Quote Originally Posted by Ignimortis View Post
That's also a part why I can never really "switch". 5e doesn't give you enough resources (or choices, or character build points - call them whatever you like).

This right here is basically no resources invested into attack besides ability score increases. You didn't buy a magic weapon, you didn't spend any feats optimizing to-hit, you've got a really mediocre starting STR score - all in all, this is a barebones character. There are tons of things you can do to make missing impossible except on a 1. There are tons of things you can do to get your damage in triple digits instead of 11-22. You've invested maybe 1/6th of your resources into attacking and still have a good chance to hit and do some damage - not a spectacular amount, but still.

If magic items are off the table for both cases...a level 20 Barbarian had 5 ASIs. Let's assume they're distributed as usual and that the barbarian started with 16 STR, as they often do. So that means 2 ASIs for +2 to STR, one for GWM, one to Fell Handed or Sword Mastery for +1 to-hit, and another one whenever, because I'm not sure what else can be done, which makes the 20 level increase pump him to 24 ST. The barbarian is at 6 (proficiency)+7 (STR)+1 (feat)=14 to-hit without a magic weapon. He can give himself advantage through Rage, sure. But the typical CR20 monster has 20 AC, so the barb misses on 5 or less, and if he uses GWM for damage, on 10 or less.

That's worse chances that a barebones 3.5 barbarian on a subpar chassis. And if his axe is non-magical, then he loses half the damage. He performs about the same as the 3.5 barb in the same conditions, but the 5e barb has invested 4/5 of his resources into attacking well, and the 3.5e barb has barely spent 1/6th. Add magic items and other resources into the mix, and the 3.5 barb comes ahead, because he can't miss on anything but a nat 1, and he does enough damage on his round to absolutely wreck the monster's day, and DR rarely even comes up.
To be fair to 5E you have it wrong. In 5E the barbarian doesn't need a whole lot of resources either. 5E monster ACs are significantly lower than in 3E on purpose because of Bounded Accuracy. He has a significant chance to hit for decent damage. He's doing 2d6 + 5 at 1st level while raging. He can invest in one feat for an added +10 damage. He's taking -5 to hit but getting to roll 2d20 and take the higher roll he has a decent chance of hitting. 5E warriors are not lacking the ability to land a punch and punch hard just by class features alone.