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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bill Zebub" data-source="post: 8815174" data-attributes="member: 7031982">The problem is that you didn't weight them by frequency.  All four of those scenarios are not equally probable.Also, a 5th level paladin gets a total of six spell slots.  So you forgot the other four scenarios, when they get two hits, or two crits, or a crit and a hit, but don't have (or don't use) any smites.Here's some numbers for frenzy barbarian vs paladin...I'm doing this as I type so I honestly don't know which will come out ahead (and I'll probably makes some mistakes)...without feats and ignoring Strength bonusLet's say in between long rests the Paladin does a total of 12 rounds of combat. At two attacks per round that's 24 attacks.  With a 66% chance to hit, that's 16 hits.  On average less than one of those will be a crit, but let's round up to one, and even assume that he still has a 2nd level spell slot available when it happens.So, you get 10 normal hits for 2d6Four hits with 1st level smite, for 2d6 + 2d8One hit with 2nd level smite, for 2d6 + 3d8One crit with 2nd level smite, for 4d6 + 6d8That's 34d6 + 17d8 = average of 195.5 total damageSince the Paladin perfectly times his adventuring day, the zerker barbarian does, too, and frenzies once earlier in the day frenzies again on the boss battle at the end of the day.  So let's say of those 12 rounds of combat, 6 are with frenzy. He gets a total of 30 attacks.Furthermore, he uses Reckless Attacks on every attack, which means his 1/3 chance of missing becomes 1/6.  So he hits with 5/6 attacks, or 25 of them.  He also is approximately twice as likely to crit, and if we give him the same good luck as the paladin, 1/16 instead of 1/20, that means 3 crits.  He gets:22 regular hits of 2d6 + 2 (rage)3 crits of 4d6 + 2So 56d6 + 50 damage, which averages to....drumroll....246.(Again, if we did allow GWM the barbarian would benefit significantly more because of Reckless Attacks.)EDIT: On the other hand, in a fight against a Shadow Demon, if the Paladin happens to get two crits, and happens to have both 2nd level spell slots available, that's 4d6 + 8d8 on each hit, for an average of exactly 100 damage in one turn.  Somewhere in the world, at some point in the last 8 years, a lucky player had this happen.  Maybe they even rolled above average damage.</blockquote>

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