| lemeres |
Lunge.
It doesn't increase your threatened area for AoO, but it sets things up so you take the most advantage of reach.
Normally, when using a reach weapon, you end your turn with the enemy 10' away from you. The enemy only ahs to take a 5' to reach you. That means that the enemy doesn't draw an AoO, and they get their full attack.
With lunge, your polearm will be able to hit from 15' away. With the enemy starting their turn that far away, they may have to move 10' to get next to you. That means they have to cross your threatened area (drawing AoO) and they will likely lose their full attack. That gives both offense and defense with how you position yourself.
Also, lunge has the lovely advantage of making it so your polearm can full attack anything in a 45' wide circle (10' reach+5'step+5' lunge+your own square in the middle). Which is always lovely for a melee character.
Rodinia
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Ideal feats for wielding a Lucerne Hammer include Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, and possibly Improved Initiative. After that it's wide open.
Power Attack helps you hit harder.
Combat reflexes gives you multiple attacks if you use good reach tactics.
Improved initiative let's you go first, so you are in position to get AoOs.
| lemeres |
Also, these are less 'reach fighter' and more 'cool thing for anyone that smacks people', but I still like it:
Intimidate build focusing on Cornugon smash- That is a free action when you power attack to make enemies get a -2 to a lot of things: attack, saves, and skills.
Riving strike- needs arcane strike (SLAs can let you qualify for arcane strike; racial SLAs and the light bringer trait are good choices since they scale with your level). This new addition from ACG has the lovely effect of acting like a 1 turn evil eye hex on anything you smack with arcane strike. As in, it forces enemies to take a -2 to saves against spells and SLAs for 1 turn.
And the lovely thing about penalties is that they stack. So a total of -4 to saves against spells seems delicious. Useful if you have an SoS wizard in the party. Because I like the idea that people are easier to dominate after you beat their skulls in a bit.
Anyway, this is not specifically a set of feats for reach users, but something interesting to consider since it gives you the added role as a debuffer. Especially since fighters have the extra feats to pull this off at a reasonable level (each of the feats mentioned here are combat feats). And the fact that they are both associated with damage boosting feats is not bad either.
Zedorland
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Initiative is super important for making sure you get in position to make AoO's before the battle lines are set. It is often the case that the first round of combat involves positioning, and after that it tends to end up a slug fest as people full attack each other to the ground. Being able to set up the kill zone around your party to discourage/punish people moving in is great but only if you can do it early.
Therefore Improved initiative and extra traits to grab reactionary are some solid options for buffing your initiative up.
| strayshift |
Agree with the above but also would add Two-Handed Fighter and investing in Sunder with this weapon has tremendous synergy.
Also agree with Lunge but also throwing enlarge into the equation means you have an offensive reach of 20' and the weapon does 3d6 base damage. You start to make vital strike more viable meaning a combination of damage, movement and reach gives you some pretty good tactical flexibility on an open board.
Finally remember the weapon has two damage types (piercing and bludgeon) as well as the brace quality. More options for particular situations.
| lemeres |
Also agree with Lunge but also throwing enlarge into the equation means you have an offensive reach of 20' and the weapon does 3d6 base damage. You start to make vital strike more viable meaning a combination of damage, movement and reach gives you some pretty good tactical flexibility on an open board.
Of course, that is always a strong choice. Just tried to look at it before buffs and such (since some always complain if you rely on your party for basic things like this)
Just remember though, while your regular size allows you to full attack a circle with your lucrene hammer (assuming you spend a 5' step when enemies get up close), you can only full attack with a doughnut when you are large (since the gap expanded to 10' wide, and 5' steps can't cover it anymore; adjacent squares are a problem). But that is often still worth it since you not only reach out to 30' away (diameter is 70'), and it allows you to much more effectively control the battlefield with threatened area.
Anyway, grabbing some armor spikes and the like is probably a good idea. Even if you don't enchant them, it will allow you to punish casters that get cheeky.