If you were to make a 4th level character without homebrew or UA but using any and all of the other officially published material, how much damage could a 4th level character do?
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
My half-orc barbarian with a 16 str Great Weapon Master and Savage Attacks can max out a crit at 51 points of damage while raging. Max crit is usually pretty unlikely but he has an axe that does max damage against certain creatures.
I don't know if that's the most possible out of all the classes but it seems pretty high.
Custom lineage or Vhuman hexblade is good. Feat: MI: Warlock for Hex. You can do 2nd level Armor of Agathys and Hellish Rebuke, for up to 42 points and booming blade for up to 39 points on a crit(Hex weapon+improved pact weapon+hex) plus 10 BB damage plus Hexblade's Curse for +2 to damage on everything but AoA, for a total of 81.
A cleric can do second-level Guiding Bolt (max of 60 on a crit) and follow it up with a bonus action Spiritual Weapon (cast previous round) (max 16+WIS, call it 19) for 79 damage. Also, if you're a grave cleric and for some reason you're the only one hitting the foe, if your action the previous round was your channel divinity, the target is vulnerable to the damage from the first attack -- 139 damage.
A cleric can do second-level Guiding Bolt (max of 60 on a crit) and follow it up with a bonus action Spiritual Weapon (cast previous round) (max 16+WIS, call it 19) for 79 damage. Also, if you're a grave cleric and for some reason you're the only one hitting the foe, if your action the previous round was your channel divinity, the target is vulnerable to the damage from the first attack -- 139 damage.
Likely? No. RAW? I think so.
With GraveCleric2/Fighter2 for Action Surge, you could Crit a 1st level Inflict Wounds for 60, get your Spiritual Weapon Bonus Action, then cast Inflict Wounds again for another 60.
Using the Grave Cleric ability to bump up one of those castings to 120, you'll end up with 120+60+19 for a solid 199180.
If you then stack in the Metamagic feat to grab Twinning, you could twin both instances of Inflict Wounds for a total of 319300 split between two adjacent targets.
A cleric can do second-level Guiding Bolt (max of 60 on a crit) and follow it up with a bonus action Spiritual Weapon (cast previous round) (max 16+WIS, call it 19) for 79 damage. Also, if you're a grave cleric and for some reason you're the only one hitting the foe, if your action the previous round was your channel divinity, the target is vulnerable to the damage from the first attack -- 139 damage.
Likely? No. RAW? I think so.
Creatures can't cast more than one proper spell in a turn if one has a bonus action casting time.
Belt of storm giant strength oath of vengeance paladin with a vorpal sword. Put oil of sharpness on the sword, then use your previously drunk potion of fire breathing bonus bonus action. Or just use tooth 19’s ability from Teeth of Dahlver-Nar to do the average 52d6 damage to something volenabral to fire damage (my spellings shit)
storm giant strength for a good bonus
oath of vengeance for advantage so crit is more likely
great vorpal sword for the instant kill or the extra 12D8
A cleric can do second-level Guiding Bolt (max of 60 on a crit) and follow it up with a bonus action Spiritual Weapon (cast previous round) (max 16+WIS, call it 19) for 79 damage. Also, if you're a grave cleric and for some reason you're the only one hitting the foe, if your action the previous round was your channel divinity, the target is vulnerable to the damage from the first attack -- 139 damage.
Likely? No. RAW? I think so.
Creatures can't cast more than one proper spell in a turn if one has a bonus action casting time.
That's why this involves two rounds: Round 1: Action - Channel Divinity, Bonus Action: Cast Spiritual Weapon (but don't attack the target of your channel divinity). Round 2: Action - Cast Guiding Bolt, Bonus Action: Use Spiritual Weapon, which has a duration of one minute.
Assuming point build, no magic items, no external buffs, no prep time, a half-orc battle master with a greataxe and great weapon mastery can do 65 with a crit (3d12+2d8+13) and can do so 3x (action, action surge, bonus action attack from GWM) for a total of 195. Against a skeletal creature and using a maul, damage is 59 (5d6+2d8+13) x2 (vulnerable) x3 (attacks) = 354.
WOW! There have been some pretty big numbers for only 4th level 5e characters.
Now let's try some other parameters for the build.
1. Let's exclude external things and focus on what the actual character can do with it's abilities, features, and such. (everyone can drop someone from 200' up or push them into lava or both etc.)
2. Maybe show what your build does without any magic items and then what it can do with either 1 common or 1 uncommon magic item. (this seems average for a 4th lvl character.)
3. No multiclassing. (There are still some good single class 4th lvl characters.)
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
These entire threads are the playground of the power-gamer, and are what give the concept of a power-gamer a bad name.
How about" Are we talking with maxed stat of 20, or the 27 point buy method?" Or are we using the abomination that shall not be named to massage the stats? Or how about expected value, as opposed to max value? Are we talking about contrived situations where my 1/3 Hexblade Assassin gets Hex, Hexblade's Curse, Sneak Attack, AND Surprise for a Crit?
Sorry, but these kind of threads have no value.
Vince, literally no one cares. If you don't like this kind of stuff then just don't post. No one needs your negativity.
A 4th level Moon Druid with mobile, longstrider, spike growth and turning into a moorbounder could drag an enemy 45 feet around the edge of spike growth for 18d4 no save, no attack roll damage.
These entire threads are the playground of the power-gamer, and are what give the concept of a power-gamer a bad name.
How about" Are we talking with maxed stat of 20, or the 27 point buy method?" Or are we using the abomination that shall not be named to massage the stats? Or how about expected value, as opposed to max value? Are we talking about contrived situations where my 1/3 Hexblade Assassin gets Hex, Hexblade's Curse, Sneak Attack, AND Surprise for a Crit?
Sorry, but these kind of threads have no value.
Vince, literally no one cares. If you don't like this kind of stuff then just don't post. No one needs your negativity.
A 4th level Moon Druid with mobile, longstrider, spike growth and turning into a moorbounder could drag an enemy 45 feet around the edge of spike growth for 18d4 no save, no attack roll damage.
Be fair. I am also trying to figure out the value of this thread. In what context is this information actually useful?
The only place where finding the "value" of something in D&D is useful is when you're trying to find an Identify pearl. leave people who want to know something alone if you don't want to answer.
If you were to make a 4th level character without homebrew or UA but using any and all of the other officially published material, how much damage could a 4th level character do?
My half-orc barbarian with a 16 str Great Weapon Master and Savage Attacks can max out a crit at 51 points of damage while raging. Max crit is usually pretty unlikely but he has an axe that does max damage against certain creatures.
I don't know if that's the most possible out of all the classes but it seems pretty high.
Custom lineage or Vhuman hexblade is good. Feat: MI: Warlock for Hex. You can do 2nd level Armor of Agathys and Hellish Rebuke, for up to 42 points and booming blade for up to 39 points on a crit(Hex weapon+improved pact weapon+hex) plus 10 BB damage plus Hexblade's Curse for +2 to damage on everything but AoA, for a total of 81.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
A cleric can do second-level Guiding Bolt (max of 60 on a crit) and follow it up with a bonus action Spiritual Weapon (cast previous round) (max 16+WIS, call it 19) for 79 damage. Also, if you're a grave cleric and for some reason you're the only one hitting the foe, if your action the previous round was your channel divinity, the target is vulnerable to the damage from the first attack -- 139 damage.
Likely? No. RAW? I think so.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
With GraveCleric2/Fighter2 for Action Surge, you could Crit a 1st level Inflict Wounds for 60, get your Spiritual Weapon Bonus Action, then cast Inflict Wounds again for another 60.
Using the Grave Cleric ability to bump up one of those castings to 120, you'll end up with 120+60+19 for a solid
199180.If you then stack in the Metamagic feat to grab Twinning, you could twin both instances of Inflict Wounds for a total of
319300 split between two adjacent targets.You need at least 3 levels of cleric to get access to second-level spells. Two levels of fighter would be too much.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
Ah, then ignore the Spiritual Weapon. It's not adding much anyway.
Push an opponent with vulnerability to fire damage into lava.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I think lava's 10d10, so that's up to 200.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
I think we can confidently say that clever use if environmental hazards can allow for arbitrarily large damage.
Perhaps the OP would like to place some bounds on the hypothetical.
Is the target sleeping?
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"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
2nd level Inflict Wounds, critical, is 8d10 damage.
Creatures can't cast more than one proper spell in a turn if one has a bonus action casting time.
Belt of storm giant strength oath of vengeance paladin with a vorpal sword. Put oil of sharpness on the sword, then use your previously drunk potion of fire breathing bonus bonus action. Or just use tooth 19’s ability from Teeth of Dahlver-Nar to do the average 52d6 damage to something volenabral to fire damage (my spellings shit)
storm giant strength for a good bonus
oath of vengeance for advantage so crit is more likely
great vorpal sword for the instant kill or the extra 12D8
then divine smite him
the oil of sharpness makes your bonus into +18
That's why this involves two rounds: Round 1: Action - Channel Divinity, Bonus Action: Cast Spiritual Weapon (but don't attack the target of your channel divinity). Round 2: Action - Cast Guiding Bolt, Bonus Action: Use Spiritual Weapon, which has a duration of one minute.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
Assuming point build, no magic items, no external buffs, no prep time, a half-orc battle master with a greataxe and great weapon mastery can do 65 with a crit (3d12+2d8+13) and can do so 3x (action, action surge, bonus action attack from GWM) for a total of 195. Against a skeletal creature and using a maul, damage is 59 (5d6+2d8+13) x2 (vulnerable) x3 (attacks) = 354.
WOW! There have been some pretty big numbers for only 4th level 5e characters.
Now let's try some other parameters for the build.
1. Let's exclude external things and focus on what the actual character can do with it's abilities, features, and such. (everyone can drop someone from 200' up or push them into lava or both etc.)
2. Maybe show what your build does without any magic items and then what it can do with either 1 common or 1 uncommon magic item. (this seems average for a 4th lvl character.)
3. No multiclassing. (There are still some good single class 4th lvl characters.)
It's highly unlikely, but chaos bolt
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Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
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Vince, literally no one cares. If you don't like this kind of stuff then just don't post. No one needs your negativity.
A 4th level Moon Druid with mobile, longstrider, spike growth and turning into a moorbounder could drag an enemy 45 feet around the edge of spike growth for 18d4 no save, no attack roll damage.
The only place where finding the "value" of something in D&D is useful is when you're trying to find an Identify pearl. leave people who want to know something alone if you don't want to answer.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature