Seerow wrote:We have no idea how any sort of scaling works, how magic shields (or any sort of magic item) would be handled, or if animated shields will still exist. Unless there's a whole extra section of the playtest docs I missed that covers all of this, I'm going to say you're getting ahead of yourself and flipping out over things that we can't really flip out about yet.
Yes, a black swan event like an animated shield would make two-handed weapons viable again. Or a not-so-rare event like a face-rocking class feature shows up. However,
from what we know so far we know this:
[*] 5E D&D does not do level-based defense or attack scaling. It's completely likely that a 3rd level fighter will have the same attack and defense bonus as a 1st level fighter.
[*] 5E D&D monsters get
slightly but statistically significantly more powerful as time goes on. With the level-based hitpoint scaling this is a wash if your defense stays equal.
[*] 5E D&D has magic shields of an enhancement bonus in it.
[*] 5E D&D does not do weapon dice multiplication.
[*] 5E D&D occasionally has attacks bundled with an additional deleterious effect. If it's like 3E or 4E D&D they'll be more common as time goes on.
[*] 5E D&D does not let people buy magical items. We're not sure if they're going to use wishlists or random drops, but regardless, you can't rely on having black swan item enchants like magical skills.
From what we've seen so far, this is shaping up to make sword and board THE fighting style for most people. Now, I'm not denying that something may come up which lets other fighting styles kick enough ass that you're not an idiot for going two-weapon fighting or greatweapon fighting. But it has to be pretty goddamn big for it to compete with +4 to AC (or MORE) in a game in which having a 20 to AC (+2 fullplate) is considered a pretty boss score.
Seerow wrote:The +9 still doesn't fit, because once again that's what a level 3 fighter has with no enhancement bonus. I think the Fighter has another +2 to damage baked into the class somewhere. Unless you think that extra +2 to damage on the character sheet is from using the weapon two handed.
Okay, going through the character sheet one more time.
[*]We have a third level fighter who uses a bastard/longsword, because shields are crazy-go-nuts good so far in 5E. Hell, he might even be using a 1d6 rapier at 18 dexterity because strength sucks monkey fuck in 5E and dexterity fucking rules. But whatever, 1d8 sword, strength bonus of +4, before we even consider class.
[*]Level 1: He gets a +2 bonus to damage from Weapon Focus. That bumps his damage roll to 1d8 + 6. If we say that he gets a damage bonus from masterwork weapons, that's 1d8 + 7.
[*]Level 2: You get no native damage bonuses.
[*]Level 3: You get a +1 to damage for being a third level fighter. THat's 1d8 + 8.
In the between times of level 3 to level 9, the fighter picks up a +2 weapon of some kind. That's 1d8+10, assuming that the masterwork damage bonus doesn't stack with an enhancement bonus.
Could the bonus be higher than that? Sure. It's a level 1-3 adventure and there are a couple of +2 pieces of equipment in there; a level 4-9 can have some better stuff in it. Furthermore, while the wand has confirmed implement bonuses to attack exist in this game, it doesn't confirm implement bonuses to damage -- so the wizard may never get implement damage bonuses.
But regardless, I don't see a 9th level fighter's damage bonus going higher than +15. It'll almost certainly be lower than that in fact unless Mike Mearls steps back from the padded sumo abyss.
