I like going through numbers a lot. Math and rules are a fun thing to put together for me, but I like playing the game by roleplaying, so I would never use an optimized build. I just want to see other creative ways people have gotten highest possible damage in the game.
When you're showing off a build, I just wanna know what restrictions you're using. Things like multiclassing or not, if outside help is involved, and if items are used.
Here's an example:
A multiclass of a level 15 bard from the college of whispers and 5 levels from a cleric of the domain of death, that is a fallen aasimar, with dual wielder and martial adept feats, who's alone, riding a horse with lances.
17 - First Lance 48 - Psychic Blades from Whispers Bard 6 - Disarming Attack from Martial Adept 15 - Touch of Death from Death Cleric 20 - Necrotic Shroud from Fallen Aasimar 54 - 9th level Branding Smite from Magical Secrets
First action damage is 160 at best. First action critical damage is 340 at best.
12 - Second Lance 20 - Necrotic Shroud
Whole turn damage is 192 at best. Whole turn critical damage is 404 at best.
I've taken part in a couple of threads where we theory crafted what is probably the highest potential turn 1 damage build possible.
Rogue assassin 4/ fighter battle master 11/ ranger gloom stalker 5. Take the alert and sharpshooter feats and use the rest of your ASIs to max DEX and get WIS as high as possible (using half elf I was able to get +5 DEX and +4 WIS using standard array). Oathbow and bracers of archery required.
Use pass without trace to all but guarantee surprise (even if you have a paladin in the party), and you should have at least a +14 to initiative to all but guarantee going first. You should make 8 attacks with a +8 to hit (after the -5 for sharphooter) with advantage. Between hunter's mark, martial maneuvers, sneak attack, dread ambush, action surge, oathbow, bracers of archery, assassinate (auto-crit), and sharpshooter (and not counting any magical or poisoned ammo for even more damage), the last time I crunched the numbers the minimum damage was 234, maximum damage was 804, making the average 519 damage (again not using arrow of slaying or purple worm poison (injury) which could add as much as 48d10+96d6 (average 600) half on DC17/19 CON save×8).
I know that you can, but it adds nothing to a character really. Combat is really just boring to do if you go for a straightforward strategy like power builds, and combat is a fun moment when your character can express their traits in some quirky ways.
@Lordneg You can role play a brutally efficient, cold killing machine. You can also role play a moderately bumbling cobbler who after some time realized he had the power to make magic shoes that cast Fireball (Artificer Artillerist, but you make shoes instead of wands).
You're definitely right that you can role play an optimized character, with just the right multiclassing to maximize damage output. But I've really been enjoying roleplaying as my character Trakagak, a sea elf who grew up in the shallow waters just south of Waterdeep, right next to the city dump, the Rat Hills. He spent a lot of time playing in the Rat Hills with his otyugh and kobold friends growing up, and thus learned the value of all forms of life. Even the 'evil' ones and the ones that survive off of the refuse of modern society. He decided to become a druid to help protect his friends and to bring awareness that ALL forms of life are valuable. Specifically, he's in the Circle of Spores.
Trakagak is absolutely terrible at combat. We're about 6 sessions into the Acquisitions Incorporated adventure and he's gotten to 2:0 failed:successful death saving throws at least once most sessions. He keeps almost dying. His best modifier is +2 and he can't do more than about 1d8 damage in a round. Being only 2nd level, he has almost no spell slots either. Short story is, Trakagak is NOT optimized for ANYTHING. He is probably the single least useful character I've ever played in combat. But boy, does he have an attitude and boy is he fun to play as. One of his cantrips is infestation. That does 1d6 piercing damage and the target runs 5 feet in a random direction. This movement doesn't even provoke opportunity attacks. It's actually a pretty dang weak cantrip, but it fits him flavor-wise. It's the kind of spell Trakagak would have.
So when I built Trakagak, I wanted to play a character with a specific personality and backstory and see how their life developed. I focused on the character first, and abilities second. If he ends up multiclassing, it'll be because of narrative reasons. If he doesn't want to sell his soul to an unknowable being, he's not going to take any levels in Warlock. He's a sassy jerk, too, so he probably won't pick up Paladin.
One big part of DND is combat. Another is the other mechanics, like having to do with skill proficiencies and ability checks. My favorite part, however, is the narrative. The most optimized character builds make for difficult, forced narratives.
@KidPenguin, I think everyone agrees that a non optimized build can be role played and be plenty of fun. While some people might enjoy playing the bumbling scrub or foolish sidekick many of us like to play the hero. I'd much rather play Luke Skywalker than C3PO for example. Sure, a good protagonist has some flaws there is always something special about that character.
As for the original poster...I have found the combination of the Divination wizards portent ability and plane shift to be a killer combo. Does it matter how much damage you deal when you can just plane shift the bad guy to the plane of fire?
I have also seen an ancients paladin/swords bard to be both an extremely effective character but also a wonderful role playing opportunity. It makes for a great elven green knight.
Single strike with a Holy Avenger equals 1d8+10 rapier +2d10 radiant +1d8 radiant improved smite +5d8 radiant smite+ 1d8 blade flourish which is 57 average damage per hit and 94 max damage. Potential for 188 damage per round with enough spell slots to keep it going for a few rounds. And that is before we talk about crits or dropping a heat metal on the bad guy beforehand!
Ok, I looked at some more stuff to make another melee magic build. This one will take 2 turns to setup, also help from the multiclass caster slot table. It's repeatable aside from 9th level disintegrate as well.
A multiclass of 14 levels in bard from the college of valor, 3 levels in rogue from swashbuckler, and 3 levels from druid in the circle of spores. They'll be a scourge aasimar, no feats, and a rapier.
Trust me, once I get to builds with outside help, I'll make some crazy builds.
In the meantime, I'd love to see if someone else had builds to show off. If it trumps whats on here so far, the math and strategy would be bound to be interesting.
I've taken part in a couple of threads where we theory crafted what is probably the highest potential turn 1 damage build possible.
Rogue assassin 4/ fighter battle master 11/ ranger gloom stalker 5. Take the alert and sharpshooter feats and use the rest of your ASIs to max DEX and get WIS as high as possible (using half elf I was able to get +5 DEX and +4 WIS using standard array). Oathbow and bracers of archery required.
Use pass without trace to all but guarantee surprise (even if you have a paladin in the party), and you should have at least a +14 to initiative to all but guarantee going first. You should make 8 attacks with a +8 to hit (after the -5 for sharphooter) with advantage. Between hunter's mark, martial maneuvers, sneak attack, dread ambush, action surge, oathbow, bracers of archery, assassinate (auto-crit), and sharpshooter (and not counting any magical or poisoned ammo for even more damage), the last time I crunched the numbers the minimum damage was 234, maximum damage was 804, making the average 519 damage (again not using arrow of slaying or purple worm poison (injury) which could add as much as 48d10+96d6 (average 600) half on DC17/19 CON save×8).
Are you using dread ambusher + action surge to get two extra attacks? I figured 3 normal attacks + action surge = 3 more for a total of 6 + 1 more from dread ambusher gets us to 7 but I wasn't sure if the action surge and subsequent attacks from that action would also trigger dread ambusher again?
I've taken part in a couple of threads where we theory crafted what is probably the highest potential turn 1 damage build possible.
Rogue assassin 4/ fighter battle master 11/ ranger gloom stalker 5. Take the alert and sharpshooter feats and use the rest of your ASIs to max DEX and get WIS as high as possible (using half elf I was able to get +5 DEX and +4 WIS using standard array). Oathbow and bracers of archery required.
Use pass without trace to all but guarantee surprise (even if you have a paladin in the party), and you should have at least a +14 to initiative to all but guarantee going first. You should make 8 attacks with a +8 to hit (after the -5 for sharphooter) with advantage. Between hunter's mark, martial maneuvers, sneak attack, dread ambush, action surge, oathbow, bracers of archery, assassinate (auto-crit), and sharpshooter (and not counting any magical or poisoned ammo for even more damage), the last time I crunched the numbers the minimum damage was 234, maximum damage was 804, making the average 519 damage (again not using arrow of slaying or purple worm poison (injury) which could add as much as 48d10+96d6 (average 600) half on DC17/19 CON save×8).
Are you using dread ambusher + action surge to get two extra attacks? I figured 3 normal attacks + action surge = 3 more for a total of 6 + 1 more from dread ambusher gets us to 7 but I wasn't sure if the action surge and subsequent attacks from that action would also trigger dread ambusher again?
I am. Dread ambusher only says it activates when you take the attack action on your first turn (does not specify limit per turn). I am taking the attack action twice.
Variant Human Paladin 5, Barbarian 3, Fighter 12. Have a Glaive or Halberd. Now you can kill anything. Here's how:
As Variant Human take Polearm Master. Your Strength score should start out as a 17 if you can get it there. Start out as either fighter or paladin, I recommend paladin. At level 2 choose the Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting, your 1's and 2's on your glaive or halberd now can be re-rolled. Minor boost for a d10, but still useful. You also get Divine Smite, which is your main ability, at level 5, you get 2nd level spell slots to use for divine smite, you be Oath of Vengeance paladin, Oath of Conquest works as well. At level 4, use your ASI to increase your Strength score to 19. You also get Extra Attack at level 5. Now become barbarian, you now have rage, so +2 damage to all your attacks, which is great, and have reckless attack, which you should do every round, and when you become level 3, choose zealot barbarian, which gives you an extra 1d6 radiant damage on your first attack on each turn, and you have advantage against all weapon attack damage. Now be Fighter up to level 12, you should be Battle Master, but Champion can be good, Eldritch Knight is good if you want more spell slots for smiting. Your main abilities will be Extra Attack at level 11 which gives you 3 attacks as part of the attack action. At level 2 fighter, you have Action Surge, which will come in handy, and another Fighting Style, I'd choose Defense or the new one from UA that gives you a Superiority Dice and some Battle Master Maneuvers. At level 3 choose any maneuvers that allow you to add the damage after you hit, such as Pushing Attack, Tripping Attack, Maneuvering Attack, Disarming Attack, and there are a few others. Your Superiority Dice are d10s. At level 4, increase your Strength up to 20, you may use a feat for this, such as Athlete or Resilient. At level 6, choose the Great Weapon Fighting feat. Level 8, I'd choose Sentinel or increase your Constitution Score. At level 10, again increase your Constitution, or take a feat, such as Lucky, Martial Adept would also work, Savage Attacker also would be great. At level 12, take another feat or ASI.
Now, lets get into how much damage you can do. You can attack 3 times each attack action, and once as a bonus action with a lesser damage dice, or if you get a critical hit on one of your attacks or killed a creature, you can attack with your blade instead of the minor attack. You also will always make your attacks with reckless attack, and if you have any magic items or abilities that allow you to crit on a 19-20, I would use it all the time. If you attack 4 times each round all at advantage, during your turn you have a 40% chance of getting a critical hit, or 80% if you crit on 19-20. I am assuming at level 20 your character has a +3 glaive or halberd. Your first attack on your turn will be 1d10+20+1d6 radiant. Your average damage for this will be 29 damage. Your second and third attacks will do 1d10+20 damage your average damage will be 25.5 damage. Your fourth attack if you didn't kill or crit during your first 3 attacks will be 1d4+20 damage, with an average of 22.5 damage, but if you did kill or crit on your first 3 attacks, your 4th attack will be identical to your 2nd and 3rd attacks. This is an average 110 damage each round, with no crits, at most 128 damage in a round, assuming you don't smite, crit, use a maneuver, or get your better bonus action attack.
Now, this is when it gets crazy, those first 4 attacks are good, so you already do a lot of damage, now if you crit on one of your first 3 attacks this is what happens. If you crit on your first attack you will deal 2d10+20+2d6 radiant damage, and you should use a maneuver, and you should use a 2nd level divine smite. The total damage dice from this would be 4d10+2d6 radiant damage+6d8 radiant damage+20. The average damage on this is 42 piercing or slashing + 34 radiant. If you crit and roll as much damage as possible on this attack, you deal 60 piercing or slashing damage + 60 radiant damage. So your average 1st attack crit does 76 damage, at most 120 damage. This is on one attack. If it is your second or third attack you deal 4d10+6d8+20 damage, an average of 69 damage, at most 108 damage. If you crit on your last minor attack, you deal 2d4+2d10+6d8+20 damage, an average of 63 damage, at most 98 damage.
What if you used Action Surge, crit on each attack, expending all spell slots and all 7 superiority dice while raging? Your average damage would be 431 damage, at most 688 damage. This is insane. 688 damage in one round! This is clearly the most powerful multiclass ever!
Convince me I'm wrong. Double check my math, if you would.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Variant Human Paladin 5, Barbarian 3, Fighter 12. Have a Glaive or Halberd. Now you can kill anything. Here's how:
As Variant Human take Polearm Master. Your Strength score should start out as a 17 if you can get it there. Start out as either fighter or paladin, I recommend paladin. At level 2 choose the Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting, your 1's and 2's on your glaive or halberd now can be re-rolled. Minor boost for a d10, but still useful. You also get Divine Smite, which is your main ability, at level 5, you get 2nd level spell slots to use for divine smite, you be Oath of Vengeance paladin, Oath of Conquest works as well. At level 4, use your ASI to increase your Strength score to 19. You also get Extra Attack at level 5. Now become barbarian, you now have rage, so +2 damage to all your attacks, which is great, and have reckless attack, which you should do every round, and when you become level 3, choose zealot barbarian, which gives you an extra 1d6 radiant damage on your first attack on each turn, and you have advantage against all weapon attack damage. Now be Fighter up to level 12, you should be Battle Master, but Champion can be good, Eldritch Knight is good if you want more spell slots for smiting. Your main abilities will be Extra Attack at level 11 which gives you 3 attacks as part of the attack action. At level 2 fighter, you have Action Surge, which will come in handy, and another Fighting Style, I'd choose Defense or the new one from UA that gives you a Superiority Dice and some Battle Master Maneuvers. At level 3 choose any maneuvers that allow you to add the damage after you hit, such as Pushing Attack, Tripping Attack, Maneuvering Attack, Disarming Attack, and there are a few others. Your Superiority Dice are d10s. At level 4, increase your Strength up to 20, you may use a feat for this, such as Athlete or Resilient. At level 6, choose the Great Weapon Fighting feat. Level 8, I'd choose Sentinel or increase your Constitution Score. At level 10, again increase your Constitution, or take a feat, such as Lucky, Martial Adept would also work, Savage Attacker also would be great. At level 12, take another feat or ASI.
Now, lets get into how much damage you can do. You can attack 3 times each attack action, and once as a bonus action with a lesser damage dice, or if you get a critical hit on one of your attacks or killed a creature, you can attack with your blade instead of the minor attack. You also will always make your attacks with reckless attack, and if you have any magic items or abilities that allow you to crit on a 19-20, I would use it all the time. If you attack 4 times each round all at advantage, during your turn you have a 40% chance of getting a critical hit, or 80% if you crit on 19-20. I am assuming at level 20 your character has a +3 glaive or halberd. Your first attack on your turn will be 1d10+20+1d6 radiant. Your average damage for this will be 29 damage. Your second and third attacks will do 1d10+20 damage your average damage will be 25.5 damage. Your fourth attack if you didn't kill or crit during your first 3 attacks will be 1d4+20 damage, with an average of 22.5 damage, but if you did kill or crit on your first 3 attacks, your 4th attack will be identical to your 2nd and 3rd attacks. This is an average 110 damage each round, with no crits, at most 128 damage in a round, assuming you don't smite, crit, use a maneuver, or get your better bonus action attack.
Now, this is when it gets crazy, those first 4 attacks are good, so you already do a lot of damage, now if you crit on one of your first 3 attacks this is what happens. If you crit on your first attack you will deal 2d10+20+2d6 radiant damage, and you should use a maneuver, and you should use a 2nd level divine smite. The total damage dice from this would be 4d10+2d6 radiant damage+6d8 radiant damage+20. The average damage on this is 42 piercing or slashing + 34 radiant. If you crit and roll as much damage as possible on this attack, you deal 60 piercing or slashing damage + 60 radiant damage. So your average 1st attack crit does 76 damage, at most 120 damage. This is on one attack. If it is your second or third attack you deal 4d10+6d8+20 damage, an average of 69 damage, at most 108 damage. If you crit on your last minor attack, you deal 2d4+2d10+6d8+20 damage, an average of 63 damage, at most 98 damage.
What if you used Action Surge, crit on each attack, expending all spell slots and all 7 superiority dice while raging? Your average damage would be 431 damage, at most 688 damage. This is insane. 688 damage in one round! This is clearly the most powerful multiclass ever!
Convince me I'm wrong. Double check my math, if you would.
As posted above by D...
”
I've taken part in a couple of threads where we theory crafted what is probably the highest potential turn 1 damage build possible.
Rogue assassin 4/ fighter battle master 11/ ranger gloom stalker 5. Take the alert and sharpshooter feats and use the rest of your ASIs to max DEX and get WIS as high as possible (using half elf I was able to get +5 DEX and +4 WIS using standard array). Oathbow and bracers of archery required.
Use pass without trace to all but guarantee surprise (even if you have a paladin in the party), and you should have at least a +14 to initiative to all but guarantee going first. You should make 8 attacks with a +8 to hit (after the -5 for sharphooter) with advantage. Between hunter's mark, martial maneuvers, sneak attack, dread ambush, action surge, oathbow, bracers of archery, assassinate (auto-crit), and sharpshooter (and not counting any magical or poisoned ammo for even more damage), the last time I crunched the numbers the minimum damage was 234, maximum damage was 804, making the average 519 damage (again not using arrow of slaying or purple worm poison (injury)which could add as much as 48d10+96d6 (average 600) half on DC17/19 CON save×8).
I like going through numbers a lot. Math and rules are a fun thing to put together for me, but I like playing the game by roleplaying, so I would never use an optimized build. I just want to see other creative ways people have gotten highest possible damage in the game.
When you're showing off a build, I just wanna know what restrictions you're using. Things like multiclassing or not, if outside help is involved, and if items are used.
Here's an example:
A multiclass of a level 15 bard from the college of whispers and 5 levels from a cleric of the domain of death, that is a fallen aasimar, with dual wielder and martial adept feats, who's alone, riding a horse with lances.
17 - First Lance
48 - Psychic Blades from Whispers Bard
6 - Disarming Attack from Martial Adept
15 - Touch of Death from Death Cleric
20 - Necrotic Shroud from Fallen Aasimar
54 - 9th level Branding Smite from Magical Secrets
First action damage is 160 at best.
First action critical damage is 340 at best.
12 - Second Lance
20 - Necrotic Shroud
Whole turn damage is 192 at best.
Whole turn critical damage is 404 at best.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
I've taken part in a couple of threads where we theory crafted what is probably the highest potential turn 1 damage build possible.
Rogue assassin 4/ fighter battle master 11/ ranger gloom stalker 5. Take the alert and sharpshooter feats and use the rest of your ASIs to max DEX and get WIS as high as possible (using half elf I was able to get +5 DEX and +4 WIS using standard array). Oathbow and bracers of archery required.
Use pass without trace to all but guarantee surprise (even if you have a paladin in the party), and you should have at least a +14 to initiative to all but guarantee going first. You should make 8 attacks with a +8 to hit (after the -5 for sharphooter) with advantage. Between hunter's mark, martial maneuvers, sneak attack, dread ambush, action surge, oathbow, bracers of archery, assassinate (auto-crit), and sharpshooter (and not counting any magical or poisoned ammo for even more damage), the last time I crunched the numbers the minimum damage was 234, maximum damage was 804, making the average 519 damage (again not using arrow of slaying or purple worm poison (injury) which could add as much as 48d10+96d6 (average 600) half on DC17/19 CON save×8).
Here is a test character for the build: https://ddb.ac/characters/29301797/SjZA6r
“” but I like playing the game by roleplaying, so I would never use an optimized build.””
this makes no sense to me when people say you can’t role play an optimized character.
I know that you can, but it adds nothing to a character really. Combat is really just boring to do if you go for a straightforward strategy like power builds, and combat is a fun moment when your character can express their traits in some quirky ways.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
@Lordneg You can role play a brutally efficient, cold killing machine. You can also role play a moderately bumbling cobbler who after some time realized he had the power to make magic shoes that cast Fireball (Artificer Artillerist, but you make shoes instead of wands).
You're definitely right that you can role play an optimized character, with just the right multiclassing to maximize damage output. But I've really been enjoying roleplaying as my character Trakagak, a sea elf who grew up in the shallow waters just south of Waterdeep, right next to the city dump, the Rat Hills. He spent a lot of time playing in the Rat Hills with his otyugh and kobold friends growing up, and thus learned the value of all forms of life. Even the 'evil' ones and the ones that survive off of the refuse of modern society. He decided to become a druid to help protect his friends and to bring awareness that ALL forms of life are valuable. Specifically, he's in the Circle of Spores.
Trakagak is absolutely terrible at combat. We're about 6 sessions into the Acquisitions Incorporated adventure and he's gotten to 2:0 failed:successful death saving throws at least once most sessions. He keeps almost dying. His best modifier is +2 and he can't do more than about 1d8 damage in a round. Being only 2nd level, he has almost no spell slots either. Short story is, Trakagak is NOT optimized for ANYTHING. He is probably the single least useful character I've ever played in combat. But boy, does he have an attitude and boy is he fun to play as. One of his cantrips is infestation. That does 1d6 piercing damage and the target runs 5 feet in a random direction. This movement doesn't even provoke opportunity attacks. It's actually a pretty dang weak cantrip, but it fits him flavor-wise. It's the kind of spell Trakagak would have.
So when I built Trakagak, I wanted to play a character with a specific personality and backstory and see how their life developed. I focused on the character first, and abilities second. If he ends up multiclassing, it'll be because of narrative reasons. If he doesn't want to sell his soul to an unknowable being, he's not going to take any levels in Warlock. He's a sassy jerk, too, so he probably won't pick up Paladin.
One big part of DND is combat. Another is the other mechanics, like having to do with skill proficiencies and ability checks. My favorite part, however, is the narrative. The most optimized character builds make for difficult, forced narratives.
@KidPenguin, I think everyone agrees that a non optimized build can be role played and be plenty of fun. While some people might enjoy playing the bumbling scrub or foolish sidekick many of us like to play the hero. I'd much rather play Luke Skywalker than C3PO for example. Sure, a good protagonist has some flaws there is always something special about that character.
As for the original poster...I have found the combination of the Divination wizards portent ability and plane shift to be a killer combo. Does it matter how much damage you deal when you can just plane shift the bad guy to the plane of fire?
I have also seen an ancients paladin/swords bard to be both an extremely effective character but also a wonderful role playing opportunity. It makes for a great elven green knight.
Single strike with a Holy Avenger equals 1d8+10 rapier +2d10 radiant +1d8 radiant improved smite +5d8 radiant smite+ 1d8 blade flourish which is 57 average damage per hit and 94 max damage. Potential for 188 damage per round with enough spell slots to keep it going for a few rounds. And that is before we talk about crits or dropping a heat metal on the bad guy beforehand!
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
Check out my homebrew: Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Feats
I'd say it's important to divide this question into four parts
Most damage at tier 1 (i.e. level 4 character)
Most damage at tier 2 (i.e. level 10 character)
Most damage at tier 3 (i.e. level 16 character)
Most damage at tier 4 (i.e. level 20 character)
It feels like most of the theorycrafting is for tier 4, but actual D&D campaigns are mostly tier 1 and tier 2.
A silly answer: play a character that can get Wish and then you can just Wish for whatever amount of damage you'd like to deal to an enemy.
Might come with a high cost if your DM wants it to, might only be doable once, but it could get you to any amount of damage you like!
That's true. I'm a minority though in that most of my campaigns end at level 20. Also isn't it just more fun pushing the limits of damage at level 20?
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
Ok, I looked at some more stuff to make another melee magic build. This one will take 2 turns to setup, also help from the multiclass caster slot table. It's repeatable aside from 9th level disintegrate as well.
A multiclass of 14 levels in bard from the college of valor, 3 levels in rogue from swashbuckler, and 3 levels from druid in the circle of spores. They'll be a scourge aasimar, no feats, and a rapier.
Setup:
Symbiotic Entity - 1 Action
Radiant Consumption - 1 Bonus Action
7th level Elemental Weapon - 1 Action
8 - Halo of Spores
10 - Radiant Consumption's Starting Damage
154 - 9th level Disintegrate
20 - Radiant Consumption
13 - Rapier
12 - Sneak Attack
15 - Tenser's Transformation
6 - Symbiotic Entity
238 damage at best.
476 damage at best with criticals.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
You can't cast spells while Tenser's Transformation is active.
To think I've read over the spell so many times and never saw that. Dyslexia sucks. I'll replace it with something, probably elemental weapon
.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
As part of your setup, you should have somebody (Cleric, Druid, or Bard with Magical Secrets) cast Contagion on your target.
Edit: For the Flesh Rot, obviously.
Trust me, once I get to builds with outside help, I'll make some crazy builds.
In the meantime, I'd love to see if someone else had builds to show off. If it trumps whats on here so far, the math and strategy would be bound to be interesting.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
I have not been able to theorize a stronger build than the 500+ average damage reaper I posted.
Are you using dread ambusher + action surge to get two extra attacks? I figured 3 normal attacks + action surge = 3 more for a total of 6 + 1 more from dread ambusher gets us to 7 but I wasn't sure if the action surge and subsequent attacks from that action would also trigger dread ambusher again?
Highest possible damage I can think of in one turn without setup from a previous turn and without an ally at level 20.
Race: Goblin
The Combo
Damage Calculations (Assuming both attacks hit, and not having to use Precision Attack from Battlemaster)
First Attack: Path to the Grave(2x), Fury of the Small(20), Strength bonus(5), Dueling Fighting Style(2), Improved Pact Weapon(1), Weapon Dice(1d10 = 5.5), Maneuver Dice(1d8 = 4.5) Banishing Smite(5d10 = 27.5), Eldritch Smite(6d8 = 27), Divine Smite(5d8 = 22.5), Psychic Blades(2d6 = 7)
2(20+5+2+1+4.5+5.5+27.5+27+22.5+7) = 244
Second Attack: Strength bonus(5), Dueling Fighting Style(2), Improved Pact Weapon(1), Weapon Dice (1d8 = 5.5), Maneuver Dice(1d8 = 4.5), Divine Smite(4d8 = 18)
5+2+1+5.5+4.5+18 = 36
So 280 damage total.
I am. Dread ambusher only says it activates when you take the attack action on your first turn (does not specify limit per turn). I am taking the attack action twice.
Variant Human Paladin 5, Barbarian 3, Fighter 12. Have a Glaive or Halberd. Now you can kill anything. Here's how:
As Variant Human take Polearm Master. Your Strength score should start out as a 17 if you can get it there. Start out as either fighter or paladin, I recommend paladin. At level 2 choose the Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting, your 1's and 2's on your glaive or halberd now can be re-rolled. Minor boost for a d10, but still useful. You also get Divine Smite, which is your main ability, at level 5, you get 2nd level spell slots to use for divine smite, you be Oath of Vengeance paladin, Oath of Conquest works as well. At level 4, use your ASI to increase your Strength score to 19. You also get Extra Attack at level 5. Now become barbarian, you now have rage, so +2 damage to all your attacks, which is great, and have reckless attack, which you should do every round, and when you become level 3, choose zealot barbarian, which gives you an extra 1d6 radiant damage on your first attack on each turn, and you have advantage against all weapon attack damage. Now be Fighter up to level 12, you should be Battle Master, but Champion can be good, Eldritch Knight is good if you want more spell slots for smiting. Your main abilities will be Extra Attack at level 11 which gives you 3 attacks as part of the attack action. At level 2 fighter, you have Action Surge, which will come in handy, and another Fighting Style, I'd choose Defense or the new one from UA that gives you a Superiority Dice and some Battle Master Maneuvers. At level 3 choose any maneuvers that allow you to add the damage after you hit, such as Pushing Attack, Tripping Attack, Maneuvering Attack, Disarming Attack, and there are a few others. Your Superiority Dice are d10s. At level 4, increase your Strength up to 20, you may use a feat for this, such as Athlete or Resilient. At level 6, choose the Great Weapon Fighting feat. Level 8, I'd choose Sentinel or increase your Constitution Score. At level 10, again increase your Constitution, or take a feat, such as Lucky, Martial Adept would also work, Savage Attacker also would be great. At level 12, take another feat or ASI.
Now, lets get into how much damage you can do. You can attack 3 times each attack action, and once as a bonus action with a lesser damage dice, or if you get a critical hit on one of your attacks or killed a creature, you can attack with your blade instead of the minor attack. You also will always make your attacks with reckless attack, and if you have any magic items or abilities that allow you to crit on a 19-20, I would use it all the time. If you attack 4 times each round all at advantage, during your turn you have a 40% chance of getting a critical hit, or 80% if you crit on 19-20. I am assuming at level 20 your character has a +3 glaive or halberd. Your first attack on your turn will be 1d10+20+1d6 radiant. Your average damage for this will be 29 damage. Your second and third attacks will do 1d10+20 damage your average damage will be 25.5 damage. Your fourth attack if you didn't kill or crit during your first 3 attacks will be 1d4+20 damage, with an average of 22.5 damage, but if you did kill or crit on your first 3 attacks, your 4th attack will be identical to your 2nd and 3rd attacks. This is an average 110 damage each round, with no crits, at most 128 damage in a round, assuming you don't smite, crit, use a maneuver, or get your better bonus action attack.
Now, this is when it gets crazy, those first 4 attacks are good, so you already do a lot of damage, now if you crit on one of your first 3 attacks this is what happens. If you crit on your first attack you will deal 2d10+20+2d6 radiant damage, and you should use a maneuver, and you should use a 2nd level divine smite. The total damage dice from this would be 4d10+2d6 radiant damage+6d8 radiant damage+20. The average damage on this is 42 piercing or slashing + 34 radiant. If you crit and roll as much damage as possible on this attack, you deal 60 piercing or slashing damage + 60 radiant damage. So your average 1st attack crit does 76 damage, at most 120 damage. This is on one attack. If it is your second or third attack you deal 4d10+6d8+20 damage, an average of 69 damage, at most 108 damage. If you crit on your last minor attack, you deal 2d4+2d10+6d8+20 damage, an average of 63 damage, at most 98 damage.
What if you used Action Surge, crit on each attack, expending all spell slots and all 7 superiority dice while raging? Your average damage would be 431 damage, at most 688 damage. This is insane. 688 damage in one round! This is clearly the most powerful multiclass ever!
Convince me I'm wrong. Double check my math, if you would.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
As posted above by D...
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I've taken part in a couple of threads where we theory crafted what is probably the highest potential turn 1 damage build possible.
Rogue assassin 4/ fighter battle master 11/ ranger gloom stalker 5. Take the alert and sharpshooter feats and use the rest of your ASIs to max DEX and get WIS as high as possible (using half elf I was able to get +5 DEX and +4 WIS using standard array). Oathbow and bracers of archery required.
Use pass without trace to all but guarantee surprise (even if you have a paladin in the party), and you should have at least a +14 to initiative to all but guarantee going first. You should make 8 attacks with a +8 to hit (after the -5 for sharphooter) with advantage. Between hunter's mark, martial maneuvers, sneak attack, dread ambush, action surge, oathbow, bracers of archery, assassinate (auto-crit), and sharpshooter (and not counting any magical or poisoned ammo for even more damage), the last time I crunched the numbers the minimum damage was 234, maximum damage was 804, making the average 519 damage (again not using arrow of slaying or purple worm poison (injury)which could add as much as 48d10+96d6 (average 600) half on DC17/19 CON save×8).
Here is a test character for the build: https://ddb.ac/characters/7279053/ded374”
so.... there’s the math to prove you wrong...
Blank