Xeviat
Hero
I tend to run long days that hit the daily adjusted xp goals, so my DM style doesn't reward novaing. I wasn't thinking about the added nova potential, though separately I was thinking about limiting smites to once per round or making them cost a bonus action as is; people can't generally spend more than 1 spell slot a round (aside from reactions) anyway, so why is smite different?
If I'm removing the ability score to damage on the off-hand with the style, changing the style to allowing non-light weapons, the style ends up being a +2 damage bonus, just like duelist (duelist does less damage because it's also a +2 AC bonus).
Hunter's Mark and Hex could be a big deal with extra attack giving a 5th/6th level character 4 chances to land it (instead of 3), plus an easier time setting it up in the first round of combat. An 11th level fighter with 6 attacks could be compelled to multiclass to get Hunter's Mark or Hex too.
With it costing a bonus action, I'd want it to be "better" than GWFing's damage output, since that doesn't cost a bonus action (I really wish all of the fighting styles cost a bonus action; that would have been really good design). But since the Fighter can't Second Wind or Action Surge with Two-Weapon Fighting, it really feels like a style that is underserved for them.
I just ran the numbers on the Barbarian, by the book. Aside from interactions with subclasses (berserker favors GWFing, Zealot would favor TWFing a bit), Greatsword and dual shortswords are balanced when not raging from 1st through 4th, and while raging from 5th level on. Since rage costs a bonus action, TWFing falls behind in the initial round, until 20th level when you can just always be raging. That's a fun find. So the barbarian is balanced at 20th level by core, and while raging from 5th level on, but they can't always rage until later.
We know the fighter is out of balance. From 1st through 3rd, TWFing has higher damage, where GWFing is 11.33, TWFing is 13!. At 4th, it gets worse, 12.33 vs 15. At 5th-7th, GWFing is 24.66, while TWFing is 22.5, a big drop in its gain over GWFing. At 8th-10th, it kind of evens out, 26.66 vs 25.5, but at 11th it falls apart; GWFing is 40 while TWFing is 34! But this is without factoring in Second Wind not working at the same round as TWFing, or Action Surge not granting off-hand attacks.
Ultimately, I'd love to see something like Gama World, where TWFing against a single target would just be 2W+Stat. TWFing would have the added benefit of being able to split attacks, doing 1W+Stat against 2 targets. But something doesn't feel right about that. People often like attacks to mean individual discrete attack attempts.
If I'm removing the ability score to damage on the off-hand with the style, changing the style to allowing non-light weapons, the style ends up being a +2 damage bonus, just like duelist (duelist does less damage because it's also a +2 AC bonus).
Hunter's Mark and Hex could be a big deal with extra attack giving a 5th/6th level character 4 chances to land it (instead of 3), plus an easier time setting it up in the first round of combat. An 11th level fighter with 6 attacks could be compelled to multiclass to get Hunter's Mark or Hex too.
With it costing a bonus action, I'd want it to be "better" than GWFing's damage output, since that doesn't cost a bonus action (I really wish all of the fighting styles cost a bonus action; that would have been really good design). But since the Fighter can't Second Wind or Action Surge with Two-Weapon Fighting, it really feels like a style that is underserved for them.
I just ran the numbers on the Barbarian, by the book. Aside from interactions with subclasses (berserker favors GWFing, Zealot would favor TWFing a bit), Greatsword and dual shortswords are balanced when not raging from 1st through 4th, and while raging from 5th level on. Since rage costs a bonus action, TWFing falls behind in the initial round, until 20th level when you can just always be raging. That's a fun find. So the barbarian is balanced at 20th level by core, and while raging from 5th level on, but they can't always rage until later.
We know the fighter is out of balance. From 1st through 3rd, TWFing has higher damage, where GWFing is 11.33, TWFing is 13!. At 4th, it gets worse, 12.33 vs 15. At 5th-7th, GWFing is 24.66, while TWFing is 22.5, a big drop in its gain over GWFing. At 8th-10th, it kind of evens out, 26.66 vs 25.5, but at 11th it falls apart; GWFing is 40 while TWFing is 34! But this is without factoring in Second Wind not working at the same round as TWFing, or Action Surge not granting off-hand attacks.
Ultimately, I'd love to see something like Gama World, where TWFing against a single target would just be 2W+Stat. TWFing would have the added benefit of being able to split attacks, doing 1W+Stat against 2 targets. But something doesn't feel right about that. People often like attacks to mean individual discrete attack attempts.
