Building a Tac-Nuke

[Dustdoom]

So, I'm looking to build a character as a tac-nuke using 5e. Essentially, the character doesn't have to have sustainable damage, just a large amount over the course of a few rounds. I'm just looking for a ridiculous damage output in as few rounds as possible.
Rules: Level 13 or lower
Unearthed Arcana Allowed
Official Aupplements Allowed
Elminster's Guide to Magic Allowed
Multiclassing Allowed
All Races Allowed
Any Feats Allowed

[leogobsin]

So if you're really looking at pure highest possible damage in a single round, Four Elements monk's Water Whip and Fist of Unbroken Air both let you spend extra Ki to increase their damage, and because those two disciplines aren't actually casting spells, they aren't subject to the monk's rules on the maximum Ki you can spend on a spell. Technically, at 13th level you could spend all 13 of your Ki points to deal 14d10 damage in a single action. This is gonna leave you severely disadvantaged until your next short rest and is probably a very bad idea, but you could do it.

[UrielAwakened]

The Harvest Druid Magic Missile build is probably what you want.

[Quoxis]

If there aren’t any restrictions on stats:
Goblin - fury of the small
Paladin 6 for divine smite, divine favor spell and extra attack, champion fighter 3 for fighting style and action surge, grave cleric 4 for spell slots and „path to the grave“.
Path to the grave (opponent has vulnerability to all the attacks‘ damage types) as an action, bonus action casting of divine favor, then action surge to attack twice, smite both times (once for 1d10+5d8+1d4, once for 1d10+4d8+1d4, 13 extra damage from goblin‘s fury of the small - and the enemy has vulnerability to all of it, so double damage) which is on average [5+20+2+5+16+2+13]x2 = 126 damage in one turn if my math isn’t off. You also have a 10% crit chance on both of the attacks.
Bring a vacuum to get rid of the bit of dust that once was your bbeg.

[Mortis_Elrod]

So im just gonna ignore the Elminster's Guide to Magic, for simplicity sake and that its homebrew.


That being said i kind of don't need anything besides the Mystic UA.

So....Soul Knife 17/ Fighter 2/Hexblade 1. (You can leave out a few steps for desire goal of level 13. Soul Knife 12/Hexblade 1 works well though no action surge from fighter. Grab it later next couple levels then finish with soul knife).

Two weapon fighting style on the Fighter. Spend ASIs on Int+ 2 (x2) and Dex +2(x2), on Human Variant. Feat is Magic initiate for Wizard. Find Familiar and 2 cantrips (doesn't matter which ones). For point buy i would use: 8/16/10/16/10/13. Unless Beastial Claws is determined by your DM to use Str. In which case: 12/16/8/16/8/13. You will lose out on 20 hp but thats not much anyway considering the high defenses you can have with Mystics.

Step 1.Have Soul Knives already out with a +4 bonus to attack and damage from Hone the Blade. (7points)

Step 2.Use Psionic Mastery to spend 11 points on concentrating between Ogre Form(Giant Growth), Giant Form(Giant Growth), and Incite Fury(Mantle of Fury) targeting yourself. This can happen before or after Step 1, They do not conflict but can't happen on same turn (both use the bonus action). Ideally have ready pre-fight.

Step 3. Have Familiar out and ready to Help, giving you advantage.

Step 4. Combat Starts against big bad guy, who doesn't have resistance to slashing damage. Use bonus action for Hexblade's Curse. Giving you 19-20 crit range, and every attack does your proficiency bonus as extra damage (+6 at this point. +5 at level 13).

Step 5. Now its time to burst. We will be using Bestial Claws(Bestial Form) for most of the damage. Its important to know how Psionic Disciplines work for this*. You will now use all of your psi points (except for 7) on Bestial Claws, each time using 1 psi point. This will equal to (1d10 + Int mod + Prof Bonus+ 1d4 (Incite Fury) + 1d4 (Ogre Form) + 2d6( Giant Form))x57(or 50 if level 13 build also note to remove incite fury or ogre form since level 11 psionic mastery is only 9 special points).
If you did step 3 all of this is at advantage with 19-20 crit range. Expect some crits.

Step 6. Now you will use your action to Attack the target with your soul knives. The attack will be doing 1d8 + Dex mod + Proff Bonus + 4(Hone the Blade) + 2(1)d8 (Potent Psionics) + 1d4 (Incite Fury) + 1d4 (Ogre Form) + 2d6( Giant Form).

Step 7. You will now Action Surge repeating Step 6. Remove Potent Psionics from the calculation and use your reaction to use Knock Back (Brute Force) for additional 70 feet of knock back in a straight line and if they hit an object (likely scenario in most environments) they take 7d6 additional damage. This will use the last of your psi points.



Adding all of the steps together for level 20 build:
Step 5: average of 1624.5 damage without crits.
Step 6: average of 40.5 damage without crit.
step 7: average damage 56 (if hit an object).

Grand total without crits: 1721 damage


* If a Discipline's power does not list an action, it does not cost any action. Further more all psionic disciplines use your Psionic Ability (Intelligence) for attack rolls and saving throws. This includes weapon attack rolls. Lastly, there is no 'limiter' to how many times you can use a psionic discipline like there are with spells (reffering to bonus action cast spell and such), besides action economy. This means that Bestial Claws can be used any number of times as long as you have the psi points to use it. . Yes this is broken. No i would not approve this as a dm (would make it be a bonus action or action user choice) But this is the RAW.

So there.

[MegenticPull]

The Harvest Druid Magic Missile build is probably what you want.

Even if UA is allowed, almost every UA (including this one) has a note about not being tuned for multiclassing.

But if your DM is going to allow you to multiclass with UA content, this is 100% the right answer.