I see this all the time that vengeance paladins should take PAM and use a polearm, I understand this because the extra opportunity attacks from the lvl 7 ability works well with 10 ft reach and the extra attack is another smite opportunity. Plus you can just vow of emnity for advantage.
However sometimes I feel that the sword and shield route with shield master can be really overlooked on a vengeance pally, because you have a source of near constant advantage instead of just once per long rest as well as the versatility of shoving and you are less feat hungry (usually PAM means GWM and Sentinel). Not to even mention you’re probably far better off when Haste comes online.
I mean constant advantage, with hunters mark and your smites on S&B isn’t bad compared to one chance a day at getting your real offense off with advantage with PAM.
What does everyone think? Paladins should have good burst damage so maybe PAM does make sense, but S&B just seems better in some ways.
The problem is that .....it's a bonus action to shove....when you already have like 5+ things that depend on your bonus action. You'd be best fit to just got conquest Sword and Board for more control. And ....your Channel Divinity resets on a short or long rest. And as a vengeance paladin your are MEANT to single out the biggest threat drop hunters mark/Divinity and WHOOP HIS ASS. PAM is good cuz it allows for extra attack + reaction attack (if you take this at level 1 as a human variant thats 3 attacks per turn) And thats GROSS. Sword And Board is OKAY in the sense that...you shove a creature and gain advantage, but now your out casting hunters mark and if they succeed...your out a bonus action as well. PAM just makes sure that you DROP the biggest threat ASAP and quickly switch to the next one, swap hunters mark onto new target and go flanking.
You have so many spells that rely on your Bonus Action that you want to be careful with overburdening yourself. With the Oath of Vengeance, you have hunter's mark for efficient, sustained damage as well as tracking anyone fleeing. (Be sure to invest in Wisdom and the Survival skill.) But you also have compelled duel for tanking, divine favor for dealing radiant damage to get around resistances, shield of faith for protecting yourself or others, and three smite spells to choose from all before hitting level 5.
Honestly, I find most of these feat combinations to be bland. You're spending so much time trying to use them you're not doing all of the other cool stuff your paladin can innately do.
I see this all the time that vengeance paladins should take PAM and use a polearm, I understand this because the extra opportunity attacks from the lvl 7 ability works well with 10 ft reach and the extra attack is another smite opportunity. Plus you can just vow of emnity for advantage.
However sometimes I feel that the sword and shield route with shield master can be really overlooked on a vengeance pally, because you have a source of near constant advantage instead of just once per long rest as well as the versatility of shoving and you are less feat hungry (usually PAM means GWM and Sentinel). Not to even mention you’re probably far better off when Haste comes online.
I mean constant advantage, with hunters mark and your smites on S&B isn’t bad compared to one chance a day at getting your real offense off with advantage with PAM.
What does everyone think? Paladins should have good burst damage so maybe PAM does make sense, but S&B just seems better in some ways.
I pretty much disagree. PAM offers the ability to out-right attack more often. That's more chances to smite. Furthermore, PAM does /not/ require GWM or sentinel to be good and effective. There's synergy there, certainly, but it's not required even a little. Additionally, as someone currently playing a ranged character (warlock) I'd be livid if the paladin in my party was proning things constantly and giving /me/ disadvantage on /my/ attack rolls.
You bring up hunters mark, and that tips the scales even farther in favor of PAM because it fires on your OA, and it also fires on your offhand attacks. You're going to apply HM damage /every hit/. I'd likely be using divine favor instead of HM so I don't have to give up my bonus actions to re-apply hunters mark, but that could just be me.
I'm not saying that S&B is bad, just that it doesn't really offer much when compared to PAM.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Yeah fair points I see why people say it’s the best now. I didn’t see a let of this until now, like channel divinity recharging per short rest and getting it twice at level 6 plus shove being a bonus action I just didn’t think of that. Yeah very clear PAM is the best.
I still think that build is feat hungry. I personally would leave great weapon master out for PAM and sentinel I think to pump 2 in str depending on how serious the campaign was looking bc I feel like opp attacks are a huge part of the build. I just see people taking 3 feats very often and neglecting stats. I feel like at later levels you may even want con cons saves for haste.
So, a REALLY good idea as PAM/Vengeance is to be human variant - take PAM and pump a your 2 points into STR/CHAR. Then at 4 take sentinel or push out strength to 18. GWS isn't needed, it's more like "extra" benefits. If you want to go full PAM just role human variant fighter and roflstomp with your insane ASI/FEATS. Vengeance paladin is literally meant to find the biggest toughest dude in the room and just ******* wallop his candy ass. Vengeance doesn't really come online till PAM or GWM anyways hence why the most picked Vengeance Pallys ARE human variant. PERSONALLY i think PAM + Conquest/sentinel is a god damn shutdown machine. 10 foot square of NOPE.
It's powerful in one specific area, yes. But it's also a cookie-cutter build, which makes it boring and predictable. It can also be easily countered by a savvy DM. And when they do, those feats won't matter.
This also depends on how closely your DM follows the rulings of Sage Advice, 5e's semi-official faq. According to sage advice, since shield master requires you to use an attack action in order to shove as a bonus action, you have to complete that attack action first before the bonus action shove becomes available. IE, you have to finish making all of your attack action attacks /before/ you get to shove, so you do /not/ get to gain advantage from that shove, not unless the target fails to get up before your next turn.
Compare this to polearm master, which lets you make a bonus action attack with the back end of your polearm. If your DM follows the same reading, then that attack has to come after you complete your attack action as well. But you can sub out an attack in a regular attack action for a shove, so with polearm master and extra attack, you can shove with your first attack, then make two attacks (your 'extra attack' and your back end bonus action attack), with advantage from shoving the target prone on that same turn, exactly what you want to do with shield master, only it actually works even with the semi-official ruling. Plus you also can make opportunity attacks on enemies entering your reach.
Offensively, polearm master is just better and more versatile and less subject to table variation on how it works. Defensively, it doesn't grant the bonus on dexterity saves, which is honestly the only thing that keeps shield master from being actually bad imo. But even for a shield user, quarter staves and spears (thanks to errata) work with pole arm master, even while one handed, and are more commonly found as magic weapons in published adventures than halberds or glaives anyway.
For a vengeance paladin, I would strongly recommend pole arm master over shield master, unless you absolutely do not like any of the pole arm master weapons, aesthetically. Even then, I'd go with great swords or great axes and great weapon master over shield master. Even if you really just want that longsword & shield style, have you maybe considered Alert, Sentinel, Lucky, Inspiring Leader, Slasher, Fey Touched, Resilient [con], War Caster, or just plain old +2 Strength or Charisma?
The only precondition on Shield Master's BA shove is taking the Attack action. If you have Extra Attack, you're allowed to move between taking attacks. And as soon as you make your first attack with the Attack action, you've taken the action. The second (or 3rd or 4th) attack is optional. I would allow an attack-shove-attack split; even if it's not RAW. And I'm pretty sure it is.
That said, Shield Master is really strong for a paladin. With good Strength and proficiency in Athletics, you can shove regularly. Once you get Aura of Protection you're adding Dex mod + Cha mod + Shield bonus to your Dex saves. Even by most conservative estimates, that's at least a +4 bonus at 6th-level. And paladins have no spells which require their reaction, so they have no problem reducing the damage from AoE Dex saves.
It's not as strong an option as it is for a College of Valor bard. They have proficiency in Dex saves and can have Expertise in Athletics. But it's far from a bad choice. Especially if you're looking for some more survivability. It might work best with an Oath of the Ancients paladin, but I think it's a solid choice for all of them.
If you grab a spear then you can PAM and sword and board at the same time. Not the build to grab shield master on of course, but it will get you better defenses while still providing a bonus action attack.
Shoving can be done in place of an attack in the attack action. So the PAM fighter can still achieve a shove and two attacks, only have it ordered in the ideal way to use the advantage without worrying about RAW.
At that point you're essentially only missing out on the defensive features of shield master. And they're good. I won't deny that. But as a Paladin you're less worried about saves thanks to that sweet aura.
Divine Favor is an easy substitute for Hunter's Mark that does not require constant bonus action switching and smites are a great incentive for more attacks.
All of that considered I would go PAM over Shield Master unless you have a specific character concept you're invested in that does not match a polearm wielder. That is a perfectly fine reason to go shield master, and the best reason to make any decision in this game.
With good Strength and proficiency in Athletics, you can shove regularly.
You can already shove. Every character can shove, swapping out an attack out of your attack action. Swapping out a Bonus action is not necessarily cheaper or easier than that, and if you have access to bonus action attacks then there's really no advantage to shoving as a bonus action instead of an attack out of an attack action. Spending a feat to shove as a bonus action is a pretty expensive investment to do something you can already do not even necessarily any better than you can already do it. The bonus to dexterity saves stops it from being actively bad, it isn't a bad feat. But paladins already have a lot of pressure on their ASIs and unlike fighters they don't get any extra to spare. IMO an 'ok' feat isn't really a good enough feat for a paladin, not unless it's letting you do something fundamental to your character concept that you cannot otherwise do. And, again, you can already shove.
Yo, where's the GWM option?! That feat is hella dope. Vengeance pally? You mean the pally that can bless themselves and can have at will advantage? And you don't want that sweet sweet 10 damage per hit for an easily mitigated -5 to hit penalty?! Where's the heart?!
Vengeance Paladin's suffer from too many things to do with your bonus action and shit con saves. Channel Div + Hunter's Mark + Bless + GWM its just too much shit and the turn set up is like 2-3 turns and if you get hit you're already rolling con checks to maintain Hunter's Mark, add in bless too...GWM is good, but it's not as good and reliable as PAM. Pam + Sentinel can shut down a lot of stuff and is a great tool to get in extra damage. And if that guy above is REALLY serious about your DM "easily" shutting you down, its not "easy". And if the DM is devoting resources to deal with you then you've succeeded in getting threats off the rest of your party and focused on you. GG EZ clap.
Yeah fair points I see why people say it’s the best now. I didn’t see a let of this until now, like channel divinity recharging per short rest and getting it twice at level 6 plus shove being a bonus action I just didn’t think of that. Yeah very clear PAM is the best.
I still think that build is feat hungry. I personally would leave great weapon master out for PAM and sentinel I think to pump 2 in str depending on how serious the campaign was looking bc I feel like opp attacks are a huge part of the build. I just see people taking 3 feats very often and neglecting stats. I feel like at later levels you may even want con cons saves for haste.
I'm not a huge fan of GWM personally. I don't like missing and a GWM will miss more.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Vengeance Paladin's suffer from too many things to do with your bonus action and shit con saves. Channel Div + Hunter's Mark + Bless + GWM its just too much shit and the turn set up is like 2-3 turns and if you get hit you're already rolling con checks to maintain Hunter's Mark, add in bless too...GWM is good, but it's not as good and reliable as PAM. Pam + Sentinel can shut down a lot of stuff and is a great tool to get in extra damage. And if that guy above is REALLY serious about your DM "easily" shutting you down, its not "easy". And if the DM is devoting resources to deal with you then you've succeeded in getting threats off the rest of your party and focused on you. GG EZ clap.
Setting aside that the OP has already made their choice...
The combination of Polearm Master and Sentinel, while potent, is boring and trite. It's also a two ASI investment for a paladin, which is asking a lot for someone who must contend with needing to improve Strength, Charisma, and dealing with their, "shit con saves." Honestly, where you got that last one I have no idea. They get to add a bonus equal to their Charisma modifier come 6th-level; which should easily be worth +3.
And countering the above combination really is that easy. It relies on enemies getting close, and so is useless against ranged attacks. Area of effect attacks are another solution, and so are reach weapons. Yes, the enemy can have them, too. Whips and pikes are cheap and have just as much range as a glaive or halberd. And anything with Flyby can get out without provoking an Opportunity Attack. Teleports can simply go around them. And most characters only ever get one reaction, so even if they stop one target others can swarm them.
As I said, it's not hard. It doesn't take any real special devotion to overcome. Any DM worth their salt can devise an encounter that will challenge the feat.
Just meet halfway; pole arm master wielding a one handed quarterstaff and shield.
That has no appeal stylistically imo. Using a quarterstaff 1h with a shield works per RAW, but no comparison in the real world. I think go spear, which does the same, but has more stylistic appeal. You could be more of a Spartan warrior type.
Just meet halfway; pole arm master wielding a one handed quarterstaff and shield.
That has no appeal stylistically imo. Using a quarterstaff 1h with a shield works per RAW, but no comparison in the real world. I think go spear, which does the same, but has more stylistic appeal. You could be more of a Spartan warrior type.
Zulu stick-fighting, which is still practiced to this day in South Africa as a sport, incorporates an attacking stick and either a defensive stick or shield. So there is real-world precedent.
And the idea of spear and shield combat being a "Spartan" thing is so...look, my guy, that was basically the pinnacle of frontline warfare for centuries. And the Spartans weren't always on top. They actually got beaten pretty regularly.
Just meet halfway; pole arm master wielding a one handed quarterstaff and shield.
That has no appeal stylistically imo. Using a quarterstaff 1h with a shield works per RAW, but no comparison in the real world. I think go spear, which does the same, but has more stylistic appeal. You could be more of a Spartan warrior type.
Zulu stick-fighting, which is still practiced to this day in South Africa as a sport, incorporates an attacking stick and either a defensive stick or shield. So there is real-world precedent.
And the idea of spear and shield combat being a "Spartan" thing is so...look, my guy, that was basically the pinnacle of frontline warfare for centuries. And the Spartans weren't always on top. They actually got beaten pretty regularly.
Zulu stick fighting isn't using it as a quarterstaff, but more as a club.
Just meet halfway; pole arm master wielding a one handed quarterstaff and shield.
That has no appeal stylistically imo. Using a quarterstaff 1h with a shield works per RAW, but no comparison in the real world. I think go spear, which does the same, but has more stylistic appeal. You could be more of a Spartan warrior type.
Zulu stick-fighting, which is still practiced to this day in South Africa as a sport, incorporates an attacking stick and either a defensive stick or shield. So there is real-world precedent.
And the idea of spear and shield combat being a "Spartan" thing is so...look, my guy, that was basically the pinnacle of frontline warfare for centuries. And the Spartans weren't always on top. They actually got beaten pretty regularly.
A quarterstaff can be wielded as a weapon 1h because Jeremy Crawford says it can be. It has no equivalent as a real fighting weapon in the real world, that I know of. I would bet it was how they trained for use with a spear though. Just so they didn't actually stab their training partners. :)
A quarterstaff is 6 to 8 foot long, not the 35 inches of a Zulu fighting stick. But it can be wielded 1h with a shield according to PAM, so you are good. The rules say you are ok. I just think it looks and sounds more realistic to use a spear, for the same damage.
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I see this all the time that vengeance paladins should take PAM and use a polearm, I understand this because the extra opportunity attacks from the lvl 7 ability works well with 10 ft reach and the extra attack is another smite opportunity. Plus you can just vow of emnity for advantage.
However sometimes I feel that the sword and shield route with shield master can be really overlooked on a vengeance pally, because you have a source of near constant advantage instead of just once per long rest as well as the versatility of shoving and you are less feat hungry (usually PAM means GWM and Sentinel). Not to even mention you’re probably far better off when Haste comes online.
I mean constant advantage, with hunters mark and your smites on S&B isn’t bad compared to one chance a day at getting your real offense off with advantage with PAM.
What does everyone think? Paladins should have good burst damage so maybe PAM does make sense, but S&B just seems better in some ways.
The problem is that .....it's a bonus action to shove....when you already have like 5+ things that depend on your bonus action. You'd be best fit to just got conquest Sword and Board for more control. And ....your Channel Divinity resets on a short or long rest. And as a vengeance paladin your are MEANT to single out the biggest threat drop hunters mark/Divinity and WHOOP HIS ASS. PAM is good cuz it allows for extra attack + reaction attack (if you take this at level 1 as a human variant thats 3 attacks per turn) And thats GROSS. Sword And Board is OKAY in the sense that...you shove a creature and gain advantage, but now your out casting hunters mark and if they succeed...your out a bonus action as well. PAM just makes sure that you DROP the biggest threat ASAP and quickly switch to the next one, swap hunters mark onto new target and go flanking.
You have so many spells that rely on your Bonus Action that you want to be careful with overburdening yourself. With the Oath of Vengeance, you have hunter's mark for efficient, sustained damage as well as tracking anyone fleeing. (Be sure to invest in Wisdom and the Survival skill.) But you also have compelled duel for tanking, divine favor for dealing radiant damage to get around resistances, shield of faith for protecting yourself or others, and three smite spells to choose from all before hitting level 5.
Honestly, I find most of these feat combinations to be bland. You're spending so much time trying to use them you're not doing all of the other cool stuff your paladin can innately do.
I pretty much disagree. PAM offers the ability to out-right attack more often. That's more chances to smite. Furthermore, PAM does /not/ require GWM or sentinel to be good and effective. There's synergy there, certainly, but it's not required even a little. Additionally, as someone currently playing a ranged character (warlock) I'd be livid if the paladin in my party was proning things constantly and giving /me/ disadvantage on /my/ attack rolls.
You bring up hunters mark, and that tips the scales even farther in favor of PAM because it fires on your OA, and it also fires on your offhand attacks. You're going to apply HM damage /every hit/. I'd likely be using divine favor instead of HM so I don't have to give up my bonus actions to re-apply hunters mark, but that could just be me.
I'm not saying that S&B is bad, just that it doesn't really offer much when compared to PAM.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Yeah fair points I see why people say it’s the best now. I didn’t see a let of this until now, like channel divinity recharging per short rest and getting it twice at level 6 plus shove being a bonus action I just didn’t think of that. Yeah very clear PAM is the best.
I still think that build is feat hungry. I personally would leave great weapon master out for PAM and sentinel I think to pump 2 in str depending on how serious the campaign was looking bc I feel like opp attacks are a huge part of the build. I just see people taking 3 feats very often and neglecting stats. I feel like at later levels you may even want con cons saves for haste.
So, a REALLY good idea as PAM/Vengeance is to be human variant - take PAM and pump a your 2 points into STR/CHAR. Then at 4 take sentinel or push out strength to 18. GWS isn't needed, it's more like "extra" benefits. If you want to go full PAM just role human variant fighter and roflstomp with your insane ASI/FEATS. Vengeance paladin is literally meant to find the biggest toughest dude in the room and just ******* wallop his candy ass. Vengeance doesn't really come online till PAM or GWM anyways hence why the most picked Vengeance Pallys ARE human variant. PERSONALLY i think PAM + Conquest/sentinel is a god damn shutdown machine. 10 foot square of NOPE.
It's powerful in one specific area, yes. But it's also a cookie-cutter build, which makes it boring and predictable. It can also be easily countered by a savvy DM. And when they do, those feats won't matter.
This also depends on how closely your DM follows the rulings of Sage Advice, 5e's semi-official faq. According to sage advice, since shield master requires you to use an attack action in order to shove as a bonus action, you have to complete that attack action first before the bonus action shove becomes available. IE, you have to finish making all of your attack action attacks /before/ you get to shove, so you do /not/ get to gain advantage from that shove, not unless the target fails to get up before your next turn.
Compare this to polearm master, which lets you make a bonus action attack with the back end of your polearm. If your DM follows the same reading, then that attack has to come after you complete your attack action as well. But you can sub out an attack in a regular attack action for a shove, so with polearm master and extra attack, you can shove with your first attack, then make two attacks (your 'extra attack' and your back end bonus action attack), with advantage from shoving the target prone on that same turn, exactly what you want to do with shield master, only it actually works even with the semi-official ruling. Plus you also can make opportunity attacks on enemies entering your reach.
Offensively, polearm master is just better and more versatile and less subject to table variation on how it works. Defensively, it doesn't grant the bonus on dexterity saves, which is honestly the only thing that keeps shield master from being actually bad imo. But even for a shield user, quarter staves and spears (thanks to errata) work with pole arm master, even while one handed, and are more commonly found as magic weapons in published adventures than halberds or glaives anyway.
For a vengeance paladin, I would strongly recommend pole arm master over shield master, unless you absolutely do not like any of the pole arm master weapons, aesthetically. Even then, I'd go with great swords or great axes and great weapon master over shield master. Even if you really just want that longsword & shield style, have you maybe considered Alert, Sentinel, Lucky, Inspiring Leader, Slasher, Fey Touched, Resilient [con], War Caster, or just plain old +2 Strength or Charisma?
The only precondition on Shield Master's BA shove is taking the Attack action. If you have Extra Attack, you're allowed to move between taking attacks. And as soon as you make your first attack with the Attack action, you've taken the action. The second (or 3rd or 4th) attack is optional. I would allow an attack-shove-attack split; even if it's not RAW. And I'm pretty sure it is.
That said, Shield Master is really strong for a paladin. With good Strength and proficiency in Athletics, you can shove regularly. Once you get Aura of Protection you're adding Dex mod + Cha mod + Shield bonus to your Dex saves. Even by most conservative estimates, that's at least a +4 bonus at 6th-level. And paladins have no spells which require their reaction, so they have no problem reducing the damage from AoE Dex saves.
It's not as strong an option as it is for a College of Valor bard. They have proficiency in Dex saves and can have Expertise in Athletics. But it's far from a bad choice. Especially if you're looking for some more survivability. It might work best with an Oath of the Ancients paladin, but I think it's a solid choice for all of them.
If you grab a spear then you can PAM and sword and board at the same time. Not the build to grab shield master on of course, but it will get you better defenses while still providing a bonus action attack.
Shoving can be done in place of an attack in the attack action. So the PAM fighter can still achieve a shove and two attacks, only have it ordered in the ideal way to use the advantage without worrying about RAW.
At that point you're essentially only missing out on the defensive features of shield master. And they're good. I won't deny that. But as a Paladin you're less worried about saves thanks to that sweet aura.
Divine Favor is an easy substitute for Hunter's Mark that does not require constant bonus action switching and smites are a great incentive for more attacks.
All of that considered I would go PAM over Shield Master unless you have a specific character concept you're invested in that does not match a polearm wielder. That is a perfectly fine reason to go shield master, and the best reason to make any decision in this game.
You can already shove. Every character can shove, swapping out an attack out of your attack action. Swapping out a Bonus action is not necessarily cheaper or easier than that, and if you have access to bonus action attacks then there's really no advantage to shoving as a bonus action instead of an attack out of an attack action. Spending a feat to shove as a bonus action is a pretty expensive investment to do something you can already do not even necessarily any better than you can already do it. The bonus to dexterity saves stops it from being actively bad, it isn't a bad feat. But paladins already have a lot of pressure on their ASIs and unlike fighters they don't get any extra to spare. IMO an 'ok' feat isn't really a good enough feat for a paladin, not unless it's letting you do something fundamental to your character concept that you cannot otherwise do. And, again, you can already shove.
Yo, where's the GWM option?! That feat is hella dope. Vengeance pally? You mean the pally that can bless themselves and can have at will advantage? And you don't want that sweet sweet 10 damage per hit for an easily mitigated -5 to hit penalty?! Where's the heart?!
Vengeance Paladin's suffer from too many things to do with your bonus action and shit con saves. Channel Div + Hunter's Mark + Bless + GWM its just too much shit and the turn set up is like 2-3 turns and if you get hit you're already rolling con checks to maintain Hunter's Mark, add in bless too...GWM is good, but it's not as good and reliable as PAM. Pam + Sentinel can shut down a lot of stuff and is a great tool to get in extra damage. And if that guy above is REALLY serious about your DM "easily" shutting you down, its not "easy". And if the DM is devoting resources to deal with you then you've succeeded in getting threats off the rest of your party and focused on you. GG EZ clap.
Just meet halfway; pole arm master wielding a one handed quarterstaff and shield.
I'm not a huge fan of GWM personally. I don't like missing and a GWM will miss more.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Setting aside that the OP has already made their choice...
The combination of Polearm Master and Sentinel, while potent, is boring and trite. It's also a two ASI investment for a paladin, which is asking a lot for someone who must contend with needing to improve Strength, Charisma, and dealing with their, "shit con saves." Honestly, where you got that last one I have no idea. They get to add a bonus equal to their Charisma modifier come 6th-level; which should easily be worth +3.
And countering the above combination really is that easy. It relies on enemies getting close, and so is useless against ranged attacks. Area of effect attacks are another solution, and so are reach weapons. Yes, the enemy can have them, too. Whips and pikes are cheap and have just as much range as a glaive or halberd. And anything with Flyby can get out without provoking an Opportunity Attack. Teleports can simply go around them. And most characters only ever get one reaction, so even if they stop one target others can swarm them.
As I said, it's not hard. It doesn't take any real special devotion to overcome. Any DM worth their salt can devise an encounter that will challenge the feat.
That has no appeal stylistically imo. Using a quarterstaff 1h with a shield works per RAW, but no comparison in the real world. I think go spear, which does the same, but has more stylistic appeal. You could be more of a Spartan warrior type.
Zulu stick-fighting, which is still practiced to this day in South Africa as a sport, incorporates an attacking stick and either a defensive stick or shield. So there is real-world precedent.
And the idea of spear and shield combat being a "Spartan" thing is so...look, my guy, that was basically the pinnacle of frontline warfare for centuries. And the Spartans weren't always on top. They actually got beaten pretty regularly.
Zulu stick fighting isn't using it as a quarterstaff, but more as a club.
https://youtu.be/6vrjL9i4Gbw?t=13
A quarterstaff can be wielded as a weapon 1h because Jeremy Crawford says it can be. It has no equivalent as a real fighting weapon in the real world, that I know of. I would bet it was how they trained for use with a spear though. Just so they didn't actually stab their training partners. :)
A quarterstaff is 6 to 8 foot long, not the 35 inches of a Zulu fighting stick. But it can be wielded 1h with a shield according to PAM, so you are good. The rules say you are ok. I just think it looks and sounds more realistic to use a spear, for the same damage.