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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shoak1" data-source="post: 6919968" data-attributes="member: 54380">OK - so first, it seems now we agree on what I said earlier, which is that at best (vs AC 12, with advantage, and against a low AC mob) you only get about a 4 average damage increase w/GWM.  As for the 40% increase, I think to be fair, that is misleading. First because any damage buff at a low level when expressed as a +x% is going to sound OP (OMG! my mage just got a +1 dagger and his dps went up 100% - yay!!! sic).  How about when you are 20 STR w/a +2 weapon and your avg dmg.is 14?  Now its 28%.And baddies' AC and hp go up in somewhat proportionate patterns.  So if the AC is as low as you mention, there hp are going to be lower and your "bigger chunk" damage is more likely to produce overkill.  Now I know overkill can be mitigated by cleave to some extent, but it is merely mitigated a bit, not eliminated as a soak to avg damage.Examples: vs Orcs w/AC 13 and 15 hp, you win - no likely overkill and low AC - also GWM allows you to 1 shot him - perfect opponentvs ANKYLOSAURUS w/AC15 and 68 hp - overkill is a dicey affair, and AC weakens GWM's effectivenessvs Will-o-wisp w/AC 19 and 22 hp, overkill is an issue, and the high AC means GWM=suckvs Ghoul w/AC12 and 22 hp, overkill is an issue, but low AC helps GWMvs Hill giant w/AC 13 and 105 hp, no real overkill problem here vs this big bag of hp, and low AC makes this a good target of GWMAlso, consider that many feats, powers and spells are more deadly in combinations. You have Advantage in your example, something very effective as a combo w/a lot of feats and powers.  I think in the case of SS/archery its a bit more clearly low hanging min-max fruit, but GWM is a bit harder to make that argument for.  I would argue there are hundreds of other equivalently deadly combos, both for players and DMs.</blockquote>

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