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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7160139" data-attributes="member: 6787650">It's actually kind of the opposite. 5E makes increasing offense over a certain threshold quite painful, but increasing defense over that threshold is relatively easy. You can't make a 5th level PC who can kill a Githyanki Knight and two regular Githyanki solo just by optimizing DPR; but you can do so if you optimize for survival. (Example: Mobile Sharpshooter Eldritch Knight with Expeditious Retreat who kites and hides, a defensive strategy, will do better than a GWM Polearm Master Barbarian or a Sorlock. He has more tactical options in more situations. It may be a long and mentally-exhausting fight though*, depending on terrain; i.e. good fun.) Good offense and excellent defense tends to trump super-optimized offense.* Which makes perfect sense because it's a 12x Deadly fight.The interesting thing is that defense also turns out to be a suboptimization--it's possible to make a healer so good that burning defensive spells like Hypnotic Pattern, Shield, Fear, etc. is actually inferior to just soaking the damage and healing everybody after combat with a single Extended Aura of Vitality.On the other hand, the advantage of offensive optimization is that it doesn't really require cooperation or coordination. If you optimize for massive damage, you can prevent even suicidal idiots from dying as quickly as&nbsp; they otherwise would; and you can also save NPCs.That depends very much on the scenario.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 7160139, member: 6787650"] It's actually kind of the opposite. 5E makes increasing offense over a certain threshold quite painful, but increasing defense over that threshold is relatively easy. You can't make a 5th level PC who can kill a Githyanki Knight and two regular Githyanki solo just by optimizing DPR; but you can do so if you optimize for survival. (Example: Mobile Sharpshooter Eldritch Knight with Expeditious Retreat who kites and hides, a defensive strategy, will do better than a GWM Polearm Master Barbarian or a Sorlock. He has more tactical options in more situations. It may be a long and mentally-exhausting fight though*, depending on terrain; i.e. good fun.) Good offense and excellent defense tends to trump super-optimized offense. * Which makes perfect sense because it's a 12x Deadly fight. The interesting thing is that defense also turns out to be a suboptimization--it's possible to make a healer so good that burning defensive spells like Hypnotic Pattern, Shield, Fear, etc. is actually inferior to just soaking the damage and healing everybody after combat with a single Extended Aura of Vitality. On the other hand, the advantage of offensive optimization is that it doesn't really require cooperation or coordination. If you optimize for massive damage, you can prevent even suicidal idiots from dying as quickly as they otherwise would; and you can also save NPCs. That depends very much on the scenario. [/QUOTE]

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