While reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series I felt like the Bridgeburners should be possible as D&D characters. There's a wide variety of power levels in the series and ways to express them. Similar to D&D's goals. Oh. Brys specifically is a weirdly cool fighter. But the key is that the skill difference is shown. (It's been some years since I read the series though.)

In D&D 5e, a fighter doesn't seem that better of a swordsman than a barbarian. You get more attacks, but in the end both are making attacks to deal damage by rolling a couple of attack and damage rolls. It feels similar to me. In this book series the differences between Karsa Orlong, a blatant high level barbarian (though a lot of it is from racial bonuses? Eh, close enough) and Brys the master swordsman are clear from the way they fight.