickle fighter. The Combat reflexes and Greater Trip seem to make it worthwhile. When enemies close he doesn't back off but drops the Guisarme, draws the sickles and tries a trip.
As per BigNorseWolf it gives a good chance in surprise rounds - AOO (Greater)Trip - causing AOO! then if beaten on Initiative he still gets a AOO as the attacker stands back up and another as he closes in the first round. Though of course creative DM'ing stops it being a game breaker.
Also been in a party where a couple of the "backup" fighter types had long spears to give a second rank attack in corridor situations. The cover penalty meant they didn't hit often for damage but they only had to hit AC14 for an assist!
With the.. ahem.. clarification... on what trip weapons do there's little to no reason to use one unless you plan on repositioning. Any weapon can trip (and glaive has the best damage) The only benefits are repositioning and the ability to drop the weapon if you fail by 10.. but failing by ten is neigh impossible.
The trick with tripping with a reach weapon is that unless the opponent has reach, they can't hit you back. You draw the attack of opportunity... and they can't make it.
@BigNorseWolf as discussed elsewhere I certainly don't follow the "clarified" trip rules and neither do the rest of my group; either DMs or players. We're a conservative bunch! (small c!)
So Trip is only Guisarme or whip for Reach and whip doesn't threaten.
I tend to use them more as a DM than as a player. Hobgoblins with a rank of sword & shield users, in front of a rank of polearm users, in front of a rank of archers makes for an efficient unit.