So I once made a character that was paladin/rogue. Very overpowered build by the way. If I am dming a level 20 game can a paladin, rogue, ranger, fighter use divine smite, sneak attack, colossus slayer, a superiority die, and use booming blame all in one attack? It sacrifices a lot of features for random levels but that should be around 13d8 and 3d6 at the maximum spell level.
I don't think that is too much damage. Take a look at it from a pure level 20 single class character: a Fighter 20 can do 40 damage just from the Sharpshooter/Great Weapon Master feat due to their 4 attacks, add in DEX/STR modifiers and weapon damage and it easily beats out the average damage of the build you just suggested. Another example would be a Rogue 20 doing 10d6 just from sneak attack, if you add something like Booming Blade on top of that and its another possible 7d8 and that's without counting weapon damage.
By multiclassing so many different classes you also miss out on powerful features from a single class, eg higher level spells etc.
I can't quite figure out the build you have in mind, I am assuming it is a 13 Paladin/3 Fighter(Battlemaster)/3 Ranger(Hunter)/1 Rogue but that is a guess. Regardless, as ThelonelyMagi points out level 20 in general means big numbers and what you provide is not at all unusual.
Taking your numbers at face value and assuming a 13th level Paladin smiting with a 4th level spell slot then this is a once a day nova after which the character is doing significantly less damage. And if we compare this to straight class builds we find it is actually under performing.
Lets assume a 60% chance to hit with a 20 in our attack stat.
proposed build: (0.6)(58.5 + 10.5 + 5) + (0.05)(58.5 + 10.5) = 46.95 DPR lvl 20 Fighter with greatsword, Great Weapon Master, and Action Surge: 8((0.35)(7 + 5 + 10) + (0.05)(3.5)) = 63 DPR lvl 20 Rogue with hand crossbow, and Crossbow Expert: 2((0.6)(3.5 + 5) + (0.05)(3.5)) + (0.84)(35) + (0.05)(35) = 41.7 DPR
As we can see the Fighter can do substantially more damage with their Action Surge, which they can do twice per short rest. The Rogue does ~10% less damage with a sneak attack but it is something they can typically do almost every round of combat. So combining features can be fun and make for interesting builds but it does not necessarily make for powerful builds.
4 levels in Fighter:Gets us Action Surge, Fighting style, a feat and a Martial Archetype. Take Dueling for fighting style, though your Martial Archetype is more flexible. Psi Warrior adds 1d6+int to our pile of dice, but I'd rather go with Champion to increase our chances of doubling said pile of dice. Use the feat for Elven accuracy (and put the small bump into dex), this allows us to roll 3 dice with advantage, which'll come in handy later.
5 levels in Paladin: Gets us another Fighting style, an ASI, Sacred Oath, Extra Attack, Spells, and 2nd level Smites Here's where stuff gets fun: Go for the Oath of Vengeance for it's Channel Divinity which'll give us advantage on all attacks against 1 creature. Additionally, this gets us hunters Mark (an extra d6 thrown on the pile after our first turn), and taking blind-fighting for your fighting style will make you much more consistent. Smite gets us 3d8 onto the pile. Put the ASI in Dex.
4 levels in Ranger: Gets us (wait for it) another fighting style, Ranger Archetype, More Spell-casting, and another feat. Defense is probably your best bet for a fighting style, and Take Gloomstalker for an extra attack and another d8 on the pile on your first turn. Get the lucky feat because Lucky feat. Nothing on the ranger spell list is needed that you don't have already but it's some nice utility. Grab the peircer feat for another 1d8 onto the pile on crits.
11 levels in Rouge: Gets us 5d6 in sneak attack, 3 ASIs/Feats, and 2 features from a Roguish Archetype . Here's the big one: 5d6 added onto the pile whenever we have advantage. Take the Phantom to get 3d6 extra onto the pile on another creature, put the ASI's into Wisdom so you go first.
Wasn't the plan for a level 20 character, rather than level 24?
Sneak attack only works on attacks which use dexterity
That's not actually correct. Sneak attack requires a finesse (or ranged) weapon; there's nothing saying you can't use STR instead of DEX with that finesse weapon, though. This is actually one of the building blocks of a barbarian/rogue MC
Beginning at 1st level, you know how to strike subtly and exploit a foe’s distraction. Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon.
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Alright I've been thinking about this, and though it'd be fun to build, so welcome to the funky optimization corner. there's a few things we'd need to consider to be able to make this work:
None of these classes start with booming blade, so we'll need to either dip into a class which gets it (Sorcerer would be our best bet), or expend out Rouge or Fighter subclass to grab it. We'll use the secret third option and get it from High-Elf's cantrip. Even then, I'm gonna ignore it for considering the damage, as it's not as reliable as just attacking.
Sneak attack only works on attacks which use dexterity, and Smite only works on melee attacks, so our best option is going to either be a Rapier or 2 Short-swords (though TWF takes our bonus action, which we might want for something else.
Extra Attack doesn't stack, meaning that it's best to only dip to 3-4 in most of the classes and heavily prioritize one (Paladin or Fighter are our best bets for damage)
So with out of the way Heres how I'd build it: High Elf. Using standard array, I'll go with the scores of 8 str, 15 dex (increased to 17), 12 con, 13 int (increased to 14), 10 wis, and 14 cha. (Get Booming Blade here)
4 levels in Fighter:Gets us Action Surge, Fighting style, a feat and a Martial Archetype. Take Dueling for fighting style, though your Martial Archetype is more flexible. Psi Warrior adds 1d6+int to our pile of dice, but I'd rather go with Champion to increase our chances of doubling said pile of dice. Use the feat for Elven accuracy (and put the small bump into dex), this allows us to roll 3 dice with advantage, which'll come in handy later.
5 levels in Paladin: Gets us another Fighting style, an ASI, Sacred Oath, Extra Attack, Spells, and 2nd level Smites Here's where stuff gets fun: Go for the Oath of Vengeance for it's Channel Divinity which'll give us advantage on all attacks against 1 creature. Additionally, this gets us hunters Mark (an extra d6 thrown on the pile after our first turn), and taking blind-fighting for your fighting style will make you much more consistent. Smite gets us 3d8 onto the pile. Put the ASI in Dex.
4 levels in Ranger: Gets us (wait for it) another fighting style, Ranger Archetype, More Spell-casting, and another feat. Defense is probably your best bet for a fighting style, and Take Gloomstalker for an extra attack and another d8 on the pile on your first turn. Get the lucky feat because Lucky feat. Nothing on the ranger spell list is needed that you don't have already but it's some nice utility. Grab the peircer feat for another 1d8 onto the pile on crits.
11 levels in Rouge: Gets us 5d6 in sneak attack, 3 ASIs/Feats, and 2 features from a Roguish Archetype . Here's the big one: 5d6 added onto the pile whenever we have advantage. Take the Phantom to get 3d6 extra onto the pile on another creature, put the ASI's into Wisdom so you go first.
The Results: So on our first turn, we burn Action Surge and use Our channel Divinity as our bonus action, and burn a smite on our first turn. Thus we make 6 attacks with Elven Accuracy (1d8+5), the first one which hits dealing an extra 8d6+4d8 damage. This is an average of 50.5 damage on that attack if it hits. Combined with crit chances (x2 dice, +1d8) and the rest of our attacks, that winds up being an average of 197.73 damage on that turn. On all turns after that, we'll put down a Hunters Mark to add another d6 on the pile, and we'll act as if we have no smites left. That gives us a bonus of 9d6 on the first attack which hits, and 1d6 on all others. Overall, you'll be dealing an average of 48.85 damage on all turns after that, provided you still have the advantage from your channel divinity. If your channel divinity were to end, however, your sneak attack would also stop working, cutting your damage to an average of 19.4 per round. For perspective, a full Champion Fighter with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter will deal an average of 87.69 with that same super-advantage, 48.87 without, and 157.84 with that advantage on an action surge. So that's a little rough.
In short: This is an Incredibly good build for Burst damage, but burns out almost instantly (Dread Ambusher only works on the first turn, You only have 1 action surge and channel divinity, and only 2 top-level smite slots). If you're able to keep it's momentum, it'll deal good damage, but the moment that gets cut off you're suddenly relying heavily on positioning for you to be a significant force again. I'd argue that for that reason, it wouldn't be too powerful, as it also lacks the Reliability of a full Rouge/Fighter, or the defensive capabilities of a full paladin. Either way, it's a weirdly optimized build with a rough state when conditions aren't met so I'd argue that while it's powerful, it's not Tabaxi Monk w/ Boots of Speed levels of powerful. Seems like it'd be fun to play though.
1. *blink* you dont need to get it from a class, or subclass, take a feat for it from racial from var human, and grab magic initiate, or another feat that gives booming blade
and thats a lvl 24 build, if your looking for a more nova build, i suggest paladin 9, 3 fighter, 5 rogue, 3 ranger, you still get roughly....6 attacks, 3 level 3 smites, 3 level 2 smites, the additional 1d8 from gloomstalker, an extra d6 from your attacks if you use your rangers hunters mark (not needing to choose vengeance to get it, as your a ranger), and if you are lucky, you get your additional 3d6 sneak, or even 6d6 if you use assassin, if you go eldritch knight youll end up with a 4th lvl smite, but champion can be fun if your crit fishing. Using just a regular rapier, your dealing roughly...28d8+6d6+30 (if +5 dex), 9d6 if you have adv, which is roughly 187dmg, higher if you crit, not only that if you dont nova first round this build has alot more resources and isnt even a booming blade build, which you didnt build in your post lol.
Using booming blade as your first strike wanting to use all four, I would suggest taking roughly...9 levels of rogue still, 3 levels of fighter, 4 of paladin, 4 of ranger, you could go champion for the nova, or eldritch knight for the extra spell slot and booming blade, which in this case frees up a feat slot, which i will take for this Not counting feats, rogue alone gets you 5d6, paladin smite grants you 4d8 at third level, ranger horizon walker gives us 2d8 as a bonus action, booming blade gives us 3d8, rapier gives you an extra d8 as thats its base weapon, if we take the superiorty die fighting style, as part of our racial feat, thats an extra d6 on the attack, +2 if we take dueling from fighter, if we have a 20 dex thats an extra 5, I suggest taking swashbuckler for adv to get your sneak, but if you want to go assassin, go ahead, that grants you even more dmg
assassin, will be dealing in one strike, if you have piercer, will be dealing 12d6+21d8+7, roughly around 147 dmg
swashbuckler will be dealing 6d6+10d8+7, roughly around 73 dmg
In short: This is an Incredibly good build for Burst damage, but burns out almost instantly (Dread Ambusher only works on the first turn, You only have 1 action surge and channel divinity, and only 2 top-level smite slots). If you're able to keep it's momentum, it'll deal good damage, but the moment that gets cut off you're suddenly relying heavily on positioning for you to be a significant force again. I'd argue that for that reason, it wouldn't be too powerful, as it also lacks the Reliability of a full Rouge/Fighter, or the defensive capabilities of a full paladin. Either way, it's a weirdly optimized build with a rough state when conditions aren't met so I'd argue that while it's powerful, it's not Tabaxi Monk w/ Boots of Speed levels of powerful. Seems like it'd be fun to play though.
Let me fix your summary up a bit.
In short this is a illegal character because it is level 24 and does not have enough STR to multiclass into Paladin.
So, I put 6 levels in Paladin (oath of vengeance obviously), 3 fighter battle master, 4 ranger hunter, and 7 rogue (arcane trickster). This build gets only 1 level 4 spell but in the long run more levels in rogue gets more sneak attack damage. this build averages 80 DPR for about 4 attacks (this is an underestimation). Yes it falls off after but doing more than 200 damage in 1 round its pretty tough.
So I once made a character that was paladin/rogue. Very overpowered build by the way. If I am dming a level 20 game can a paladin, rogue, ranger, fighter use divine smite, sneak attack, colossus slayer, a superiority die, and use booming blame all in one attack? It sacrifices a lot of features for random levels but that should be around 13d8 and 3d6 at the maximum spell level.
Wha wha WALUIGI
I don't think that is too much damage. Take a look at it from a pure level 20 single class character: a Fighter 20 can do 40 damage just from the Sharpshooter/Great Weapon Master feat due to their 4 attacks, add in DEX/STR modifiers and weapon damage and it easily beats out the average damage of the build you just suggested. Another example would be a Rogue 20 doing 10d6 just from sneak attack, if you add something like Booming Blade on top of that and its another possible 7d8 and that's without counting weapon damage.
By multiclassing so many different classes you also miss out on powerful features from a single class, eg higher level spells etc.
I can't quite figure out the build you have in mind, I am assuming it is a 13 Paladin/3 Fighter(Battlemaster)/3 Ranger(Hunter)/1 Rogue but that is a guess. Regardless, as ThelonelyMagi points out level 20 in general means big numbers and what you provide is not at all unusual.
Taking your numbers at face value and assuming a 13th level Paladin smiting with a 4th level spell slot then this is a once a day nova after which the character is doing significantly less damage. And if we compare this to straight class builds we find it is actually under performing.
Lets assume a 60% chance to hit with a 20 in our attack stat.
proposed build: (0.6)(58.5 + 10.5 + 5) + (0.05)(58.5 + 10.5) = 46.95 DPR
lvl 20 Fighter with greatsword, Great Weapon Master, and Action Surge: 8((0.35)(7 + 5 + 10) + (0.05)(3.5)) = 63 DPR
lvl 20 Rogue with hand crossbow, and Crossbow Expert: 2((0.6)(3.5 + 5) + (0.05)(3.5)) + (0.84)(35) + (0.05)(35) = 41.7 DPR
As we can see the Fighter can do substantially more damage with their Action Surge, which they can do twice per short rest. The Rogue does ~10% less damage with a sneak attack but it is something they can typically do almost every round of combat. So combining features can be fun and make for interesting builds but it does not necessarily make for powerful builds.
UPDATE: I failed basic Arithmetic :(
all below clownery on the fact I can’t count to 20 is deserved.
Wasn't the plan for a level 20 character, rather than level 24?
That's not actually correct. Sneak attack requires a finesse (or ranged) weapon; there's nothing saying you can't use STR instead of DEX with that finesse weapon, though. This is actually one of the building blocks of a barbarian/rogue MC
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
1. *blink* you dont need to get it from a class, or subclass, take a feat for it from racial from var human, and grab magic initiate, or another feat that gives booming blade
and thats a lvl 24 build, if your looking for a more nova build, i suggest paladin 9, 3 fighter, 5 rogue, 3 ranger, you still get roughly....6 attacks, 3 level 3 smites, 3 level 2 smites, the additional 1d8 from gloomstalker, an extra d6 from your attacks if you use your rangers hunters mark (not needing to choose vengeance to get it, as your a ranger), and if you are lucky, you get your additional 3d6 sneak, or even 6d6 if you use assassin, if you go eldritch knight youll end up with a 4th lvl smite, but champion can be fun if your crit fishing. Using just a regular rapier, your dealing roughly...28d8+6d6+30 (if +5 dex), 9d6 if you have adv, which is roughly 187dmg, higher if you crit, not only that if you dont nova first round this build has alot more resources and isnt even a booming blade build, which you didnt build in your post lol.
Using booming blade as your first strike wanting to use all four, I would suggest taking roughly...9 levels of rogue still, 3 levels of fighter, 4 of paladin, 4 of ranger, you could go champion for the nova, or eldritch knight for the extra spell slot and booming blade, which in this case frees up a feat slot, which i will take for this
Not counting feats, rogue alone gets you 5d6, paladin smite grants you 4d8 at third level, ranger horizon walker gives us 2d8 as a bonus action, booming blade gives us 3d8, rapier gives you an extra d8 as thats its base weapon, if we take the superiorty die fighting style, as part of our racial feat, thats an extra d6 on the attack, +2 if we take dueling from fighter, if we have a 20 dex thats an extra 5, I suggest taking swashbuckler for adv to get your sneak, but if you want to go assassin, go ahead, that grants you even more dmg
assassin, will be dealing in one strike, if you have piercer, will be dealing 12d6+21d8+7, roughly around 147 dmg
swashbuckler will be dealing 6d6+10d8+7, roughly around 73 dmg
some good dmg but nothing special
Let me fix your summary up a bit.
In short this is a illegal character because it is level 24 and does not have enough STR to multiclass into Paladin.
Update: Somehow in a game all about math, while I was doing a ton of math, I was ultimately boggled by the Herculean task of counting to 20.
Welp
lol it happens
So, I put 6 levels in Paladin (oath of vengeance obviously), 3 fighter battle master, 4 ranger hunter, and 7 rogue (arcane trickster). This build gets only 1 level 4 spell but in the long run more levels in rogue gets more sneak attack damage. this build averages 80 DPR for about 4 attacks (this is an underestimation). Yes it falls off after but doing more than 200 damage in 1 round its pretty tough.
Wha wha WALUIGI
"([HOMEBREW])" nothing is illegal if you can convince the DM
Wha wha WALUIGI