Sword of Spirit
Legend
I was recently working on my mass combat system (both doing math and playing out mock battles with normal rules to see how they compare), and realizing that when large numbers are applied, doing smaller amounts of damage with more attacks can be superior to greater amounts of damage with less attacks, even in cases when the total damage damage output from the smaller number of attacks is significantly greater. This happens due to lots of damage potentially being lost to overkill on the smaller number of higher damage attacks.
This made me realize that the Two-Weapon Fighting Style actually scales a lot better than I thought compared to the Great Weapon Fighting Style. Yes, you lose theoretical overall damage, but the TWF damage is divided into a larger number of attacks, so less is potentially lost to overkill. This makes me think that, in practice, you probably won't be losing that full 7 points or so of damage, and might even be dealing more damage overall with TWF Style. This will be campaign dependant to an extent, as you would see no benefit from this if you always attack only one creature per battle, and lots of benefit if you routinely attack multiple opponents per battle. (I'm not including feats, and GWM adds more than Dual Wielder, so it might change the dynamic. Also there is still bonus action economy issues; especially unfortunate for the ranger.)
That was a revelation right there. I think that issue should also apply to some extent to the rogue making an off-hand attack (even without the fighting style) compared to attacking with Advantage. There are times, and they aren't even terribly rare, when having your damage split into two attacks will make a positive difference in overall damage output, and without that taken into account, the math can be a little misleading.
This made me realize that the Two-Weapon Fighting Style actually scales a lot better than I thought compared to the Great Weapon Fighting Style. Yes, you lose theoretical overall damage, but the TWF damage is divided into a larger number of attacks, so less is potentially lost to overkill. This makes me think that, in practice, you probably won't be losing that full 7 points or so of damage, and might even be dealing more damage overall with TWF Style. This will be campaign dependant to an extent, as you would see no benefit from this if you always attack only one creature per battle, and lots of benefit if you routinely attack multiple opponents per battle. (I'm not including feats, and GWM adds more than Dual Wielder, so it might change the dynamic. Also there is still bonus action economy issues; especially unfortunate for the ranger.)
That was a revelation right there. I think that issue should also apply to some extent to the rogue making an off-hand attack (even without the fighting style) compared to attacking with Advantage. There are times, and they aren't even terribly rare, when having your damage split into two attacks will make a positive difference in overall damage output, and without that taken into account, the math can be a little misleading.