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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6712235" data-attributes="member: 6787650">I'm not so sure that sword-and-shield has to be bad for damage, and the reason is Shield Master. As you say, fighters have a lot to gain from advantage, and the chance to get "free" advantage via Push with your bonus action. (There are some nice defensive benefits too to knocking an enemy down; you can retreat far enough to deny him an attack next turn, and the only thing he gets out of it is the chance to opportunity attack you, at disadvantage for being prone.) The extra 2 or 3 points of damage from wielding a larger weapon can in principle be made up by the advantage you get from pushing enemies prone, and when you're dealing with high-AC enemies for whom GWM is not particularly advantageous, sword-and-shield might be competitive with two-handed weapons (though Polearm Master will still be ahead).For example, an 8th level fighter with a greatsword and Str 20 fighting a CR 5 Drow Elite Warrior (effective AC 21) will do 10.30 points of damage on average with a greatsword. With a longsword, he will do 13.04 DPR on any round when the drow is knocked down, or 8.05 when the drow is on his feet. Since he Pushes the drow down just over 60% of the time, he's averaging at least 11.44 DPR, which is more than he would be doing with a greatsword. Of course, the greatsword fighter has a spare feat that didn't go to Shield Master, so maybe he's got a compensating advantage like GWM--but GWM power attack would actually be counterproductive against the drow warrior (drops DPR to 7.30) so the only thing that could help would be the bonus action attack, which in fairness isn't bad and brings DPR up to 10.64 or so--but the sword-and-shield guy is still doing better.I love shield bashing. 5E combat isn't all that complex but you can do a surprising amount of optimization with just the basic at-will maneuvers and a good Athletics score.</blockquote>

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