Highest Reliable Damage Per Round

[ajrockstarr]

Alright so Ive been playing DnD for awhile and I am very much a Min/Max kinda guy. Im trying to figure out several builds across several classes what would be the most consistent damage per round, not some one attack burst but every round a considerable amount of damage. In the campaign id be running one of these characters in we're starting at level 1 but have the opportunity to take it to level 20 and beyond so feel free to post your findings. (Fine with all currently released material like UA, EE, et cetera)

[Chugger]

Kind of hard to compare, because some games have lots of short rests and even some longs - others very very few.

A GWM or SS bow or xbow build kind of based on using Precision to help land shots - to convert some misses into hits - well, you only get that iirc 4 x per short.

An Elven Accuracy build on a hexblade might try to land one really high smite - and because their other slot was used to cast darkness to get adv - they're now out. Unless they have a warlock rod or pearl of power. Or MC into sorc or something.

Sorcadins can smite a lot more. But do run out.

So you want all that thrown out? I'm not sure that's how all of us play, cuz there are many ways to revive the above stuff and use it throughout the day - esp stuff that short-rest recharges.

I play a lot of AL and so don't even focus on what you're talking about. Because AL modules are oriented toward burst damage, at least a lot of them so far are. Not a lot of fights, and when you get a certain fight you wanna burst. Put the boss down asap.

[kardar233]

Your best bet is probably GWM/SS and some way to gain consistent, cheap advantage.

A Polearm+Great Weapon Master Barbarian would be solid. Reckless Attack costs no resources bar the hit points you lose from the extra hits. If you’re going Polearm Master your Primal Path doesn’t really matter, so probably go Bear Totem for durability. That gets you three attacks per round, advantaged with Great Weapon Master.

You could do similar with a Darkness/Devil’s Sight Warlock, and Hexblade allows you to use Elven Accuracy for near-certain hits even with GWM penalty. Warlock and Elven Accuracy also work equally well with a ranged build using Crossbow Sniper and Sharpshooter.

One thing I’d warn: building for optimal damage per round kind of puts you in this rut of “this is how I’m supposed to be”, which can get really boring after a while. Consider broadening your net a little.

[Blood of Gaea]

A Zealot Barbarian with the Polearm Mastery and Great Weapon Master feats. It's extremely hard to put you down, and reckless attacks mean all of your attacks are enhanced by GWM, including the bonus action attack from PAM.

There are other great options, but if you're the only goal to stick around and do respectable damage round after round after round, it's hard to beat. Preferably you would have someone to resurrect you (if you don't, I'd go Bear Totem).

[ajrockstarr]

I appreciate the replies so far and im actually about to go whip up a bard now. Just some more specifications, when I meant no burst I just meant I didnt want builds that focused on a single big attack, Im fine with stuff that can be used X/per Short/Long rest.

[Blood of Gaea]

I appreciate the replies so far and im actually about to go whip up a bard now. Just some more specifications, when I meant no burst I just meant I didnt want builds that focused on a single big attack, Im fine with stuff that can be used X/per Short/Long rest.
Battlemasters and Eldritch Knights have great sustained damage and some nasty tricks on a short or long rest respectively. They both work well with melee or range. Eldritch Knight is a personal favorite of mine.

Warlock can also put out solid sustained damage with Eldritch Blast, which can be improved through various methods, like casting Hex.

An Evocation Wizard has great utility with AoE attacks, and they can be freely be used without fear of friendly fire. So long as you take advantage of that, they have great damage.

[Tehnar]

Necromancer with animate dead. Keep around 1.5*lvl skeletons with shortbows that gives you consistent DPR 2x of any martial, and you still have other spells to do stuff.

[Spiritchaser]

Tough to beat a sorlock with quicken and hex.

Lots of options for subclasses, hexblade for more damage sometimes wouldn’t hurt, divine soul, stone from UA (really simplifies stat distribution), heck any mix would be fine.

Your basic gimmick of Hex, eldritch blast followed by eldritch blast-quickened eldritch blast is consistent and formidable. It can be effective at very long range if you wish, and at melee with crossbow expert if desired.

You still have sorcerer casting, pick up some CC, or AoE...

[Unoriginal]

If you want the "reliable" maxed out, you want a crit-fishing Champion Fighter. Or a Brute Fighter, if UA are allowed.

Other classes might do more damage in the immediate, but they risk to run out of juice. Not those Fighters.

[Randomthom]

Mountain Dwarf or Goliath Fighter 1 / Rogue X

Str focused, expertise in athletics, shove to knock prone then sneak attack. Can also aim to end up Fighter 5 / Rogue 15 for 2 attacks and 7d6 SA.

[nickl_2000]

Fighter Champion Archer with Crossbow Master and Sharpshooter. By level 20 you will be attacking 5 times per round with a crit on 18-20, you will hit nearly all attacks with +15 damage on each attack. It's likely the most boring of all combat classes, but it's super consistent plus with the second fighting style you can still have 18 AC (or an additional + to hit with close quarters archery if UA is allowed).

[MrWesson22]

Fighter Champion Archer with Crossbow Master and Sharpshooter. By level 20 you will be attacking 5 times per round with a crit on 18-20, you will hit nearly all attacks with +15 damage on each attack. It's likely the most boring of all combat classes, but it's super consistent plus with the second fighting style you can still have 18 AC (or an additional + to hit with close quarters archery if UA is allowed).

I would venture that battlemaster would still end up higher overall dpr because of precision attack turning misses into hits, but that also depends on sources of advantage, bless, etc that the rest of your party brings to negate misses in the first place as well as the frequency of short rests for getting back your battlemaster dice.

I just played a wood elf longbow archer from 1 to 20. His final build was 12 BM fighter, 5 assassin rogue, 3 BM revised ranger (beastmaster was for flavor - gloomstalker or Hunter would have been more dpr), and he was nasty.

[nickl_2000]

I would venture that battlemaster would still end up higher overall dpr because of precision attack turning misses into hits, but that also depends on sources of advantage, bless, etc that the rest of your party brings to negate misses in the first place as well as the frequency of short rests for getting back your battlemaster dice.

I just played a wood elf longbow archer from 1 to 20. His final build was 12 BM fighter, 5 assassin rogue, 3 BM revised ranger (beastmaster was for flavor - gloomstalker or Hunter would have been more dpr), and he was nasty.

Given UA being allowed I've got a bit of a crazy build of level 6 hexblade archer, level 3 fighter Scout, and level 11 Rogue Scout. You get good sneak attack damage, consistent action economy of Bonus Actions and reactions, a crazy amount of skills, good damage between Hex, Sneak attack, and Sharp shooter, and a boatload of skills. Also you get a pretty crazy to hit with Fighter Scout Dice, the archery style, and the bonuses from invocations. Plus you are really SAD with using Charisma as your attack stat with a Longbow.

[MrWesson22]

Given UA being allowed I've got a bit of a crazy build of level 6 hexblade archer, level 3 fighter Scout, and level 11 Rogue Scout. You get good sneak attack damage, consistent action economy of Bonus Actions and reactions, a crazy amount of skills, good damage between Hex, Sneak attack, and Sharp shooter, and a boatload of skills. Also you get a pretty crazy to hit with Fighter Scout Dice, the archery style, and the bonuses from invocations. Plus you are really SAD with using Charisma as your attack stat with a Longbow.

Yeah, if you're going full on UA, that would be awesome. You could even combine it with elven accuracy for total ridiculousness. A lot of campaigns won't allow all UA but will allow revised ranger though. I guess, as always, it just depends on their DM.

[MrWesson22]

In general, an archer build is always going to be the highest dpr just because of the combination of +2 attack from archery fighting style and sharpshooter. It is going to miss less with that +10 damage attack than a great weapon master attack will.

[MaxWilson]

Necromancer with animate dead. Keep around 1.5*lvl skeletons with shortbows that gives you consistent DPR 2x of any martial, and you still have other spells to do stuff.

For bonus damage, make it Necromancer/Shepherd Druid who summons Giant Constrictor Snakes to grant advantage to the skeletons by restraining their targets.

Or just make sure you have a druid buddy to do the restraining for you. Or have some skeletons throw Nets, or do so yourself.

[Submortimer]

If anything is allowed, 8 Oathbreaker Paladin/12 hexblade warlock.

Relevant Stats
- 20 Charisma
- 14 dex (for half plate)
Relevant Feats
- Polearm Master
- GWM
- Elven Accuracy
Relevant Invocations
- Lifedrinker
- Devil's Sight
- Improved Pact Blade
Relevant Abilities
- Hex Warrior
- Aura of Hate
- Darkness Spell

So your attacks with your pact glaive deal 1d10+Cha (hex warrior)+cha (lifedrinker)+Cha (Aura of Hate)+1 (Improved Pact weapon)+10 (GWM), or 26, with a +7 to hit.

That means Three attacks dealing 2d10+1d4+78 (91.5 avg) on a good turn.

Now, throw on darkness, and you have double advantage on every attack (since you're using charisma to hit).

That's my ideal, damage dealing "Black Knight" build.

[Asmotherion]

Well, without going into full analisis, an optimised build around DPT can reliably do, more or less, an average of 9-20+ damage at level 1, 12-40+ at level 3, 24-80+ at level 5, 40-120+ at level 11, and 60-180+ at level 17+.

This includes calculations for a variety of class and race combinations. If you are within those parameters (or build something that somehow does more average damage than the + and is still reliable to use each round), your build should be worked in the concept you want.

Most of the time, this means your DM will deliberatelly let you do as you please, such as using your Wish-Gained Simulacrum to cast an extra Barage of Quickened/Hexed Eldritch Blasts on your Targets, effectivelly doubling your DPT to around 240 per round, and refreaching each Day.

Really meaningfull only on epic campains, with DM approval.

[Mister_Squinty]

If you want the "reliable" maxed out, you want a crit-fishing Champion Fighter. Or a Brute Fighter, if UA are allowed.

Other classes might do more damage in the immediate, but they risk to run out of juice. Not those Fighters.

I'm enjoying my Barb/Champion with GWF. Between Reckless Attack and the increased crit range, he drops a lot of dpt. If we ever get to Level 11 fighter, that third attack will just add to it.

[bid]

Im trying to figure out several builds across several classes what would be the most consistent damage per round, not some one attack burst but every round a considerable amount of damage.
Then you'll want a greatsword/maul with a less swingy 2d6 damage.
You don't want a paladin, using smite on crits is too swingy for that.

Reliable is all about cancelling out misses. GWM/SS goes against this unless you can somehow cancel the -5 to hit. You have to balance out the extra damage with burst randomness.

It also depends on how many fights per rest you'll have.
- Barbarian is nice because you rarely miss with advantage, but it's limited to 2-4 fights per day.
- BM precision is also limited, 4-5 misses per short rest.

If you MC, there's a few helpers:
- Bardic inspiration with level 3 comes close to BM at 3-5 misses per short rest.
- Cleric bless happens as often as rage, before the loss of concentration.


OTOH, being a fighter 11 gives you 3 attack rolls to reduce randomness.
So... Dex20 + archery style + BM precision SD can keep using SS -5/+10 until he's out of hp. Prolly BM 11 + CE to get 4 attacks. Add in the flaking rule and lucky at level 12 and you'll never miss.

[Citan]

Alright so Ive been playing DnD for awhile and I am very much a Min/Max kinda guy. Im trying to figure out several builds across several classes what would be the most consistent damage per round, not some one attack burst but every round a considerable amount of damage. In the campaign id be running one of these characters in we're starting at level 1 but have the opportunity to take it to level 20 and beyond so feel free to post your findings. (Fine with all currently released material like UA, EE, et cetera)
Hi!

Well, I won't ever go into UA material because that would really break things (basically a build using fire damage with Elemental Adept).

Sticking with "official" content, the best you can manage is probably something along...
Eldricht Knight 11 / Devotion Paladin 3 / Wild Magic Sorcerer 6.
Get 18 DEX, Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert.
Action Surge Sacred Weapon, Action Surge Attack, Quicken Hold Person with Bend Luck + Eldricht Strike: enjoy auto-crit with insanely high chance to hit.

Technically could work very well on another build: drop 3rd attack and Eldricht Strike, meaning drop Fighter most entirely (you can still keep Action Surge).
Instead get more Paladin levels and more Sorcerer levels (Hold Monster), maybe a single dip into Hexblade Warlock if you want to be better against a boss...
You'll have to invest a first turn preparing yourself, so it makes it bad for very short-lived encounters (3 rounds max). As long as you expect it to last more, then you're good.
It's probably not the "highest", but it's sure high enough to make you more than solid in a party. And you'd have enough fuel to sustain this tactic against one big-HP enemy every encounter. :)

[Specter]

At level 18, I'll say I'd like to try Valor Bard.

Foresight + Swift Quiver + Sharpshooter = absolute murder.

[Jakob the Dane]

Hey
I came up with this one:
Level 5 Hexblade Warlock
Level 11 Fighter

Combine "thirsting blade" with fighters 3 attacks = 6 melee attacks per stnd round

In normal round without any magic weapon, spell buff, features, feats or anything: DMG = 6d10 + 6*5

Just using action surge: DMG = 8d10 + 8*5

On top of this ad hex 8d6 or Hexblade's curse 8*5

Totals 8d10 + 8*5 + 8*5 => 8d10 + 80

This is without any fighter features or feats and no prepared buffs. For example: Great Weapon Master could give another 8*10

That's pretty good at lvl 16 🙂

[tokek]

Necromancer with animate dead. Keep around 1.5*lvl skeletons with shortbows that gives you consistent DPR 2x of any martial, and you still have other spells to do stuff.

If we are talking minionmancy then Shepherd Druid is the power choice. Your control over them is far superior, the actual minions are much more varied and effective and when you do take an AOE you can instantly replace them with a spell slot (if you expect AOE you can choose summons that are not so vulnerable to it anyway)

Anyone who has had a lot of success with a 5e necromancer has had a generous DM. The spells themselves are flawed by design - i.e. its clearly intentional.

For non-martial options I do rate the Shepherd Druid very highly. From level 5 you will start to wreck encounters and the hour-long duration means that a single casting will quite often wreck multiple encounters. Very few things can match the consistent damage output of a bunch of poisonous snakes, or the battlefield control of a bunch of constrictor snakes. It runs out of steam a bit in tier 3 but its never useless and being dominant in tier 2 is being dominant when it counts the most in the majority of games.

[adb82]

In general, an archer build is always going to be the highest dpr just because of the combination of +2 attack from archery fighting style and sharpshooter. It is going to miss less with that +10 damage attack than a great weapon master attack will.

This is true, but if you play with flanking rules GWM have its own reason and i think they become kinda fair.

[Mastikator]

Hey
I came up with this one:
Level 5 Hexblade Warlock
Level 11 Fighter

Combine "thirsting blade" with fighters 3 attacks = 6 melee attacks per stnd round

In normal round without any magic weapon, spell buff, features, feats or anything: DMG = 6d10 + 6*5



Thirsting blade doesn't stack with extra attack.


You can attack with your pact weapon twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Fighter 11 + hexblade 3 with improved pact weapon gets you 3 attacks with a +1 weapon using charisma instead of str/dex
The cool thing here is that you could actually take both GWM and SS and be able to effectively use both, especially if you take elven accuracy (charisma), devil's sight and darkness. Super advantage on all attacks on 2 combats per short rest.
Action surge would get you to 6 attacks.
Combine super advantage with precision and you can reliably do 3x 2d6 + 16 damage per round (~69) in melee and 3x 1d8 + 16 (~61.5) in range.

I'd start as human variant with sharpshooter, go fighter 1, then warlock 1, rest fighter up to 5, then 2 more warlock, then 6 more fighter. Your superiority dice, action surge, second wind and spells recover on short rests.

[noob]

Alright so Ive been playing DnD for awhile and I am very much a Min/Max kinda guy. Im trying to figure out several builds across several classes what would be the most consistent damage per round, not some one attack burst but every round a considerable amount of damage. In the campaign id be running one of these characters in we're starting at level 1 but have the opportunity to take it to level 20 and beyond so feel free to post your findings. (Fine with all currently released material like UA, EE, et cetera)

Ideally for the most reliable damage you would need an attack that does not requires an attack roll or a saving throw and does not depends on opponent participation and is resisted by no target.
I do not know any of those in dnd 5E.
I believe force damage is the damage that have the least immunities and resistances so ideally a character should be dishing out force damage.

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: Necromancy is non-damage dealing.