Check paginated currentPage before setting the paginate tag
Ok, so after discovering the getPageNum request, I found the following solution: 

{% set pageNumber = craft.request.getPageNum %}
{% set firstPageLimit = 5 %}
{% set defaultLimit = 8 %}
{% set limit = pageNumber == 1 ? firstPageLimit : defaultLimit %}
{% set offset = pageNumber == 1 ? 0 : firstPageLimit - defaultLimit %}
{% paginate craft.entries.section('news').limit(limit).offset(offset) as articles %}