D&D 5E Desperately need help, trying to catch up to party.

[Yardiff]

Heh, to me needing super high stats for your character sounds like playing in the kiddie pool. Some of us don't need that crutch in order to play the game.

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I agree, if your playing in a campaign setting that based on the 'normal/default' straight from the books like AL than higher stats at lower/mid levels would be playing in the kiddie pool. If your playing a game setting where is more 'gritty', higher challenges over all, then higher stats at lower/mid levels would help survivability.

 

[Caliban]

I agree, if your playing in a campaign setting that based on the 'normal/default' straight from the books like AL than higher stats at lower/mid levels would be playing in the kiddie pool. If your playing a game setting where is more 'gritty', higher challenges over all, then higher stats at lower/mid levels would help survivability.

Right, you need that crutch of high stats because you can't play well enough to survive without them. I completely understand.

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[Yardiff]

R I completely understand.

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Obviously not since you felt the need to make a snide comment.

 

[Ovinomancer]

To that I would say why is a Fighter trying to Tank like a Barbarian? A Barbarian Tanks by Recklessly Attacking which provides very good incentive to enemies to target the Barbarian rather than his squishier party mates. Capitalizing on this the Barbarian is likely using GWM (if feats are allowed) which explains why he is tanking without a shield.

Why is the Fighter Tanking without a Shield? His AC could easily be 21. Or in your scenario is the 19 AC Barbarian in Half-Plate with Dex 14 and a Shield? because if he is he downright deserves to be out Tanking a shield-less Fighter for sure.

I guess it could be a EK that didn't have War Caster. But hopefully that EK that intends to tank without an actual Shield has the Shield spell, so that that 19 AC can become 24 when necessary.

Could you factor that into the scenario? I'm not much of a Math wiz.

Oh, as an aside, I've never considered 5e fighters to really be Tanks until the Cavalier. Barbarians and Paladins sure, but Battlemaster, Champions, and EKs are more Strikers with access to high AC options that don't rely on Dexterity.

A barbarian raging and using reckless attack significantly improves outcomes going from an AC 14 to an AC 19. Using the +5 attack, the chance to be hit goes from 84% to 58%. If the barbarian takes 8 attacks in the combat, he goes from being nearly assured of taking 5-6 hits to only taking 3-4. That's a marked difference.

Further, on the damage output side, you've assumed GWF being available, which is a feat that's available due to not needing an ASI to improve attack chances, hitpoints, or AC.

This greatly warps how effective a barbarian is. I've seen it in my home game -- I had a 1/2orc barbarian that focused on CON and defense and carried a 14 STR. He could soak all day long but had very poor damage output and was unlikely to improve it as he spent his ASIs on improving CON and DEX. When he picked up a Belt of Stone Giant strength, he maintained his huge defensive ability and suddenly started being one of the top performers on the offensive side as well (without GWM -- mostly crit hunting with reckless attack). The ability to have a high AC with damage reduction is even more important when you're offering advantage to attackers. Having a high STR as well makes Barbarian super good at melee combat -- superior to the fighter due to the at will advantage without resultant loss in tanking.

 

[Caliban]

Obviously not since you felt the need to make a snide comment.

Hey, You started it with your kiddie pool comment. I was just playing along with your little game.

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[CubicsRube]

I believe the term 'broken' is rather subjective from table to table and that is what I was alluding to up stream. High stats might not be an issue in your game, they certainly would be in mine. As DM I would have to upscale the monsters stats and numbers, increase the DC of hazards and environmental affects, and reassess/upscale social and exploration challenges from the base. Essentially I have to tinker/FIX everything to provide a challenging adventure.

That is more work for me as DM which I prefer not to have - I already make enough work for myself
The OP party for MY table - is broken.

Fair enough Sadras. However 5e is quite good in the sense that scaling up encounters is usually one of 2 things - adding more enemies, or using max enemy hp value.

In point buy you can start with a 16 in your primary stat, so a 20 in an attack stat means a 10% more likely chance to hit. Not a huge difference.

But I'm not disgreeing with you. I wouldnt want to run or play in a game where everyone has basically a 20 in almost every stat.

 

[Satyrn]

Obviously not since you felt the need to make a snide comment.

I can't tell if you're playing along, or if you don't realize his obviously snide comment was in joking reply to your snide comment.

 

[Yardiff]

Hey, You started it with your kiddie pool comment. I was just playing along with your little game.

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Except that my snide comment end with my first post. My response your posted didn't include a snide comment but you continued making snide responses.

 

[Caliban]

Except that my snide comment end with my first post. My response your posted didn't include a snide comment but you continued making snide responses.

Life is tough kid. Maybe you need some higher stats to deal with it?

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[redrick]

This is just a feature of the Class design though. Getting Fighter AC on a Barbarian is possible even with Array or Point Buy stats, it just takes longer to get there. And comes at the opportunity cost of using all your ASIs on Con and Dex instead of Feats and/or other abilities. But still, Barbarians being able to compete with Fighters in the AC department while lightly armored is a feature, not a bug, and if the Fighter has equally high Ability Scores, he’ll outshine the Barbarian in other ways, such as having way more Feats.

If everyone has super high ability scores, the classes should be just as balanced against each other as they are when everyone has average ability scores. The ability scores seem in the OP’s game just set a higher baseline for everyone, there’s something else going on that’s allowing the other players to break the bounds of that baseline. Most likely magic items and/or rules being interpreted strangely.

Broken is a subjective word that I honestly don't worry about too much. I think more in terms of work I need to do as a DM. High stats introduce all sorts of changes, but the one I was trying to highlight here is the way some classes, out of the box, do a better job at leveraging high scores in secondary and tertiary ability scores. For those characters, being able to max 3 stats with your first three ASIs would be more meaningful than for other characters, which could leave those other characters feeling a little less special.

In the case of the OP, I'd say that the absurd ability scores are more likely a symptom of an overcharged game, not the cause.