Best DPR character!

[ImSAMazing]

Allrighy giys, I am gping to play in an Out of the Abyss campaign? And our party lacks damage. That is the reason why I want to play a character with the highest DPR starting from lvl 1 to lvl 15 (thats were Out of the Abyss ends).
Can you guys please h3lp me?

Starting scores (every phb race + classes allowed + dmg stuff + EE not aarakockra ): 8,16,12,12,17,13(rolled high)

[Kryx]

Go Strength and pick Greatsword + GWM or Polearm + Polearm Master. Both do plenty of damage. There is no reason to hyper optimize after that.
Any melee class chasis will work - Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, even Bladelock (peaks a bit later and should MC for heavier armor).

Or instead go for reliable ranged damage and use a heavy crossbow or hand crossbow.
Fighter > Ranger for damage.

[djreynolds]

If you have a tank, I say a plain old paladin set on destruction with GWS and GWM. If you have no tank, wolf barbarian can last long enough with rage as well and you'll be surprised how much damage your party will deliver with advantage.

But don't forget the fighter/rogue strength build with shield master and sentinel in full plate, that's my pick.

[Doof]

8,16,12,12,17,13

Variant Human Barbarian (stats in Str, Con)

17/13/16/8/12/12

Start with the Polearm Master feat and a halberd/glaive, at level 3 choose Totem Barbarian since you already get your bonuns action's worth of attack from Polearm Master (full Str mod on damage too).

Kill all the things!

[Mr.Moron]

Go paladin. Since it says you must spend a paladin spell slot, but doesn't stipulate you must spend one your spell slots and there is no general rule on resource spending coming from your character we can take the langauge at face value, you spend a paladin spell slot any paladin spell slot in existence.

Since the multiverse is infinite and your existence shows that the number of paladins per any unit of volume in the multiverse is non-zero, we can multiply per unit volume paladin rate across an infinite space to plainly show there are infinite paladins and therefore infinite paladin spell slots for you to spend.

This means you can get the full +5d8 spell slot smite bonus on every attack, every time. Particularly at low levels this is unbeatable.

[Tarvil]

If you want frontliner with huge, continuous damage, your best bet will be Fighter or Barbarian with Polearm Master + Great Weapon Master feats. You can consider Paladin or Bladelock (take 1 fighter lvl at the start) for better utility and a bit worse damage. Paladin have also crazy nova damage, especially vs Fiends and Undead.

Oh yeah, I almost forget, Oath of Devotion Paladin get amazing buff at lvl 15, if you'll fight fiends.


For Ranged DPR, I'd go Battlemaster with longbow. With Hex (from magic initiate) and Sharpshooter feat you'll make things dead in no time. For better nova, you can multiclass into Rogue after lvl 5, or just take Rogue with hand crossbow and Crossbow Expert feat for additional attack. If you prefer magic to bring long ranged death, take Warlock and kill things with Hex+Eldrith Blast combo

EDIT: @Mr.Moron you've made my day :D

[Malifice]

Melee Str based Vengance Paladin. Go Half orc [the darkvision is nice + Brutal Crit].

Str 17 (19)
Dex 12
Con 13 (14)
Int 8
Wis 12
Cha 16

At 4th take polearm master. Head directly to 6th level. Dip Fighter [BM] for 3 levels for action surge, and sup dice. Head back to Paladin for 6 more levels

Smash face.

[ImSAMazing]

Allright. I shall go with a Vuman Barbarian, but I got 3 questions:

Should I start with Polearm Master or Great Weapon Master?
18 Str and 16 con or 18 Con and 16 str?
should I, at some point, MC to Fighter(Out of the Abyss ends at lvl 15 so wont reach the Barbarian Capstone anyway)

[Kryx]

Polearm is better, GWM is mainly for -5/+10.
18 str, 16 con
Fighter MC would offer you heavy armor, action surge, and either maneuvers or spells (don't do champion).
Take at least 5 barb and then you can MC if you want.

Or try to talk your DM into allowing Barbarian to have some kind of caster Archetype like Bloodrager from PF.

[ImSAMazing]

Polearm is better, GWM is mainly for -5/+10.
18 str, 16 con
Fighter MC would offer you heavy armor, action surge, and either maneuvers or spells (don't do champion).
Take at least 5 barb and then you can MC if you want.

Or try to talk your DM into allowing Barbarian to have some kind of caster Archetype like Bloodrager from PF.

Thnx Kryx! Hmm, I'll see if my DM allows such an archetype. Lets get the brewery kit ;)
Why shouldn't I do champion? A higher crit chance synergizes with my Brutal Critical from Barbarian right?

[Kryx]

Why shouldn't I do champion? A higher crit chance synergizes with my Brutal Critical from Barbarian right?
Mechanically a BM or EK have better resources. Champion can do ok, but I would find it waaaay too boring. I'd rather have a few maneuvers or spells.

[ImSAMazing]

Mechanically a BM or EK have better resources. Champion can do ok, but I would find it waaaay too boring. I'd rather have a few maneuvers or spells.
That's true. I think I will go 6 Barbarian, 4 Fighter, 5 Barbarian. At lvl 4 Great Weapon Master(I think, or should I raise my con?), at level 10 Raise my Str, at lvl 12 raise my Con.

[Gwendol]

Champion Fighter for high, consistent, DPR. The fighter rogue combo is already mentioned, but also consider Battlemaster for more options in a fight.

Hunter ranger, using a longbow, will also do (at range, which has both advantages and drawbacks in the Underdark setting). It has among the highest, most consistent DPR's in the game up until level 10 or so, when other classes catch up.

[Kryx]

Champion Fighter for high, consistent, DPR.
Both BM and EK do more damage. The only time a champion's crit range would matter is if you played way outside the recommended encounter setups.

[ImSAMazing]

Champions ARE kinda boring, and I want to have some fun ;)

DO I need to take certain Skill proficiencies or other things like Languages in Out of the Abyss?

[SharkForce]

Both BM and EK do more damage. The only time a champion's crit range would matter is if you played way outside the recommended encounter setups.

actually, i wouldn't be surprised if the barbarian's better crits push the champion into being higher damage. as i recall, it was fairly close between battlemaster and champion expected DPR over a "standard" day, but the barbarian's always-on advantage and bonus crit damage dice may very well push the champion dip over the top.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

actually, i wouldn't be surprised if the barbarian's better crits push the champion into being higher damage. as i recall, it was fairly close between battlemaster and champion expected DPR over a "standard" day, but the barbarian's always-on advantage and bonus crit damage dice may very well push the champion dip over the top.BMs have more than a small damage advantage for reasonable adventuring days and short rest schedules, and they get to multiply superiority dice on crits if they'd like.

Champion requires particular crit-fishery to compete (half orc, gwm, etc), as crits don't normally account for much of your damage. And even then it's especially swingy and unpredictable, as opposed to a Polearm Master BM who can pick his spots.

[Kryx]

actually, i wouldn't be surprised if the barbarian's better crits push the champion into being higher damage. as i recall, it was fairly close between battlemaster and champion expected DPR over a "standard" day, but the barbarian's always-on advantage and bonus crit damage dice may very well push the champion dip over the top.
It wouldn't be close at all. I'm too lazy to calculate the true numbers, but I'll give an idea:

At 20 The base DPR of a GWM fighter is 43. Trip is 53. No action surge on those. Action surge would then be far more valuable for Trip as it has advantage.

Adding Crit is <1 DPR for standard fighter. For Barbarian it'd be more, but no where near enough.

[Person_Man]

The obvious options have already been mentioned, and of the above I personally prefer Assassin Rogue/Battlemaster Fighter.

But I'm going to go out of the box and say that, if your DM has not read the most recent Errata (or selectively ignores it, as I do), and if your DM is reasonable about allowing your Companion to use its Reaction, act when you're not capable of ordering it, and wear barding with Proficiency, then you might want to consider Beastmaster Ranger with a Giant Badger companion.

If your DM allows your Giant Badger to use its Multiattack once at 3rd level and twice at 11th level, then you get very consistent and relatively high damage. The Giant Badger is also big enough to be a mount for a Small race, it's another meat bag of hit points to absorb damage from your enemies, and has Burrow, Darkvision, Keen Smell, and Perception.

I'm away from books at the moment so I can't calculate the precise amount, but just remember that your Companion adds your Proficiency bonus to-hit and damage. And then starting at 5th level you add one of your attack and you get to use whatever weapon/Feats/spells you want on top of that (and Ranger actually has some fairly decent spell buffs it can use relatively often). And it can give up one of its many attacks to Help you and grant you Advantage on your next attack when you absolutely need to hit.

Even if the burst damage is lower, it's much more consistent then Action Surge or Assassinate or Rage or Smite.

(Though the important counter argument is that your Companion's attacks won't benefit from magic weapons, which can be a huge deal, but it obviously depends on your DM. I like to think the DM will recognize this issue and will be reasonable and will throw your party some spare magic items to augment your Companion and make it worthwhile).