Check paginated currentPage before setting the paginate tag This might sound counter-intuitive, but I'm trying to set a specific limit; if the currentPage is the first paginated entry. 

{% set limit = paginate.currentPage == 1 ? 5 : 8 %}
{% paginate craft.entries.section('news').limit(limit) as articles %}


I know this isn't going to work because I'm querying the paginate tag before I've set it. 

So is there a way to set a custom limit for the first page only?
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 %}