Hi,
i am considering playing a tank character that protects his group by using a reach weapon (glaive) and either trip or otherwise engage the enemies.
At the moment, a Tempered Champion Paladin is my favourite choice, as he can select numerous weapon tricks...
starting with close sweep to trip enemies directly adjacent to me, i think that Choke up sounds incredibly cheesy. Therefore my question: Does the Choke Up Weapon trick actually allow me to use my Glaive together with a Shield?
I also consider taking 2 levels of Battle oracle to get access to enlarge Person (as well as some nice revelations), to increase my thread range to 20'...
Even if you don't want to use dex to hit, you can grab bladed brush with a glaive instead of choke up/half bash for a probably better version of those abilities.
starting with close sweep to trip enemies directly adjacent to me, i think that Choke up sounds incredibly cheesy. Therefore my question: Does the Choke Up Weapon trick actually allow me to use my Glaive together with a Shield?
Yes. You suffer a pretty notable -2 att/dmg when using Choke Up, though.
Other options would be Unhindering Shield or Shield Brace.
as he can select numerous weapon tricks...
Just fyi, you get access to all the Polearm Tricks when you take Weapon Trick: Polearm. Don't know if that was unclear to you.
Does the Choke Up Weapon trick actually allow me to use my Glaive together with a Shield?
Yes. Note than if you one-hand it, strength bonus and power Attack multiplier follow suit, so the decline in damage will be pretty big.
There are other options for combing a polearm with a shield, Unhindering Shield and Shield Brace, which I recommend using instead.
Thanks a lot guys, i wasnt aware of shield brace, that helps a lot.
Just fyi, you get access to all the Polearm Tricks when you take Weapon Trick: Polearm. Don't know if that was unclear to you.
Oha, thats very nice, i think i just misunderstood the whole "take this multiple times for different trick options" line, in the feat description. Then it'S even better than i thought.
At the risk of stating the obvious, you get all the tricks as long as you meet each trick’s prerequisites. So essentially you’re looking at three additional feats and ranks in Acrobatics and Climb if you want the full functionality.
Those extra feats will of course give you Close Sweep and Haft Bash, however, which make Choke Up redundant—by allowing you to attack, reposition, or trip adjacent foes without losing your two-handed damage bonuses.
For reach weapon builds, I strongly recommend getting Armor Spikes and enchant them with Spell Storing Weapon Enchant, and then get your friendly neighborhood party wizard/sorc/witch/etc put something nasty in there, like Hold Person or Battering Blast. If any enemy gets within 5ft, now you don't need to choke up, you can just shoulder ram him and set off the spell.