DD spells worked up to 2nd Ed. They stopped working in 3.x because of the hp bloat. Which is what I said.
As i said, damage spells dont matter.
In 3.5, you can get meaningful attacks with all 4 attacks at higher levels, and any martial class gets them.
It doesnt matter, theres a ton of hp bloat in 3.5, the relative damage went down. as i said, most ineffective way to kill anyone is to reduce their hp to 0.
Removing hp might be least effective but most consistent. It is also pretty simple to make. I have a martial build that can do about 50 damage per blow, which mean he triggers the massive damage save every single successful attack (and with that kind of a strength bonus, you can bet he is landing most of the time). That is just using a bog standard dwarven waraxe. I shudder to think what he can do with a warmace with the wizard dropping a Greater Mighty Wallop on it.
Stat damage is more reliable, so is reaching impossible to save DCs. And you have the defenses magic affords you as well.
I had a character that could do anywhere from 500 to 1000 damage per round, it meant shit.
Then i had a wizard of the same level that didnt do damage, he dominated, didnt need a stupid warrior ruining everything.
You are forgetting a lot of things. First in 2nd edition martial classes had the best saving throws. Second the small pool of hp coupled with the largely static AC meant that anything died in one round even if you didnt minmax your character, and that every attack actually landed, and that casters autofailed constitution on taking any damage from any source. Third, martials were the only ones getting a big bonus from constitution. Fourth, you could add dex to AC. Fifth, exceptional STR bonus was also both rare and big, and exclusive to martials.
Yeah in 3rd edition fighters can manage bigger numbers, but in the big picture bigger numbers mean fuck all.