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<blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 8649406" data-attributes="member: 23">I played a full campaign where I had a dex-build psi warrior with a duelist (sword and shield) style.&nbsp; I was a bit concerned that my damage output would simply pale vs the paladin (great weapon master and great sword) or ranger (sharpshooter and gunner).&nbsp; without the GWM feat, 2 handed style is not great in 5e, but it is &quot;the way&quot; to do the most damage, esp comboed with PAM.&nbsp;&nbsp; However, because of dueling's +2 dmg and shield ac bonus, the gwm is the only real edge 2 handed style has. So how did it turn out?Well, first of all my damage was not as impressive - but I did have other ways to boost my damage.&nbsp; I will note, incidentally, that extra damage dice (from psi warrior, battlemaster etc) is less effective on a GWM user because the -5 penalty to hit also affect the extra damage dice, thus reducing the efficiency of the feat.&nbsp; I also had max attack stat sooner than the other 2 because I didn't take GWM or SS.&nbsp; More importantly, my reliability was very good - 2 hits per round were the norm.&nbsp; The other two could dish it out but... it was swingy.&nbsp; One fight we obliterate, and the next we struggle because our 2 main damage dealers had a few bad rolls.&nbsp;&nbsp; This I expected, but it was a bit more drastic than I anticipated.The other thing is ... my PC became almost immune to disadvantage.&nbsp; I hear a lot &quot;oh just find a way to get advantage&quot; as a thing for GWM users proponents, but that's&nbsp; not always doable,&nbsp; Sometimes you have disadvantage.Near the end of the campaign, my fighter was tangling with an underwater troll of some sort (as you do at level 9) and while he could breathe under water, he did not have a swim speed, so suffered disadvantage with his weapon of choice - a sunblade.&nbsp; But the sunblade had +2 to hit.&nbsp; And with my 20 dex and level 9, my + to hit was 11.&nbsp; And the troll had an AC of 13... so I didn't care about disadvantage!&nbsp; It was a penalty yes, but a negligible one.Did I eventually take a feat?&nbsp; yes - lucky <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ancalagon, post: 8649406, member: 23"] I played a full campaign where I had a dex-build psi warrior with a duelist (sword and shield) style. I was a bit concerned that my damage output would simply pale vs the paladin (great weapon master and great sword) or ranger (sharpshooter and gunner). without the GWM feat, 2 handed style is not great in 5e, but it is "the way" to do the most damage, esp comboed with PAM. However, because of dueling's +2 dmg and shield ac bonus, the gwm is the only real edge 2 handed style has. So how did it turn out? Well, first of all my damage was not as impressive - but I did have other ways to boost my damage. I will note, incidentally, that extra damage dice (from psi warrior, battlemaster etc) is less effective on a GWM user because the -5 penalty to hit also affect the extra damage dice, thus reducing the efficiency of the feat. I also had max attack stat sooner than the other 2 because I didn't take GWM or SS. More importantly, my reliability was very good - 2 hits per round were the norm. The other two could dish it out but... it was swingy. One fight we obliterate, and the next we struggle because our 2 main damage dealers had a few bad rolls. This I expected, but it was a bit more drastic than I anticipated. The other thing is ... my PC became almost immune to disadvantage. I hear a lot "oh just find a way to get advantage" as a thing for GWM users proponents, but that's not always doable, Sometimes you have disadvantage. Near the end of the campaign, my fighter was tangling with an underwater troll of some sort (as you do at level 9) and while he could breathe under water, he did not have a swim speed, so suffered disadvantage with his weapon of choice - a sunblade. But the sunblade had +2 to hit. And with my 20 dex and level 9, my + to hit was 11. And the troll had an AC of 13... so I didn't [I]care[/I] about disadvantage! It was a penalty yes, but a negligible one. Did I eventually take a feat? yes - lucky :D [/QUOTE]

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