2 Level Fighter, 18 Level Evocation Wizard. Steel Wind Strike (maximized damage with Evo Wizard feature) 2 times via action surge. With a completely fabricated setting (5 Enemies, all paralized within 5 ft of the caster, possible via 9th Level Hold Monster in a round/turn before the damage round or by an ally). Provided all 10 attacks hit you'll do 60*2*10 for 1.200 force damage.
2 Level Fighter, 18 Level Evocation Wizard. Steel Wind Strike (maximized damage with Evo Wizard feature) 2 times via action surge. With a completely fabricated setting (5 Enemies, all paralized within 5 ft of the caster, possible via 9th Level Hold Monster in a round/turn before the damage round or by an ally). Provided all 10 attacks hit you'll do 60*2*10 for 1.200 force damage.
I'm new to D&D but not new to RPGs or theory crafting. Here is the best combo that I was able to conceive:
To achieve the highest possible single-hit damage in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, I combined the following classes, feats, equipment, and spells to create a truly devastating character build.
Class Breakdown
Rogue (Assassin) 4
Sneak Attack: Adds 2d6 damage, doubled on a critical hit.
Assassinate: Guarantees critical hits on surprised enemies.
Fighter (Battle Master) 11
Action Surge: Provides an extra action on your turn.
Extra Attack (2): Allows for three attacks per Attack action.
Combat Superiority: Adds maneuvers to attacks for extra damage.
Ranger (Gloom Stalker) 5
Dread Ambusher: Adds one extra attack in the first round of combat, and adds additional damage to that attack.
Extra Attack: Adds one extra attack.
Hunter’s Mark: Adds 1d6 damage to attacks.
Feats and Equipment
Alert Feat: Adds +5 to initiative.
Sharpshooter Feat: Adds +10 damage to attacks at the cost of -5 to hit.
Oathbow: Adds 3d6 piercing damage to attacks against your sworn enemy.
Bracers of Archery: Adds +2 damage to attacks with longbows and shortbows.
Cloak of Protection: Adds +1 to AC and saving throws.
Ring of Protection: Adds +1 to AC and saving throws.
Manual of Quickness of Action: Permanently increases Dexterity by 2.
Ioun Stone (Mastery): Increases proficiency bonus by 1.
Buffs and Enhancements
Bless: Adds 1d4 to attack rolls.
Enlarge/Reduce: Adds 1d4 damage to each attack.
Haste: Adds an extra attack.
Hunter’s Mark: Adds 1d6 damage to each attack.
Hex: Adds 1d6 damage to each attack.
Purple Worm Poison: Adds 12d6 poison damage, doubled on a crit.
Elemental Weapon: Adds 1d4 elemental damage to each attack.
Holy Weapon: Adds 2d8 radiant damage to weapon attacks.
Radiant Weapon (Infusion): Adds 1d4 radiant damage to each attack.
Total Attack Breakdown
With the buffs and abilities, you will have a total of 9 attacks in the first round due to Haste:
Initial Attack: (including Dread Ambusher)
3 Attacks from Attack Action
1 Extra Attack from Dread Ambusher
4 Attacks from Action Surge
1 Extra Attack from Haste
Calculating Maximum Damage
Assuming all attacks are critical hits and benefit from Sneak Attack:
Maximum Damage Calculation for Each Attack
Weapon Damage: +3 Oathbow (1d8 + 16) = 1d8 + 19 (with 27 Dex, Sharpshooter, and Bracers of Archery)
Critical Hit: (1d8 + 19) x 2 = 2d8 + 38
Hexblade’s Curse: +6 x 2 = +12
Eldritch Smite (6th level spell slot): 6d8 force damage
By incorporating the Radiant Weapon infusion from an Artificer, the maximum potential damage output in a single round for this optimized build can reach 6300. This assumes all attacks are critical hits due to the Assassinate feature and benefit from Sneak Attack and all relevant buffs and enhancements. The addition of Radiant Weapon provides an additional boost to the overall damage, making this build even more powerful. This also assumes that the target is vulnerable to radiant damage, so they take increased damage from radiant attacks.
The assumption is that this could be even further OP if more new and unique weapons and armour are added to the character. This is the best that I can currently make, however.
I'm new to D&D but not new to RPGs or theory crafting. Here is the best combo that I was able to conceive:
To achieve the highest possible single-hit damage in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, I combined the following classes, feats, equipment, and spells to create a truly devastating character build.
Class Breakdown
Rogue (Assassin) 4
Sneak Attack: Adds 2d6 damage, doubled on a critical hit.
Assassinate: Guarantees critical hits on surprised enemies.
Fighter (Battle Master) 11
Action Surge: Provides an extra action on your turn.
Extra Attack (2): Allows for three attacks per Attack action.
Combat Superiority: Adds maneuvers to attacks for extra damage.
Ranger (Gloom Stalker) 5
Dread Ambusher: Adds one extra attack in the first round of combat, and adds additional damage to that attack.
Extra Attack: Adds one extra attack.
Hunter’s Mark: Adds 1d6 damage to attacks.
Feats and Equipment
Alert Feat: Adds +5 to initiative.
Sharpshooter Feat: Adds +10 damage to attacks at the cost of -5 to hit.
Oathbow: Adds 3d6 piercing damage to attacks against your sworn enemy.
Bracers of Archery: Adds +2 damage to attacks with longbows and shortbows.
Cloak of Protection: Adds +1 to AC and saving throws.
Ring of Protection: Adds +1 to AC and saving throws.
Manual of Quickness of Action: Permanently increases Dexterity by 2.
Ioun Stone (Mastery): Increases proficiency bonus by 1.
Buffs and Enhancements
Bless: Adds 1d4 to attack rolls.
Enlarge/Reduce: Adds 1d4 damage to each attack.
Haste: Adds an extra attack.
Hunter’s Mark: Adds 1d6 damage to each attack.
Hex: Adds 1d6 damage to each attack.
Purple Worm Poison: Adds 12d6 poison damage, doubled on a crit.
Elemental Weapon: Adds 1d4 elemental damage to each attack.
Holy Weapon: Adds 2d8 radiant damage to weapon attacks.
Radiant Weapon (Infusion): Adds 1d4 radiant damage to each attack.
Total Attack Breakdown
With the buffs and abilities, you will have a total of 9 attacks in the first round due to Haste:
Initial Attack: (including Dread Ambusher)
3 Attacks from Attack Action
1 Extra Attack from Dread Ambusher
4 Attacks from Action Surge
1 Extra Attack from Haste
Calculating Maximum Damage
Assuming all attacks are critical hits and benefit from Sneak Attack:
Maximum Damage Calculation for Each Attack
Weapon Damage: +3 Oathbow (1d8 + 16) = 1d8 + 19 (with 27 Dex, Sharpshooter, and Bracers of Archery)
Critical Hit: (1d8 + 19) x 2 = 2d8 + 38
Hexblade’s Curse: +6 x 2 = +12
Eldritch Smite (6th level spell slot): 6d8 force damage
By incorporating the Radiant Weapon infusion from an Artificer, the maximum potential damage output in a single round for this optimized build can reach 6300. This assumes all attacks are critical hits due to the Assassinate feature and benefit from Sneak Attack and all relevant buffs and enhancements. The addition of Radiant Weapon provides an additional boost to the overall damage, making this build even more powerful. This also assumes that the target is vulnerable to radiant damage, so they take increased damage from radiant attacks.
The assumption is that this could be even further OP if more new and unique weapons and armour are added to the character. This is the best that I can currently make, however.
Your build makes not sense. You have 11 levels Battle Master, 5 levels Gloomstalker and 4 levels Assassin so where the heck are you getting Hex, Hexblade's Curse, Eldritch Smite, Life Drinker and Divine Smites? Also assuming you even have Eldritch Smite you can only Eldritch Smite once per turn not with every attack.
Sneak Attack also only triggers once per turn and I have no idea how you manage to get 8d6 Sneak attack crits with only 4 levels in Assassin
You are a Battle Master so where the heck are you getting Giant's Might from? That ability is from a totally different subclass (Runeknight) and even if you got Giant's Might it can only trigger once on each of your turns.
You cannot incorporate the Artificers Radiant Weapon infusion when you are using a Oathbow, this same logic also rules out the Elemental Weapon spell. Also using Oathbow means you cannot Divine Smite as Divine Smite only works with melee weapon attacks.
Also you cannot have Hex and Hunter's Mark together because you can only concentrate on 1 spell at a time.
Sneak Attack also only triggers once per turn and I have no idea how you manage to get 8d6 Sneak attack crits with only 4 levels in Assassin.
I think you need to go back to the drawing board my friend.
Take Bugbear race (extra 2d6 dmg first turn), multiclass 1 Monk 1 Ranger 1 Rogue, take criminal background (for alert) and hope your party members know the spell Find Familiar. Have the familiar hang out in your backpack and use the Help action on you during your turn, get a Greatsword (Ranger weapon proficiency) and coat it with a poison (we'll use basic poison for the example). Max out Dex and/or Str, dump Int, Cha, and Con, moderate Wis (you can replace this with Con if you want).
Turns 1 and 2 Play by Play:
High initiative roll (hopefully), cast Hunter's mark, and attack with poisoned greatsword against an enemy that hasn't taken a turn yet, dealing 4d6(surprise attack x2)+1d6(unarmed strike)+1d6(sneak attack)+2d6(Greatsword)+1d4(poison+Str modifier(5, hopefully) +Dex modifier(5 hopefully), for a total of 40 damage.
It's not as much as some of the other combos here, but it's low level, so...
I haven't gone very in depth with this build but it is for the 2024 edition. The entire focus of this build is casting Conjure Minor Elementals and then upcasting certain spells to gain very high amounts of additional damage from the amount of attacks.
Wizard or Druid or even Bard: take the spells Conjure Minor Elementals, Scorching Ray, and Magic Missle + Chromatic Orb (if Wizard)
Cast Conjure Minor Elementals at 9th level, move within 15ft of the enemy and cast 8th level Scorching Ray: 549 average damage with no crits, 1080 max damage with no crits, 2,160 max damage with crits. When done with and 8th level Magic Missle: 575 average damage, 1111 max damage but cannot crit. With 8th level CME and 9th level Chromatic Orb (with new bounce ability): 945 average damage, 1680 max damage with no crits, 3360 max damage with crits. Chromatic Orb is more risky because if an early attack misses, all the rest also miss. Magic Missle will auto hit but is unable to crit.
If you decide to go Druid, you must take the Wildfire subclass for the spell Scorching Ray. You can also use Magical Secrets to make a Bard with this build.
I have not looked into subclass options, feats, or other buffs that can be used yet. Please respond if you find any errors in my calculations or rule-interpretations.
Fire goliath level 17 way of the open hand monk level 3 battle master fighter with the charger feat and dagger weapon mastery. One turn. No magic items or consumables such as poison. Hunters mark had been cast ahead of time.
Use flurry of blows with a damage maneuver and move ten feet (3d12 + 3d10 + 3d8 + 1d8 + 15 damage) and activate quivering palm. Take the attack action with a dagger and forgo your first attack to quivering palm (10d12 damage). Next, when you hit with your extra attack unarmed strike (also with maneuver) (1d12 + 1d10 + 1d8 + 5 damage) and reactivate quivering palm. Finally, forgo the attack you get from the light property that is part of the nick weapon mastery of the dagger to end the quivering palm (10d12 damage). Now, use action surge to attack again unarmed strike and move ten feet (out of superiority dice) (1d12 + 1d10 + 1d8 + 5), and forgo your extra attack to end quivering palm (10d12 damage).
Cast time stop, attack as a bonus action(monk, damage negligible) and use tides of chaos automatic wild magic surge from tides of chaos, get row 97-100(8% chance), and get option three, regaining your lowest level expended spell slot - level 9.
Now, attack as a bonus action(monk, damage negligible) and use tides of chaos, then cast meteor swarm (40d6 damage), automatic wild magic surge from tides of chaos, get row 97-100(8% chance), and get option three, regaining your lowest level expended spell slot - level 9.
Repeat this step an amount of times equal to the turns from time stop, minus one. Then, start from the beginning.
Average damage:
1/75 chance of getting option three of row 97-100.
Multiply this by 140 (average of 40d6) for 140/75, or 28/15 average damage.
This is slightly underestimating, if anybody wants to calculate the actual damage factoring in that every 1d4 round's damage is skipped, go ahead.
This build is of a Bugbear who is a 19th level Bard and 1st level Hexblade Warlock. The feature Hexblade's Curse has some weird wording that makes it perfectly legitimate to add the extra damage to every single damage roll. Hexblade damage is italicized.
Background: Subclass: Does not matter
Base Damage: From Magical Secrets you gain the spells Scorching Ray, Chromatic Orb, and Conjure Minor Elements. You cast Conjure Minor Elementals at 9th level and upcast either Chromatic Orb or Scorching Ray at 8th level. For one enemy, cast Scorching Ray, for multiple cast Chromatic Orb. Cast a 9th level Scorching Ray or Chromatic Orb as a bonus action from the Cartomancer feat.
Scorching Ray:
(12d8 + 2d6 + 2d6 + 84 + 30) times 9 for every ray in the spell, doubled from crits, plus (12d8 + 2d6 + 84 + 30) doubled from the new twinned metamagic, plus an additional 12d8 + 2d6 + 84 times 11 from twinned Cartomancer Scorching Ray, which is also doubled. Max damage: 6384 fire damage.
Chromatic Orb:
(10d8 + 12d8 + 2d6 + 132 + 30) times 11 for every time Chromatic Orb redirects (11 because of new twinned metamagic), doubled for Cartomancer's Bonus Action spell, doubled again for crits, . Max damage: 10648 damage
Magic Items: For this section we will use Chromatic Orb. Ascendant Dragon-Touched Focus (Chromatic), Teeth of Dahlver-Nar (The Mill Road Murders tooth)
12d8 + 12d8 + 2d6 + 132 + 30 per attack with Chromatic Orb (9th level from Dragon Touched Focus), 11 redirects from Chromatic Orb and Twinned Spell, + 1d6 + 6 from the Dragon-Touched Focus, doubled from crits, plus 660 + 396 damage from the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar. Max damage: 10975 damage.
Additional Party Characters:
Artificer Armorer: 15th level Infiltrator Feature: +1d6 (2d6 for crit) lightning, this one can stack on each attack.
Bard College of Valor: Bardic Inspiration: +1d12 (2d12 for crit)
Bard College of Spirits: Tale of the Phantom: +1d12 (2d12 for crit) necrotic
Bard College of Creation: Mote of Potential: +1d12 (2d12 for crit) thunder
Cleric Order Domain: Order's Wrath: +2d8 (4d8 for crit) psychic damage
Cleric Grave Domain (many of these clerics to give all targets vulnerability): Path to the Grave: doubles all damage, you can get vulnerability on every attack with the Ready Action, each cleric readying for a different attack.
This build is of a Bugbear who is a 19th level Bard and 1st level Hexblade Warlock. The feature Hexblade's Curse has some weird wording that makes it perfectly legitimate to add the extra damage to every single damage roll. Hexblade damage is italicized.
Background: Subclass: Does not matter
Base Damage: From Magical Secrets you gain the spells Scorching Ray, Chromatic Orb, and Conjure Minor Elements. You cast Conjure Minor Elementals at 9th level and upcast either Chromatic Orb or Scorching Ray at 8th level. For one enemy, cast Scorching Ray, for multiple cast Chromatic Orb. Cast a 9th level Scorching Ray or Chromatic Orb as a bonus action from the Cartomancer feat.
Scorching Ray:
(12d8 + 2d6 + 2d6 + 84 + 30) times 9 for every ray in the spell, doubled from crits, plus (12d8 + 2d6 + 84 + 30) doubled from the new twinned metamagic, plus an additional 12d8 + 2d6 + 84 times 11 from twinned Cartomancer Scorching Ray, which is also doubled. Max damage: 6384 fire damage.
Chromatic Orb:
(10d8 + 12d8 + 2d6 + 132 + 30) times 11 for every time Chromatic Orb redirects (11 because of new twinned metamagic), doubled for Cartomancer's Bonus Action spell, doubled again for crits, .
[Snip - won't be talking about this]
Additional Party Characters:
Artificer Armorer: 15th level Infiltrator Feature: +1d6 (2d6 for crit) lightning, this one can stack on each attack.
[Snip - won't be talking about this]
I was just popping by and saw this, and I have a few things to point out.
First off, nothing in cartographer says you can cast the spell at level 9 without using a spellslot. The purpose of this feature is to cast a spell you don't have prepared as a bonus action. Slot and components still required unless specifically stated otherwise. (Casting 2 9th level spells per day is an epic boon feat)
No, hexblade's curse does not have wording that makes it legitimate to add the bonus damage to every single *die* roll. All the damage dice of a single attack/effect is 1 damage roll. It does get added to each beam, like minor elementals and bugbear surprise attack does.
The new twinned spell metamagic doesn't even work on any of the spells involved (which you don't mention taking the feat to access, but I'm assuming that is what you did).
You aren't a 2014 assassin, so why are you counting every hit as a crit?
The armorer's level 15 infiltrator feature triggers on the "next attack roll... if it hits" there is only 1 "next," not 20.
Now to fix it: The math actually favors casting conjure minor elementals at level 8 (10d8 per attack) and getting more damage instances from beams/redirects. This will be before encounter. Nova turn, passive buff: bugbear surprise attack (2d6 per attack), action: Scorching ray level 9 (2d6 × 10 ray attacks), bonus action: Eldritch blast w/Agonizing Blast (1d10+5 × 4 beam attacks).
Totalling: 10d8+4d6 ×10 + 1d10+10d8+2d6+5 ×4 or 4d10+140d8+48d6+20 for a range of 212-1468 and an average of 840. Respectable, but not the absurd numbers you alleged.
I didn't use the hexblade curse, because it can't be prepared before the encounter and targeting a hostile creature during an encounter triggers combat, requiring an initiative roll *before* the action occurs, and Agonizing Blast does more damage. But if the DM allows it before initiative, it adds a fixed 84 for 924 total average damage.
As for Chromatic orb, it is guaranteed to leap above level 5, and at level 9 does 11d8 damage to 10 attack targets. That is 21d8+2d6 ×10 plus the Agonizing blast bonus action totals 4d10+250d8+28d6+20 range 302-2228 average 1265. Hexblade's curse adds the same damage.
The problem with spread attack damage is AOEs always top it. Meteor Swarm averages 280 per target and can hit *way* more than 10 targets. So upcasting Chromatic orb has diminishing returns comparatively.
Thank you for responding, your advice is extremely useful, I am going to make some edits and make sure to state all the feats I take for this. For this build I was just assuming each attack crited and rolled max damage because I just wanted to see the maximum possible damage, definitely not plausible. If you have multiple Artificer Armorers and they each target a different creature before you hit, you can add the extra damage to every attack. This build is very absurd and nothing about should be taken seriously, definitely including the critical hits with max damge.
Thank you so much for responding, it means a lot to me. Now I get to redo my math, which while tedious, is fun.
PS. Let me know if anyone finds other flaws not mentioned in the above responce.
PSS. It also invloved making a party of over 40 characters, which is ridiculous, even in comparison to the crits and max damage.
An infinitely sized party can probably do infinite damage in a single turn through some kind of readied action chain (off the top of my head, I can imagine a spike growth repelling blast readied action chain. Or of that matter just repelling blast to keep the target moving down the konga line of pain).
The challenge is for a single character to do as much damage in 1 turn as possible.
If you are too lazy to read this paragraph of instructions then just read this, you can deal about 35-40k damage if you are lucky and if you are kind of unlucky then you deal 20k damage with this thing. Well there is a way to deal about 39k damage in a single turn, but it requires max stats in everything a bunch of traits and to get lucky to hit about 5 critical hits on one attack, sleep on enemy, stealth, roll 20, paralyzed, and unconscious, then shoot with oathbow, casting tensers transformation for extra 2d12 then make sure to attack sworn enemy +3d6, hunters mark +1d6, sharpshooter +10, poisoner +2d8, dex at max and bracers of archery +12, so, in the end, you deal 7-8k damage, with an extra attack you attack twice and with haste you have another action and if you attack you deal damage averaged out on about 35-40k piercing, I also stacked advantage to be able to reroll 12 times and have a +20 to hit so sharpshooter doesn't impose anything and also with the 2024 sharpshooter you don't ever get disadvantage and the 2014 sharpshooter you deal extra 10 damage for -5 to hit but with 20 to hit it doesn't even matter, especially when you can reroll 12 times so you have a guaranteed 20k and a almost guaranteed 35-40k damage. I wanted to make a gun build but since there are no guns in I used a massive damage bow build because a gun is just a bow that does massive damage, also I am using stack advantage and stack critical hit rules.
also, extra note On average you do about 50 damage averaging out on 6400 damage if you are lucky per attack but since you can attack 4 times you deal 24k on average, but I managed to roll 80 on one of the attacks so with only 2 attacks I got 20k so it really depends on your luck
If you are too lazy to read this paragraph of instructions then just read this, you can deal about 35-40k damage if you are lucky and if you are kind of unlucky then you deal 20k damage with this thing. Well there is a way to deal about 39k damage in a single turn, but it requires max stats in everything a bunch of traits and to get lucky to hit about 5 critical hits on one attack, sleep on enemy, stealth, roll 20, paralyzed, and unconscious, then shoot with oathbow, casting tensers transformation for extra 2d12 then make sure to attack sworn enemy +3d6, hunters mark +1d6, sharpshooter +10, poisoner +2d8, dex at max and bracers of archery +12, so, in the end, you deal 7-8k damage, with an extra attack you attack twice and with haste you have another action and if you attack you deal damage averaged out on about 35-40k piercing, I also stacked advantage to be able to reroll 12 times and have a +20 to hit so sharpshooter doesn't impose anything and also with the 2024 sharpshooter you don't ever get disadvantage and the 2014 sharpshooter you deal extra 10 damage for -5 to hit but with 20 to hit it doesn't even matter, especially when you can reroll 12 times so you have a guaranteed 20k and a almost guaranteed 35-40k damage. I wanted to make a gun build but since there are no guns in I used a massive damage bow build because a gun is just a bow that does massive damage, also I am using stack advantage and stack critical hit rules.
Stacking critical hits (I believe) is not even an optional rule in the DM's guide. No DM would ever allow this even without the crit stacking, as you are clearly abusing the rule of stacking advantage.
This build is of a Bugbear who is a 19th level Bard and 1st level Hexblade Warlock. The feature Hexblade's Curse has some weird wording that makes it perfectly legitimate to add the extra damage to every single damage roll. Hexblade damage is italicized.
Background: Subclass: Does not matter
Base Damage: From Magical Secrets you gain the spells Scorching Ray, Chromatic Orb, and Conjure Minor Elements. You cast Conjure Minor Elementals at 9th level and upcast either Chromatic Orb or Scorching Ray at 8th level. For one enemy, cast Scorching Ray, for multiple cast Chromatic Orb. Cast a 9th level Scorching Ray or Chromatic Orb as a bonus action from the Cartomancer feat.
Scorching Ray:
(12d8 + 2d6 + 2d6 + 84 + 30) times 9 for every ray in the spell, doubled from crits, plus (12d8 + 2d6 + 84 + 30) doubled from the new twinned metamagic, plus an additional 12d8 + 2d6 + 84 times 11 from twinned Cartomancer Scorching Ray, which is also doubled. Max damage: 6384 fire damage.
Chromatic Orb:
(10d8 + 12d8 + 2d6 + 132 + 30) times 11 for every time Chromatic Orb redirects (11 because of new twinned metamagic), doubled for Cartomancer's Bonus Action spell, doubled again for crits, .
[Snip - won't be talking about this]
Additional Party Characters:
Artificer Armorer: 15th level Infiltrator Feature: +1d6 (2d6 for crit) lightning, this one can stack on each attack.
[Snip - won't be talking about this]
I was just popping by and saw this, and I have a few things to point out.
First off, nothing in cartographer says you can cast the spell at level 9 without using a spellslot. The purpose of this feature is to cast a spell you don't have prepared as a bonus action. Slot and components still required unless specifically stated otherwise. (Casting 2 9th level spells per day is an epic boon feat)
No, hexblade's curse does not have wording that makes it legitimate to add the bonus damage to every single *die* roll. All the damage dice of a single attack/effect is 1 damage roll. It does get added to each beam, like minor elementals and bugbear surprise attack does.
The new twinned spell metamagic doesn't even work on any of the spells involved (which you don't mention taking the feat to access, but I'm assuming that is what you did).
You aren't a 2014 assassin, so why are you counting every hit as a crit?
The armorer's level 15 infiltrator feature triggers on the "next attack roll... if it hits" there is only 1 "next," not 20.
Now to fix it: The math actually favors casting conjure minor elementals at level 8 (10d8 per attack) and getting more damage instances from beams/redirects. This will be before encounter. Nova turn, passive buff: bugbear surprise attack (2d6 per attack), action: Scorching ray level 9 (2d6 × 10 ray attacks), bonus action: Eldritch blast w/Agonizing Blast (1d10+5 × 4 beam attacks).
Totalling: 10d8+4d6 ×10 + 1d10+10d8+2d6+5 ×4 or 4d10+140d8+48d6+20 for a range of 212-1468 and an average of 840. Respectable, but not the absurd numbers you alleged.
I didn't use the hexblade curse, because it can't be prepared before the encounter and targeting a hostile creature during an encounter triggers combat, requiring an initiative roll *before* the action occurs, and Agonizing Blast does more damage. But if the DM allows it before initiative, it adds a fixed 84 for 924 total average damage.
As for Chromatic orb, it is guaranteed to leap above level 5, and at level 9 does 11d8 damage to 10 attack targets. That is 21d8+2d6 ×10 plus the Agonizing blast bonus action totals 4d10+250d8+28d6+20 range 302-2228 average 1265. Hexblade's curse adds the same damage.
The problem with spread attack damage is AOEs always top it. Meteor Swarm averages 280 per target and can hit *way* more than 10 targets. So upcasting Chromatic orb has diminishing returns comparatively.
Looked at your first build, you gain nothing for a 5th level in ranger, so might as well put that in hexblade. Assuming you snuck up the enemy use metamagic adept subtle spell to cast both hex and hunters mark beforehand, then use hexblades curse (Or cast it beforehand and use ensnare instead) i don't think it says anything about not using it before combat (idk i guess other in-book d&d rules apply but i dont think anybody knows those). Also depending on how you interpret crits and if you take bugbear i managed to get the build to an average of 1000 damage. (I'm not math wizard)
"The Biggest problem D&D player face is their own bad decisions." "What doesn't kill you makes you more likely to die."- Thauraeln_The_Bol "Well, hey, if it ain't broke, then break it!"Former_Queen_Yvonne See my homebrew spells, monsters, and this thread part of the cult of science, and the Cult of the Nothic, and plays on Tenbrae Sine Fine Please help us!!! (Link) Nickname is Colton. PM ME THE WORD TOMATO. The best name for the mad gibber
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2 Level Fighter, 18 Level Evocation Wizard. Steel Wind Strike (maximized damage with Evo Wizard feature) 2 times via action surge. With a completely fabricated setting (5 Enemies, all paralized within 5 ft of the caster, possible via 9th Level Hold Monster in a round/turn before the damage round or by an ally). Provided all 10 attacks hit you'll do 60*2*10 for 1.200 force damage.
Good lord!!!
Hello fellow D&D'ers,
I'm new to D&D but not new to RPGs or theory crafting. Here is the best combo that I was able to conceive:
To achieve the highest possible single-hit damage in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, I combined the following classes, feats, equipment, and spells to create a truly devastating character build.
Class Breakdown
Feats and Equipment
Buffs and Enhancements
Total Attack Breakdown
With the buffs and abilities, you will have a total of 9 attacks in the first round due to Haste:
Calculating Maximum Damage
Assuming all attacks are critical hits and benefit from Sneak Attack:
Maximum Damage Calculation for Each Attack
Total Maximum Damage Calculation for Each Attack
Total (each attack) = (2d8 + 20d8 + 8d8 + 12d8 + 8d6 + 24d6 + 8d6 + 4d6 + 4d4 + 4d4 + 2d4 + 12 + 10 + 38)
Maximum Damage for Each Attack = (2 * 8 + 20 * 8 + 8 * 8 + 12 * 8 + 8 * 6 + 24 * 6 + 8 * 6 + 4 * 6 + 4 * 4 + 4 * 4 + 2 * 4 + 12 + 10 + 38) Maximum Damage for Each Attack = (16 + 160 + 64 + 96 + 48 + 144 + 48 + 24 + 16 + 16 + 8 + 12 + 10 + 38) = 700
Total for 9 Attacks
9 Attacks:
Conclusion
By incorporating the Radiant Weapon infusion from an Artificer, the maximum potential damage output in a single round for this optimized build can reach 6300. This assumes all attacks are critical hits due to the Assassinate feature and benefit from Sneak Attack and all relevant buffs and enhancements. The addition of Radiant Weapon provides an additional boost to the overall damage, making this build even more powerful. This also assumes that the target is vulnerable to radiant damage, so they take increased damage from radiant attacks.
The assumption is that this could be even further OP if more new and unique weapons and armour are added to the character. This is the best that I can currently make, however.
Your build makes not sense. You have 11 levels Battle Master, 5 levels Gloomstalker and 4 levels Assassin so where the heck are you getting Hex, Hexblade's Curse, Eldritch Smite, Life Drinker and Divine Smites? Also assuming you even have Eldritch Smite you can only Eldritch Smite once per turn not with every attack.
Sneak Attack also only triggers once per turn and I have no idea how you manage to get 8d6 Sneak attack crits with only 4 levels in Assassin
You are a Battle Master so where the heck are you getting Giant's Might from? That ability is from a totally different subclass (Runeknight) and even if you got Giant's Might it can only trigger once on each of your turns.
You cannot incorporate the Artificers Radiant Weapon infusion when you are using a Oathbow, this same logic also rules out the Elemental Weapon spell. Also using Oathbow means you cannot Divine Smite as Divine Smite only works with melee weapon attacks.
Also you cannot have Hex and Hunter's Mark together because you can only concentrate on 1 spell at a time.
Sneak Attack also only triggers once per turn and I have no idea how you manage to get 8d6 Sneak attack crits with only 4 levels in Assassin.
I think you need to go back to the drawing board my friend.
Points taken - New to D&D will recalculate :D
For low level absurdly high DPT?
Take Bugbear race (extra 2d6 dmg first turn), multiclass 1 Monk 1 Ranger 1 Rogue, take criminal background (for alert) and hope your party members know the spell Find Familiar. Have the familiar hang out in your backpack and use the Help action on you during your turn, get a Greatsword (Ranger weapon proficiency) and coat it with a poison (we'll use basic poison for the example). Max out Dex and/or Str, dump Int, Cha, and Con, moderate Wis (you can replace this with Con if you want).
Turns 1 and 2 Play by Play:
High initiative roll (hopefully), cast Hunter's mark, and attack with poisoned greatsword against an enemy that hasn't taken a turn yet, dealing 4d6(surprise attack x2)+1d6(unarmed strike)+1d6(sneak attack)+2d6(Greatsword)+1d4(poison+Str modifier(5, hopefully) +Dex modifier(5 hopefully), for a total of 40 damage.
It's not as much as some of the other combos here, but it's low level, so...
Roll for Initiative: [roll]1d20+7[/roll]
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I haven't gone very in depth with this build but it is for the 2024 edition. The entire focus of this build is casting Conjure Minor Elementals and then upcasting certain spells to gain very high amounts of additional damage from the amount of attacks.
Wizard or Druid or even Bard: take the spells Conjure Minor Elementals, Scorching Ray, and Magic Missle + Chromatic Orb (if Wizard)
Cast Conjure Minor Elementals at 9th level, move within 15ft of the enemy and cast 8th level Scorching Ray: 549 average damage with no crits, 1080 max damage with no crits, 2,160 max damage with crits. When done with and 8th level Magic Missle: 575 average damage, 1111 max damage but cannot crit. With 8th level CME and 9th level Chromatic Orb (with new bounce ability): 945 average damage, 1680 max damage with no crits, 3360 max damage with crits. Chromatic Orb is more risky because if an early attack misses, all the rest also miss. Magic Missle will auto hit but is unable to crit.
If you decide to go Druid, you must take the Wildfire subclass for the spell Scorching Ray. You can also use Magical Secrets to make a Bard with this build.
I have not looked into subclass options, feats, or other buffs that can be used yet. Please respond if you find any errors in my calculations or rule-interpretations.
Fire goliath level 17 way of the open hand monk level 3 battle master fighter with the charger feat and dagger weapon mastery. One turn. No magic items or consumables such as poison. Hunters mark had been cast ahead of time.
Use flurry of blows with a damage maneuver and move ten feet (3d12 + 3d10 + 3d8 + 1d8 + 15 damage) and activate quivering palm. Take the attack action with a dagger and forgo your first attack to quivering palm (10d12 damage). Next, when you hit with your extra attack unarmed strike (also with maneuver) (1d12 + 1d10 + 1d8 + 5 damage) and reactivate quivering palm. Finally, forgo the attack you get from the light property that is part of the nick weapon mastery of the dagger to end the quivering palm (10d12 damage). Now, use action surge to attack again unarmed strike and move ten feet (out of superiority dice) (1d12 + 1d10 + 1d8 + 5), and forgo your extra attack to end quivering palm (10d12 damage).
Average:
Total: 307
Max rolls:
Total: 543
Crits:
Total: 701
I have edited this post.
Or, if you have a bag of devouring... need I say more?
Level 17 wild magic sorcerer, level 1 monk.
Cast time stop, attack as a bonus action(monk, damage negligible) and use tides of chaos automatic wild magic surge from tides of chaos, get row 97-100(8% chance), and get option three, regaining your lowest level expended spell slot - level 9.
Now, attack as a bonus action(monk, damage negligible) and use tides of chaos, then cast meteor swarm (40d6 damage), automatic wild magic surge from tides of chaos, get row 97-100(8% chance), and get option three, regaining your lowest level expended spell slot - level 9.
Repeat this step an amount of times equal to the turns from time stop, minus one. Then, start from the beginning.
Average damage:
1/75 chance of getting option three of row 97-100.
Multiply this by 140 (average of 40d6) for 140/75, or 28/15 average damage.
This is slightly underestimating, if anybody wants to calculate the actual damage factoring in that every 1d4 round's damage is skipped, go ahead.
Maximum damage:
infinite.
This build is of a Bugbear who is a 19th level Bard and 1st level Hexblade Warlock. The feature Hexblade's Curse has some weird wording that makes it perfectly legitimate to add the extra damage to every single damage roll. Hexblade damage is italicized.
Background: Subclass: Does not matter
Base Damage: From Magical Secrets you gain the spells Scorching Ray, Chromatic Orb, and Conjure Minor Elements. You cast Conjure Minor Elementals at 9th level and upcast either Chromatic Orb or Scorching Ray at 8th level. For one enemy, cast Scorching Ray, for multiple cast Chromatic Orb. Cast a 9th level Scorching Ray or Chromatic Orb as a bonus action from the Cartomancer feat.
Scorching Ray:
(12d8 + 2d6 + 2d6 + 84 + 30) times 9 for every ray in the spell, doubled from crits, plus (12d8 + 2d6 + 84 + 30) doubled from the new twinned metamagic, plus an additional 12d8 + 2d6 + 84 times 11 from twinned Cartomancer Scorching Ray, which is also doubled. Max damage: 6384 fire damage.
Chromatic Orb:
(10d8 + 12d8 + 2d6 + 132 + 30) times 11 for every time Chromatic Orb redirects (11 because of new twinned metamagic), doubled for Cartomancer's Bonus Action spell, doubled again for crits, . Max damage: 10648 damage
Magic Items: For this section we will use Chromatic Orb. Ascendant Dragon-Touched Focus (Chromatic), Teeth of Dahlver-Nar (The Mill Road Murders tooth)
12d8 + 12d8 + 2d6 + 132 + 30 per attack with Chromatic Orb (9th level from Dragon Touched Focus), 11 redirects from Chromatic Orb and Twinned Spell, + 1d6 + 6 from the Dragon-Touched Focus, doubled from crits, plus 660 + 396 damage from the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar. Max damage: 10975 damage.
Additional Party Characters:
Artificer Armorer: 15th level Infiltrator Feature: +1d6 (2d6 for crit) lightning, this one can stack on each attack.
Bard College of Valor: Bardic Inspiration: +1d12 (2d12 for crit)
Bard College of Spirits: Tale of the Phantom: +1d12 (2d12 for crit) necrotic
Bard College of Creation: Mote of Potential: +1d12 (2d12 for crit) thunder
Cleric Order Domain: Order's Wrath: +2d8 (4d8 for crit) psychic damage
Cleric Grave Domain (many of these clerics to give all targets vulnerability): Path to the Grave: doubles all damage, you can get vulnerability on every attack with the Ready Action, each cleric readying for a different attack.
Damage:
Dice: (12d8 + 12d8 + 2d6 + 3d10 + 1d6) times 22 + 1d12 + 1d12 + 1d12 + 2d8 all doubled: 10676 damage
Additives: (12(6) + 12(6) + 2(6) + 3(6) + 30 +6) times 22 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 12: 4656 damage
Total Max Damage: 15332 damage
I was just popping by and saw this, and I have a few things to point out.
First off, nothing in cartographer says you can cast the spell at level 9 without using a spellslot. The purpose of this feature is to cast a spell you don't have prepared as a bonus action. Slot and components still required unless specifically stated otherwise. (Casting 2 9th level spells per day is an epic boon feat)
No, hexblade's curse does not have wording that makes it legitimate to add the bonus damage to every single *die* roll. All the damage dice of a single attack/effect is 1 damage roll. It does get added to each beam, like minor elementals and bugbear surprise attack does.
The new twinned spell metamagic doesn't even work on any of the spells involved (which you don't mention taking the feat to access, but I'm assuming that is what you did).
You aren't a 2014 assassin, so why are you counting every hit as a crit?
The armorer's level 15 infiltrator feature triggers on the "next attack roll... if it hits" there is only 1 "next," not 20.
Now to fix it: The math actually favors casting conjure minor elementals at level 8 (10d8 per attack) and getting more damage instances from beams/redirects. This will be before encounter. Nova turn, passive buff: bugbear surprise attack (2d6 per attack), action: Scorching ray level 9 (2d6 × 10 ray attacks), bonus action: Eldritch blast w/Agonizing Blast (1d10+5 × 4 beam attacks).
Totalling: 10d8+4d6 ×10 + 1d10+10d8+2d6+5 ×4 or 4d10+140d8+48d6+20 for a range of 212-1468 and an average of 840. Respectable, but not the absurd numbers you alleged.
I didn't use the hexblade curse, because it can't be prepared before the encounter and targeting a hostile creature during an encounter triggers combat, requiring an initiative roll *before* the action occurs, and Agonizing Blast does more damage. But if the DM allows it before initiative, it adds a fixed 84 for 924 total average damage.
As for Chromatic orb, it is guaranteed to leap above level 5, and at level 9 does 11d8 damage to 10 attack targets. That is 21d8+2d6 ×10 plus the Agonizing blast bonus action totals 4d10+250d8+28d6+20 range 302-2228 average 1265. Hexblade's curse adds the same damage.
The problem with spread attack damage is AOEs always top it. Meteor Swarm averages 280 per target and can hit *way* more than 10 targets. So upcasting Chromatic orb has diminishing returns comparatively.
Thank you for responding, your advice is extremely useful, I am going to make some edits and make sure to state all the feats I take for this. For this build I was just assuming each attack crited and rolled max damage because I just wanted to see the maximum possible damage, definitely not plausible. If you have multiple Artificer Armorers and they each target a different creature before you hit, you can add the extra damage to every attack. This build is very absurd and nothing about should be taken seriously, definitely including the critical hits with max damge.
Thank you so much for responding, it means a lot to me. Now I get to redo my math, which while tedious, is fun.
PS. Let me know if anyone finds other flaws not mentioned in the above responce.
PSS. It also invloved making a party of over 40 characters, which is ridiculous, even in comparison to the crits and max damage.
An infinitely sized party can probably do infinite damage in a single turn through some kind of readied action chain (off the top of my head, I can imagine a spike growth repelling blast readied action chain. Or of that matter just repelling blast to keep the target moving down the konga line of pain).
The challenge is for a single character to do as much damage in 1 turn as possible.
If you are too lazy to read this paragraph of instructions then just read this, you can deal about 35-40k damage if you are lucky and if you are kind of unlucky then you deal 20k damage with this thing. Well there is a way to deal about 39k damage in a single turn, but it requires max stats in everything a bunch of traits and to get lucky to hit about 5 critical hits on one attack, sleep on enemy, stealth, roll 20, paralyzed, and unconscious, then shoot with oathbow, casting tensers transformation for extra 2d12 then make sure to attack sworn enemy +3d6, hunters mark +1d6, sharpshooter +10, poisoner +2d8, dex at max and bracers of archery +12, so, in the end, you deal 7-8k damage, with an extra attack you attack twice and with haste you have another action and if you attack you deal damage averaged out on about 35-40k piercing, I also stacked advantage to be able to reroll 12 times and have a +20 to hit so sharpshooter doesn't impose anything and also with the 2024 sharpshooter you don't ever get disadvantage and the 2014 sharpshooter you deal extra 10 damage for -5 to hit but with 20 to hit it doesn't even matter, especially when you can reroll 12 times so you have a guaranteed 20k and a almost guaranteed 35-40k damage. I wanted to make a gun build but since there are no guns in I used a massive damage bow build because a gun is just a bow that does massive damage, also I am using stack advantage and stack critical hit rules.
also, extra note On average you do about 50 damage averaging out on 6400 damage if you are lucky per attack but since you can attack 4 times you deal 24k on average, but I managed to roll 80 on one of the attacks so with only 2 attacks I got 20k so it really depends on your luck
Stacking critical hits (I believe) is not even an optional rule in the DM's guide. No DM would ever allow this even without the crit stacking, as you are clearly abusing the rule of stacking advantage.
Looked at your first build, you gain nothing for a 5th level in ranger, so might as well put that in hexblade. Assuming you snuck up the enemy use metamagic adept subtle spell to cast both hex and hunters mark beforehand, then use hexblades curse (Or cast it beforehand and use ensnare instead) i don't think it says anything about not using it before combat (idk i guess other in-book d&d rules apply but i dont think anybody knows those). Also depending on how you interpret crits and if you take bugbear i managed to get the build to an average of 1000 damage. (I'm not math wizard)
first fighter (eldrich knight)20
potion misscalqubility two hastened actions
hunting rifle 4d10
bullets poisoned with every poison in the game 21d6 + auto crit
peicer feat +20 to each hit
arrows of slaying
20 attacks
((4x5.5)+(42x3.5)+(12x5.5) +20+10)x16=5300 on avrige
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