Dex characters can take Sharpshooter and Crossbow Expert, so 1 and 2 are a wash.
If they're taking either of those feats, they're ranged characters and the rapier is for show only. Finesse is a non issue.
Dex-based Barbarians and Paladins are at least as effective as Str-based ones.
No, they're not. Firstly, you need Str 13 to MC as a Barbarian or Paladin. Secondly Dex based barbarians miss out on Rage damage with dex. They miss out on using reckless attack + advantage to land GWM hits. Their capstone becomes half useless. The advantage on Strength checks when raging becomes meh. They can use Dex based ranged weapons, but why would they? Youll never see Sharpshooter or Crossbow expert on a Paladin or Barbarian. Ever.
Paladins cant smite at range, putting them into melee combat. Again V-Paladin and D-Paladin get oath abilities that grant big bonuses to hit (mitigating GWM's -5 to hit) - either advantage to hit or +Charisma to hit. Even A-Paladins get to restrain their target with their oath ability also granting a bonus to hit (and making GWM much better). Paladins are also highly MAD - Charisma is vital, as is Con. Dumping Wisdom is a no-no, leaving only 2 stats to dump. Intelligence or one of Dex or Strength.
Seeing as you're proficient in Heavy armor from level 1, and need a minimum of Str 13 to multi-class later, its a no-brainer to dump Dex.
I have, so it’s worth considering a house-rule to make them not an objectively better choice than longswords.
They're not better than longswords.
Or, to rephrase that, the advantage of Dex is you get to dump Str and wear light armor. For the low price of 1 AC, you save yourself 1,455 gp and get +6 to Initiative and one of the big three saves.
Screw that. You cant dump Strength on a Paladin or Barbarian and multi-class. Dumping Strength on a Paladin or Barbarian also rules you out of GWM and Heavy weapons which is a bad idea on those classes generally.
A lot of DMs, myself included. If you’re not, bulky for you. What are you doing in this thread, telling people who are having a problem with it that they’re wrong?
Im pointing out that your 'problem' is illusory, and that there is no need to do it.
Thats if the DM is both bothering to keep track of carry weight and using the variant encumbrance rules
That's not the DMs job, that's the players job.
And I guess If you're allowing players to dump Strength willy nilly and never bothering to deal with encumbrance, then that could be a problem.
But that's not a problem with finesse weapons; its a problem with you ignoring the rules.
The same can be said for Hexblades and Charisma to hit and damage (plus medium armor). I lol every time I see one with Strength 8 and Halfplate and shield.
He's moving at 20'.