Lowest Level Character to Slay 6 Ogres/day Solo?

[Unoriginal]

It's probably an odd question, especially because it's pretty much white-room theoricrafting who has little chance to happen in game and doesn't take into account the dozens of things that could happen or the ideas that could be used, but I wonder: what is, according to you, the lowest-level character and build capable of killing 6 Ogres in one adventuring day (including two short rests)?

I'm not sure if it's possible to accurately calculate it, but let's imagine the situation: a PC has to defeat 6 Ogres, one after the other, in an arena. They're only allowed two pauses in-between their opponents, but can select when those pauses happen. All UA and books are allowed, unless they got a more recent version (ex: no UA Elven Accuracy because the Xanathar's version was published).

EDIT: The Encounter Building guidelines more or less say this challenge would be appropriate for a character around level 5 or 6.

[Easy_Lee]

A level 5 moon druid can summon 8 axe beaks and shape-shift in the same turn. He's capable of reliably killing an ogre in one or two rounds (ten attacks), the summoned creatures last for one hour, and he can summon them twice per long rest

[Meepo_]

It would be a boring fight, but a level 2 Aarakocra Warlock with the Eldritch Spear invocation could fly at least 120 feet above the battlefield and blast the ogres to death from safety.

[Arelai]

An Arakocra warlock with the double distance invocation for eldritch blast.

So, level 2.

Fly well above
The ogres, trapped in their cage, and pummel them with laser blasts.

An arakocra level 1 archer doesn't work because you can't carry enough arrows.

[Arelai]

It would be a boring fight, but a level 2 Aarakocra Warlock with the Eldritch Spear invocation could fly at least 120 feet above the battlefield and blast the ogres to death from safety.

^Great minds think alike.

If the ogres use the dead bodies of the first few you kill for cover you might need the spell sniper feat so you can ignore cover. Otherwise, you could just keep blasting the bodies until they're too mushy and destroyed to hide under I guess.

[Meepo_]

^Great minds think alike.

That they do

[Citan]

That they do
Honestly, wouldn't any Warlock with Devil's Sight and Repelling Blast do?
Unless he's supposed to slay all Orcs at once...

But otherwise, one or two Orcs at a time should be fine... On that regard, even a Bladesinger level 2-3 (depending on how many you are supposed to fight at once) would be fine too: with Bladesong and Longstrider (better, Expeditious Retreat), you have between 50 (Longstrider) and 90 (Wood Elf, Expeditious Retreat) speed every turn, far enough to force Orc into having only a ranged attack at disadvantage as his option (javelin beyond 30 feet). It would certainly take a bit of time, but it would work...

Oops, just saw the bit about Orc's bonus action Dash... Hmm so then you would have to get enough defense to not care about melee, or enough mobility to compensate meaning basically bonus action Dash whatever happens unless you have access to Fly/Haste (lvl 5)...

Then I guess Bladesinger (or any character without built-in Dash as bonus action really) would just have to rely on Expeditious Retreat whatever happens. Or Spider Climb if in a big enough room to laugh from above. ;)

Otherwise, I'd argue a lvl 2 Rogue with Mobile feat would be perfectly fine too, just using longbow while maintaining range thanks to normal move + Dash as bonus action (or Hide provided requirements are met).

EDIT: Ok read more carefully the OP, so it's one after the other but in an arena. Then...
Dwarf Rogue 1 with Shield Master (this race does get shield proficiency right? AFB to check) with Expertise would theorically have a way to win this. BUT you'd probably have a high chance of instakill with bad luck.
So I'd rather bet on...
Arcane Trickster 3 (with Shield Master and Expertise), high INT: bonus action Dash away if possible, cast Longstrider. Then Shove as bonus action, use Shocking Grasp, move away. Repeat or use Ray of Frost instead.
In fact, just use Ray of Frost: it makes total speed 40 feet, that you can easily outmatch (60/80 with Longstrider).

Thief Rogue 3, provided DM allows the optional rule of Disarm action.

STR Battlemaster 3 could have a relatively easy win too: go dual-weapon fighting with daggers/light hammers/whatever: use Disarming Strike on thrown javelin (first attack), Grapple the Orc (bonus action weapon attack swapped for a Grapple), move him away from his weapon: now his only chance is to hit you, but he won't deal much damage since he's not proficient with unarmed strikes. Next turn, draw a weapon, attack him, using a Pushing Strike (obviously you released him at the right time) so you can then move away without him having a chance at OA: go to Orc's weapon, drop yours (no action), pick his (allowed free interaction) and go smash his head with his own weapon.
With standard point-buy, you can get 16 in STR and CON easily and get 19 AC (heavy armor + defense style) so you can easily withstand one/two hits.
Not to mention...
- One fight you can end quickly with Action Surge (Attack + Attack + bonus action attack per dual-wielding, even without style).
- You also get per short rest self-healing as bonus action, to keep up until the short rest at which time you can quaff potions.
If you are really afraid about STR checks, pick one level of Rogue.

Ancients Paladin 3 would have the same kind of win: between short-rest CD that immobilizes and Ensnaring Strike, a DEX Paladin should be able to make quick work of at least 4 Orcs. Bonus points for having Magic Initiate: Booming Blade.

In fact, I'm pretty sure any level 3 character of a single-class would have a way to deal with this challenge, as long as he is built for this.
For "normal characters", I think the most credible options have been given in this one and above posts. :) Although there are certainly some smart class mixes that could get a win as low as char level 3-4... But I'm too tired to try right now... ^^

[Unoriginal]

Unless he's supposed to slay all Orcs at once...

One, the challenge is to kill Ogres, not Orcs. Two, it's one-fight-after-the-other, as mentioned in the OP.



It would be a boring fight, but a level 2 Aarakocra Warlock with the Eldritch Spear invocation could fly at least 120 feet above the battlefield and blast the ogres to death from safety.



An Arakocra warlock with the double distance invocation for eldritch blast.

So, level 2.

Fly well above
The ogres, trapped in their cage, and pummel them with laser blasts.

An arakocra level 1 archer doesn't work because you can't carry enough arrows.




If the ogres use the dead bodies of the first few you kill for cover you might need the spell sniper feat so you can ignore cover. Otherwise, you could just keep blasting the bodies until they're too mushy and destroyed to hide under I guess.

The problems with that plan is that 1) Eldritch Blast cannot damage inanimate objects, including corpses and 2) Spell Sniper doesn't work against total cover.

So I guess this strategy would work until one Ogre manage to hide themselves good enough, after which point the Aarakocra Warlock can't win.

[Temperjoke]

It would be a boring fight, but a level 2 Aarakocra Warlock with the Eldritch Spear invocation could fly at least 120 feet above the battlefield and blast the ogres to death from safety.

The only flaw that I could see would potentially be time. Each Ogre could have 91 HP at max health. If you don't roll well on your ranged attacks, and don't roll well on your damage, you could be in the air quite a while. Sure your spell slots aren't being used up, but you won't be able to take any sort of rest until you take out at least one Ogre. Is there exhaustion from lack of sleep, or at least, lack of long rest?

If there isn't such a rule in play, then yeah, this would work to solve most of these white room challenges.

[Citan]

One, the challenge is to kill Ogres, not Orcs. Two, it's one-fight-after-the-other, as mentioned in the OP.









The problems with that plan is that 1) Eldritch Blast cannot damage inanimate objects, including corpses and 2) Spell Sniper doesn't work against total cover.

So I guess this strategy would work until one Ogre manage to hide themselves good enough, after which point the Aarakocra Warlock can't win.
My goodness...
How could I misread that bad? I guess that means a lot about how tired I'm really am...

Well, my previous post is totally irrelevant then, but so be it. Forget me and carry on. :smallbiggrin: (good night)

[JackPhoenix]

The only flaw that I could see would potentially be time. Each Ogre could have 91 HP at max health. If you don't roll well on your ranged attacks, and don't roll well on your damage, you could be in the air quite a while. Sure your spell slots aren't being used up, but you won't be able to take any sort of rest until you take out at least one Ogre. Is there exhaustion from lack of sleep, or at least, lack of long rest?

If there isn't such a rule in play, then yeah, this would work to solve most of these white room challenges.

Do you really think you would take 24 hours to kill one lousy ogre? Average ogre has 59 hp and AC 11. With +5 to hit, you have 75% chance to hit (better take winged tiefling than aaracocra for bonus to charisma), each for 1d10+3 damage, average 8.5. 8.5*0.75 gives you 6.375 DPR, critical hits not included. It would take a bit over 9 rounds to kill single average HP ogre, just a little over 14 rounds to kill max hp one. Assuming you don't use Hex (you got two casts per short rest, and guess what? 6 ogres with 2 short rests available means you got one cast for every ogre), which improves your DPR by 2.625 (chance to hit already included). Again, no critical hits, so chance is that it would go even faster.

You're done in under 10 minutes.

[Meepo_]

So I guess this strategy would work until one Ogre manage to hide themselves good enough, after which point the Aarakocra Warlock can't win.

There should be time during your two allotted breaks to clear the corpses. If your DM won’t let them be removed from the battlefield, use create bonfire or any other fire type spell to burning the bodies to dust.

[Unoriginal]

As an exemple:

Sir Tanya the Blade, Human Champion Knight

Level 5

Starting stats:

STR 15, DEX 8 CON 14, INT 10 WIS 11 CHA 13

With Racial Modifiers:

STR 16, DEX 9, CON 15, INT 11, WIS 12, CHA 14

The ASI goes to STR for 18

HPs: 44

AC: 19 (splint + shield)

Fighting Style: Duelist

Longsword: + 7 to hit, 10.5 (1d8 + 4 + 2) damages for a regular it, 15 on a 19 or 20 (10%) for a total of ~11 on average (sorry for shabby maths)


Fighting an Ogre in melee, Sir Tanya would hit on a 4 or more, so 85% of the time, with two attacks per turn, while the Ogre would hit on a 13 or more, so 35% of the time.

Considering the Ogre inflict ~13 damages on average, it means that Tanya must hit 6 times before the Ogre manages to hit 4 times just to survive one fight.

Taking the 85% chances to hit into account, it means Tanya should approximately do 7 attacks to hit 6 times. Tanya can do 7 attacks in 3.5 turns. On the other hand, with 35% chances to hit, the Ogre would hit ~1.25 time during those 3.5 turns, for ~16 damages.

But, Tanya the Blade is a Fighter, meaning she gets one Second Wind and one Action Surge per rest. Meaning she can heal 10 (5+5) HPs and deliver 7 attacks in 1.75 turn (meaning the Ogre would inflict 0.6 attack for ~8 damages), once per rest.


So, the challenge would, in theory, go something like that:

Fight 1:

Tanya uses Action Surge. Fight last 1.65 turns. Tanya ends up at 36 HPs.

Fight 2:

Last 4 turns. Tanya uses Second Wind, ends up at 30 HPs


Fight 3:

Last 4 turns. Tanya ends up at 14 HPs

First short rest: Tanya spends 4 HD to get on average 28 HPs, for a total of 42.

Fight 4:

Tanya uses Action Surge. Fight last 3 turns. Tanya ends up at 34 HPs.

Fight 5:

Last 4 turns. Tanya uses Second Wind, ends up at 28 HPs

Fight 6:

Last 4 turns. Tanya ends up with 12 HPs.

And this is how Sir Tanya the Blade managed to kill six Ogres by herself, with only one short rest, carving her name in the arena's history with her sword.



It would be a boring fight, but a level 2 Aarakocra Warlock with the Eldritch Spear invocation could fly at least 120 feet above the battlefield and blast the ogres to death from safety.


Do you really think you would take 24 hours to kill one lousy ogre? Average ogre has 59 hp and AC 11. With +5 to hit, you have 75% chance to hit (better take winged tiefling than aaracocra for bonus to charisma), each for 1d10+3 damage, average 8.5. 8.5*0.75 gives you 6.375 DPR, critical hits not included. It would take a bit over 9 rounds to kill single average HP ogre, just a little over 14 rounds to kill max hp one. Assuming you don't use Hex (you got two casts per short rest, and guess what? 6 ogres with 2 short rests available means you got one cast for every ogre), which improves your DPR by 2.625 (chance to hit already included). Again, no critical hits, so chance is that it would go even faster.

You're done in under 10 minutes.



There should be time during your two allotted breaks to clear the corpses. If your DM won’t let them be removed from the battlefield, use create bonfire or any other fire type spell to burning the bodies to dust.

I just wanted to point out something you guys have missed:

Ogres have javelins, which can indeed reach 120ft.


Sure, it will be relatively hard to hit the flying Warlock, but with 11 damages they only need to hit you one or twice (depending of your CON and level) to kill you, or at least make you fall and let the drop kill you. And in 9 rounds each, they can manage that.

[UrielAwakened]

An Arakocra warlock with the double distance invocation for eldritch blast.

So, level 2.

Fly well above
The ogres, trapped in their cage, and pummel them with laser blasts.

An arakocra level 1 archer doesn't work because you can't carry enough arrows.

Can't you just store the arrows somewhere, fly down, and grab more?

[stoutstien]

Level 2 with expertise in intimidation or deception why kill what you can befriend. Start a gladiator Riot using the ogres. Let the uprising begin

[Daphne]

Longsword: + 7 to hit, 10 (1d8 + 4 + 2) damages for a regular it, 14 on a 19 or 20 (10%) for a total of ~11 on average (sorry for shabby maths)

Fighting an Ogre in melee, Sir Tanya would hit on a 4 or more, so 80% of the time, with two attacks per turn, while the Ogre would hit on a 13 or more, so 35% of the time.

Considering the Ogre inflict ~13 damages on average, it means that Tanya must hit 6 times before the Ogre manages to hit 4 times just to survive one fight.

Taking the 80% chances to hit into account, it means Tanya should approximately do 8 attacks to hit 6 times. Tanya can do 8 attacks in 4 turns. On the other hand, with 35% chances to hit, the Ogre would hit 1.4 times during those 4 turns, for ~19 damages.


With a +7 to hit, you miss only on a 1, 2 or 3, so the hit chance is actually 85%. Damage would be 10.5 (4.5 + 4 + 2) or 15 on a critical hit.

[Unoriginal]

Can't you just store the arrows somewhere, fly down, and grab more?

Technically yes, but it'd mean ending your movement in close range of the Ogre. When they can still hit you even 120ft away.


Level 2 with expertise in intimidation or deception why kill what you can befriend. Start a gladiator Riot using the ogres. Let the uprising begin

The challenge suppose you are voluntarily participating, and even if you weren't you and one Ogre aren't going to make a riot.


With a +7 to hit, you miss only on a 1, 2 or 3, so the hit chance is actually 85%. Damage would be 10.5 (4.5 + 4 + 2) or 15 on a critical hit.

Oh, thank you a lot for correcting me, I messed up when I changed the values during the calculation.

I'm going to edit it.

[stoutstien]

The challenge suppose you are voluntarily participating.
I guess it does specifically say slay also.

[Meepo_]

I just wanted to point out something you guys have missed:

Ogres have javelins, which can indeed reach 120ft.


Sure, it will be relatively hard to hit the flying Warlock, but with 11 damages they only need to hit you one or twice (depending of your CON and level) to kill you, or at least make you fall and let the drop kill you. And in 9 rounds each, they can manage that.

Again, you seem to want to make up reasons why Aarakocra doesn’t work given your initial conditions. Ogres have range up to 120 feet. Beyond that they can’t hit anything. With Eldritch Spear the Aaracocra can fly up to 300 feet away and still make attacks normally, avoiding any attacks an Ogre could try to make.

[Unoriginal]

Again, you seem to want to make up reasons why Aarakocra doesn’t work given your initial conditions. Ogres have range up to 120 feet. Beyond that they can’t hit anything. With Eldritch Spear the Aaracocra can fly up to 300 feet away and still make attacks normally, avoiding any attacks an Ogre could try to make.

I'm not making up reasons, I misread something and mistakenly thought the attack had a 120ft range. I was wrong.

So it appears the flying Warlock does indeed beat the challenge at level 1, unless the arena has a roof limiting how high they can fly or if the Ogre somehow get total cover (two cases that weren't considered in the OP).

[Meepo_]

I’m going to make a more mathy post to see if I can clear up any misconceptions:

Assume we have level 2 Aarakocra; 16 Dex, 14 Con, 14 Cha, whatever for other stats. Spells are eldritch blast, hex, create bonfire/other corpse removal spell. Wearing some 12+Dex light armor.

Turn 1: The Aarakocra has a +3 initiative; Ogre has -1. The Aarakocra should win; let’s assume for the sake of argument that he doesn’t.

Let’s also assume the Ogre starts directly next to the poor Aarakocra.

First, the ogre Swings with his greatclub. With his +6 to hit he 15 AC, he needs a 9 or above: a 55% chance to hit. Unless it’s a 20, he deals 13 damage and our Aarakocra lives with 4 HP.

Now the Aarakocra disengages and flies 50 feet into the air.

Turn 2:

The ogre can’t jump 50 feet, so he has to try a javelin attack. Outside of his 30 foot range, he has disadvantage to hit his target. This means both his dice need to be a 9 or above; a 30.25% chance. If he does hit, the Aarakocra only goes down if the first attack hit as well. The likelihood both attacks hit is 16.6375%. This of course doesn’t factor in the chance that the Ogre actually gets the first turn advantage; that would be a 30% chance, giving the Ogre a grand total of a 4.99% chance to win (ignoring crits).

In the 95% case scenario, the Aarakocra dashes and moves another 100 feet into the air

Turn 3 ad infinitum

The ogre cannot hit a target 150 feet away from him, so he sits there and does whatever he feels like and it doesn’t affect the Aarakocra.

On the other hand, the Aarakocra can hit anything up to 300 feet away with Eldritch Spear. He pelts he ogre until it dies, the Math for which has already been done above.

Post Battle

Honestly, the Aarakocra doesn’t even need short rests. They’d make the fights quicker because he can hex every target, but it isn’t necessary. Aarakocra are native to the plane of air, and their flavor text is rife with references to their hatred of the ground, so one would probably be fine flying through all six fights. In case those running this battle don’t clear the corpses, I supposed after every other battle the Aarakocra will fly down and burn them for an hour so they don’t provide the ogres with any cover.


And thus, the level 2 Aarakocra can beat 6 ogres in 6 duels.

[Meepo_]

I'm not making up reasons, I misread something and mistakenly thought the attack had a 120ft range. I was wrong.

So it appears the flying Warlock does indeed beat the challenge at level 1, unless the arena has a roof limiting how high they can fly or if the Ogre somehow get total cover (two cases that weren't considered in the OP).

Actually, it’s level 2 to get the invocation that boosts the Warlock’s range. Theoretically with a longbow and as much as a decent strength can carry in arrows (which is actually a lot in 5e) this could be done at level 1 (longbow range is 150/600).

[8wGremlin]

Level 1 winged tiefling.
Could a saving throw spell like sacred flame to get round cover issues.

Possibly be a

Mystic with mind thrust talent.

[Meepo_]

Level 1 winged tiefling.
Could a saving throw spell like sacred flame to get round cover issues.

Possibly be a

Mystic with mind thrust talent.

The thing is, Sacred Flame (and basically every other damaging cantrips outside of eldritch spear) has 60 foot range, meaning the ogre gets to kill you with a few well-places javelins.

[Unoriginal]

I’m going to make a more mathy post to see if I can clear up any misconceptions:

Assume we have level 2 Aarakocra; 16 Dex, 14 Con, 14 Cha, whatever for other stats. Spells are eldritch blast, hex, create bonfire/other corpse removal spell. Wearing some 12+Dex light armor.

Turn 1: The Aarakocra has a +3 initiative; Ogre has -1. The Aarakocra should win; let’s assume for he sake of argument that he doesn’t.

Let’s also assume the Ogre starts directly next to the poor Aarakocra.

First, the ogre Swings with his greatclub. With his +6 to hit he 15 AC, he needs a 9 or above: a 55% chance to hit. Unless it’s a 20, he deals 13 damage and our Aarakocra lives with 4 HP.

Now the Aarakocra disengages and flies 50 feet into the air.

Turn 2:

The ogre can’t jump 50 feet, so he has to try a javelin attack. Outside of his 30 foot range, he has disengage to hit his target. This means both his dice need to be a 9 or above; a 30.25% chance. If he does hit, the Aarakocra only goes down if the first attack hit as well. The likelihood both attacks hit is 16.6375%. This of course doesn’t factor in the chance that the Ogre actually gets the first turn advantage; that would be a 30% chance, giving the Ogre a grand total of a 4.99% chance to win (ignoring crits).

In the 95% case scenario, the Aarakocra dashes and moves another 100 feet into the air

Turn 3 ad infinitum

The ogre cannot hit a target 150 feet away from him, so he sits there and does whatever he feels like and it doesn’t affect the Aarakocra.

On the other hand, the Aarakocra can hit anything up to 300 feet away with Eldritch Spear. He pelts he ogre until it dies, the Math for which has already been done above.

Post Battle

Honestly, the Aarakocra doesn’t even need short rests. They’d make the fights quicker because he can hex every target, but it isn’t necessary. Aarakocra are native to the plane of air, and their flavor text is rife with references to their hatred of the ground, so one would probably be fine flying through all six fights. In case those running this battle don’t clear the corpses, I supposed after every other battle the Aarakocra will fly down and burn them for an hour so they don’t provide the ogres with any cover.


And thus, the level 2 Aarakocra can beat 6 ogres in 6 duels.

Indeed. Well done, I don't think this challenge can be beaten at a lower level than this, which makes me wonder which non-flying creature could defeat the Aarakocra in those conditions.

Of course, things would be pretty different if the arena had a ceiling preventing the Warlock from flying more than 120ft high, or if the Ogre had other ways to get cover, but it would be a different challenge. With the conditions described in the OP, as you demonstrated, the Warlock wins handily unless ridiculous bad luck.

So, once again, very well-thought.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8d/1d/83/8d1d83282c517a5ddf761e369aa1d44c.jpg


Theoretically with a longbow and as much as a decent strength can carry in arrows (which is actually a lot in 5e) this could be done at level 1 (longbow range is 150/600).

Err, that's possibe, but I wouldn't think it's reliable. Then again one can carry easily carry 100 arrows, going by weight only.

[Meepo_]

Thanks, cool picture by the way. Might I ask what the challenge is for? If it’s for use in a game I recommend you don’t use my build, it’s too cheesy... but starting out as a gladiator is an interesting concept for sure. Might have to use it at some point.

[Talamare]

Naturally Flying Race is so obvious that it barely should have even been mentioned

Why not go ahead and throw in 100 Tarrasques as well? You will eventually kill them all too

I would love to see actual attempts to solve it

[Meepo_]

Naturally Flying Race is so obvious that it barely should have even been mentioned

Why not go ahead and throw in 100 Tarrasques as well? You will eventually kill them all too

I would love to see actual attempts to solve it

Wouldn’t you consider all the other builds posted in this thread “actual attempts”?

[Daphne]

As an exemple:

Sir Tanya the Blade, Human Champion Knight

Level 5

Starting stats:

STR 15, DEX 8 CON 14, INT 10 WIS 11 CHA 13

With Racial Modifiers:

STR 16, DEX 9, CON 15, INT 11, WIS 12, CHA 14



I think if you changed Tanya from being a Champion to become a Battle Master (with the Parry and Risposte maneuvers) instead, and make her a variant Human (Polearm Master for a bonus attack with quarterstaff), you could defeat the six Ogres at forth level, maybe even at third.

Stats would be:
STR 16, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 8


I did some math with Barbarian, but being able to rage only 1/3 of the fights makes it worse than a Fighter at sustaining damage imo.

[Unoriginal]

Thanks, cool picture by the way. Might I ask what the challenge is for? If it’s for use in a game I recommend you don’t use my build, it’s too cheesy... but starting out as a gladiator is an interesting concept for sure. Might have to use it at some point.

Honestly, I just wanted to know at which level soloing 6 Ogres in an adventuring day was possible. Maybe I'll use it for one of my player who wanted a combat-entertainer PC, especially because there is a city in my campaign where that kind of arena challenge does indeed exist (the whole city's existence is based around a Marilith who's been fighting people for centuries), but as it stand, it was simple curiosity.


Naturally Flying Race is so obvious that it barely should have even been mentioned

An obvious method to win is still a winning method. If I didn't want it to be possible, it'd have been my prerogative to set the environment to not make it possible.




I would love to see actual attempts to solve it

Well, above in the thread I showed how a regular lvl 5 Fighter could succeed this challenge.


I think if you changed Tanya from being a Champion to become a Battle Master (with the Parry and Risposte maneuvers) instead, and make her a variant Human (Polearm Master for a bonus attack with quarterstaff), you could defeat the six Ogres at forth level, maybe even at third.

Stats would be:
STR 16, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 8


I did some math with Barbarian, but being able to rage only 1/3 of the fights makes it worse than a Fighter at sustaining damage imo.

Well, with those stats, the PC would be able to clear the challenge at lvl 4 as a Champion. I just used the standard array for my exemple.

[bid]

Actually, it’s level 2 to get the invocation that boosts the Warlock’s range. Theoretically with a longbow and as much as a decent strength can carry in arrows (which is actually a lot in 5e) this could be done at level 1 (longbow range is 150/600).
Nah, level 1 is enough. Start 125' above, move to 115', cast EB, move up to 125'. You moved 20' turing your turn.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Nah, level 1 is enough. Start 125' above, move to 115', cast EB, move up to 125'. You moved 20' turing your turn.

I was about to make a post amounting to the same earlier, except for two things:

1) The Ogre’s move speed is higher. That movement eats up at least 10’ of your movement, which means you weren’t getting 30’ of lateral movement anyway, but the Ogre’s movement is 40’, which means they could just move 40’ away from you, and now you can’t catch up to them to blast, ever.

2) Readied actions. If the Ogre readies their action to attack with a thrown javelin once you enter range, they still get the attack (with disadvantage). You’d have to survive 6 Ogres’ worth of javelin tosses with no more than 11 HP to make that work.

Better to just have Eldritch Spear and the chilling blast from XGtE, and stay between 120n and 300’ to the best of your ability.

[Gtdead]

Level 5 characters can win this encounter, with the archers coming on top (especially gloom stalker that can reliably kill every Ogre in 2 turns with initiative, he doesn't even need the short rests).

It also depends on how the encounter plays out. Can the player choose when and how to fight? Can he choose starting positions, delay between fights?

Some classes have concentration spells that last for long, can they start fights immediately after the kill, or is there going to be a prep time.

From there on, it's just a mathematical question. For example.
The character needs to deal 354 damage before he dies.

A lvl 5 Cleric that can sustain SG through all the 6 fights, has 4 lvl 1 and 3 lvl 2 spells to cast healing word with, which equates to an average of 46 points of healing, on top of lets say 14 con, and 5 hit dice, for an average of 116 effective hit points (I'm not adding hit dice to this).

The cleric has prof in heavy armor, shield, warcaster, and spends all his actions on dodging, with an AC of 18.
Ogre has a +6 to hit, 2d8+4 damage, dealing an average of 3~ dmg per turn.
It has a -1 on dex saves, against a 14 saving throw, taking an average of 11.4 dpr.
354/11.4=31 turns, 116/3=39 turns. Cleric wins.

So it's possible. However, the circumstances are a bit iffy and things like overkill and not being able to make use of all the hit dices can turn things around.

---

Lets try a Paladin 4
Heavy Armor, PAM, GWM and Defender, 17 AC
Assuming 16 STR, 16 CHA, 14 CON, Devotion and fishing for smite crits
3 lvl 1 slots for smites, with critical, will total 49~ damage, bringing the total ogre health down to 305.
Hit points + hit dice + loh = 88 effective health
Ogre deals ~7 dpr, Paladin deals 24.4
88/7 = 12.6, 305/24.4 = 12.5, Which is pretty much a tie.

Paladin 4 seems to have a fighting chance, but it's cutting it way too close, and provided that I pretty much assumed optimal circumstances for the paladin, he clearly is the underdog.


I'm fairly certain that Gloom Ranger is going to perform best. However I'm too bored to model the playstyle.

[bid]

If the Ogre readies their action to attack with a thrown javelin once you enter range, they still get the attack (with disadvantage).
Ah true. Level 2 is certainly safer. ><

I didn't consider there was a speed difference at all, but since diagonals are as long as orthogonals... you can still shoot from 120' behind. You're still moving 10' diagonal down, 10' diagonal up, 10' forward... which'd give you 12 turns if you start right above.

But yeah, eldritch spear turns the fight into target practice.

[Citan]

Honestly, if you all get on the Aarakocra way and are sure that this arena is open sky or at least high enough to be secure, just a Rogue 2 with Alert feat and high DEX and CON will be enough. Start with +8 bonus to Initiative, so high chance of going first: spend first turn dashing away upwards (normal speed + Action Dash + Cunning Action Dash) then point a big middle finger to your opponent. Next turns, just use longbow. You'll spend many arrows, that's for sure, but you can retrieve a good bit of them between two fights.

With 14 STR, your carrying capacity is 210 pounds. I don't know how being a flying race can influence that, but you can safely assume you will carry at least 100 arrows (plus it can make a very original character... "What is that kind of light armor?" "Hey, my arrows!").

In fact, any level 3-4 class that has built-in flying will easily win this, except maybe Monks and Barbarians who are too much geared towards melee.

I was about to make a post amounting to the same earlier, except for two things:

1) The Ogre’s move speed is higher. That movement eats up at least 10’ of your movement, which means you weren’t getting 30’ of lateral movement anyway, but the Ogre’s movement is 40’, which means they could just move 40’ away from you, and now you can’t catch up to them to blast, ever.

2) Readied actions. If the Ogre readies their action to attack with a thrown javelin once you enter range, they still get the attack (with disadvantage). You’d have to survive 6 Ogres’ worth of javelin tosses with no more than 11 HP to make that work.

Better to just have Eldritch Spear and the chilling blast from XGtE, and stay between 120n and 300’ to the best of your ability.
Good points. Good thing the longbow bypasses them all (150 feet before disadvantage \o/). :smallbiggrin:

Because you have 60 feet to move each turn (no other use than Cunning Action Dash anyways), and because you are high in the sky, any horizontal move made by the Ogre will mean little to you (hey, it's simple triangle / angular geometrics, but I have absolutely no skill anymore to explain/demonstrate), unless the arena would be wide enough to allow him to dash away for hundreds of feets.

And because you have a weapon range strictly superior to its, you don't need to close into range of javelin.
So you just win, but this will take a very long time, especially since you won't have Sneak Attack active, so only 1d8+. Simple remedy to that would be to gain another level to get Swashbuckler archetype, but it's less prestigious to my taste (or was it melee weapon attacks only? Can't remember and AFB). :)

EDIT: Just realized when trying to find info on Swash, that -as I always forget- Rogues DON'T get proficient in longbow... So only option is either pick Weapon Master instead of Alert (and bet all on the first Initiative roll - because for other fights you would obviously stay mid-air in-between) or make a lvl 3 character by dipping Fighter (with obvious advantage of getting Archery fighting style).

[KorvinStarmast]

Just a thought: maybe that champion took Shield Master at level four, and uses a bonus action to try and knock ogre prone; better than a 50-50 shot, gives attacks with advantage, I think. Increases crit chance a bit. Crits on 19 and 20 at level 5(3).

Ogre STR of 19 (+4) versus STR check versus the Champion at +6 (+3 str +3 Athletics Prof if taken (I assume all str based Champions take this ... ).