great weapon master

[Noseclamz]

the -5 to hit seems a bit steep and my chance to hit most lvl 4 monsters started looking like 30-40%
was wondering if the first half of this feat with the bonus attack worked with 1handed weapons

[Diteron]

I personally recommend turning off the -5 attack unless you're fighting something easy to hit or have advantage.

As to your question, the first half of the feat SHOULD work with any melee weapon by 5th edition rules, but I can't say I've tried it in EA.

[B Rad Mojad]

Save it for when you have advantage or Bless or something to counteract the -5 penalty. I gave Lae'zel that feat in one of my games and I pretty much only used it on enemies that were knocked prone of paralyzed with Hold Person.

[wendigo211]

I prefer how Pathfinder implemented the equivalent feat (well the Power Attack part, not the Cleaving Finish part):

Power Attack (Combat)
You can make exceptionally deadly melee attacks by sacrificing accuracy for strength.

Prerequisites: Str 13, base attack bonus +1.

Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon, a one handed weapon using two hands, or a primary natural weapon that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls. This bonus to damage is halved (–50%) if you are making an attack with an off-hand weapon or secondary natural weapon. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every 4 points thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2. You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage

Basically it starts at -1 to hit, +2 to damage and it grows so that at level 20 it's -6 to hit and +12 to damage. It's more nuanced and useful all the way up. It wouldn't work in 5e though because proficiency bonus doesn't scale like AB, although I suppose the equivalent would be: you don't add your proficiency bonus to attack, but you add twice your proficiency bonus to damage.

[BW022]

In PnP, the -5 isn't that big of a deal. At a normal +5 attack, against a typical AC of 15, it hits about 25% of the time, vs. 50% for not using it. However, in most 5e combats... missing isn't the critical since you typically have reasonable armor and lots of combats aren't always against ranged foes with grenade weapons. You can often slap up a defensive spell and just assume they won't miss. In BG3 ranged on large battle fields is so common... GWM is difficult to use.

However, keys are getting advantage. Have someone else trip the opponent before you go, or blind them with a spell or something else to give you advantage. Grease spell with a reach weapon. Darkness and devil's site (if it worked correctly), etc. Hold person, sleep, and others are also good times to use it. Height is a possible. Invisibility. From hiding... although hard to do although a fog cloud or darkness spell might work.

Next, would be cases where you can attack and they can't. Something like mobility (if it worked), a large movement + jump spell, reach weapons from a defensive location, etc. Basically, they can't hit you... so you move up, attack, and move back. If they can't reach/attack you... or will draw opportunity attacks from others... might still be worth it. Not quite as good would be any case where you have some strong defensive ability -- blur, really high AC, etc. -- if they are 80% likely to miss you, you are still better typically trading 3-4 attacks against you for 3-4 +10 damage chances.

Finally, anything which can increase the hit chances. Magic weapon, bless, etc.

Not in BG3, but if you had multiple attacks, you could shove someone prone and then attack with your second attack.

I'd generally say the encounters in BG3 are such that melee really isn't optimal and GWM is a bit harder to use.

[dolby]

it works great on enemies in acid when you have bless with backstab and prone or with Faerie Fire stuff like that load off stuff you can do to make a hit. it's easy..:)

[Rhapsody]

In the current version it says GWM is a reaction (the heavy weapon part), but I can't find a way to turn it off?

[Revener]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

In the current version it says GWM is a reaction (the heavy weapon part), but I can't find a way to turn it off?

Click on and off under Passive in the skill/tool bar.

[Gaius]

Originally posted by Noseclamz:

the -5 to hit seems a bit steep and my chance to hit most lvl 4 monsters started looking like 30-40%
was wondering if the first half of this feat with the bonus attack worked with 1handed weapons

You have to take this in consideration when building the character. A character with 16 STR or less will miss a LOT unless your party setup if focused on buffs for the wielder and/or debuffs for the targets. I played a 16 STR Oathbreaker with GWM and HATED him.

Me, I prefer to use it in really high STR char, specially barbarians (reckless attack) or Oath of Devotion paladins (sacred weapon). Frankly, I prefer to use 1h + shield in most other frontliners, picking the "dueling" passive at character creation to close de damage gap.

[WeenerTuck813]

It’s maybe the best feat in 5e.

It’s especially awesome on a Barbarian, who can reckless attack to offset the -5 and roflstomp enemies

[KOHb]

Originally posted by WeenerTuck813:

It’s maybe the best feat in 5e.

It’s especially awesome on a Barbarian, who can reckless attack to offset the -5 and roflstomp enemies

At first it's the only feat to which you must make conditions for it to be good.
And barb is the only class who can realize it with 100% efficiency with one button :D

Advantage is not only great to land your hit with -5 but also doubles your crit chance to get extra swing.

[Gaius]

Originally posted by Criminal Horse:

Originally posted by WeenerTuck813:

It’s maybe the best feat in 5e.

It’s especially awesome on a Barbarian, who can reckless attack to offset the -5 and roflstomp enemies

At first it's the only feat to which you must make conditions for it to be good.
And barb is the only class who can realize it with 100% efficiency with one button :D

Advantage is not only great to land your hit with -5 but also doubles your crit chance to get extra swing.

Indeed. It's pretty workable with Oath of Devotion paladins too tough, because of Sacred weapon (minus the double crit window). The issue is, BG3 has a TON of small encounters and VERY few really hard to kill enemies, so having a 10 turn window to actually shine X being better 90% of the time isn't such an attractive proposition.

I'm playing a Oath of Devotion RN and I chose to go the 20 STR route. Man, it's so refreshing NEVER missing, and since half the damage comes from the smite anyway...

[KOHb]

Originally posted by Gaius:

Indeed. It's pretty workable with Oath of Devotion paladins too tough, because of Sacred weapon (minus the double crit window). The issue is, BG3 has a TON of small encounters and VERY few really hard to kill enemies, so having a 10 turn window to actually shine X being better 90% of the time isn't such an attractive proposition.

I'm playing a Oath of Devotion RN and I chose to go the 20 STR route. Man, it's so refreshing NEVER missing, and since half the damage comes from the smite anyway...

I dumped cha for my last EA playthrough :D So my sacred weapon was totally useless.
Of course I won't ever do it in full walkthrough but it was a good experiment.
But really there are not so much situations in EA when wasting main action to sacred weapon cast worth it even with high cha.

While rektless attacks are almost always at your service :P

[Gaius]

Originally posted by Criminal Horse:

Originally posted by Gaius:

Indeed. It's pretty workable with Oath of Devotion paladins too tough, because of Sacred weapon (minus the double crit window). The issue is, BG3 has a TON of small encounters and VERY few really hard to kill enemies, so having a 10 turn window to actually shine X being better 90% of the time isn't such an attractive proposition.

I'm playing a Oath of Devotion RN and I chose to go the 20 STR route. Man, it's so refreshing NEVER missing, and since half the damage comes from the smite anyway...

I dumped cha for my last EA playthrough :D So my sacred weapon was totally useless.
Of course I won't ever do it in full walkthrough but it was a good experiment.
But really there are not so much situations in EA when wasting main action to sacred weapon cast worth it even with high cha.

While rektless attacks are almost always at your service :P

I didn't dump it, but didn't care a lot about it - it ended up at 14. +2 is still a relevant bonus (specially on top of the +5 from STR), but I only did that because I wanted to skil GWM and also wanted 14 DEX to use Spellthief to regain some spell slots for smite in long fights. Frankly, it's so rare to crit with the bow it doesn't really matter anyway XD

About sacrificing main action, I agree, but it's really not a waste if you pre-cast it, even if it doesn't last the full 10 turns.

[KOHb]

Originally posted by Gaius:

I didn't dump it, but didn't care a lot about it - it ended up at 14. +2 is still a relevant bonus (specially on top of the +5 from STR), but I only did that because I wanted to skil GWM and also wanted 14 DEX to use Spellthief to regain some spell slots for smite in long fights. Frankly, it's so rare to crit with the bow it doesn't really matter anyway XD

Yeah. Spellthief description looks a lot better than it really works, unless you drink gallons of luck potions. I felt into this trap too.

Btw, GWM works also great with hold person. With sorceress it's a holiday of big numbers. Metamagic hold with twin spell or empower spell for more chances, and then watch enjoyable picture of guaranteed crits with GWM.
Not quite effective, due to overdamage but extremely fun to see those jackpot digits.

[sevensided]

Originally posted by WeenerTuck813:

It’s maybe the best feat in 5e.

It’s especially awesome on a Barbarian, who can reckless attack to offset the -5 and roflstomp enemies

Sharpshooter is probably better. Especially since Ranger/Fighter can take Archery to reduce the -5 to -3. And range keeps you away from harm.

Shame it didn't make BG3.