Hi - my fighter uses the fighting style 'Dueling' and has the Polearm Master feat.
On the digital character sheet the PM bonus action that allows a melee attack with the butt of a spear does not benefit from the +2 bonus to damage from dueling.
Looking at the RAW I can see no obvious reason for this and it is hard to see why it would contravene RAI either.
Dueling only applies when you are using a one handed weapon.
Dueling
When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
A polearm is a two-handed weapon and does not qualify for Dueling.
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“butt of a spear” means you are using the 1-handed spear, correct? That does indeed benefit from dueling and works with polearm master. The attack automatically built in is a hard-coded generic attack that doesn’t look at things like dueling or reach of the weapon. It is a bug due to a lack of interconnected functionality.
I would tend to think it doesn't work. It seems like it would be difficult to land an effective hit with the butt of a spear if you were only holding it in one hand. In my mind, to hit with the butt you would have to at least temporarily grab it with a 2nd hand. Flipping the spear around in your hand to use it effectively as a club is not treating it as a polearm, nor would it be very easy to do without the use of your 2nd hand. My understanding is not RAW, it's an attempt to understand the potential logic and RAI interpretation that would lead to not getting the dueling bonus with the PAM spear.
Interesting point about the RAI implications. My counter-argument would be that there is considerable difference between the Pike (18lbs) and the Glaive/Halberd (6lbs) which are Heavy weapons that lack the Versatile property but have Reach, and the Quarterstaff (4lbs) and the Spear (3lbs) which lack Reach but are Versatile.
Given that the Spear and Quarterstaff explicitly can be used one-handed I can see how a weaker hit (1d4 rather than 1d6) could be achieved using the other end one-handed.
Thinking about it, for the Intention to be to disallow one-handed hits with the Spear or Quarterstaff the RAW would need to go to the lengths of saying: The bonus attack may not be performed one-handed, which rather makes adding the two versatile weapons in an errata, as they did, pointless.
Hi - my fighter uses the fighting style 'Dueling' and has the Polearm Master feat.
On the digital character sheet the PM bonus action that allows a melee attack with the butt of a spear does not benefit from the +2 bonus to damage from dueling.
Looking at the RAW I can see no obvious reason for this and it is hard to see why it would contravene RAI either.
Is this an oversight or intentional?
This is intentional.
Dueling only applies when you are using a one handed weapon.
A polearm is a two-handed weapon and does not qualify for Dueling.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
“butt of a spear” means you are using the 1-handed spear, correct? That does indeed benefit from dueling and works with polearm master. The attack automatically built in is a hard-coded generic attack that doesn’t look at things like dueling or reach of the weapon. It is a bug due to a lack of interconnected functionality.
Yeah, that's right. 1h Spear (versatile), shield in other hand. That's what I thought it probably was. Thanks for the reply
bump
I would tend to think it doesn't work. It seems like it would be difficult to land an effective hit with the butt of a spear if you were only holding it in one hand. In my mind, to hit with the butt you would have to at least temporarily grab it with a 2nd hand. Flipping the spear around in your hand to use it effectively as a club is not treating it as a polearm, nor would it be very easy to do without the use of your 2nd hand. My understanding is not RAW, it's an attempt to understand the potential logic and RAI interpretation that would lead to not getting the dueling bonus with the PAM spear.
Interesting point about the RAI implications. My counter-argument would be that there is considerable difference between the Pike (18lbs) and the Glaive/Halberd (6lbs) which are Heavy weapons that lack the Versatile property but have Reach, and the Quarterstaff (4lbs) and the Spear (3lbs) which lack Reach but are Versatile.
Given that the Spear and Quarterstaff explicitly can be used one-handed I can see how a weaker hit (1d4 rather than 1d6) could be achieved using the other end one-handed.
Thinking about it, for the Intention to be to disallow one-handed hits with the Spear or Quarterstaff the RAW would need to go to the lengths of saying: The bonus attack may not be performed one-handed, which rather makes adding the two versatile weapons in an errata, as they did, pointless.
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2021/01/28/if-a-player-has-polearm-master-feat-but-is-using-a-spear-or-quarterstaff-1-hand-with-a-shield-does-the-feat-still-apply/