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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kerbarian" data-source="post: 6522340" data-attributes="member: 40393">There are lots of ways to improve your chance to hit.  Advantage is the big one, but there's Bless, Precision Attack (Battle Master), Bardic Inspiration, Archery style (if ranged), etc.There are lots of ways to get extra attacks.  There's the Extra Attack feature, TWF, Martial Arts, Polearm Master, Crossbow Expert, Haste, Barbarian Frenzy, etc.  Also, GWM can give you extra attacks fairly often by itself.There are a few ways to increase your damage by a point or two.  Dueling, GWF, Crusader's Mantle, etc.There's nothing that comes close to GWM's and Sharpshooter's +10 to damage on weapon attacks.For massive effective damage, you want all of those components -- you want lots of attacks that deal lots of damage, and you want those attacks to land.  It's true that you could fix the problem by removing all sources of attack bonuses instead so that GWM's attack penalty was an appropriate balancing factor, but Advantage is so ingrained into the system that that's really not feasible.GWM and Sharpshooter stand out because they're the only component of putting together the massive damage combo that's not fundamental to the game.  You can't take away big bonuses to attack (because Advantage is deeply built in), you can't take away extra attacks (also deeply built into how weapon classes work), but there's no reason the game needs big bonuses to damage.  You could fix the massive damage combo by just fixing a couple feats, and that's really the only way to fix it that wouldn't require major changes to the game.As a side note, my personal experience with this is as playing a GWM Barbarian (so always having Advantage from Reckless Attack) up through 5th level.  I don't think GWM and Sharpshooter are badly broken compared to previous editions, but I do think they'll moderately outshine any other damage dealers except in specific circumstances favoring another style (e.g. lots of enemies clustered up for a fireball).  I think that's probably bad for the game, though it is nice to not have casters completely dominating things for once.</blockquote>

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