Optimisation - dealing massive damage in E6

[TalonOfAnathrax]

My party just died horribly in an E6 game four sessions in due to our (bad) plan going wrong and failing to deal with a monster that had way too many hit points and good saves, so I came here for ideas to do better next time.

How can a level 6 character deal enough damage to significantly impair stuff like Purple Worms or Succubi or whatever, without using any spell over level 3 or any item replicating a spell over level 3 (so no bags of holding, no wands of dimensional anchor, whatever).

LIST:
Use large amounts of Explosive Runes (requires setup, and probably an area dispel or two)
Use poison (black lotus extract?)
Use large pit traps (requires a crazy amount of setup) or armies of hirelings with alchemist's fire (to deal with DR) - these options are terrible, but I am desperate.
Get a spellcaster with a build focused on metamagic-stacking. Hard to get one if you don't already have one in the party.
Get an optimized melee killer martial PC who can mash anything on the charge or in a grapple. Get him into position somehow, and then win. Check the thread for builds. Hard to get one if you don't already have one in the party.

[ComaVision]

Hasted Frenzy Barbarian ubercharger?

[ATHATH]

Uh, are you sure that you want Theoretical Optimization advice and not Practical Optimization advice? Because if you just want TO advice, just use a Candle of Invocation and be done with it.

If you want Practical Optimization advice, might I recommend using Arcane Thesis and some other metamagic cost reducing feats so that you can stack a lot of metamagic feats onto all of your spells. It's very easy to get 20d8 damage (touch attack, SR: Yes, no save) on undead creatures with a third level spell by level 6 (without spending any epic feats) this way, for example.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Uh, are you sure that you want Theoretical Optimization advice and not Practical Optimization advice? Because if you just want TO advice, just use a Candle of Invocation and be done with it.

If you want Practical Optimization advice, might I recommend using Arcane Thesis and some other metamagic cost reducing feats so that you can stack a lot of metamagic feats onto all of your spells. It's very easy to get 20d8 damage (touch attack, SR: Yes, no save) on undead creatures with a third level spell by level 6 (without spending any epic feats) this way, for example.

I'm open to TO actually. TO when you can't use any spell over level 3 in any circumstances in something that I would like to see manage to go crazy :D
Okay, Diplomonsters can still exist relatively normally. Damn.

I just realised that Locate City Bomb works at level 6. Not quite what I wanted, but it would technically have worked.
And wow, in E6 Fell Drain is absolutely devastating!

[Darrin]

Name: Chunk
Race: Water Orc.
Ability Scores: Str 22, Con 18, rest are whatevs.
1) Barbarian 1. Feat: Power Attack. Spirit Lion Totem -> Pounce (CChamp). Whirling Frenzy ACF (UA).
2) Barbarian 2. Bonus: Improved Trip (UA Wolf Totem).
3) Fighter 1. Feat: Power Lunge (Ghostwalk). Bonus: Improved Bull Rush.
4) Fighter 2. Bonus: Headlong Rush (Races of Faerun)
5) Fighter 3.
6) Fighter 4. Feat: Leap Attack (CAdv). Bonus: Shock Trooper (CWar).

Attack Bonus: 17 = 6 (BAB) + 8 (26 Str w/ Frenzy) + 2 (charge) + 1 (masterwork greatsword). Purple Worm AC is 19, so Chunk only misses on a "1".

Damage Bonus: 82 = [7 (avg greatsword) + 16 (26 Str w/ Power Lunge) + 18 (Power Attack x3)] x 2 (Headlong Rush)

Chunk has three attacks (two iteratives, whirling frenzy). Purple worm has 200 HP, so if all three attacks hit, 246 damage means it's wormfood. If we add bull's strength, Chunk's Str goes up to 30 when he's in a frenzy, and average damage is about 90 per hit. If we throw an enlarge person on him as well:

Damage Bonus: 100 = [10 (avg large greatsword) + 22 (32 Str w/ Power Lunge) + 18 (Power Attack x3)] x 2 (Headlong Rush)

Purple Worm is taking a permanent dirt nap with two hits.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Name: Chunk
Race: Water Orc.
Ability Scores: Str 22, Con 18, rest are whatevs.
1) Barbarian 1. Feat: Power Attack. Spirit Lion Totem -> Pounce (CChamp). Whirling Frenzy ACF (UA).
2) Barbarian 2. Bonus: Improved Trip (UA Wolf Totem).
3) Fighter 1. Feat: Power Lunge (Ghostwalk). Bonus: Improved Bull Rush.
4) Fighter 2. Bonus: Headlong Rush (Races of Faerun)
5) Fighter 3.
6) Fighter 4. Feat: Leap Attack (CAdv). Bonus: Shock Trooper (CWar).

Attack Bonus: 17 = 6 (BAB) + 8 (26 Str w/ Frenzy) + 2 (charge) + 1 (masterwork greatsword). Purple Worm AC is 19, so Chunk only misses on a "1".

Damage Bonus: 82 = [7 (avg greatsword) + 16 (26 Str w/ Power Lunge) + 18 (Power Attack x3)] x 2 (Headlong Rush)

Chunk has three attacks (two iteratives, whirling frenzy). Purple worm has 200 HP, so if all three attacks hit, 246 damage means it's wormfood. If we add bull's strength, Chunk's Str goes up to 30 when he's in a frenzy, and average damage is about 90 per hit. If we throw an enlarge person on him as well:

Damage Bonus: 100 = [10 (avg large greatsword) + 22 (32 Str w/ Power Lunge) + 18 (Power Attack x3)] x 2 (Headlong Rush)

Purple Worm is taking a permanent dirt nap with two hits.
Well then. Adding him to the list :)
He is the exact opposite of the kind of character I like to play (so spells, not a skillmonkey, not a sneak with Hide in Plain Sight, not a face, likes melee) but hopefully one of my fellow players will like him. And he'll probably want a skillmonkey or magic-user to help him get into position, thus making the rest of the party relevant!

Edit: I am impressed.

[Tvtyrant]

Uncanny Foresight feat wizard 5/ultimate magus 1, or Sorcerer 5/Wildmage 1 with practiced spellcaster.

Your CL is boosted by UM to 8 (applies to wizard twice then boosted by 1), take reserves of strength and any CL boosting items you can find. Wildmage nets you an even bigger CL boost (up to +4). 12-13d6 fireballs and lightning bolts out of third level slots, and lesser orbs are now greater orbs.

[ericgrau]

Are these over CR'ed foes or merely high CR foes? That may help determine the level of optimization.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater), Half-Goristro (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a)
In E6 a +4 LA gives you all 8's for your base stats with no point buy.
This character is large size with Str 28, Dex 6, Con 26, Int 6, Wis 6, Cha 6, +7 natural armor, DR 5/Cold Iron, SR 10+HD, resistance 10 to everything but sonic, immunity to poison, and two slam attacks for 2d6 plus one and a half times his Str bonus.

He'll get his two slams at his full attack bonus regardless of BAB or iterative attacks. Give him Barbarian 2 with Whirling Frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ), Lion spiritual totem for Pounce instead of fast movement, Wolf Totem for Improved Trip instead of Uncanny Dodge, and trade Ride for Tumble as a class skill (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a). Finish with four levels of Warblade to get Punishing Stance, Battle Leader's Charge, and Iron Heart Surge. Take Power Attack and Leap Attack, and wear Armbands of Might.

He'll get three attacks per round, power attacking for -2 gets +4 damage which is increased to +8 by Leap Attack, for 3d6+24 damage per hit, with another +10 on the first hit from Battle Leader's Charge. That's 113 damage per round on average, with a +14 attack bonus without any enhancement bonuses. He kills a Purple Worm in two rounds, hitting on a roll of 5 or higher, and can Iron Heart Surge any negative effect that's on him.

Edit: Replace the second Barbarian level with Cloistered Cleric (Knowledge Devotion, Wrath domain, Strength Devotion), put 1 rank in every relevant Knowledge skill and he always has +1 attack and damage against every opponent (but -1 BAB from the dip). His Wis is too low to cast spells, but he can use a Wand of Rhino's Rush to double the damage of his first hit, which includes Battle Leader's Charge. That increases his average damage on a charge to 162, and if he power attacks for his full BAB (another -3 to hit for +24 total damage) and has Strength Devotion active (+8 damage total) he can take down a Purple Worm with a single charge if he rolls above average on the damage dice.

[Fouredged Sword]

I once had an E6 warforged build to punch things for something like 64d6 damage.

It used the Monk ACF that dealt double damage on a full round action punch.

Then a battlefist and the beaststrike feat to stack the slam and punch damage.

Then an eternal wand of greater mighty wallop to increase the damage as much as posible.

Monk 2 / battle sorcerer 2 / fighter 2

Go for beast strike at 6, then go down the Karmeic strike line to superpunch anyone who attacks you. Travel devotion will make you mobile once per day.

[SirNibbles]

TN Anthropomorphic Bat Pugilist Fighter 1/Fangshields Druid 5

Str 5
Dex 15
Con 16
Int 8
Wis 23 (+1 at 4th level to 24)
Cha 6

1- Druid 1 - Child of Winter
2- Druid 2
3- Druid 3 - Weapon Finesse
4- Pugilist Fighter 1 - Granted Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike; Endurance | Fighter Bonus Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting
5- Druid 4
6- Fangshields Druid 5 - Vermin Shape

Once per day, you can use Wild Shape Hands to turn into a Monstrous Centipede with 100 hands (100 unarmed strike attacks). If you have a way of getting Natural Spell, Pounce comes into play with Lion's Charge (Spell Compendium, page 133).

Attack: Unarmed Strike + 6 Melee (1d4-1)
Full Attack: 100 Unarmed Strikes +4 Melee (1d4-1)
BAB/Grapple: +4/+200

Yes, that's +200 to grapple. Sword and Fist, page 62 states that every extra set of limbs grants +4 to grapple.

If you cast Claws of the Beast (Player's Guide to Faerûn, page 101) before you Wild Shape, your Unarmed Strike becomes 1d8.

Attack: Unarmed Strike +6 Melee (1d8-1)
Full Attack: 100 Unarmed Strikes +4 Melee (1d8-1)

The best part is, even if you're not in Centipede form, you're a 5th level Druid with 24 Wis and a fly speed. If you can continue getting feats past 6th level, pick up Natural Spell to be able to cast while Wild Shaped. You can do other stuff to optimise this with items and buffs from your allies. Dragonfire Inspiration is especially strong, thanks to the number of attacks you have.

[Ruethgar]

TO: Get some sleep powder and a +4 Lucid Dreaming(minimum, optimally you’ll want to hit DC 20 as often as possible). Alter the architecture to have a portal to the big baddie and Transdimentional Spell Traps of whatever you want to murder things with. Now you have 10 rounds per round to murder from another dimension.

There is also the pull it into the Dreamheart bit but I never really liked that. Plus the Dreamheart is logically the dream of the Leviathan and the DM might say you started to wake it up by going there so often.

Edit: It should also be noted in the post above me that Anthropomorphic Ravens have better stats than Bats via text trumps table, except for the blind sense thing. They also look cooler imo, manbat is meh.

[Mato]

3) Fighter 1. Feat: Power Lunge (Ghostwalk). Bonus: Improved Bull Rush.
Damage Bonus: 82 = [7 (avg greatsword) + 16 (26 Str w/ Power Lunge) + 18 (Power Attack x3)] x 2 (Headlong Rush)
Purple Worm is taking a permanent dirt nap with two hits.
Edit: I am impressed.Darrin used power lunge so his charge provokes an attack of opportunity. With the worm's superior reach +25 attack bonus he'll hit the barbarian dealing 21 damage (about half his hp), with improved grab the worm immediately starts a grapple against the barbarian and with a +40 bonus he isn't going to fail. Now grappled the barbarian cannot use his greatsword, needs to make an impossible grapple check to even attack, and his unarmed strike just doesn't have the same damage bonuses. The worm's natural resting place is below ground too so the barbarian can't even hit it until it comes out from under his feet to bite him which doesn't give the barbarian enough room to charge it in the first place. The barbarian is worm food.

In E6 you can play races with level adjustment by reducing your point buy. So a white dragonspawn kobold obtains two extra levels of sorcerer spellcasting for the mild expense of using 25 points at the start of his career. E6 also doesn't correct your effective level either when you use level adjustment, so it's possible to bring your effective level up to ten to combine with a planar touchstone keyed to the catalogues of enlightenment to access 5th level spells. But if you really want some thing iffy, take a character to level 6 and have him read a darklight tome (a minor artifact in official material). He can reprogress back to level six again for a second time except he gets to keep his previous ability scores, skills and feats from the first play through and this time he obtains 6th level spells plus you get animate/create/control undead as spell-like abilities too. Divine minion for manipulate form, mirror mephts to access Erbin, and Pazuzu are also good options too.

[Eldariel]

Why are you dealing damage again? Hit enemies in their weak points, not their strong ones. Purple Worm goes down to a simple Ray of Stupidity 100% of the time, for example. Shivering Touch does the same to most things. Then you have Ray of Enfeeblement and Clumsiness, and various ways to cause penalties, which can't knock someone down but make them very inefficient about acting. Fell Drain allows stacking negative levels; combine with Arcane Thesis & Twin Spell and metamagic reducers for your cantrip slots causing 2 each. Add Quicken to do 4 a round; Hail of Stone is an AOE.

What else, umm, Alter Self and Metamorphic Transfer/Assume Supernatural Ability (and optionally a way to Share Spells with a creature with the Outsider type) into a Jovoc and get the Aura. Need to be an Outsider so Neraphim/Tiefling/etc. or Human/Elf with Otherworldly. Share Pain/Shield Other to loop the damage. You can get infiniteish damage this way. Bypasses almost any defenses other than "be a tanar'ri".

Just make them helpless and Coup de Grace. E.g. the level 1 spell "Heartache" [BoVD] and the level 2 spell "Rigor Mortis" [Heroes of Horror] allow making enemies helpless for long enough to Coup de Grace them. Purple Worm's Will-save is a grand total of +4 so even a level 1 spell with 20 casting stat (DC16) is looking at it failing 55% of the time. If you have a bit higher casting stat or heighten the spell, you can get more. In the case of the Succubus, hitting its Fort would be smarter (about 50/50 or so for a level 3 caster using e.g. True Casting to bypass its SR) but frankly, a Succubus only has 33 HP so you're best off just killing it. A level 1 Whirling Pouncebarian can do enough damage to one-shot it if it gets to act and can bypass its DR (Orc Pouncebarian 1 has 26 Str while raging for 2d6+12 and two attacks for a total of 38 damage - 18 accounting for DR in which case you need a bit of extra). So it's just a matter of making that happen.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Why are you dealing damage again? Hit enemies in their weak points, not their strong ones. Purple Worm goes down to a simple Ray of Stupidity 100% of the time, for example. Shivering Touch does the same to most things. Then you have Ray of Enfeeblement and Clumsiness, and various ways to cause penalties, which can't knock someone down but make them very inefficient about acting. Fell Drain allows stacking negative levels; combine with Arcane Thesis & Twin Spell and metamagic reducers for your cantrip slots causing 2 each. Add Quicken to do 4 a round; Hail of Stone is an AOE.

What else, umm, Alter Self and Metamorphic Transfer/Assume Supernatural Ability (and optionally a way to Share Spells with a creature with the Outsider type) into a Jovoc and get the Aura. Need to be an Outsider so Neraphim/Tiefling/etc. or Human/Elf with Otherworldly. Share Pain/Shield Other to loop the damage. You can get infiniteish damage this way. Bypasses almost any defenses other than "be a tanar'ri".

Just make them helpless and Coup de Grace. E.g. the level 1 spell "Heartache" [BoVD] and the level 2 spell "Rigor Mortis" [Heroes of Horror] allow making enemies helpless for long enough to Coup de Grace them. Purple Worm's Will-save is a grand total of +4 so even a level 1 spell with 20 casting stat (DC16) is looking at it failing 55% of the time. If you have a bit higher casting stat or heighten the spell, you can get more. In the case of the Succubus, hitting its Fort would be smarter (about 50/50 or so for a level 3 caster using e.g. True Casting to bypass its SR) but frankly, a Succubus only has 33 HP so you're best off just killing it. A level 1 Whirling Pouncebarian can do enough damage to one-shot it if it gets to act and can bypass its DR (Orc Pouncebarian 1 has 26 Str while raging for 2d6+12 and two attacks for a total of 38 damage - 18 accounting for DR in which case you need a bit of extra). So it's just a matter of making that happen.

Oh, I hadn't thought of Heartache. Thanks!
I don't actually understand how the Jovoc loop works. I can see how using it makes the enemy take damage when they damage you, but in E6 pretty much everything will have more HP than you after a while. You'd have to combine this with some very good in-combat healing to make this worthwhile, right?