Been enjoying the Battle Master Fighter, but have a question about use of maneuvres with the two parts of Polearm Master:
Polearm Master
You can keep your enemies at bay with reach weapons. You gain the following benefits:
When you take the Attack action and attack with only a
glaive, halberd, or quarterstaff, you can use a bonus action to make a
melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. This attack uses the
same ability modifier as the primary attack. The weapon’s damage die
for this attack is a d4, and it deals bludgeoning damage.While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, or quarterstaff, other
creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter your
reach.
On the first part, can a maneuvre be used as part of the melee attack with the shaft of the weapon? You cannot (mostly) use two maneuvres on a single attack, however does this Bonus Action constitute a new attack? If so I am also assuming the main halberd attack is resolved first and then the bonus action. So I couldn't use the bonus action to attempt a trip with the shaft, then if successful attack with the halberd itself at advantage.
On the second part I can use my reaction to attack a creature that comes within my reach. Can I then apply some of the maneuvres to this attack? This is focused on the wordings being different, so for example:
Restraining Strike1
Immediately after you hit a creature with a
melee weapon attack on your turn, you can
expend one superiority die and use a bonus
action to grapple the target (see chapter 9 in the
Player’s Handbook for rules on grappling). Add
the superiority die to your Strength (Athletics)
check. The target is also restrained while
grappled in this way.
"On your turn" clearly means that I couldn't perform this using a Reaction. However to compare:
Trip Attack
When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to knock the target down. You add the superiority die to the attack's damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you knock the target prone.
That makes no reference to the attack being on my turn, so if an opponent charged towards me I could use Polearm Master to initiate a Reaction. On a hit, can I use a Maneuvre that only requires a "weapon attack" as part of this Reaction?
1 Restraining Strike is from the Class Feature Variants Unearthed Arcana.
Best Answer
Any maneuver that calls for a melee or weapon attack can be used with the polearm master bonus action attack.
Generally. There are a lot of maneuvers, so I won't get into the details of every one. As an example, Disarming Attack says:
This is the only triggering condition for disarming attack, and the polearm master bonus action attack is a weapon attack.
Maneuvers can be used on opportunity attacks as well.
You correctly observe that Restraining Strike only works on your turn, but there is no such limitation on most of the other maneuvers.
One more thing to note, you cannot use any of the maneuvers that themselves grant a bonus action and also use the polearm master bonus action attack. You get one bonus action per turn.
The following maneuvers can be used with the polearm master bonus action attack and opportunity attacks (unless noted otherwise):