Simple enough question for everyone; we've got a new player at our table, and she's looking to make a pure DPS character. In essence, she's looking for whatever class and race combination can allow her to have the highest amount of damage possible; didn't specify on the exact method of attack (melee, ranged, magic, etc.), and she openly admitted that she didn't entirely mind/care about having any other abilities, she just wanted pure damage, first and foremost.
What class and race combination do you guys recommend? I previously suggested she could try out Barbarian, though I've also seen a few posts stating that Champion Fighter is a better choice for raw melee DPS, and that doesn't even get into potential magic or ranged options, or even single-target vs. AOE options. And what race do you guys suggest; anything with specific bonuses, or what?
For ranged/AoE your pro ly best off with a sorceror- probably elven as your focus and get a few extra spells. For melee maybe a thre kreen ranger1/ champion x. Being able to add hunters mark damage is certainly going to help any dps. Going that route take ranger first then fighter to get the ranger skills and spells then go fighter all the way. With three krin you technically can have 2 weapons in hand, a shield and still have a free hand for casting.
Now that great weapon fighting has been nerfed somewhat along with archery ( no -5/+10) a Dex based light weapon melee focus may be the overall best dps combatant.especially if they can add HM damage to most attacks. Taking TWF as a style lets you add stat bonus to the additional attacks and HM adds an additional d6 to each hit. The most consistent high damage weapon is the great sword (2d6) and with HM that gives you 2 such attacks in your attack action if you go shortsword/scimitar with the bonus action casting HM. In subsequent rounds it becomes 3 such equivalents, if you also have dual wielding, versus the single attack possible to the great sword. At every level you effectively get more such attacks with a light weapon focus than you do with a heavy or normal weapon focus. The Three-kreen benefits from being able to hold both weapons and a shield and still have a hand free for casting
Treantmonk had Eldritch Knight with Shillelagh as a monster damage dealer at the highest level. He did a ton, might want to browse his older vids on YouTube.
A couple simple builds that can do some nice damage, each with a different feel:
For crazy AoE damage, a Divine Soul Sorcerer can do some serious damage to the whole battlefield by up-casting Spirit Guardians with Quickened Spell, running around to tag each enemy once with the spell, then using Ready to move their speed a second time on someone else's turn to tag the enemies with Spirit Guardians a second time per round. They can do this each round, even throwing in a Quickened Spell as a bonus action if they really want to blow up the world (Fireball and Lightning Bolt work well, depending on the placement of the enemies).
If they want to blend their enemies to death, a dual-wielding Elven Vengeance Paladin with Elven Accuracy is a lot of fun to play. Stay Dexterity based, wear medium armor, then use a Shortsword and a Scimitar with the Dual-Wielder feat. You get four attacks per turn, with crazy accuracy due to constant advantage from Vow of Emnity mixed with the super advantage from Elven Accuracy. After level 9 you can add 1d8 extra damage to each of those attacks using Spirit Shroud, and at level 11 you get the Radiant Strikes feature which adds another 1d8 onto each attack. To top it all off, you can still choose to Divine Smite in place of your bonus action attack whenever you get a critical hit during your Attack. All this and you still have the normal Paladin goodies like Lay on Hands and Aura of Protection.
If they want to play something with a little more finesse, there is the option to play a War Cleric/Assassin. Start Rogue, then take 3 levels of Cleric to get War Priest from your subclass, then go the rest of the way as an Assassin Rogue. Wear medium armor (I like a breastplate or Mithral Half-Plate for no stealth penalty), a shield, and carry a rapier. On your turn you can use War Priest to attack with your bonus action to get your Sneak Attack damage, then Ready your Attack action to use on someone else's turn, doubling up on the Sneak Attack damage. An AC of 18+ without magic items, good damage, great skills thanks to being a Rogue, plus the bonus of getting to roll fistfulls of dice when they hit (which is always fun).
i’m even learning a few new combinations I never heard of before!
is this player new to DnD altogether or just new to your table? If new in general, you/we might want to be careful not to bombard her with too many different things in a class/multi-class. Going straight barbarian or Divine Soul Sorcerer around like the simplest options I’ve seen so far. Getting into multiclassing and multiple kinds of attacks per round would likely be confusing. …at least to me.
My first class was mostly divine soul sorcerer back in 2014 rules with a dip of 2 levels in Hexblade Warlock, and I ultimately switched to full warlock because metamagic was too difficult for me to wrap my head around. Now I’m doing a straight Barbarian You n w campaign and my “main” is a fighter 1 /Celestial Warlock just for the weapon proficiencies. My point is even as simple as possible can still be pretty overwhelming for new players, so be careful what you recommend to her. Try explaining them simply to her at first and if she is hesitant at all don’t do it. That’s what I would do.
Pure DPS from level 1: Champion Fighter or Beserker Barbarian using two-weapon fighting. If starting at level 5, then two-handed heavy weapons (i.e. greatsword / greataxe) is probably better since your more likely to get one magic weapon rather than two.
For species the 2024 Goliath has some bonus extra damage, and it is a classic combo for Fighter/Barb, if using 2014 rules the old Aasimar got a damage bonus, as does Half Orc.
Depending on what is allowed, the Squire of Solamia background / origin feat also adds more DPS, as does one of the options for Strike of the Giants. If using straight 2024 then Savage Attacker adds bonus damage, but Alert is probably better so this player gets to leap into action at the start of combat to go smash heads.
While spells can to huge damage as well, they are situational and require strategy to use, which it sounds like this player doesn't want, so I'd strongly recommend sticking with Champion Fighter or Beserker Barbarian.
I second the comment that says this is highly level dependent, so I'll give a few options from the 2024 rules. All options use Dragonborn for AoE breath weapon, which provides the most damage potential from all 2024 species.
1st level Melee: Rogue. Rogues have access to the Nick weapon mastery, which means they get two attacks per turn, with one dealing Sneak Attack damage. At low levels, more hits are more valuable than big hits, because AC makes such a huge difference. Dragonborn get a powerful AoE to cover the times in which the rouge has to content with a bunch of things at once.
1st level Caster: Sorcerer for AoE with Acid Splash and single-target dps with True Strike to shoot with a bow and deal 1d6 extra damage. She can also take Mind Sliver which would giver her 1 cantrip which targets armor (True Strike) one that forces Dex saves (Acid Splash) and one that forces INT saves (Mind Sliver), so she can get around the defenses of enemies reliably. This is all made much punchier with Innate Sorcery.
5th level melee: Monk Way of the Open Hand. At 5th level, monks get extra attack, have access to Focus for Flurry of Blows, and get a feat. Simple Weapons deal 1d8 damage no matter what type, so take level 4 feat Weapon Mastery to get Nick (dagger) and dual-wield daggers to get an extra attack each turn (giving 3 attacks as part of your Attack action, plus 1-2 attacks with Bonus). With Way of the Open Hand, they can also force a target to go Prone, giving advantage on attacks until the creature stands up for all future attacks for both them and their party.
5th level Caster: Draconic Sorcerer. Superior AoE with Fireball, Cloud of Daggers, and Thunder Wave, which all give guaranteed damage against many foes at once. Combine this with the ability to cast Fly to stay out of melee combat even when using Dragon's Breath, Dragonborn Breath Weapon, and Thunderwave, and you have a massively explode-y caster who can empower their spells with metamagic and innate sorcery. Draconic Sorcery also gives bonuses to health and AC which keep them from dying, thus keeping them attacking.
At levels higher than 5, there are so many subclass features, feats, and spell options that it becomes more a matter of how you want to deal damage than how much damage you will deal. Just avoid Bard and Wizard, because most of their power comes from support instead of damage, no matter how you try to build them.
At level 11+ , if you want high damage and high number of attacks with 1 class, it's hard to beat Beast Master Ranger, since they get 2-3 attacks, their pet gets 2 attacks, and they both get to deal the Hunter's Mark damage. Since Rangers also have decent AOE spells and abilities, they have very few weaknesses in their DPS profile.
At level 11+ if you just want the most damage possible, multiclassing is going to be the best. 3 levels in Hunter Ranger to get increased single-target or an additional attack, +5 levels in Monk for Extra Attack and Flurry of Blows, +3 levels Rogue (any subclass) for Sneak Attack. This option, when used with Two-Weapon Fighting (fighting style) wielding a Dagger/Scimitar and (Dagger/Scimitar/Shortsword) (to get Monk damage scaling and Nick benefits) gives you your main attack, extra attack, light weapon attack, 2 attacks with flurry of blows, attack from Horde Breaker, Hunter's Mark (1d6), and Sneak Attack (2d6) giving you a total damage calculation of:
1d8+Dex (main) 1d8+Dex (extra) 1d8+Dex (nick) 1d8+Dex (Unarmed bonus attack) 1d8+Dex (flurry of blows) 1d8+Dex (Horde Breaker - or for Colossus, it's 1d8 extra damage) 1d6 (Hunter's Mark) 2d6 (Sneak Attack)
Assuming your character has a 20 in Dex (using Ability Score Increases), this would give you an average damage of 70 damage per turn on a single target, with most being made with advantage if you open with your 2x Flurry of Blows attacks and knock the target prone. Hunter's Mark and Sneak attack each trigger on any 1 of the 5 other attacks, so even if you miss with one or two attacks, you'll still deal those regardless. (And if your Dex is at 20, you will have +9 to all of these attacks). The only big variable is the Flurry of Blows attacks, because you get 5 Focus points, and can only regain 5 the second time you enter combat, giving you a maximum of 10 turns with all of this damage, after which your average damage per turn drops to 61. Spell casters might be able to do more than this, but many big spells are save-or-suck, or are limited behind higher-level spell slots, so they can't deal that level of damage forever. This makes the above build a solid contender for long-term campaigns and higher-level play.
Simple enough question for everyone; we've got a new player at our table, and she's looking to make a pure DPS character. In essence, she's looking for whatever class and race combination can allow her to have the highest amount of damage possible; didn't specify on the exact method of attack (melee, ranged, magic, etc.), and she openly admitted that she didn't entirely mind/care about having any other abilities, she just wanted pure damage, first and foremost.
What class and race combination do you guys recommend? I previously suggested she could try out Barbarian, though I've also seen a few posts stating that Champion Fighter is a better choice for raw melee DPS, and that doesn't even get into potential magic or ranged options, or even single-target vs. AOE options. And what race do you guys suggest; anything with specific bonuses, or what?
For ranged/AoE your pro ly best off with a sorceror- probably elven as your focus and get a few extra spells. For melee maybe a thre kreen ranger1/ champion x. Being able to add hunters mark damage is certainly going to help any dps. Going that route take ranger first then fighter to get the ranger skills and spells then go fighter all the way. With three krin you technically can have 2 weapons in hand, a shield and still have a free hand for casting.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
It depends heavily on what character level you're playing at. Among many other factors as well, of course.
Rouge 2 Druid 3 Monk 15(or less)
Now that great weapon fighting has been nerfed somewhat along with archery ( no -5/+10) a Dex based light weapon melee focus may be the overall best dps combatant.especially if they can add HM damage to most attacks. Taking TWF as a style lets you add stat bonus to the additional attacks and HM adds an additional d6 to each hit. The most consistent high damage weapon is the great sword (2d6) and with HM that gives you 2 such attacks in your attack action if you go shortsword/scimitar with the bonus action casting HM. In subsequent rounds it becomes 3 such equivalents, if you also have dual wielding, versus the single attack possible to the great sword. At every level you effectively get more such attacks with a light weapon focus than you do with a heavy or normal weapon focus. The Three-kreen benefits from being able to hold both weapons and a shield and still have a hand free for casting
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Treantmonk had Eldritch Knight with Shillelagh as a monster damage dealer at the highest level. He did a ton, might want to browse his older vids on YouTube.
A couple simple builds that can do some nice damage, each with a different feel:
For crazy AoE damage, a Divine Soul Sorcerer can do some serious damage to the whole battlefield by up-casting Spirit Guardians with Quickened Spell, running around to tag each enemy once with the spell, then using Ready to move their speed a second time on someone else's turn to tag the enemies with Spirit Guardians a second time per round. They can do this each round, even throwing in a Quickened Spell as a bonus action if they really want to blow up the world (Fireball and Lightning Bolt work well, depending on the placement of the enemies).
If they want to blend their enemies to death, a dual-wielding Elven Vengeance Paladin with Elven Accuracy is a lot of fun to play. Stay Dexterity based, wear medium armor, then use a Shortsword and a Scimitar with the Dual-Wielder feat. You get four attacks per turn, with crazy accuracy due to constant advantage from Vow of Emnity mixed with the super advantage from Elven Accuracy. After level 9 you can add 1d8 extra damage to each of those attacks using Spirit Shroud, and at level 11 you get the Radiant Strikes feature which adds another 1d8 onto each attack. To top it all off, you can still choose to Divine Smite in place of your bonus action attack whenever you get a critical hit during your Attack. All this and you still have the normal Paladin goodies like Lay on Hands and Aura of Protection.
If they want to play something with a little more finesse, there is the option to play a War Cleric/Assassin. Start Rogue, then take 3 levels of Cleric to get War Priest from your subclass, then go the rest of the way as an Assassin Rogue. Wear medium armor (I like a breastplate or Mithral Half-Plate for no stealth penalty), a shield, and carry a rapier. On your turn you can use War Priest to attack with your bonus action to get your Sneak Attack damage, then Ready your Attack action to use on someone else's turn, doubling up on the Sneak Attack damage. An AC of 18+ without magic items, good damage, great skills thanks to being a Rogue, plus the bonus of getting to roll fistfulls of dice when they hit (which is always fun).
Hu. I didn’t know you could ready a movement.
i’m even learning a few new combinations I never heard of before!
is this player new to DnD altogether or just new to your table? If new in general, you/we might want to be careful not to bombard her with too many different things in a class/multi-class. Going straight barbarian or Divine Soul Sorcerer around like the simplest options I’ve seen so far. Getting into multiclassing and multiple kinds of attacks per round would likely be confusing. …at least to me.
My first class was mostly divine soul sorcerer back in 2014 rules with a dip of 2 levels in Hexblade Warlock, and I ultimately switched to full warlock because metamagic was too difficult for me to wrap my head around. Now I’m doing a straight Barbarian You n w campaign and my “main” is a fighter 1 /Celestial Warlock just for the weapon proficiencies. My point is even as simple as possible can still be pretty overwhelming for new players, so be careful what you recommend to her. Try explaining them simply to her at first and if she is hesitant at all don’t do it. That’s what I would do.
Wish her luck for me!
Pure DPS from level 1: Champion Fighter or Beserker Barbarian using two-weapon fighting. If starting at level 5, then two-handed heavy weapons (i.e. greatsword / greataxe) is probably better since your more likely to get one magic weapon rather than two.
For species the 2024 Goliath has some bonus extra damage, and it is a classic combo for Fighter/Barb, if using 2014 rules the old Aasimar got a damage bonus, as does Half Orc.
Depending on what is allowed, the Squire of Solamia background / origin feat also adds more DPS, as does one of the options for Strike of the Giants. If using straight 2024 then Savage Attacker adds bonus damage, but Alert is probably better so this player gets to leap into action at the start of combat to go smash heads.
While spells can to huge damage as well, they are situational and require strategy to use, which it sounds like this player doesn't want, so I'd strongly recommend sticking with Champion Fighter or Beserker Barbarian.
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InsiderI second the comment that says this is highly level dependent, so I'll give a few options from the 2024 rules. All options use Dragonborn for AoE breath weapon, which provides the most damage potential from all 2024 species.
1st level Melee: Rogue. Rogues have access to the Nick weapon mastery, which means they get two attacks per turn, with one dealing Sneak Attack damage. At low levels, more hits are more valuable than big hits, because AC makes such a huge difference. Dragonborn get a powerful AoE to cover the times in which the rouge has to content with a bunch of things at once.
1st level Caster: Sorcerer for AoE with Acid Splash and single-target dps with True Strike to shoot with a bow and deal 1d6 extra damage. She can also take Mind Sliver which would giver her 1 cantrip which targets armor (True Strike) one that forces Dex saves (Acid Splash) and one that forces INT saves (Mind Sliver), so she can get around the defenses of enemies reliably. This is all made much punchier with Innate Sorcery.
5th level melee: Monk Way of the Open Hand. At 5th level, monks get extra attack, have access to Focus for Flurry of Blows, and get a feat. Simple Weapons deal 1d8 damage no matter what type, so take level 4 feat Weapon Mastery to get Nick (dagger) and dual-wield daggers to get an extra attack each turn (giving 3 attacks as part of your Attack action, plus 1-2 attacks with Bonus). With Way of the Open Hand, they can also force a target to go Prone, giving advantage on attacks until the creature stands up for all future attacks for both them and their party.
5th level Caster: Draconic Sorcerer. Superior AoE with Fireball, Cloud of Daggers, and Thunder Wave, which all give guaranteed damage against many foes at once. Combine this with the ability to cast Fly to stay out of melee combat even when using Dragon's Breath, Dragonborn Breath Weapon, and Thunderwave, and you have a massively explode-y caster who can empower their spells with metamagic and innate sorcery. Draconic Sorcery also gives bonuses to health and AC which keep them from dying, thus keeping them attacking.
At levels higher than 5, there are so many subclass features, feats, and spell options that it becomes more a matter of how you want to deal damage than how much damage you will deal. Just avoid Bard and Wizard, because most of their power comes from support instead of damage, no matter how you try to build them.
At level 11+ , if you want high damage and high number of attacks with 1 class, it's hard to beat Beast Master Ranger, since they get 2-3 attacks, their pet gets 2 attacks, and they both get to deal the Hunter's Mark damage. Since Rangers also have decent AOE spells and abilities, they have very few weaknesses in their DPS profile.
At level 11+ if you just want the most damage possible, multiclassing is going to be the best. 3 levels in Hunter Ranger to get increased single-target or an additional attack, +5 levels in Monk for Extra Attack and Flurry of Blows, +3 levels Rogue (any subclass) for Sneak Attack. This option, when used with Two-Weapon Fighting (fighting style) wielding a Dagger/Scimitar and (Dagger/Scimitar/Shortsword) (to get Monk damage scaling and Nick benefits) gives you your main attack, extra attack, light weapon attack, 2 attacks with flurry of blows, attack from Horde Breaker, Hunter's Mark (1d6), and Sneak Attack (2d6) giving you a total damage calculation of:
1d8+Dex (main)
1d8+Dex (extra)
1d8+Dex (nick)
1d8+Dex (Unarmed bonus attack)
1d8+Dex (flurry of blows)
1d8+Dex (Horde Breaker - or for Colossus, it's 1d8 extra damage)
1d6 (Hunter's Mark)
2d6 (Sneak Attack)
Assuming your character has a 20 in Dex (using Ability Score Increases), this would give you an average damage of 70 damage per turn on a single target, with most being made with advantage if you open with your 2x Flurry of Blows attacks and knock the target prone. Hunter's Mark and Sneak attack each trigger on any 1 of the 5 other attacks, so even if you miss with one or two attacks, you'll still deal those regardless. (And if your Dex is at 20, you will have +9 to all of these attacks). The only big variable is the Flurry of Blows attacks, because you get 5 Focus points, and can only regain 5 the second time you enter combat, giving you a maximum of 10 turns with all of this damage, after which your average damage per turn drops to 61.
Spell casters might be able to do more than this, but many big spells are save-or-suck, or are limited behind higher-level spell slots, so they can't deal that level of damage forever. This makes the above build a solid contender for long-term campaigns and higher-level play.
"Stories never end. They merely mark the beginning of the next chapter." -Rory Bristol
"Failure means you've tried." -RB