I have a player who wants to play a Trox fighter using the polearm master arche type. He will be using a large polearm so reach is out to 20'. He plans on building him to take whirlwind attack. I know at 2nd level he can shorten his grip and take a -4 and attack adjacent targets. Will that work as well once he gets whirlwind attack? The party wizard is already talking about casting enlarge person on him as well giving him reach out to 30'. I shudder to think that it is possible to actually pull that off rules wise. The grey area seems to be once they get in close to him. Can he shorten his grip while doing whirlwind attack for anyone within 10' of him.
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He can't really use a large pole arm... Inappropriately Sized Weapons
Since it can't go from 'two-handed weapon' to another category, it cannot be used by that sized character.
Even if you houserule it, there should be substantial penalties on attack rolls for trying to use such a weapon. The standard penalty is -2 per category, but this seems special. Maybe it goes to a -4? Or maybe -6?
There would be other 'pain in the neck' penalties for having such a huge weapon... it's going to be heavy and awkward to carry around when not in combat. Hard to find a replacement, impossible to conceal, etc.
25' reach is normally the standard max reach, without getting into some shenanigans. Reach weapon + Enlarge Person + Lunge feat.
On a Whirlwind Attack, RAW it looks like you can use an immediate action to shorten your grip, but it stays that way until you use another immediate action to change it back. So, he could interrupt the Whirlwind, take a -4 penalty on all further attacks, and then he will only threaten adjacent squares for the rest of the Whirlwind and on all other attacks until his turn came up again.
If he wants a crazy Whirlwind Attack character, have him look at Beast Totem Barbarian. Use a standard Polearm and by 10th level, he will be able to Charge 80' and Pounce, with Enlarge Person, and Lunge to make an attack on every enemy within a 25' radius (from his size large 2x2 square) using his full attack bonus.
He can't really use a large pole arm... Inappropriately Sized Weapons
Since it can't go from 'two-handed weapon' to another category, it cannot be used by that sized character.
Why not he is a large size character. So his weapon will probably be large size. But after looking at it a reach weapon only adds another 5' to a medium creature. So since he has a 10' reach normally if he uses an appropriate sized weapon his reach would be 15'. If he is enlarged he would then have a 20' reach. Well that's what it looks like. That Beast Totem barbarian looks insane. Not sure if I should mention that since I'm kind of on the fence already about allowing the character. Gonna GM rise of the ruin lords and his PC would wipe most of the stuff in the first couple of modules.
Well his argument is that with a polearm and doing a whirlwind attack he can hit anything not adjacent to him. Then shorten his grip since it is an immediate action and continue with the whirlwind against any adjacent creatures. Not sure if that is correct that way.
Well I know he can use his pole fighting ability to shorten his grip and attack adjacent targets at -4. I just don't think he can do that in conjunction with a whirlwind attack.
You can take a swift action anytime you would normally be allowed to take a free action.
You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally.
So the immediate action shouldn't be a problem, as an immediate action taken during your turn works as a swift action and he can use a swift action between the attacks.
Since he's a large character with a reach weapon, he can attack people at 15 and 20 feet away, but not at five and ten. The way the polearm master's Pole Fighting ability is written, he can then shorten the grip on his spear to attack enemies adjacent to him, so those at 5ft away, but not those at 10ft. This ability does not take his natural reach into account, but since you mentioned adjacent every time, I assume both of you already realized that?
So if you decide to use this ability as written then he can't attack everything with Whirlwind attack, there will be a gap. At large size those at 10ft away can't be hit, while Huge those at 10 and 15 feet away can't be hit, but he can always hit those adjacent to him.
One option he has to get around the adjacent issue is to use the Phalanx Soldier archetype instead of the Polearm master archetype. With Phalanx soldier you can combine a polearm with a shield. The shield threatens at your natural reach, the polearm threatens beyond that. This way you always threathen up to 20 as a large creature, thus there's no hole when using whirlwind attack. He could do some lovely bull rushing with the shield bashes and tripping with the polearm if that's his thing.
The issue here might be more that his race is large than anything else. Enlarge person still has a 1 round casting time, during which you can potentially harm the caster and force him to make concentration checks or fail the spell. It can also be dispelled, countered by reduce person, etc. There might be a reason why there are no large races amongst the Core, Featured and Uncommon races. If you feel the issue of a large race + polearm master + whirlwind attack could be a problem for you then you might want to consider not allowing the race in question.
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Ah, I did not see the Trox part. That changes things.
He can use a size large pole arm then.
I recommend enforcing 'sensible' consequences for carrying around an enormous weapon like a large pole arm. It's going to be an issue going into doors, carrying through crowds, and just forget about fighting in a tunnel/dungeon.
Circumstance penalties should be common.
Enlarge Person will not work on him. Rhatahema is correct; it does not work on monstrous humanoids. He could concoct a half-giant with the ARG race builder rules and it would work then.
He can definitely do the whole 'immediate action to shorten grip' thing with a Whirlwind Attack. It's an immediate action, so it can be done at any time, even when it interrupts an action in progress.
If you are concerned about this tactic, just disallow it.
Taking a -4 on attacks is a pretty big concern though, especially at low levels.
That -4 is going to apply on any close-in attacks until his next turn, including all potential AOOs. It's also going to reduce his reach to 5' until his next turn. It basically eliminates one of the strongest aspects of a pole arm fighter for a couple weak attacks.
It's not a good strategy. Sensible Fighters wear spiked gauntlets and punch enemies in the face when they get too close.
Thanks for all the feedback.
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Tomos and a few other posters nailed it. However, other people posted incorrect information, particularly numbers regarding reach and size.
Take a loot at the Space - Reach - Threatened Area templates.
@OP: He has a good idea, but will have problems being too big to fit. As people above said, Enlarge Person won't work. I've GMd for some Large fighters with whirlwind attack, and it surely does work well. However, he should be content with the 'reach donut' and forget about trying to also get the donut hole. Finally, a medium size humanoid character who dips one level in Cleric for the Plant(Growth) domain can get just as big, but doesn't have the inconvenient size problems.
The SRD site is a well trusted site that I go to all the time for information. I really don't see the flaw with the large tall reach diagram. Looks like it's based just as on movement distance diagonally.
Actually, this FAQ released awhile ago says that creatures with a 10-ft reach do threaten the second diagonal.