Typical goblin. AC 15. Lae'zel at level 5 has To Hit of +5. Damage is 2d6+3 with Greatsword. She faces typical goblin without GWM. 10 or higher is what she needs to roll to hit. 55% chance of success. Damage is between 5-15. Typical goblin has 7 HP, roughly. So good chance that if you hit, they dead anyway, but at least your chance of hitting is 55%.
With GWM, same enemy, chance of hitting is 15 or higher which is a 30% chance to hit. That's a significant reduction in a person's ability to hit. Damage potential is 15-25, sure - a 100% chance to lob the goblin's head off and get an attack with a BA - but how much less often are you going to hit? 25% less often.
So isn't that kinda a trade-off? I could attack as normal and hit 25% more often for 5-15 damage or hit 25% less often for 15-25 damage.
You guys must play with lucky dice rollers. I can tell you right now, my daughter loves GWM because she always rolls legit 15 or higher on most rolls. My wife... She hates GWM. She can't ever hit with it. She always prefers higher To Hit because at least she's doing some damage as opposed to none each round.
I mean, even against something like a giant boar, with GWM, Lae'zel would need 12 or higher to hit - a 45% chance of hitting. Giant boar has roughly 32 HP. So, most likely still need 2 hits at least to kill it. But you only have a 45% chance to hit.
Without GWM, Lae'zel would have a 7 or higher - a 70% chance. Yes, it might take 3 or 4 hits to kill the giant boar, but dang that's a much better chance of hitting each round.
And especially once you hit higher levels and gain more attacks per round, the difference becomes even more apparent. Fighter gets 2 attacks at level 5. So Lae'zel would get +6 to hit the boar. Without GWM, that's 75% chance of hitting - 6 or higher. With GWM, a 50% chance? I'd much rather have 2 attacks at 75% chance of hitting at 5-15 damage than 2 attacks at 50% chance of hitting at 15-25. I'd likely kill the boar faster with my 75% chance at lower damage than trying to land a single blow at 50% chance doing higher damage.
And, don't forget, I could also have Lae'zel increase Strength to 18 and receive a +4 instead of +3 for her bonus - taking ASI instead of GWM. This then increases her chances even more of hitting at level 5 with 2 attacks. +7 to hit instead of +6. So, instead of 75% probability of hitting, she has 80%. So now the difference between GWM and without it increases even more. 2 attacks at 80% chance doing 5-15 damage versus 2 attacks at 50% chance doing 15-25.
Yeah. I don't see it as being OP.
Last edited by GM4Him; 22/06/22 06:57 AM.
