D&D 5E Feats, class balance and fun

[Awesome Adam]

No one at my gaming table has ever used Great Weapon Mastery or Sharpshooter. The -5 to hit has been too big a deterent.

 

[FrogReaver]

At my table these feats have never been a problem and aren't even very popular, but I can notice from several other forum threads they seem troublesome for some tables. One of my players once commented that he found it really silly that a feat could make difficult and easy shots completely equal, but even though I agree with him, it was not enough of a bother to either of us to make it worth going over changing SS.

A Battlemaster Sharpshooter fighter that almost exclusively uses the precision attack maneuver on near misses is one of the deadliest characters in the game. By level 6 you can have the feat and max dex if variant human or the feat and +4 dex bonus if not. If you roll stats it's possible to get both earlier. You do nearly 20 damage a hit and using precision on the near misses coupled with archery fighting style means you hit about the same rate as you normally would but essentially get +10 damage.

With action surge and landing 3 attacks you can easily do 60 damage to a single enemy in a turn. That's a big chunk. If you hit with all 4 attacks that's nearly 80 hp off the monster.

 

[FrogReaver]

No one at my gaming table has ever used Great Weapon Mastery or Sharpshooter. The -5 to hit has been too big a deterent.

Then they suck at optimization or just don't care about it

 

[LapBandit]

One is: Do you play high level campaigns?

This question is at the heart of most arguments about fighters in 5E. If you never see 9th level, the fighter is fine. After that the versatility and power of a full caster begins to be too much to compete with balance-wise.

Not only do I allow feats, I am generous with the magic items that aid martial characters to do interesting things as they reach higher levels to bridge that gap.

 

[FrogReaver]

This question is at the heart of most arguments about fighters in 5E. If you never see 9th level, the fighter is fine. After that the versatility and power of a full caster begins to be too much to compete with balance-wise.

Not only do I allow feats, I am generous with the magic items that aid martial characters to do interesting things as they reach higher levels to bridge that gap.

The only issue is out of combat versatility. Fighter will still be the main damage dealer even later.

 

[Caliban]

Wonder if it would be worth trying a game where ONLY the Fighter and Rogue have access to feats (and then only on the levels where they get a ASI that other classes don't get).

 

[LapBandit]

The only issue is out of combat versatility. Fighter will still be the main damage dealer even later.

That is not my experience. I can safely ignore the fighter in my 15th level group once his Action Surge is spent. The wizard and monk are a nightmare to deal with because of their mobility/versatility/defense/power.

 

[LapBandit]

Wonder if it would be worth trying a game where ONLY the Fighter and Rogue have access to feats (and then only on the levels where they get a ASI that other classes don't get).

Very interesting idea. I'd love to try it. I'm about to start an E8 (like E6 but to 8th) game soon, I will report my results.

 

[FrogReaver]

That is not my experience. I can safely ignore the fighter in my 15th level group once his Action Surge is spent. The wizard and monk are a nightmare to deal with because of their mobility/versatility/defense/power.

Wizard is not a damage dealer at any tier unless you throw lots of fireball mooks at the players.

Monk on the other hand fares quite well and with stunning strike offers some nice utility but it's still not the same level of damage as a fighter...

 

[Caliban]

That is not my experience. I can safely ignore the fighter in my 15th level group once his Action Surge is spent. The wizard and monk are a nightmare to deal with because of their mobility/versatility/defense/power.

Our group has a Fighter (battlemaster), a Barbarian (wolf), and a Paladin(vengeance)/Warlock(tome) as our front line. At 13th level the polearm fighter has the highest average damage, followed by the paladin (paladin takes the lead vs undead and fiends though). The back line is a two wizards, a warlock, and a cleric. The wizards can and warlock can do big damage spikes, but still not as much as the paladin smiting on a crit or the fighter expending superiority dice and action surge.