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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6917065" data-attributes="member: 6799649">A 1st level warrior-type who has taken GWM has an expected Str of 16, giving a +3 damage modifier. With a greatsword, his damage code is 2d6+3, for an average of 10. GWM would indeed deal twice as much damage on a hit when used than when not used.After that, it doesn't.Each increase in Str mod, use of a magic weapon with plusses, means that the +10 does not double the damage.Every crit doubles the damage dice, but not the +10.Even this is ignoring the opportunity cost of choosing this feat instead of either +2 Str or a different feat.Someone said that just the 'cleave' part is better than +2 Str; really? What if there is no other enemy within reach? What if your bonus action has already been used?Is +10 damage 'better' than +6 to hit and +1 damage (the difference between choosing this feat or +2 Str)?The enemy has AC 18 (and the parry ability to raise it to 21) and 7 hit points remaining, but I, as a player, don't know that! Is it better to attack at +13 and do 2d6+9 damage, or attack at +8 and do 2d6+19 damage.What the maths cannot tell you is that 26 damage is not always better than 16 damage, and is actually worse if it comes with an attack penalty.That -5 penalty never goes away (unless you need a nat 20 to hit even without that penalty). It doesn't go away if you have bless or advantage or any other way to increase your attack chance; you are still at -5 when using it compared to when you are not. Even if you only need to roll a 2 to hit normally (which is outstanding!), using the feat will mean that you will miss 25% more often than if you don't. If you are fighting foes whose AC is actually less than your attack bonus, that isn't the fault of the feat!The maths that some seem so proud of doesn't prove what they think it proves. 26 damage is not always better than 16 damage, and the -5 attack penalty can actually make it worse. The cleave part is frequently unusable. Meanwhile, +1 to attack and damage from +2 Str will never make things worse.Maths is a good servant, but a terrible master.</blockquote>

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