I remember reading a guide a few years ago about how to get a character supersonic in 5e. It was all about optimizing the speed a character could attain with racial/class benefits and magic items, and I believe the final result was over the speed of sound. Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark or save the guide, so now I have to rely on the collective knowledge of the internet. Does anyone have a link to the guide, or a thread where the guide was posted?
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"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
I figured out how to break the sound barrier without shapechange or any spells greater than level 3 with Haste:
Tabaxi is a must. For the Bladesinger restriction in RAW it does say the DM can lift the restriction to better suit your campaign, but you can also just have a tabaxi raised by elves. Even without that extra 10 ft. of Bladesong this character can still break the sound barrier though, so it isn't a deal breaker.
2 Artifact Weapons w/ Major Beneficial Property of speed increase 20 ft.,
Total Speed: 155 ft.
Buffs:
Boots of Speed: 155 x 2 = 310
Potion of Speed: 310 x 2 = 620
Feline Agility: 620 x 2 = 1240
Buffed Speed: 1240 ft.
Movement 1240 ft. + 1240 ft. (Dash Action) + 1240 ft. (Step of the Wind) + 1240 ft. (Hasted Action Dash from Potion of Speed) + 1240 ft. (Action Surge Dash) + 1240 ft. (Wild Magic Surge Table 81-82: You can take one additional action immediately) = 7440 ft. / 6 = 1240 feet per second, breaking the sound barrier requires a speed of 1100 feet per second.
In closing, this requires a tremendous amount of luck because of the Wild Magic Surge and the 2 artifact weapons having a speed buff Major Beneficial Property, but this is also completely theoretical. This is the fastest a character can be without using some shapechange shenanigans, or using time manipulation spells or higher magics. Also, if you want to drop the Bladesinger because it doesn't fit with the narrative, or because you don't think a tabaxi can learn bladesinging, the max speed using the same calculations is 6960 ft. / 6 = 1160 feet per second which will still break the sound barrier!
Edit: I have no clue why they decided to leave out Shapechange or Wind walk. They don't really provide a reason for it either but you can just do the calculations yourself.
Totally unrelated, and I suppose it's rather obvious, but I assume that anything that deals thunder damage must be far over supersonic. How else would it manage to hurt something?
1) Ok it’s 30’ a round - 6 seconds so the actual speed is 5’/second so cut all those speeds down by 1/6th for a start. Speed of sound is 1115’/second or 6688’/round. Realistically you’re not going to get all those pieces to line up to get your supersonic speed. Even if the DM allows you to double up on things like speed potions and boots of speed. 2) thunder damage (sonic booms) is air moving at the speed of sound not faster - the lightning that generates it does move far faster but the shockwave that is the sonic boom only moves at the speed of sound - but the pressure wave s concentrated air acting like a solid object moving that speed. It’s that solid wall of air that does the thunder damage. 3) yes high volume sound does do damage - why do you think most rock musicians are at least partially deaf? Any noise level over about 80dB is doing small amounts of permanent damage to your ears (better turn down the volume when using earbuds folks) as for tabaxi speed racer breaking thru that shockwave at 760 mph he/she/it would be shattered. The only reason the guy from Red Bull wasn’t when he stepped out of the balloon is that when he broke the sound barrier he was so high up that the air was so rarified that the “wall” was no more dense than normal air, then as he reached denser air it was slowing him down to subsonic speeds until in the last 5000’. He had slowed to normal terminal velocity (@120 mph) military and other jets have “coke bottle” shape specifically to help them deal with the forces of breaking the sound barrier. 4) realistically ( yeah I know the game isn’t reality - tough), as the tabaxi starts to speed up the air resistance to their movement increases and all those boosts would be eaten up in overcoming the air resistance in much the same way the the world land speed record jet cars have trouble dealing with the air resistance as they approach the sound barrier.
If you want to break the sound barrier (and potentially obliterate everything in the immediate area with the combination of pressure wave/air friction) then strictly speaking all you need is a Spelljammer, since those things travel at speeds exceeding 40,000 MPH once they're one mile away from "an object"; The speed is literally listed as a million miles per day.
For reference an earth sized planet is 24.9 miles in circumferance, so you could send your spelljammer around the planet and literally destroy everyone's hearing if you were at a high enough altitude; they'd likely be dead at a lower one) in about 40 minutes
The spelljammer speeds are the speeds when in the astral plane not in normal space in that sense they are meant to represent the sort of speeds needed for interstellar space. At that they are actually still way too slow. Warp 1 = light speed = 669 million mph. The problem is real space distances are truly emmense - a lightyear is about 6 trillion miles and the nearest star to earth is 4.2 light years away. At warp 1 it would take 4.2 years to get there (neglecting time for acceleration and deceleration). At a million miles an hour it would take hundreds of years.
in the game since it’s fantasy it’s possible to Mach 1 since things like air resistance can be ignored as part of the fantasy but real world each of the speed additions should be decreased because of wind resistance and each additional one should be decreased by an increasing percentage.
If you want to break the sound barrier (and potentially obliterate everything in the immediate area with the combination of pressure wave/air friction) then strictly speaking all you need is a Spelljammer, since those things travel at speeds exceeding 40,000 MPH once they're one mile away from "an object"; The speed is literally listed as a million miles per day.
For reference an earth sized planet is 24.9 miles in circumferance, so you could send your spelljammer around the planet and literally destroy everyone's hearing if you were at a high enough altitude; they'd likely be dead at a lower one) in about 40 minutes
The Earth is 24,900 miles in circumference. And the "away from an object" in the case of a Spelljammer means "outside of the atmosphere." So you can go plaid in a Spelljammer all you want, it's not going to hurt the planet because no atmosphere means no earth-shattering kaboom.
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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.
The spelljammer speeds are the speeds when in the astral plane not in normal space in that sense they are meant to represent the sort of speeds needed for interstellar space. At that they are actually still way too slow. Warp 1 = light speed = 669 million mph. The problem is real space distances are truly emmense - a lightyear is about 6 trillion miles and the nearest star to earth is 4.2 light years away. At warp 1 it would take 4.2 years to get there (neglecting time for acceleration and deceleration). At a million miles an hour it would take hundreds of years.
in the game since it’s fantasy it’s possible to Mach 1 since things like air resistance can be ignored as part of the fantasy but real world each of the speed additions should be decreased because of wind resistance and each additional one should be decreased by an increasing percentage.
Actually, it wouldn't be in reference to the astral plance since that place has it's own weird rules for movement that are wholly independant of your giant space boat.
If you want to break the sound barrier (and potentially obliterate everything in the immediate area with the combination of pressure wave/air friction) then strictly speaking all you need is a Spelljammer, since those things travel at speeds exceeding 40,000 MPH once they're one mile away from "an object"; The speed is literally listed as a million miles per day.
For reference an earth sized planet is 24.9 miles in circumferance, so you could send your spelljammer around the planet and literally destroy everyone's hearing if you were at a high enough altitude; they'd likely be dead at a lower one) in about 40 minutes
The Earth is 24,900 miles in circumference. And the "away from an object" in the case of a Spelljammer means "outside of the atmosphere." So you can go plaid in a Spelljammer all you want, it's not going to hurt the planet because no atmosphere means no earth-shattering kaboom.
Unless we're counting air as an object it's fully capable of whizzing through the atmosphere.
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I remember reading a guide a few years ago about how to get a character supersonic in 5e. It was all about optimizing the speed a character could attain with racial/class benefits and magic items, and I believe the final result was over the speed of sound. Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark or save the guide, so now I have to rely on the collective knowledge of the internet. Does anyone have a link to the guide, or a thread where the guide was posted?
"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
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I don’t remember the math or where I read it, but I remember 477mph.
found a thread: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/57549-fastest-character
Speed of sound is slightly over 760 mph.
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This quote is from the above thread https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/57549-fastest-character.
Edit: I have no clue why they decided to leave out Shapechange or Wind walk. They don't really provide a reason for it either but you can just do the calculations yourself.
if I edit a message, most of the time it's because of grammar. The rest of the time I'll put "Edit:" at the bottom.
I have made a similar post about how far a character can move in one turn, not just with walking speed.
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Yes, but how many HP would the creature suffer in burns by traveling at 761mph?
Totally unrelated, and I suppose it's rather obvious, but I assume that anything that deals thunder damage must be far over supersonic. How else would it manage to hurt something?
Thunder damage is just weird.
In my experience...
Wouldn't normal sound waves (traveling at the speed of sound) at an extremely high volume still cause damage despite not breaching the sound barrier?
Sure, I'd say that makes sense. But I can't say that I'm eager to test that theory.
In my experience...
Or it's an ultrasonic effect. Get the frequency high enough and you can liquefy human tissues.
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.
1) Ok it’s 30’ a round - 6 seconds so the actual speed is 5’/second so cut all those speeds down by 1/6th for a start. Speed of sound is 1115’/second or 6688’/round. Realistically you’re not going to get all those pieces to line up to get your supersonic speed. Even if the DM allows you to double up on things like speed potions and boots of speed.
2) thunder damage (sonic booms) is air moving at the speed of sound not faster - the lightning that generates it does move far faster but the shockwave that is the sonic boom only moves at the speed of sound - but the pressure wave s concentrated air acting like a solid object moving that speed. It’s that solid wall of air that does the thunder damage.
3) yes high volume sound does do damage - why do you think most rock musicians are at least partially deaf? Any noise level over about 80dB is doing small amounts of permanent damage to your ears (better turn down the volume when using earbuds folks) as for tabaxi speed racer breaking thru that shockwave at 760 mph he/she/it would be shattered. The only reason the guy from Red Bull wasn’t when he stepped out of the balloon is that when he broke the sound barrier he was so high up that the air was so rarified that the “wall” was no more dense than normal air, then as he reached denser air it was slowing him down to subsonic speeds until in the last 5000’. He had slowed to normal terminal velocity (@120 mph) military and other jets have “coke bottle” shape specifically to help them deal with the forces of breaking the sound barrier.
4) realistically ( yeah I know the game isn’t reality - tough), as the tabaxi starts to speed up the air resistance to their movement increases and all those boosts would be eaten up in overcoming the air resistance in much the same way the the world land speed record jet cars have trouble dealing with the air resistance as they approach the sound barrier.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
If you want to break the sound barrier (and potentially obliterate everything in the immediate area with the combination of pressure wave/air friction) then strictly speaking all you need is a Spelljammer, since those things travel at speeds exceeding 40,000 MPH once they're one mile away from "an object"; The speed is literally listed as a million miles per day.
For reference an earth sized planet is 24.9 miles in circumferance, so you could send your spelljammer around the planet and literally destroy everyone's hearing if you were at a high enough altitude; they'd likely be dead at a lower one) in about 40 minutes
The spelljammer speeds are the speeds when in the astral plane not in normal space in that sense they are meant to represent the sort of speeds needed for interstellar space. At that they are actually still way too slow. Warp 1 = light speed = 669 million mph. The problem is real space distances are truly emmense - a lightyear is about 6 trillion miles and the nearest star to earth is 4.2 light years away. At warp 1 it would take 4.2 years to get there (neglecting time for acceleration and deceleration). At a million miles an hour it would take hundreds of years.
in the game since it’s fantasy it’s possible to Mach 1 since things like air resistance can be ignored as part of the fantasy but real world each of the speed additions should be decreased because of wind resistance and each additional one should be decreased by an increasing percentage.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
The Earth is 24,900 miles in circumference. And the "away from an object" in the case of a Spelljammer means "outside of the atmosphere." So you can go plaid in a Spelljammer all you want, it's not going to hurt the planet because no atmosphere means no earth-shattering kaboom.
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.
Actually, it wouldn't be in reference to the astral plance since that place has it's own weird rules for movement that are wholly independant of your giant space boat.
Unless we're counting air as an object it's fully capable of whizzing through the atmosphere.