Making Melee damage more even with Spellcasting

Quote from FoxMulder >>

@Pent That was a mouthful. I can't say I understood all of that. LOL. I feel the need to type LOL now. LOL. Thank you for pointing that out. Again, I get that PWK isn't the most powerful level 9 spell. I don't think we were discussing a specific build though. Anything can be optimized to do crazy damage. I never mentioned feats or magic weapons, initially, in terms of adding damage. Also, spellcasters get a level 9 spell at level 17. Fighters get their last extra attack at 20.

I don't think any of the spells you listed are direct damage spells. I couldn't read the entire spell and I'm too lazy to type them in and look them up. LOL.

 My example was at level 17, level 20 is around 160. I didn't list any damage spells because none of the best level 9 spells are damaging, though both meteor swarm and psychic scream are easily superior to PWK in most situations.

Quote from FoxMulder >>

@caerwyn_Glyndwr "A high level fighter properly equipped can easily deal more than 100 damage with their turn." You mean on a turn where Action Surge is used. Let's take a Great Axe. 7 average damage per attack. If you hit every rime, that's 63 over nine attacks. Add 45 for your modifier, if you have a 20 in STR. 108 total. "Properly equipped". A +3 weapon adds 27 more for a total of 135. You might want to check your players dice for air bubbles. They might be weighted toward better rolls. I AM NOT accusing your players of cheating. LOL.
Why did I pick 60 years old? Maybe, I'm over 60. We've had a tradition for some time. Older generations have called youngsters kids. I'm so sorry that I triggered you. You must be under 60. I should have put LOL after that horrifying passive aggression. Sarcasm.
My experience as a DM who hasn't run multiple high-level campaigns. I usually just sit there in awe. Maybe yell out things when a Fighter stands 5 feet from an ancient dragon or demon and attacks. Go get 'em.. Awesome. Crush them into the ground.
I think you are the one who gets bored.

See, it is hard to take you seriously when you admit you have not run high level campaigns, then assert so strongly “evidence” to back up your claims that shows your lack of experience.

There is a reason I said a “properly equipped” character.  At high levels, a properly equipped character is going to have more than the +3 weapon you assumed - they are going to have weapons that deal significant additional damage per hit.  They are going to have feats and other abilities that stack damage. Subclass nonsense.  All the things you ignore in your math that do not even require a particularly broken set of optimization combinations.

As a general rule, when you don’t know what you are talking about - as your post clearly admits - your best course of action is to listen, not continue to confidently assert false competency in a subject.  

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

In an actual game, where the DM knows what they are doing with encounter design, resource taxing, and loot, this works out extremely well. 

In my experience playing with a lot of different online groups, the average DM is not great at those things. Especially not resourcing taxing, as they offer PCs far too many opportunities to recover between encounters. So does it really make sense to balance things around good DMs (or at least ones good at this particular thing) rather than typical DMs?