What is a "Typical" 20th Level damage output?

[Tscroggs]

I find myself in the need of a little advice.

I have a friend, who sincerely believes the 3.5 weapon system is incomplete. And while I don't necessarily disagree with him, I think his attempted system (Which takes several formula to get a weapon's damage by calculating the base damage times a material modifier divided by a number) quite works right.

The problem is that I have very little experience with really high-level 3.5, and what little experience I do have has all been with role-play built spell casters.

This gets to the heart of the questions. Please stick to basic book stuff, I don't need to complicate things by adding the Book of Nine Swords or things like that.

Q1. What can a level 20 spell caster (who is not twinked or gimped) expect to do in damage per-round, and how long will they be able to do it?
Q2. What could a melee-wielding character do instead?
Q3. And what about a ranged-weapon character?
Q4. What kind of weapon would a level 20 weapon wielder expect to wield?

I know most of these questions are really general and can be asked in many ways, but I want sort of general answers so I can tell him "this is what a DnD character can do."

In addition, I am kind of new to this board, does anyone know of any good 1-20 character progressions I could show him, to show how a character grows?

[Piggy Knowles]

I'm on my smartphone and can't really do a detailed response, but...

At high levels, the actual stats of the weapon you wield are more or less irrelevant. If you're dealing level appropriate damage, the average 2.5 extra points of damage you get from a greatsword over a longsword are just a tiny fraction of your damage output. Instead, damage bonuses (Power Attack in particular) will be doing most of the heavy lifting.

As a general rule of thumb, if my goal is to deal damage, I think I should be able to take out a level appropriate foe in at most two rounds. That means that by level 20, I should be putting out at least ~225 points of damage per round. If all I do is deal damage, then I double that figure.

If you google "Optimization by the Numbers," you can see what average AC/saves/HP totals for most enemies are, organized by CR, which can give you a good idea of where you ought to be.

[Big Fau]

Q1. What can a level 20 spell caster (who is not twinked or gimped) expect to do in damage per-round, and how long will they be able to do it?

Spellcasters aren't necessarily supposed to do damage, despite what WotC wrote into the books. They have far better tools at their disposal than Fireball and the like.

It is possible, but it takes such an investment as to not be worth it. However, a 20th level spellcaster with the right build can exceed 400-600 damage per spell, and can do so at nearly every encounter they face.


Q2. What could a melee-wielding character do instead?

Average? If the character isn't hitting 200+/round, the character isn't built to do damage and may not be qualified for 20th level encounters.

This game is designed with enemies that are capable of one-rounding a 20th level Barbarian, damage reduction be damned, and as such the noncasters are required to either reply in kind or find a way to get a free True Resurrection every time they drop.


Q3. And what about a ranged-weapon character?

Same thing.


Q4. What kind of weapon would a level 20 weapon wielder expect to wield?

A +1 weapon with +9 in special abilities, preferably a two-handed one for Power Attack boosting, and with a daily casting of Greater Magic Weapon from the party's resident buffer.

[Karnith]

It would help if you could be a bit more specific when it comes to what you mean by "not twinked or gimped," as what I (or other members of the Playground) think is a high level of optimization may differ substantially from what you think. It would also help to know what you mean by "basic book stuff," because certain archetypes (particularly noncasting melee and ranged types) are pretty gimped when limited to, say, the Core rulebooks. The amount of damage you'd expect from a Core-only martial character can differ substantially from what to expect when you expand sources even a little (say, by including the Complete books).

As an example, it take three feats used exactly as intended (Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, and Shock Trooper) and access to Pounce to be able to deal hundreds of damage per round at 20th level as a melee-type. Some people consider that kind of performance a baseline for melee competence, while others consider that to be overpowered.

It's also going to be hard to measure what a 20th-level caster is going to be able to expect to do, damage-wise, in a round. Firstly because casters are fairly diverse in their abilities, and additionally because direct damage is not necessarily a focus for caster-types. A buffed-to-high-heaven Cleric or a blaster Sorcerer (even one not going for Mailman-style shenanigans (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1765181)) are probably going to have very high damage outputs, whereas battlefield control or buff-focused casters aren't going to be doing much damage on their own, even if they are critical to the fight.

[Ansem]

From some groups I play with its an unspoken rule that by lvl 20 you do atleast 100 damage a round and 200 damage average preferred if dealing damage. No matter what class.
Either that or you spend your turn on something else like a debuff or boosting your allies.

[MrNobody]

Q1. What can a level 20 spell caster (who is not twinked or gimped) expect to do in damage per-round, and how long will they be able to do it?
Q2. What could a melee-wielding character do instead?
Q3. And what about a ranged-weapon character?
Q4. What kind of weapon would a level 20 weapon wielder expect to wield?


A1. For a non-minmaxed, non-powerbuilded core only caster, Dungeon master's guide amd Player Handbook give the solution.
DMG sets the cap damage for spells, PH gives us how may spells casters have.
Taking fore example target spells, an arcane 9th level spell has a cap of 25 dices. It's the same for 8th level spells. 7th and 6th spells have a 20 dices cap and so on.
Most spells, though, have a dice=level progression. So, a 20th level caster would deal 20 dices of damage even with 9th level spells.
That said, an arcane caster focused on damage spell (without taking in account Prestige classes, feats and other components) would have a damage output of 20 dices/round. That output would last for a number of round equal to the sum of 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th spell avaible to the class at 20th level.
So a 20th level wizard would have a 20 dices damage output for 16 rounds, that becomes 24 for a sorcerer.
The count his lowered for divine casters (that has a lower damage cap).

A.2 & 3: this really depends on the build, on the weapon used, on class special abilities (rage, sneak attack, favored enemy and so on)

A.4: Dungeon master guide sets the wealth of a 20th level character to 760.000 gp. Assuming that a Pc that relies on his weapon would probably spend minimun one half of his wealth for a proper weapon, we can say he would wield a weapon worth at least 380.000 gp.
A +10 level weapon (the max at non epic levels) it's worth 200.000 gp. So a Pc of that level would definitely wield a +10 weapon, and probabily have a second one of a lesser enhancement level.

[Eldariel]

A1. For a non-minmaxed, non-powerbuilded core only caster, Dungeon master's guide amd Player Handbook give the solution.
DMG sets the cap damage for spells, PH gives us how may spells casters have.
Taking fore example target spells, an arcane 9th level spell has a cap of 25 dices. It's the same for 8th level spells. 7th and 6th spells have a 20 dices cap and so on.
Most spells, though, have a dice=level progression. So, a 20th level caster would deal 20 dices of damage even with 9th level spells.
That said, an arcane caster focused on damage spell (without taking in account Prestige classes, feats and other components) would have a damage output of 20 dices/round. That output would last for a number of round equal to the sum of 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th spell avaible to the class at 20th level.
So a 20th level wizard would have a 20 dices damage output for 16 rounds, that becomes 24 for a sorcerer.
The count his lowered for divine casters (that has a lower damage cap).

If we want to account for what actually stands in Core, and we want to deal damage with a damage spell, and we specifically use a slot for this: I'd say at the minimum purely Core-only with WBL we can assume Rod of Maximize, Orange Prism Ioun Stone (+1 CL) & Archmage for a Wizard/Sorcerer, giving us Caster Level 22 Maximized Level 9 spell.

Since Meteor Swarm is completely decimated by any amount of Fire Resistance, I reckon we can instead use a level 8 spell, Polar Ray. Or better yet, Empowered level 7 Delayed Blast Fireball, which makes our Caster Level irrelevant. It does 120 + 10d6 = average 155 damage.


Of course, level 20 "nova" (where you burn all your resources in a single encounter) D&D el classico (from older editions) is Time Stop + as many Delayed Blast Fireballs as you can cast. This would mean that with our previous setup, we can do as much as Maximized Time Stop (5 rounds) into 2 Maximized Empowered and 3 Empowered Delayed Blast Fireballs (assuming sufficient casting stat to have 6 9th level slots; though if we assume Archmagus levels, we can probably assume Spell-Like Ability Empowered Delayed Blast Fireball, which means we merely need 28 casting stat; eminently doable for a Human with 15 stat on char creation, or a specialist Evoker/Transmuter or a Sorcerer). Since we have Archmage we can also have Mastery of Elements to hit any energy type we want (Sonicballs yay).

This would mean 240+20d6 + 90d6 = 625 average total damage. Note, we could add Greater Rod of Quicken spell to vastly increase this number. This is, of course, such an inefficient use of resources that it hurts me in the inside to even mention it.


It goes without saying that this number is far lower for Core divine casters, even if you domain access to Time Stop (Trickery Domain grants it off the top of my head), since you lack the "efficient" damage spells (there's nothing efficient about them!).

[Tim Proctor]

In an unoptimized standard way just core.

Sor/Wizard, assume a empowered maximized fireball, 15x6 = 90 in an AoE.

Fighter, assuming some power attacking sword and board, 1d8+20 =24.5 with 4 attacks, 98 average.

Rogue, assuming sneak attack, 1d6+10d6 = 38.5 with 3 attacks, 115.5 average.

Ranger, assuming ranged combat, 1d8 x (4 arrows each) x 5 attacks = 20d8. 90 average.

Now there are a lot of ways to increase that and get into the 300s without any cheese (having magical items). However, if dealing with a non-optimized situation 100 seems to be a decent number. So I would say none/low op = 100, med op = 300, and high =500, and cheese 1,500+.

[Eldariel]

Sor/Wizard, assume a empowered maximized fireball, 15x6 = 90 in an AoE.

Empower and Maximize don't stack that way. You Maximize first, then Empower. Spelled out in the feats. So 10*6 + 10d6 = 77.5 I'm not sure how sensible that is given a level 7 spell (Delayed Blast Fireball) with no metamagic averages 70 damage. Level 9 spell Empowered Delayed Blast Fireball is already 125. Note save DCs too. I don't think anyone is intentionally gonna use higher level slots to decrease their damage output, no matter how unoptimized.


Fighter, assuming some power attacking sword and board, 1d8+20 =24.5 with 4 attacks, 98 average.

Why would someone Power Attack with Sword & Board? Leave that out, get the enchanted weapon. 5d6+5 more per attack.


Rogue, assuming sneak attack, 1d6+10d6 = 38.5 with 3 attacks, 115.5 average.

TWF + Weapon Enhancements.


Ranger, assuming ranged combat, 1d8 x (4 arrows each) x 5 attacks = 20d8. 90 average.

Weapon Enhancements + possible Arrow Enhancements. Should also account for the possibility of Favored Enemy.


Really, magic weapons are going to be there even if you don't account for any other magic items. Even just a +5 weapon needs to be accounted for. They're assumed as part of basically every adventure path ever and every PC, including WotC estimations on character level 20 capabilities.

This is also simplistic since crit chance, to hit, save probability and AC need to be accounted for in these calculations.

[Piggy Knowles]

So, just for fun, I pulled out my monster manual and rolled for three random CR 20 monsters. Sometimes I find it helps to look at actual enemies, rather than arbitrary figures.

I got...


wyrm black dragon (459 HP, AC 39 before spells/items, DR 20/magic, SR 26, a lot of powerful offensive abilities)
pit fiend (225 HP, AC 40 before Unholy Aura, DR 15/good and silver, SR 32, a lot of powerful offensive abilities)
tarrasque (858 HP, AC 35, DR 15/epic, SR 32, bitey but underwhelming)


These are the kinds of enemies you can expect to face every single day, often multiple times a day, as a level 20 character. If you can't meaningfully damage or disable them, or assist your allies in doing so, then at best you're a speed bump in the way of the rest of your party.

[Tim Proctor]

Yeah, my bad on the empower/maximize thing.

I am under the understanding the purpose of the exercise was to get a baseline for what a 20th level character would do with the 3.5 weapon system, so that it could be compared to an alternative. The variable information is more important than magical annotations. The point was to put the information into a formula that can be easily compared to the homebrew system.

[Emperor Tippy]

Generally you want an attack routine worth about 150 damage. This is either as one major standard action attack or as a full attack.

If you are the parties primary damage dealer then you want that number tripled.

My rule of thumb is AC equal to 2.5*CR, AB equal to 2*CR, Saves equal to CR, damage equal to 10*CR if you are going for a primary combatant.

[D-naras]

22 caster lvl(using the tricks mentioned before) maximized Disintegrate = 264 damage, assuming no save or miss.

20 lvl raging human Barbarian with 15 starting Strength raised to 20 by level ups and a +6 item using maximum power attack with a regular greatsword = 2d6+56, average of 73 per hit.

20 lvl human Fighter with same stats as the barbarian, with full weapon focus tree on greatsword, using maximum power attack = 2d6+56, average of 73 per hit.

19 lvl/1 lvl expert(because seriously, 20th level rogue?:smallyuk:) rogue with +3 Str bonus using a normal shortsword while getting sneak attack= 11d6+3, average 41.5.

That's the simplest way to get max damage using only 1 standard action in core, assuming no optimization.

If the mundanes use magic weapons things look like this:
Simple +5 flaming, frost, shock, vicious, anotherdsixious weapon
increase average damage by 6d6+5=26 per hit.
Obviously this weapon is horrible, since most of the damage is resistable, and straight pluses are a waste.

A more realistic core only weapon:
+1 vicious, speed, holy, wounding, ghost touch weapon with caster level 20 greater magic weapon cast on it
increase average damage by +2d6+1+2d6+2 if opponent is evil(80% of the time in the typical campaign)+1 Con damage+5=4d6+8+1/2 opponent's hit dice in the best case scenario for an average 22+1/2 opponent's hit dice in damage or 2d6+6 averaging 13 in the worst case.

[Karnith]

22 caster lvl(using the tricks mentioned before) maximized Disintegrate = 264 damage, assuming no save or miss.
Small note: Disintegrate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/disintegrate.htm) caps at 40d6 damage, so it'd actually be 240 damage.

[D-naras]

Even better, because then we don't need tricks for mages. We can add metamagic rods to empower it too, so maximum average damage of a maximized, empowered Disintegrate is 240+70=310.

[Eldariel]

Okay, the examples pulled out by Piggy seem usable. Let's have a level 20 Fighter (S&B & Archer), Barbarian (Two-Hander), Rogue (Two-Weapon Fight) & Sorcerer at Elite Array Human 20. I won't consider any buff spells (since we want individual character performance; Greater Magic Weapon would vastly improve the physicals but so would Haste which they can easily get as items and I'm not considering that either), and I assume all possible applicable offensive feats in Core taken by each character (Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration, Spell Focus: Evocation, Greater Spell Focus: Evocation and Empower Spell + Maximize Spell for Sorcerer).

Note that Manyshot only works as a Standard Action, not as a full attack action so that'll hurt the Archer's output significantly.


Our average primary offensive stat will be 15 + 5 levels + 4 inherent + 6 enhancement = 30. This gives us +10 bonus to all stat-related factors. Secondary offense stat in the case of Archer & Rogue (Rogue will Weapon Finesse due to class-related considerations) will be 14 + 6 enhancement + 2 inherent = 22.

All characters will use the same weapon enhancements: +5 Flaming Frost Shock Holy Whatever. TWF will leave out Flaming, Frost and Shock since two +10 weapons is a tad too expensive even for level 20 characters; two +7 weapons is about even.

Power attack will be taken on S&B Fighter (since why not) but it will only be used where efficient mathematically.


Two-Hander Barbarian (offensive physical):
Armed with Falchion. Relevant feats: Power Attack, Improved Critical & Weapon Focus. Has 6 daily uses of Rage.

20 BAB, +10 Strength (+14 Strength with Rage), +5 weapon, +5d6 weapon abilities, +1 Weapon Focus:
No Rage/Rage - +36/+40 To Hit for 2d4+15/21+5+5d6 damage. 15-20/x2

{table=head]Enemy|Single Attack w/ Rage|Full Attack w/ Rage|Single Attack w/o Rage|Full Attack w/o Rage
Black Wyrm (AC 39)|PA -3: 62.32|PA -0: 158.95|PA -0: 45.00|PA -0: 104.43
Pit Fiend (AC 40, no Frost/Fire, DR 15)|PA -4: 35.44|PA -2: 83.55|PA -4: 22.03|PA -0: 44.45
Pit Fiend (Silver Weapon)|PA -2: 53.20|PA -0: 132.08|PA -0: 36.54|PA -0: 81.19
Tarrasque (AC 35, no Fire/Holy, DR 15)|PA -8: 43.73|PA -5: 106.08|PA -7: 28.65|PA -3: 63.61[/table]

And before the inevitable "Power Attack doesn't look useful", that's mostly a factor of wasting so much on weapon special abilities and lacking Haste + various to hit boosters (Haste, Pale Green Ioun Stone, Morale bonuses, etc.). The extra full BAB attack in particular enhances Power Attack a lot.


Sword & Board Fighter (defensive physical):
Armed with Scimitar & Heavy/Tower Shield. Relevant feats: Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specialization, Improved Critical, Power Attack.

20 BAB, +10 Strength, +5 weapon, +5d6 weapon abilities, +2 Greater Weapon Focus, +4 Greater Weapon Specialization, -2 Tower Shield:
Tower Shield/Heavy Shield - +35/+37 To Hit for 1d6+19+5d6. 15-20/x2

{table=head]Enemy|Single Attack w/ Tower|Full Attack w/ Tower|Single Attack w/ Heavy|Full Attack w/ Heavy
Black Wyrm (AC 39)|PA -0: 39.73|PA -0: 88.37|PA -0: 44.41|PA -0: 107.07
Pit Fiend (AC 40, no Frost/Fire, DR 15)|PA -0: 16.20|PA -0: 34.33|PA -1: 18.31|PA -0: 42.35
Pit Fiend (Silver Weapon)|PA -0: 31.80|PA -0: 67.29|PA -0: 35.77|PA -0: 82.96
Tarrasque (AC 35, no Fire/Holy, DR 15)|PA -4: 18.65|PA -2: 44.31|PA -5: 20.92|PA -3: 50.46[/table]


Archer Fighter (ranged):
Armed with Composite Longbow (+6 Str). Relevant feats: Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specialization, Improved Critical, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Manyshot, Improved Precise Shot, Precise Shot.

20 BAB, +10 Dexterity, +6 Strength, +5 weapon, +5d6 weapon abilities, +2 Greater Weapon Focus, +4 Greater Weapon Specialization, -2 Rapid Shot:
+37/+35 To Hit for 1d8+15+5d6. 19-20/x3

Note that Manyshot always has PBS affecting it since it's also restricted to 30'. Also, only the first arrow can crit which affects the calculations. Also note, Silver Arrows are much cheaper to keep in store than normal Silver Weapons so it's almost a guarantee an Archer can penetrate a Pit Fiend's DR. Even Tarrasque's DR is likely penetrable with Magical Beast Bane Arrows but I won't account for that here. Also note, there's very rarely need for single attack as an archer.
{table=head]Enemy|Single Attack/PBS|Manyshot 2/3/4|Full Attack/PBS|Rapid Shot/PBS
Black Wyrm (AC 39)|38.85/39.99|64.07/82.67/93.66|94.07/103.14|112.47/126.30
Pit Fiend (AC 40, no Frost/Fire, DR 15)|14.31/16.24|24.82/31.91/35.80|33.39/39.33|39.72/47.02
Pit Fiend (Silver Arrows)|30.51/33.34|49.57/63.09/70.45|71.19/80.73|84.65/96.52
Tarrasque (AC 35, no Fire/Holy, DR 15)|11.78/12.91|24.78/34.74/40.88|35.96/41.48|44.02/50.31[/table]


Two-Weapon Rogue
Armed with 2 Short Swords (more feat efficient). Critical chance is ironically at its worst on a Rogue due to Sneak Attack not multiplying so using highest base damage light weapons instead. Relevant Feats: Weapon Focus, Improved Critical, Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting.

15 BAB, +10 Dexterity, +6 Strength, +5 weapons, +2d6 Weapon Enhancements, +1 Weapon Focus, -2 Two-Weapon Fighting, +10d6 Sneak Attack (qualification assumed though the means not accounted for; usually flanking, blinking, invisibility or some such which would improve To Hit but outside the scope of this exercise - useless to calculate non-sneak attack damage since it approaches 0)
+29/+31 for 1d6+11+12d6/1d6+8+12d6 (.5 strength in the off-hand). 17-20/x2
{table=head]Enemy|Single Attack|Full Attack
Black Wyrm (AC 39)|38.60|103.48
Pit Fiend (AC 40, DR 15)|24.83|63.38
Pit Fiend (Silver Weapons)|35.64|91.96
Tarrasque (AC 35, no Holy, DR 15)|44.54|151.79[/table]

[ericgrau]

Depends on the level of optimization. It can get into the several hundreds or thousands even without going semi-infinite nor stacking 30 tricks. But even in core it's around 250 damage per round IIRC. You can actually have a trick free warrior with nothing but stats and a nice sword pummel the tarrasque into unconsciousness.

IIRC spells hit about 100-150 damage but can hit multiple targets. Technically you can get around 200 or so, but just as weapons have to deal with AC, there are saves, SR and resistances.

[Chronos]

Important caveat: If your damage is based on making full attacks, then you also need some means of consistently getting access to full attacks, such as swift-action movement, pounce, or insanely long reach.

[Captnq]

A sword and board fighter should do about 7.5 level drain a round. (Seriously, it's only a +2 ASA. Every sword and board should have it by level 20)

A wizard should be able to drop about 10 people dead/incap/helpless a round.

[Phelix-Mu]

Low-level functionality of an alternate weapon damage system is the most important. Unless the system somehow incorporates the character's level into the raw weapon damage, most damage at high levels of martial characters will come from damage added by Power Attack, Leap Attack, Rage, bonuses from magic and buffs, and other optimization. Because 20th level is the highest power level assumed in Core, optimization in non-weapon damage areas is the biggest there.

I'd argue that it's only at lower levels that one can meaningfully measure the efficacy of an alternate system of weapon damage, since baseline optimization will vary dramatically player to player, character to character, and campaign to campaign. The variables at 20th level are seriously huge, and from table to table, one set of variables will likely not map to another set (as many tables never see the kind of optimization that is a matter of course on internet forums).

I'd be interested to see the formula that the OP's friend is working on, assuming the friend is willing to share it on the internet, of course. Base weapon damage is not even close to the top of the list of things I'd fix if I were going to do major surgery on 3.5, but the reliance on PA and Shocktrooper/Dungeoncrasher/Pouncing is an irritating quirk of the game's take on melee combat. And let's not get into the huge mess of why drilling an arrow through someone's skull does almost no damage in the big scope of things (you have to go with the pincushion method to even begin to measure up to other damage-dealing strategies).

[Kioras]

A simple level 20 arcane caster, who unloads with touch attacks with metoer swarm does 32d6 damage to the target, if they can get past the spell resistance. A direct hit means no save vs the damage.

To always get past the spell resistance they would need spell penetration, greater spell penetration and arcane mastery from complete arcane, allowing them to take a 10 and get past spell resistance of 34,otherwise they are running the risk with having the spells just fail outright.

Which in the end gives them a total of an amazing average of 112 damage. A sorcerer could do this 7 times, assuming a modified charisma ability score of 28-35. A wizard would be able to do this 5 times, with the same ability score.

Of course this is a complete waste of the spell slots and actions of the casters involved, who would be better off using save or suck abilities, gating in 20hd outsiders of your own.

[Vanitas]

Spellcasters aren't necessarily supposed to do damage, despite what WotC wrote into the books.

Uh. I think you meant "spellcasters don't necessarily deal damage", but what they are supposed to do is designer intent so WotC can't possibly get it wrong.

[Starmage21]

Warblade has a maneuver that is +100 damage for the single hit in iron heart. So normal weapon damage + whatever relevant feats for a single attack + 100 = pwn.

[Vanitas]

Warblade has a maneuver that is +100 damage for the single hit in iron heart. So normal weapon damage + whatever relevant feats for a single attack + 100 = pwn.

That maneuver is usually considered quite bad. :smallwink:

[Kioras]

Warblade has a maneuver that is +100 damage for the single hit in iron heart. So normal weapon damage + whatever relevant feats for a single attack + 100 = pwn.

Each of the tome of battle classes has a top tier pwn ability. War masters charge, strike of perfect clarity, time stands still.

Each one of those you can easily do 100+ damage on a hit, and quite possibly more, much more.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Each of the tome of battle classes has a top tier pwn ability. War masters charge, strike of perfect clarity, time stands still.

Each one of those you can easily do 100+ damage on a hit, and quite possibly more, much more.

That's not strictly true.

Desert Wind's Inferno Blast does exactly 100, no more; no less, unless the target has fire resistance or makes his save.

Devoted Spirit's Strike of Righteous Vitality gets no bonus damage at all.

Diamond Mind's Time Stands Still doesn't get any bonus damage but the extra attacks might add up to more than 100, depending on the character using it.

Iron Heart's Strike of Perfect Clarity is guaranteed to do more than 100 damage, period.

Setting Sun's Tornado Throw is unlikely to exceed 100 damage, but a swordsage of unusually high speed might make it on an ambush.

Shadow Hand's Five Shadow Creeping Ice Enervation Strike has a 30% chance of doing con damage which will usually be enough to push its total damage past 100.

Stone Dragon's Mountain Tombstone Strike only adds con damage which may or may not be enough to hit 100 damage.

Tiger Claw's Feral Death Blow won't usually make it.

White Raven's War Master's Charge will typically exceed 100 as long if there's at least one ally willing and able to join the initiator in charging the target.

Edit: damn auto-correct.

[Deophaun]

That maneuver is usually considered quite bad. :smallwink:
It's +100 damage as a standard action, so it definitely has its uses no matter how insane your full attack routine is.

[Ifni]

Some other notes:

-Empowered Fire Seeds (holly berry bombs version) is a solid divine damage-dealer in Core for druids and Fire/Sun domain clerics, IF you do not have to deal with fire resistance (big if). Bead of Karma + Orange Ioun Stone gets your CL to 25. Damage is 25+1d8 per berry, so average 44 empowered, save for half (but no SR), times eight. Fire Resistance is a good defense against this, but in its absence, you're looking at 350+ average damage if all saves are failed, 180ish if they're all passed. (It also fits into a normal Empower rod rather than a greater one - you could stack Maximize on it but there's really not much point.) Even just ordinary Holly Berry Bombs (L6 spell) at CL20 is roughly 200 damage if all saves are failed, half that if all saves are passed.

-Telekinetically throwing oversized weapons is another decent Core arcane damage-dealer, although it's better at L15 than L20. Large greatswords are 16 pounds each, well within the weight limit of Telekinesis, and do 3d6 damage each, so that's 45d6 no-save damage (which ignores SR and energy resistance, but not DR) if you can hit on all the attacks. This does require some advance setup though, to figure out how to lug around 15 Large greatswords :smallwink: An easier way may be to use a quiver of Large bolts enchanted with Greater Magic Weapon, if your GM rules the damage bonus from GMW applies.

-I've played in mostly-core games (albeit at levels much below L20) in which one caster pretty much just dedicated themselves to d-dooring the meleers into full-attack-flanking positions. It was very efficient in terms of spell slots - dropping 500+ points of full-attack stabbing on the hapless target was considerably more than their other L4 spells would do. (Generally another caster was handling battlefield control; there comes a point when there are diminishing returns.) If your group cooperates, you do want to look at full-attack damage, not just single-attack damage - there's a very meaningful difference between someone whose max damage in any circumstances is 70/round and someone whose single-attack damage is 70 and full-attack damage is 300. Likewise, ignoring the existence of buffs cast by others does a disservice to melee characters; there's a big difference between a character who does 70 damage unbuffed and 80 damage buffed vs one who does 70 damage unbuffed and 200 damage buffed. The latter is a much better force multiplier.

But yeah, the numbers above seem right-ish for melee. I played a lot with a L15ish rogue-type and a L15ish fighter/barbarian, several years back - they were mostly Core, and their non-Core abilities were mostly boosting their defenses rather than their attack routines. From memory, they were dishing out roughly 300 damage each per round, on their hasted-via-spell-or-Boots-of-Speed flanking full attacks. (The spellcasters were also mostly core with a little non-core material, but said non-core material included some nice ways to shuffle people into place for full attacks with a swift action.)

[Firechanter]

Let's see: lvl 20 Warblade, hasted, raging mongoose, shock trooper, leap Attack, pouncing charge, thf, valorous weapon.
That's 4 attacks at max bab and 3 iteratives, no penalties.
dmg [d] + 15 (str) + 5 (gmw) + 80 (leap pa), x2 (valorous) = 200 per hit, so expect easily 1000dmg total, without even considering bard song, other weapon properties or other buffs etc.
Ofc only on a Charge, but if you can pull one off, you can oneshot anything.