Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Polearm Master Paladin is just as broken in BG3 as 5e

Finding myself really having fun obliterating bosses in a couple of turns with a polearm master pally. I made a Devotion Paladin, and gave him polearm master at level 4. Can start with any glaive/polearm but I really started melting things when I got the polearm from and then subsequently hit level 5.


The playstyle is pretty straightforward. Works best with a caster in the party that can do Hold Person. I did 108 damage in 1 turn at level 5 to the commander with this.

It worked as follows:

- Boss runs up to my pally and smacks him, when he enters attack range I get an Opp attack on him because of Polearm master. 1st level smite the opp attack. Free 20(ish) points of damage.

- Warlock casts hold person after a wisdom hex, boss failed the save (won't always happen, I know)

- Level 5 paladin gets you 2 weapon attacks, both of which you can smite on. Polearm master gives you a bonus attack that you can also smite on.

- Boss is held, melee attacks are auto-crits. Proceed to casually swing polearm at boss 3 times. Smite on all 3. ~90 damage later and boss has 3 hp.

-Have mommy Shadowheart run up and bonk him on the head for the remaining 3 hp.

ez clap.

My DM hates that I do this in my IRL campaign, and I can see why.

Happy Smiting!

I'm making Laezel a polearm build but at level 4 take a +1 str feat to get 18 str (the one with triple jump distance).

I have to wait until level 8 to get the second attack option.

It works nice with EK because she can throw any bound spear and it returns. None throwing weapon like greatswords just do 1 damage when thrown

You add the ring and another item I can't remember that add an extra 1d4 thrown damage on top, and lob that watchers pike all day.

Hex does not work on saving throws though. Only ability checks, which are different from saving throws.

That's a Paladin problem and not Polearm Master problem.

On my Eldritch Knight PM is just a nice extra to sometimes get an AoO and use your BA for around 7 damage. Good, yes - OP, no.

3 to 5 smites on the same turn however are silly levels of OP. Especially in BG where you can build auto-crits. One DnD already fixed it to just one smite per turn. BG3 should do the same.

I hate the term "broken". I wish people would just post it as "Polearm Master Paladin build"

Sorry, off topic. I'll have to check out the build on a different playthrough.

Polearm Master is considered OP in tabletop, too. It's just a massive boost to action economy.

Yep, it is indeed powerful - but I think it is exaggerated here vs TT - you have limited smites, and you need a long rest to get them back. A DM can simply send you into a string of encounters where you need to manage your spell slots better, not you get them back per combat. Also, in the example, the hold may have failed - so that was just good luck.

What is more broken is haste giving a full +1 action. It would be easy to fix it - but they chose not to. Try swap the paladin for a *hasted* paladin at level 5 + PM. If you have the slots, and you hit - that's at least 5 attacks in one round including the 2* 2 attacks + 1 bonus attack, each of which can smite. And that's before shenanigans with multiclassing. I guess in 5e they assumed in a well paced campaign you'd couldn't rest wherever. I don't see the bonus attack as being an issue though - if you dual wield, you could do that anyway (sure not as much as a polearm, but you can take a feat to wield to non-heavy weapons).

So I just pulled out my candle and dipped the spear, unfortunately when thrown it doesn't apply the extra fire damage either

I picked the other throwing damage item up again, from the bitterbang quest reward, problem is though it competes in the gloves slot - +1d4 thrown, Absolute gloves for bane or advantage when next to 2+ enemies damn.

Why are there so many nice gloves in the game, I can't choose!

I still haven't found a decent glaive yet for melee switch, but will keep an eye out for them.

I cannot say much to the Paladin as I don't like the class, but on a Fighter or Barbarian the Polearm Master/Sentinel combination is not more "broken" than Fighter or Barbarian with GWM + Lucky or a Fighter with Sharpshooter + Lucky. You get more control but less damage, for me that's ok. Seems to be a Paladin "problem" because you can have the polearm + a lot of damage.

But I don't see it really as a problem. Haste giving not just one additional attack or the vulnerability from Wet is far higher on that list.