Quote Originally Posted by Dork_Forge View Post
In terms of looking outside of DPR numbers (which can be really detached from the reality of actually playing the game), the Barbarian is taking on a lot more risk to get their advantage (assuming Reckless) and the Barbarian is going to miss more. A lot more.

A GWM Barbarian is going to miss around 25% more than the Rogue not taking that accuracy hit. Just because the +10 pumps the average numbers higher doesn't make that any harder of a pill to swallow when the Barbarian keeps missing because the dice aren't in their favour, or heck, because they are experiencing the average result, which is them missing.

But in terms of the existing comparison piece I tried out that RPG bot calculator, it's pretty nice, for reference though I through this at it instead:

Rogue (level 8), TWF (w/Style) and two +1 Scimitars:

w/o adv. 27.19
w/adv 35.87

So simply going TWF with the style, which you can grab with V.Human or CLineage easily and still max 20 at 8th, pretty much blows the GWM Barbarian out of the water considering the reliability of the damage. (honestly, I was surprised by that)

Or we can do something else, like just play a Soulknife:

w/o adv. 23.80
w/adv. 32.29

Or what if we play a Soulknife with Thrown Weapon style or Dueling?

w/o adv. 26.20
w/adv. 35.65

Or since the Barbarian is going at it with a LR resource invested, let's try an AT with a Shadow Blade and Booming Blade (and note, they have a much easier time getting advantage between the familiar and SB conditions):

w/o adv. 20.88
w/adv. 29.98
w/adv. and EA 34.34

Now, it's my first time using that calculator and there's a lot of back-and-forth changing but I don't think I made any errors, or at least no egregious ones.

So the numbers from the tool you like to use suggest that a Rogue can match or even beat out that Raging, +1 weapon, GWM Barbarian comparison point if they're actually somewhat optimized for damage. Of course, you can make the Barbarian hit harder with some more optimization, but I think the point that the Rogue can hang in damage with a damage-orientated Barbarian should have been made.
A couple of points, and I admit that I may not be using the calculator correctly.

But firstly, you say the barbarian is missing, despite the fact that with Advantage (which they can muster, at-will) they have a 60% hit chance, and a 10% crit chance. This is the same as virtually everyone else, unless you assume they have Advantage. Except...

How is the TWF Rogue getting Advantage for this comparison? They are using their Bonus Action to attack, so they're not using Cunning Action to Hide, and they're not using Steady Aim (which would only work on one attack anyway). So what's the justification for assuming Advantage? They don't have Extra Attack to shove Prone first and then TWF. So what is the assumption here?

Thirdly, if I plug in a minimum to hit of 12 (8 base, +5 GWM, -1 weapon), with 1d12+16 for damage (assuming variant human as you did, and 20 Strength), I get a DPR of 32.66. That's with Reckless Attack, but not assuming Rage. So this is like minimum GWM barbarian. This will go up with Rage, with Zealot, with Giants, with crits/kills and GWM, with Berserker/Battlerager, with another magic item since the rogue has two magic weapons, etc.