Hm. Here's an experiment, I feel like there's probably room for more improvement but haven't found it yet.
Variant Human (Dex/Cha); initial attributes 16 Dex, 16 Cha, and whatever (not relevant to this exercise), feat Alert.
Bard (valor) 15 levels. Learn Scorching Ray and Spirit Shroud with magical secrets.
Fighter (generic), 2 levels. Learn Superior Technique for fighting style. Can be Ambush or a damage technique.
Rogue(assassin), 3 levels.
Ability Score Improvements (bard 4/8/12): Cha +4, Lucky.
Initiative +11 (+3 for dex, +3 for JoT, +5 for alert); can get 1d6 more if we take Ambush, but +11 and Lucky seems fairly safe already. Stealth +15 (expertise)
Grand Total: 64d6 fire (16 rays of 2d6, critical) + 102d8 radiant (17 attacks of 3d8, critical) + 2d8 (rapier)+4d6(sneak)+2d6(technique)+3(dex) = 716 average, range 177-1255
Hm. If my battle master maneuver is quick toss, I no longer need 14 levels of valor bard to get a bonus action attack. That will cost me 4 damage (dagger instead of rapier), but I can switch to college of whispers, which will get me an extra 8d6 psychic damage (crit), for a total of 193-1343, average 768.
You'd pick up martial weapon proficiency from fighter multiclass. No need to drop to a dagger.
He is taking about Quick Toss. You cannot throw a rapier.
Hate to break it to you, but with 6 being greater than 4, you can't make level 4 spell slots as a level 4 sorcerer. Need at least level 6.
Actually you can. You aren't capped at 4 sorcery points, that's just the number you have at the end of a long rest, so you can actually generate level 4-5 slots as early as level 3. It is, however, unclear if divine smite can actually crit (it's damage, but it's not clearly damage of the attack).
Hm. Here's an experiment, I feel like there's probably room for more improvement but haven't found it yet.
Variant Human (Dex/Cha); initial attributes 16 Dex, 16 Cha, and whatever (not relevant to this exercise), feat Alert.
Bard (valor) 15 levels. Learn Scorching Ray and Spirit Shroud with magical secrets.
Fighter (generic), 2 levels. Learn Superior Technique for fighting style. Can be Ambush or a damage technique.
Rogue(assassin), 3 levels.
Ability Score Improvements (bard 4/8/12): Cha +4, Lucky.
Initiative +11 (+3 for dex, +3 for JoT, +5 for alert); can get 1d6 more if we take Ambush, but +11 and Lucky seems fairly safe already. Stealth +15 (expertise)
Grand Total: 64d6 fire (16 rays of 2d6, critical) + 102d8 radiant (17 attacks of 3d8, critical) + 2d8 (rapier)+4d6(sneak)+2d6(technique)+3(dex) = 716 average, range 177-1255
Hm. If my battle master maneuver is quick toss, I no longer need 14 levels of valor bard to get a bonus action attack. That will cost me 4 damage (dagger instead of rapier), but I can switch to college of whispers, which will get me an extra 8d6 psychic damage (crit), for a total of 193-1343, average 768.
You'd pick up martial weapon proficiency from fighter multiclass. No need to drop to a dagger.
He is taking about Quick Toss. You cannot throw a rapier.
Hm. Here's an experiment, I feel like there's probably room for more improvement but haven't found it yet.
Variant Human (Dex/Cha); initial attributes 16 Dex, 16 Cha, and whatever (not relevant to this exercise), feat Alert.
Bard (valor) 15 levels. Learn Scorching Ray and Spirit Shroud with magical secrets.
Fighter (generic), 2 levels. Learn Superior Technique for fighting style. Can be Ambush or a damage technique.
Rogue(assassin), 3 levels.
Ability Score Improvements (bard 4/8/12): Cha +4, Lucky.
Initiative +11 (+3 for dex, +3 for JoT, +5 for alert); can get 1d6 more if we take Ambush, but +11 and Lucky seems fairly safe already. Stealth +15 (expertise)
Grand Total: 64d6 fire (16 rays of 2d6, critical) + 102d8 radiant (17 attacks of 3d8, critical) + 2d8 (rapier)+4d6(sneak)+2d6(technique)+3(dex) = 716 average, range 177-1255
Hm. If my battle master maneuver is quick toss, I no longer need 14 levels of valor bard to get a bonus action attack. That will cost me 4 damage (dagger instead of rapier), but I can switch to college of whispers, which will get me an extra 8d6 psychic damage (crit), for a total of 193-1343, average 768.
You'd pick up martial weapon proficiency from fighter multiclass. No need to drop to a dagger.
He is taking about Quick Toss. You cannot throw a rapier.
Hate to break it to you, but with 6 being greater than 4, you can't make level 4 spell slots as a level 4 sorcerer. Need at least level 6.
Actually you can. You aren't capped at 4 sorcery points, that's just the number you have at the end of a long rest, so you can actually generate level 4-5 slots as early as level 3.
Sorcery Points
You have 2 sorcery points, and you gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Sorcery Points column of the Sorcerer table. You can never have more sorcery points than shown on the table for your level. You regain all spent sorcery points when you finish a long rest.
Hate to break it to you, but with 6 being greater than 4, you can't make level 4 spell slots as a level 4 sorcerer. Need at least level 6.
Actually you can. You aren't capped at 4 sorcery points, that's just the number you have at the end of a long rest, so you can actually generate level 4-5 slots as early as level 3. It is, however, unclear if divine smite can actually crit (it's damage, but it's not clearly damage of the attack).
Divine Smites can most certainly crit. That is what makes it so darn good. You can wait for a crit before deciding to spend a spell slot to smite.
And @Jhfffan, while it says that you cannot have more sorcery points above your sorcerer level, the Metamagic Adept feat actually breaks that rule and allows you to have more. While the feat says the additional 2 points can only be used on Metamagics, what I am wondering is if the feat raises the Sorcery Points cap (ie can you convert your spell slots into a higher total than your Sorcerer level). And if does then the question becomes whether or not you can spend the points for spell slots since those are no longer the points generated by the feat.
Divine Smites can most certainly crit. That is what makes it so darn good. You can wait for a crit before deciding to spend a spell slot to smite.
The text for a critical hit is "Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together". However, the text for divine smite does not say that the damage is attack damage. It says "you can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target", which means you are directly dealing damage as a free action, rather than increasing the damage of your attack.
Now, 5e writing is generally not a model of clarity so it may well be intended that it can crit (Jeremy Crawford said it could on twitter, but ruling did not make it into SAC), but as written it is not in fact clear.
Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend, to a maximum of 6d8.
In addition to the weapon's damage means it is part of that weapon's attack. It functions the same as a Rogue's extra Sneak Attack damage. It is only worded slightly differently because it deals radiant damage whereas Sneak Attack deals the same type of damage the weapon is dealing.
Use wish to replicate simulacrum and have the simulacrum do the same and instruct its creation to do the same hundreds of times and when a fight starts all of them cast disintegrate. For 50 copies casting it at 8th level, that is 4800 damage if all hit, or just under 8 tarrasques. Then we turn that to thousands of copies to one turn kill gods. Stupid, and powerful. DMs, try to prevent your party from doing this nonsense. You can see how it becomes campaign-breaking to an extent greater than anything else in the game. All from theory, not experience.
I win
I can see that others have done similar simulacrum shenanigans, but mine creates one each round instead of each day. With 24 hours to prepare, we have 14400 sims, for damage in the realm of… 700 million. Yes million. With 1 day to prepare and that is before fighter multiclass for action surge or feats or any other advanced shenanigans that are normally necessary to reach 200 damage.
Use wish to replicate simulacrum and have the simulacrum do the same
It doesn't actually work without additional abilities, because the simulacrum is a replica at the time of casting, and has thus already spent its ninth level spell slot. But yes, simulacrum should probably just not possess any spell slots above 5th level.
Cast simulacrum normally, then have each of them wish away. They copy you without you spending the ninth level spell slot, so the damage with a day to prepare is now closer to 450 mil. Give more time than that and exponential growth takes place. You need to house rule to make this balanced.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
my DM told me to break stuff so I think ive found something pretty strong that comes on line at level 13.
9 levels any warlock (pick up eldritch smite)
2 levels grave cleric (for the path to the grave channel divinity)
and atleast 2 levels into any paladin
lets assume your using a great sword doing 2d6 a hit and have 20 strength
at the start of your turn use the channel divinity to give your victim vulnerability to all damage on the next attack. then cast banishing smite at 5th level with your bonus action and strike.
assuming you hit you will deal 5d8 radiant+5d10 force+ 6d8 more force +2d6+5 slashing damage then you multiply that by 2 as the target is considered vulnerable to it all
if you roll all ones your minimum damage is 46 and the target is knocked prone if they are huge or smaller and banished if under 50 hp
max rolls nets you a cool 310 damage, and if we crit assuming max rolls thats 610 damage in one hit and if you have life drinker you can attack again in that turn!
my DM told me to break stuff so I think ive found something pretty strong that comes on line at level 13.
9 levels any warlock (pick up eldritch smite)
2 levels grave cleric (for the path to the grave channel divinity)
and atleast 2 levels into any paladin
lets assume your using a great sword doing 2d6 a hit and have 20 strength
at the start of your turn use the channel divinity to give your victim vulnerability to all damage on the next attack. then cast banishing smite at 5th level with your bonus action and strike.
assuming you hit you will deal 5d8 radiant+5d10 force+ 6d8 more force +2d6+5 slashing damage then you multiply that by 2 as the target is considered vulnerable to it all
if you roll all ones your minimum damage is 46 and the target is knocked prone if they are huge or smaller and banished if under 50 hp
max rolls nets you a cool 310 damage, and if we crit assuming max rolls thats 610 damage in one hit and if you have life drinker you can attack again in that turn!
Path of the grave requires spending your action, so you'll either need two levels of fighter to pick up action surge or take two actions. You cannot use the same spell slot for both Divine Smite and Eldritch Smite, and you're also using a slot for Banishing Smite, so the actual damage is 3d8 radiant (divine smite with a second level spell slot -- you have spell slots as a level 3) + 5d10 force (banishing smite) + 6d8 force (eldritch smite with a level 5 slot) + 2d6 + 5, total 21-139 (avg 75) x2 = 150. Which isn't bad, but not super spectacular for a level 15 burning all its resources.
my DM told me to break stuff so I think ive found something pretty strong that comes on line at level 13.
9 levels any warlock (pick up eldritch smite)
2 levels grave cleric (for the path to the grave channel divinity)
and atleast 2 levels into any paladin
lets assume your using a great sword doing 2d6 a hit and have 20 strength
at the start of your turn use the channel divinity to give your victim vulnerability to all damage on the next attack. then cast banishing smite at 5th level with your bonus action and strike.
assuming you hit you will deal 5d8 radiant+5d10 force+ 6d8 more force +2d6+5 slashing damage then you multiply that by 2 as the target is considered vulnerable to it all
if you roll all ones your minimum damage is 46 and the target is knocked prone if they are huge or smaller and banished if under 50 hp
max rolls nets you a cool 310 damage, and if we crit assuming max rolls thats 610 damage in one hit and if you have life drinker you can attack again in that turn!
Pantagruel is right about needing action surge for 2 actions if you want to do solo+single turn+no items category. We usually do level 20, so that leaves you 5 levels to play with to get more slots. Dumping them into cleric might be the safest use for getting more slots (3 level 4 slots). That way you can use thirsting blade to divine smite twice (only vulnerable to the first 1).
So warlock (hexblade) 9/cleric (grave) 7/paladin 2/fighter 2: improved pact weapon, eldritch smite, and thirsting blade invocations (+2 any). And take banishing smite. The turn:
Action: channel divinity path to the grave (x2 damage first attack)
Bonus action: banishing smite with a level 5 pact slot (5d10 force)
Action surge: attack 2d6+6 slashing Great sword +1
+ Eldritch smite with level 5 pact slot (6d8 force)
+ Divine smite with a level 4 spell slot (5d8 radiant)
@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.
That's an interesting discussion. I think dnd is designed with the power game in mind. While in other games optimization is not necessary, in dnd it is. A poorly optimized character can completely kill a dnd campaign.
I've played lame, blind, really useless characters and I've had a lot of fun... But not in dnd. Why? Well, because dnd is focused on combat. You can try to spin as many times as you want, but if you look at the rules you will see how much space the mechanics dedicated to combat take up compared to other mechanics. That does not happen in other games, much more suitable for playing non-combatant characters.
Obviously you can play any character you want. But you should also talk to the rest of the table. I don't know if the rest of the players will be very happy with you playing a character that is useless in combat, and I don't know if you will have a great time if your campaign is 70-80% combat, as it usually is in d&d campaigns.
And yes, of course you can play d&d campaigns where combat is a minor aspect. But then my question is: Why? Why don't you play another rpg that's designed for that? You're going to have a lot more fun since you're going to have mechanics for that, which is what a system is for.
And I don't want to offend anyone, but it's an opinion that I've found a lot and I don't understand. I don't know if you don't know other games, or if your tablemates don't want to play them because they like dnd. And if that's it, if they like d&d much more than other games, I understand that it's because they like combat. If not, it does not make sense. And if you like combat, the campaigns are going to be focused on that, so we return to the previous two paragraphs.
This is something I just recently created, and is RAW and legal (and by this site, it allows two classes to have the same fighting style (but it doesn't allow feats or subclasses for free?)
Starting class: fighter 2 (archery fighting style); 5 levels of ranger (hunter, colossus slayer, archery fighting style) and 1 level of rogue; take the ranger spell 'Hunter's Mark' your weapon be a longbow and your feat be sharpshooter (this is assuming you rolled stats and chose a race that gives 2 dex (such as wood elf) (or custom half elf for 2 wis 1 dex and 1 con) and get 18 (17+1 or 16+2) (if you are lucky enough to get 18 twice, dex and wis half elf for +2 each again legal by this site (but i can't play a good race like tortle?)
You can't take the same fighting style multiple times, and I think you knew that. Just because DDB does or doesn't allow something does not mean it is the rules. DDB has technical limitations that they have been working around.
Nit sure what you are going on about with not being able to take feats and subclasses for free or play Tortle. You can add feats outside level progression (assuming DM allows), there is no way to be a subclass without class levels though as part of game design. Unless you were complaining that WotC isn't giving away the product they spent tons of money developing for free, but that would be dumb, so I'll assume it is rules confusion.
that is a total of (4d8+56+4d6+1d8+1d6) +(2d8+28+2d6+1d8+1d6) without crits that damage is 148 on average, and that is just you, your allies can also attack (getting an extra 1d6 from hunter's mark) that is also before any buff spell is used on you to deal more damage
Allies don't do extra damage from your Hunter's mark, only you do.
New Powerful (FULL LEGAL) build: Goliath (or any other +2 str race) barbarian (path of the giant) level 6 and fighter (thrown weapon fighting) level 2, take the feat great weapon master, have your weapon be a great axe and have 18 str (since race it becomes 20) imbue your great axe with primordial energy (elemental cleaver, +1d6 and thrown property)
on your first turn of combat rage immediately (this adds 2 damage and allows the elemental cleaver) and attack using your weapon, use action surge (when your turn comes around again do the attack again)
+4(1d12+19+1d6) +2(1d12+19+1d6) for a GRAND TOTAL OF 174 DAMAGE in 2 rounds, and adds an average of 58 damage for every subsequent attack (if the enemy is dead at this point, GWM lets you shift to a new target and deal: 1d12+19+1d6 as a bonus action)
New Powerful (FULL LEGAL) build: Goliath (or any other +2 str race) barbarian (path of the giant) level 6 and fighter (thrown weapon fighting) level 2, take the feat great weapon master, have your weapon be a great axe and have 18 str (since race it becomes 20) imbue your great axe with primordial energy (elemental cleaver, +1d6 and thrown property)
on your first turn of combat rage immediately (this adds 2 damage and allows the elemental cleaver) and attack using your weapon, use action surge (when your turn comes around again do the attack again)
+4(1d12+19+1d6) +2(1d12+19+1d6) for a GRAND TOTAL OF 174 DAMAGE in 2 rounds, and adds an average of 58 damage for every subsequent attack (if the enemy is dead at this point, GWM lets you shift to a new target and deal: 1d12+19+1d6 as a bonus action)
No. So much no. I really don't know which No to start with.
How can this build be LEGAL when Path of the Giant is still UA?
Have you read what Great Weapon Master does? It requires you to make a MELEE attack so sadly your Great Weapon Waster plus Thrown Weapon Fighting theory just got tossed out the window.
Also having 20 STR without investing any ASIs pretty much rule our any games that run on Standard Array or Point Buy. Also rolling a 18 is not that easy either unless your DM is super generous with rerolls.
Also 174 damage over two rounds is not really that high. A simple Sharpshooter Gloomstalker Ranger 5 Fighter 2 character can almost output that in ONE round.
I rechecked my math, and the 4,866 was definitely off by like 100, but using DxJxC'scharacter (adjusting slightly for maximizing damage and assuming you go first in initiative) I managed to get the damage above 6,000! Here ya go:
You, a Half-Orc (11 Fighter Battle Master/5 Rogue Assassin/3 Ranger Gloomstalker/1 Cleric War Domain) with Superior Technique fighting style and Sharpshooter, Piercer, and Orcish Fury feats
11 ally Grave Clerics, 1 is a multiclass druid or ranger to cast Flame Arrows on your quiver.
All Clerics will Hold their Action to apply Path of the Grave before each of your attacks.
Oathbow, Helm of Brilliance, Arrow of Slaying, Potion of Speed, Purple Worm Poison will be required. Drink the Potion of Speed before engaging as to not waste your action losing the surprise effect from Assassinate.
*key* Dread Ambusher: DA, Superiority Dice: SD, Helm of Brilliance + Flame Arrows: HoB/FA, Arrow of Slaying: AoS, Purple Worm Poison: PWP, Hunter's Mark: HM, Sneak Attack: SNK, Superior Technique: ST, Sharpshooter: SS, Orcish Fury: OF, Distracting Strike: DS, Oathbow: OB, Piercer + Savage Attacker: P/SA, Path of the Grave: PotG, Action Surge: AS *key*.
But, there is a chance to do more damage. With Orcish Fury, if you get knocked out right after these attacks and use Relentless Endurance you can use your reaction to make another attack.
If the enemy forces you to use Relentless Endurance:
So, with Maximum Crit Damage, you're looking at 6,652 damage or 7,278 damage with your reaction! I'm sure this can go higher, but I'm not sure how yet. Let me know if I messed anything up or if anyone has any other ideas as to how to increase this!
Popping back into this thread a year later, love seeing all the awesome damage builds! Still hoping someone can beat this build though.
The most I've been able to further squeeze out of it is making it a Fighter 11/Warlock 5/Ranger 3/Cleric 1 for that sweet sweet Eldritch Smite. But, losing the rogue ability doesn't make it an auto-crit, so it's only a theoretical max of 7,622 damage with the class change.
Much appreciated if anyone can help find a way to make the quoted build even stronger while maintaining it's consistency!
1. I had some incorrect calculations in the original post, I should not have been calculating Savage Attacks from the Half-Orc trait because that only applies to melee based attacks. the actual maximum damage with the Relentless Endurance trait would be 7,078 damage.
2. The damage total for the Bugbear is 6,940 using all the same build. Losing the Relentless Endurance reaction attack drops a very small chunk for the potential max damage output.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
He is taking about Quick Toss. You cannot throw a rapier.
Actually you can. You aren't capped at 4 sorcery points, that's just the number you have at the end of a long rest, so you can actually generate level 4-5 slots as early as level 3. It is, however, unclear if divine smite can actually crit (it's damage, but it's not clearly damage of the attack).
Ah true.
Sorcery Points
You have 2 sorcery points, and you gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Sorcery Points column of the Sorcerer table. You can never have more sorcery points than shown on the table for your level. You regain all spent sorcery points when you finish a long rest.
Divine Smites can most certainly crit. That is what makes it so darn good. You can wait for a crit before deciding to spend a spell slot to smite.
And @Jhfffan, while it says that you cannot have more sorcery points above your sorcerer level, the Metamagic Adept feat actually breaks that rule and allows you to have more. While the feat says the additional 2 points can only be used on Metamagics, what I am wondering is if the feat raises the Sorcery Points cap (ie can you convert your spell slots into a higher total than your Sorcerer level). And if does then the question becomes whether or not you can spend the points for spell slots since those are no longer the points generated by the feat.
The text for a critical hit is "Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together". However, the text for divine smite does not say that the damage is attack damage. It says "you can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target", which means you are directly dealing damage as a free action, rather than increasing the damage of your attack.
Now, 5e writing is generally not a model of clarity so it may well be intended that it can crit (Jeremy Crawford said it could on twitter, but ruling did not make it into SAC), but as written it is not in fact clear.
Divine Smite
Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend, to a maximum of 6d8.
In addition to the weapon's damage means it is part of that weapon's attack. It functions the same as a Rogue's extra Sneak Attack damage. It is only worded slightly differently because it deals radiant damage whereas Sneak Attack deals the same type of damage the weapon is dealing.
Use wish to replicate simulacrum and have the simulacrum do the same and instruct its creation to do the same hundreds of times and when a fight starts all of them cast disintegrate. For 50 copies casting it at 8th level, that is 4800 damage if all hit, or just under 8 tarrasques. Then we turn that to thousands of copies to one turn kill gods. Stupid, and powerful. DMs, try to prevent your party from doing this nonsense. You can see how it becomes campaign-breaking to an extent greater than anything else in the game. All from theory, not experience.
I win
I can see that others have done similar simulacrum shenanigans, but mine creates one each round instead of each day. With 24 hours to prepare, we have 14400 sims, for damage in the realm of… 700 million. Yes million. With 1 day to prepare and that is before fighter multiclass for action surge or feats or any other advanced shenanigans that are normally necessary to reach 200 damage.
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
Quest offer! Enter the deep dungeon here
Ctg’s blood is on the spam filter’s hands
It doesn't actually work without additional abilities, because the simulacrum is a replica at the time of casting, and has thus already spent its ninth level spell slot. But yes, simulacrum should probably just not possess any spell slots above 5th level.
Cast simulacrum normally, then have each of them wish away. They copy you without you spending the ninth level spell slot, so the damage with a day to prepare is now closer to 450 mil. Give more time than that and exponential growth takes place. You need to house rule to make this balanced.
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
Quest offer! Enter the deep dungeon here
Ctg’s blood is on the spam filter’s hands
my DM told me to break stuff so I think ive found something pretty strong that comes on line at level 13.
9 levels any warlock (pick up eldritch smite)
2 levels grave cleric (for the path to the grave channel divinity)
and atleast 2 levels into any paladin
lets assume your using a great sword doing 2d6 a hit and have 20 strength
at the start of your turn use the channel divinity to give your victim vulnerability to all damage on the next attack. then cast banishing smite at 5th level with your bonus action and strike.
assuming you hit you will deal 5d8 radiant+5d10 force+ 6d8 more force +2d6+5 slashing damage then you multiply that by 2 as the target is considered vulnerable to it all
if you roll all ones your minimum damage is 46 and the target is knocked prone if they are huge or smaller and banished if under 50 hp
max rolls nets you a cool 310 damage, and if we crit assuming max rolls thats 610 damage in one hit and if you have life drinker you can attack again in that turn!
Path of the grave requires spending your action, so you'll either need two levels of fighter to pick up action surge or take two actions. You cannot use the same spell slot for both Divine Smite and Eldritch Smite, and you're also using a slot for Banishing Smite, so the actual damage is 3d8 radiant (divine smite with a second level spell slot -- you have spell slots as a level 3) + 5d10 force (banishing smite) + 6d8 force (eldritch smite with a level 5 slot) + 2d6 + 5, total 21-139 (avg 75) x2 = 150. Which isn't bad, but not super spectacular for a level 15 burning all its resources.
Pantagruel is right about needing action surge for 2 actions if you want to do solo+single turn+no items category. We usually do level 20, so that leaves you 5 levels to play with to get more slots. Dumping them into cleric might be the safest use for getting more slots (3 level 4 slots). That way you can use thirsting blade to divine smite twice (only vulnerable to the first 1).
So warlock (hexblade) 9/cleric (grave) 7/paladin 2/fighter 2: improved pact weapon, eldritch smite, and thirsting blade invocations (+2 any). And take banishing smite. The turn:
Total: (5d10×11d8×2d6+6)×2+5d8+2d6+6 range: 61-370 average: 218.5
Booming blade does a little (~14) more damage than extra attack, but only if they move 5 feet on their turn.
It actually does really good damage for a single hit, but doesn't compare to the 8 hit builds.
That's an interesting discussion. I think dnd is designed with the power game in mind. While in other games optimization is not necessary, in dnd it is. A poorly optimized character can completely kill a dnd campaign.
I've played lame, blind, really useless characters and I've had a lot of fun... But not in dnd. Why? Well, because dnd is focused on combat. You can try to spin as many times as you want, but if you look at the rules you will see how much space the mechanics dedicated to combat take up compared to other mechanics. That does not happen in other games, much more suitable for playing non-combatant characters.
Obviously you can play any character you want. But you should also talk to the rest of the table. I don't know if the rest of the players will be very happy with you playing a character that is useless in combat, and I don't know if you will have a great time if your campaign is 70-80% combat, as it usually is in d&d campaigns.
And yes, of course you can play d&d campaigns where combat is a minor aspect. But then my question is: Why? Why don't you play another rpg that's designed for that? You're going to have a lot more fun since you're going to have mechanics for that, which is what a system is for.
And I don't want to offend anyone, but it's an opinion that I've found a lot and I don't understand. I don't know if you don't know other games, or if your tablemates don't want to play them because they like dnd. And if that's it, if they like d&d much more than other games, I understand that it's because they like combat. If not, it does not make sense. And if you like combat, the campaigns are going to be focused on that, so we return to the previous two paragraphs.
You can't take the same fighting style multiple times, and I think you knew that. Just because DDB does or doesn't allow something does not mean it is the rules. DDB has technical limitations that they have been working around.
Nit sure what you are going on about with not being able to take feats and subclasses for free or play Tortle. You can add feats outside level progression (assuming DM allows), there is no way to be a subclass without class levels though as part of game design. Unless you were complaining that WotC isn't giving away the product they spent tons of money developing for free, but that would be dumb, so I'll assume it is rules confusion.
Allies don't do extra damage from your Hunter's mark, only you do.
New Powerful (FULL LEGAL) build: Goliath (or any other +2 str race) barbarian (path of the giant) level 6 and fighter (thrown weapon fighting) level 2, take the feat great weapon master, have your weapon be a great axe and have 18 str (since race it becomes 20) imbue your great axe with primordial energy (elemental cleaver, +1d6 and thrown property)
on your first turn of combat rage immediately (this adds 2 damage and allows the elemental cleaver) and attack using your weapon, use action surge (when your turn comes around again do the attack again)
+4(1d12+19+1d6) +2(1d12+19+1d6) for a GRAND TOTAL OF 174 DAMAGE in 2 rounds, and adds an average of 58 damage for every subsequent attack (if the enemy is dead at this point, GWM lets you shift to a new target and deal: 1d12+19+1d6 as a bonus action)
No. So much no. I really don't know which No to start with.
How can this build be LEGAL when Path of the Giant is still UA?
Have you read what Great Weapon Master does? It requires you to make a MELEE attack so sadly your Great Weapon Waster plus Thrown Weapon Fighting theory just got tossed out the window.
Also having 20 STR without investing any ASIs pretty much rule our any games that run on Standard Array or Point Buy. Also rolling a 18 is not that easy either unless your DM is super generous with rerolls.
Also 174 damage over two rounds is not really that high. A simple Sharpshooter Gloomstalker Ranger 5 Fighter 2 character can almost output that in ONE round.
Popping back into this thread a year later, love seeing all the awesome damage builds! Still hoping someone can beat this build though.
The most I've been able to further squeeze out of it is making it a Fighter 11/Warlock 5/Ranger 3/Cleric 1 for that sweet sweet Eldritch Smite. But, losing the rogue ability doesn't make it an auto-crit, so it's only a theoretical max of 7,622 damage with the class change.
Much appreciated if anyone can help find a way to make the quoted build even stronger while maintaining it's consistency!
With MotM bugbear's surprise attack we can add 32d6 (112 average) additional damage to our fighter 11/gloomstalker/assassin builds.
Just ran the numbers, and 2 things I noticed:
1. I had some incorrect calculations in the original post, I should not have been calculating Savage Attacks from the Half-Orc trait because that only applies to melee based attacks. the actual maximum damage with the Relentless Endurance trait would be 7,078 damage.
2. The damage total for the Bugbear is 6,940 using all the same build. Losing the Relentless Endurance reaction attack drops a very small chunk for the potential max damage output.