Quote Originally Posted by stoutstien View Post
Quite a few actually once you start adding stuff in like distance, hazards, and attrition/individual decisions for resource management. You can cut a lot of those optimized builds output down by 30-40% with just a single poor choice.
So for instance, you mean something like if I was a bard and took conjure animals as my secret (which on paper greatly outdamages anything a rogue can do in an encounter) but I misuse it and get them all killed, or pick the wrong encounter to waste the resource on?

I’d agree with that sort of thing, except for the fact that my experience is that rogues (and other melee range martials) tend to have more things that muck up their potential dpr than other classes relatively speaking. Skirmishers in particular (monks/rogues) tend to have a lot of bad rounds where they can’t quite go in, b/c they could potentially risk death. Eg a rogue with low hitpoints coming out of hiding is always one surprise away from dying to a crappy kobold with a bow, and therefore might choose not to come out. Meanwhile, that SS artificer who is busy plinking away from range is doing constant reliable damage and is far less at risk of losing a round of contribution.