I had a discussion yesterday with a player who considered that fighters were overpowered and much stronger than wizards in 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons. He had played other D&D editions and Pathfinder before, and considered that the ability of the fighter to wield two weapons and attack twice already at level 1 without any special feats was way too powerful. And he considered that once the wizard had spent his spell slots, casting his cantrips was boring.

I found that this was a rather peculiar view. I know a lot of people who much prefer a fighter to wield a greatsword dealing 2d6 + Strength bonus of damage rather than two weapons, one of which deals 1d6 + Dexterity bonus, the other just 1d6. Obviously in the end both deal the same damage, so it is just a matter of preference whether you like to have two chances to land at least one blow, or whether you'd rather have just one chance to land a twice as big blow. Even if you consider the respective bonuses from fighting styles, I had never considered one version overpowered compared to the other.

Comparing the fighter to the wizard at level 1, the 1d10 damage with no bonus (average 5.5) that the wizard can deal with a cantrip looks weak compared to the 2d6 + bonus (average 10, even before taking into account the fighting style) that the fighter deals with his attacks, two-handed or dual-wielding. And as I talked about in an earlier post, if the adventuring day has the 6 to 8 encounters that the Dungeon Master's Guide proposes, the 2 or 3 spells that a spellcaster can do at level 1 don't really compensate for the weak cantrips. Even if you deal something like 3d8 or 4d6 like some 1st-level spells do, doing this 2 or 3 times doesn't bring up your average by enough to make your spellcaster deal overall more damage than the basic fighter if there are something like 20 combat rounds in a day.

However that discussion is only valid at level 1. 5th edition D&D has 20 levels. And already at level 10 that wizard is going to have 15 spell slots, plus the ability to recover 5 spell slot levels in a day. And the adventuring day hasn't become any longer, so he can pretty much cast a spell every round of the day. The first level spells already deal more damage than a fighter attack, and at level 10 the wizard has access to much more damaging spells like Fireball, Ice Storm, or Cone of Cold. Meanwhile the fighter just gains one more main hand attack (at which point two-handed is definitively better than dual wielding), and still isn't hitting much harder than at level 1 (his bonus probably went up from +3 to +5 through stat increases). So at level 10+, the wizard definitively deals more damage per day than the fighter.

But mathematics aside, the main advantage of a spellcaster over a melee attacker is that attacking with a spell gives you way more different options. Regardless how many attacks the fighter has per round, in the end it is always just the same attack and damage roll. Even if you only consider damage dealing, the wizard gets a lot more variety, from the magic missile that doesn't require any roll to deal damage, to fireball spells that incinerate a large area. And in addition he has utility spells that allow him to charm people, turn invisible, fly, summon monsters, or build magical walls.

I would say that if a fighter is "overpowered" at level 1, he probably deserves it, and should enjoy it while it lasts.