Eh; at early levels HP mods are pretty iffy buffers. That 8 from Tough is one good hit at 4th level, and if you’re giving this much AC you can expect to take several in a day. Especially if your DM doesn’t serve up your choice of magic item in tier 1.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

Eh; at early levels HP mods are pretty iffy buffers. That 8 from Tough is one good hit at 4th level, and if you’re giving this much AC you can expect to take several in a day. Especially if your DM doesn’t serve up your choice of magic item in tier 1.

 Yeah, I know,

Ok let’s start with the Level 3 berserker with a 16 strength (+3). He gets 1 attack and in round 1 he uses his bonus action to activate his rage. He also activates reckless attack and frenzy. That gives him advantage, +3 damage from rage and +2d6 damage from frenzy. Wielding a great sword his average damage is 7 + 3 for his strength bonus. So overall his dpr is (.87 x (7+3+2+7)=16.53 not bad but Still behind the ranger. At L4 you can take great weapon fighter which adds (.87 x 2)=1.74 to your dpr. At level 5 you get an extra attack and your proficiency bonus goes t +3 so now it’s ((.87x (7+3+3+2+7)) + (.87 x (7+3+3+2)))=32.19 which is very solid damage but still behind the ranger. 
If you try the Dex based barbarian then you lose the rage damage and frenzy damage as well as the advantage from reckless attack . You do get a second attack from using light weapons so now at L3 it is ((.65 x (3.5+3) + (.87 x (3.5+3)) + (.35(.65(6.5)))=11.359 leaving you way behind the normal barbarian. And this is assuming  vex- Nick blend of attacks. At L4 you can take dual wielding and get a third attack. Alternating vex/nick/ vex each round lets you start each round with advantage  and then get advantage on the Nick strike, so after round 1 it would be:  (2(.87 x (3.5+3))+ (.65 x (3.5+3))=15.535 way behind the ranger. Level 5 adds a 4 th attack but it’s not really going to help. The monk/ barbarian has the same problems as the Dex barb so I’m not doing the calculations. It does get 3-5 rounds with an extra bonus action attack using its focus points but that brings it closer but not beyond for those rounds. It’s just hard to beat out that hunter ranger for dpr.

A dual wielding barbarian would still be making its attacks with strength, not dexterity.

Please read the entire thread.

I have, and you seem to be the only one suggesting the barbarian/monk should attack with dexterity rather than strength.

As has been noted, trying to prioritize STR presents other issues- if you want Monk features they can’t wear a shield or armor, and the stat spread already limits either Unarmored AC option. If STR is the primary, that gets worse. Most likely you’re looking at 12 AC on a frontline character, which is pretty bad.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

As has been noted, trying to prioritize STR presents other issues- if you want Monk features they can’t wear a shield or armor, and the stat spread already limits either Unarmored AC option. If STR is the primary, that gets worse. Most likely you’re looking at 12 AC on a frontline character, which is pretty bad.

 Yes, correct, but  this thread is meant to discuss the highest damage build, not the AC of the build

But if you focus on damage over everything else, you end up with a glass canon, or in this case a glass tank

Quote from bthec18 >>

But if you focus on damage over everything else, you end up with a glass canon, or in this case a glass tank

 Yes, which is sort of the point

The title doesn’t say anything about DPR specifically, and in practical terms your DPR will nosedive quite sharply if you spend half your time holding down the floor with your face.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

The title doesn’t say anything about DPR specifically, and in practical terms your DPR will nosedive quite sharply if you spend half your time holding down the floor with your face.

 yes, correct, but there are ways to get both high

And, the first post is the place where it talks about DPR

Sure there are ways, but they’re pretty much all outside player control on the AC front, if you’re determined to stitch Monk and Barbarian together.

And that was sort of my point - monk is Dex based and looses much when you try to a strength monk. Barbarian is strength based and you lose everything if you try to go Dex based. Trying to mix them is a disaster waiting to happen. The original post was asking about dpr so I was trying to show how good or bad different builds level 3-5 ( well 1-6) are. Of the builds folks suggested the hunter ranger does the best ( not to my surprise).

I did make one bad assumption - for whatever reason I assumed that light weapons were Dex weapons  but that is only finesse weapons so a barb could TWF with hand axes and get the barb bonuses so here goes - strength based dual hand axes: rage damage (L1-8) +2, strength bonus +3 d6 avg dam 3.5, frenzy avg dam (2d6) 7, reckless attack grants advantage on each attack. (2(.87 x (3.5+2))+ (.87x 3+7))=19.18  which is better than the adjusted great weapon barb ( a second mistake - in the earlier barb calls I had frenzy doing 3d6 when it should do 2d6 and I’ve edited that post now)  but not the ranger but it does technically allow you to throw the axes (20’r)  so but then you may have problems with holding rage. At L4 you can take the TWF feat getting the strength bonus on the second attack (.87x3)=2.61 extra damage. Or 21.79 dpr. At L5 you get extra attack adding (.87(3.5+3+2))=7.395 for a total dpr of about 29. 
This could be improved by using either dual scimitars or short sword and scimitar and taking dual wielding at L4 granting you 4 attacks at L5  ( and 3 at L4) for
(4(.87 x ( 3.5 +2)) +(.87 x (7+3)))=27.84 dpr .still not up to the ranger.

Even Finesse weapons can be used with STR; DEX is just an alt option.

Yes but  because essentially all of my light weapon builds have also been Dex builds I had started equating the two when I shouldn’t have.. At low level (1-6) I have yet to see a build that outperforms the hunter ranger for day long dpr.