What options are there for choking up on a reach weapon so you can hit adjacent creatures?
I got a friend making an 8th-level dwarven paladin (stonelord) with a dwarven longhammer who wants to know what's out there.
Weapon trick (polearm) for one, or spear dancing style. The transformative weapon property might also help.
You could always use the otherside of the longhammer and create an improvised double weapon, but that wouldn't be a great option.
Bladed Brush lets you adjust as a move action but it is for Glaive only. Haft Strike is third party but is pretty balanced. Forces you to choose for the turn and take a -2 to hit if you choke up on the weapon.
In addition to the options above, the polearm master fighter archtypes, but I wouldn't consider it a worthwhile dip, spear dancer is a fighting style, so it would compeat for his Swift action, but it's still the best option (in my opinion)
Oh, the other fighter archtype is dragoon, but it doesn't kick in until lv 7
You could also re-flavor a meteor hammer, the weapon itself can switch from double to reach
If you're enlarged (this situation is seldom a problem unless you are), use Pushing Assault with your armor spikes (or that haft of your polearm as an improvised weapon), then 5', then finish your full-attack.
|
If you're enlarged (this situation is seldom a problem unless you are), use Pushing Assault with your armor spikes (or that haft of your polearm as an improvised weapon), then 5', then finish your full-attack.
This !
Also works with natural weapons. Ex. that dwarven boulder helmet which grants a Gore attack.| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I played a reach weapon Slayer once, and I found it kind of a pain to sacrifice feats and action economy in combat to choke up for a weapon. I ended up not doing any feats for it and I just got some armor spikes. Honestly, the times that enemies got within my 5ft space was quite rare (he was a 10ft range Cleave specialist with Great Cleave + Improved Cleaving Finish), especially at the mid-late levels when monsters are typically Large size or larger, so I really didn't want to invest a feat for something that only happened once every 2-3 sessions. The only targets who were really a nuisance were medium-sized humanoid targets, so I enchanted the Armor Spikes with Bane (humans), Dispelling, and Spell Storing, then called it a day. My fav spells for Spell Storing were Battering Blast, Daylight, Hold Person, Hydraulic Torrent and Summon Monster. My party's wizard would imbue my armor spikes with just about anything I wanted, it was pretty fun ;)
If using a polearm: Spear Dancing Style.
If you're enlarged (this situation is seldom a problem unless you are), use Pushing Assault with your armor spikes (or that haft of your polearm as an improvised weapon), then 5', then finish your full-attack.This ! Also works with natural weapons. Ex. that dwarven boulder helmet which grants a Gore attack.
The nice thing about Pushing Assault is that it's a normal attack role vs AC, *not* a maneuver check vs CMD (as would be the case with repositioning, etc).
|
|
Pushing Assault specifies a "two-handed weapon attack modified by the Power Attack feat." Armor spikes are a light weapon.
Hmm I had totally forgotten that. Should had checked up on the feat before posting.
Another option:
Outslug Sprint to 10 ft. step instead of 5 ft step.
Activate outslug style using improved unarmed strike (close weapon group) 10 ft step. You only get the bonus dm. with improved unarmed, strike but I think you could use a polearm or even a ranged weapon after the 10 ft. step, because you are still “armed”/“holding” your weapon from the close weapon group.
How important is it to the player to use his current weapon? Instead of a dwarven longhammer, can I offer the dwarven longish hammer?
Using weapon design rules from Weapon Master's Handbook, building for an exotic two handed melee weapon, we can get the maximum number of build points (6 for exotic, 3 for 2-handed, 3 from claiming additional design points). With this, building it to be as close to the long hammer as we can while giving him close range options, we can completely recreate the long hammer while also allowing him to switch between reach and close as a swift action (improved damage x5 (5pts), improved critical multiplier x1 (3pts), spring loaded (2 pts), weapon feature: reach (1pt), Traditional (1pt)).
Congratulations, he now has swift action reach with no feat expenditure.