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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barolo" data-source="post: 7046071" data-attributes="member: 61932">I am sorry, I may not be understanding what you meant here. My remark was not intended to be read as if I was inferring something that someone other than me meant or, to that regard, experienced. To be more clear, what I was trying to express was that, even though it is a fair assumption that at higher levels the -5/+10 will be "on" most of the time (hence, "at higher levels they do get to use these feats more often [than at lower levels]"), if one aims at maximizing average damage output, its use is not always granted, as the math you presented just shows. If this what you are trying to say too, then I guess we are in accordance?I am confident all your math is correct, even though I did not check it, as I too have done these kinds of calculations before and found pretty much the same conclusions, under assumed circumstances. But what I would like to point out is that, at least in my gaming experience, the circumstances vary, maybe because of monster selection, or monster tactics, or natural hazards hampering combat, or magic items found, whatever. You even partially cover what was my intention on my original comment, here:But...More to the point, if a player spends a resource they get from a limited source for character development, which an ABI is, I can only find it fair they benefit from it. GWM specifically is all about dealing more damage, either by using -5/+10 or by earning that bonus attack. I do expect at least one of them to happen fairly often. On the other hand, I do not expect to, and have not experienced in game, this being some dominating build/strategy. The math not only clearly shows that the -5/+10 is frequently used to the PC's benefit, but also that the actual benefit is usually not a crazy unconditional +10 * number of initial attacks, per round, but some extra damage dependent on the difference between attack accuracy and defense. It is overall a damage boost, for sure, but it does have some inconvenience, leading to some interesting and meaningful in-game decision making, in contrast to if the feat would only give, for example, +2 damage per attack.Now, this:is something I partially disagree with.The first thing is, the playing field is not to be taken for granted. Of course your example is extreme, adversarial, and I wouldn't argue against it, but monsters resistant or even imune to fire may appear eventually, and the optimized-for-dpr fire specialist (whatever class or build it is) will have to improvise sometimes, the same way a GWM will sometimes face enemies who have high AC and parry reactions, or grant disadvantage, or something else. Both fire specialist and GWM will be doing their "thing" most of the time, specially at higher levels, when they probably have already invested on ways to mitigate most unfavorable conditions, but not necessarily always.The second thing is, I don't see anything to be fixed. For instance, the way I see damage and elements in the game is that some energy types are supposed to be a bigger hazard damage-wise. For spellcasters, it means mostly fire damage, but also to an extent electricity damage. Acid is supposed to deal a lot of damage too, but with the inconvenience that it is over time. Cold has the apparent disadvantage of targeting con saves, which are usually higher for monsters, but in reality it will be used by clever casters against agile enemies, who may even have some neat damage mitigating ability on a successful dex save. Poison usually is a big source of damage in monsters, it is just not something spellcasting seems to imitate quite so well. And besides, some spells and monster abilities that employ some of those damage types also have a secondary effect, that is usually conveniently ignored when discussing dpr. I most often prefer ray of frost to firebolt as a wizard, for example. In the end are the elements balanced? Surely not. Should they be? I don't think so, as to really manage to do so would probably necessitate to make them just different "colors". They way they are arranged allows for gameplay of different circumstances requiring different resources for optimal output, which is what I would want in the games I DM or play. Some option is the simplest, thereafter the most frequently optimal, which is fine, as long as the others have their niche.Regarding fireball specifically, and to a lesser extent lightning bolt, spellcasters gain access to those spells at level 5. This is supposed to be a mark in character development, as it is exactly the same level the warriors double their at will damage output. It seems to me nothing was done unintentionally here.</blockquote>

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