If he is critical hit fishing with his character, he might not be caring about the d4 hit at all and basically just uses it as a contingency. That said, if he lands a hit with that d4 hit and takes the -5 to hit for +10 to damage part of GWM even a tiny 1d4 attack has a potential to be explosive when you consider its minimum damage threshold is 11 damage off a bonus action. They also get opportunity attacks with said weapon if someone steps with their Melee range, which has reach so they have a pretty insane area of control.
In my personal character's case it's a strongly rolled character that covers the above-listed bases, and honestly is a very niche character I made to help round out the needs of my current party ( we also have a niche Ranger/ Rogue I combo within the backline that results in the massive fistful of dice combo with a single hit). You also gain Expertise in 4 skills at fairly low levels and still have Jack of all Trades to help round out the character, so in all, I don't feel I have sacrificed too much in this combo. The spells slots don't actually change as well when multiclassing bard into arcane trickster so I'm not actually hurting myself that way, just sacrificing high-end skills that ... let's be honest... most campaigns I've played in rarely reach before conclusion or a PC death. Again, as I posted in brackets, a Dex fighter accomplishes the same and probably sacrifices less if you didn't roll well or are using the standard array to make your character, but getting access to expertise like i have as a bard is a little dangerous on the RP side of things.
p.s. My Bards stats are broken, and the DM basically offered a curse (with benefits, its a lot to explain but again a niche character) to keep her in check, but I've decided to exploit the curse, thus why I also went the route I did.
p.s. pt 2, with this build I would also HIGHLY recommend taking the Resilient feat to give yourself proficiency in CON or War Caster (probably both) to also help cover that VERY big hole in the build.
I'm actually running a College of Valor Bard and began multiclassing into Rogue (with the plans of making them an Arcane Trickster) and discovered that combination also allows for the Extra Attack feature (also a multiclass DEX fighter does the trick too) giving me a 3rd attack, or at least 2 attacks with a bow from range allowing for a greater chance of landing Sneak Attack Dies.
0
If he is critical hit fishing with his character, he might not be caring about the d4 hit at all and basically just uses it as a contingency. That said, if he lands a hit with that d4 hit and takes the -5 to hit for +10 to damage part of GWM even a tiny 1d4 attack has a potential to be explosive when you consider its minimum damage threshold is 11 damage off a bonus action. They also get opportunity attacks with said weapon if someone steps with their Melee range, which has reach so they have a pretty insane area of control.
0
In my personal character's case it's a strongly rolled character that covers the above-listed bases, and honestly is a very niche character I made to help round out the needs of my current party ( we also have a niche Ranger/ Rogue I combo within the backline that results in the massive fistful of dice combo with a single hit). You also gain Expertise in 4 skills at fairly low levels and still have Jack of all Trades to help round out the character, so in all, I don't feel I have sacrificed too much in this combo. The spells slots don't actually change as well when multiclassing bard into arcane trickster so I'm not actually hurting myself that way, just sacrificing high-end skills that ... let's be honest... most campaigns I've played in rarely reach before conclusion or a PC death. Again, as I posted in brackets, a Dex fighter accomplishes the same and probably sacrifices less if you didn't roll well or are using the standard array to make your character, but getting access to expertise like i have as a bard is a little dangerous on the RP side of things.
p.s. My Bards stats are broken, and the DM basically offered a curse (with benefits, its a lot to explain but again a niche character) to keep her in check, but I've decided to exploit the curse, thus why I also went the route I did.
p.s. pt 2, with this build I would also HIGHLY recommend taking the Resilient feat to give yourself proficiency in CON or War Caster (probably both) to also help cover that VERY big hole in the build.
0
I'm actually running a College of Valor Bard and began multiclassing into Rogue (with the plans of making them an Arcane Trickster) and discovered that combination also allows for the Extra Attack feature (also a multiclass DEX fighter does the trick too) giving me a 3rd attack, or at least 2 attacks with a bow from range allowing for a greater chance of landing Sneak Attack Dies.