Max Damage in a single turn of combat

[Ganryu]

Just came from a different thread, and being a bad munchkin that I am, what's the most damage you could possibly do in a single turn? We will accept any idea, no matter how bad it is! I am waiting for the monks suplexing a mere guard for max fall damage. Or the sorcerer standing in the middle of his own Meteor Swarm. As long as in one turn, we do as much damage as possible.

Math I did earlier was the most damage would be dealt by a Warlock Paladin.

" just want to throw fuel on the fire. We can get so much more damage than that!

Warlock Paladin, an incredibly bad idea with a ton of burst damage!

Eldritch smite can combine with regular smite.

3/17 split, more warlock than paladin. Now, crits are not unbelievable in this build, because Pact of vengeance can give you advantage, hexblade can crit on a 19.

So let's say we are super lucky, and get two crits, we have great weapon fighting on, and our opponent is undead. we have 3 paladin spell slots at lvl 1, and 4 lvl 4 warlock spell slots.

Warlock smite + paladin smite + hex + GWM + 2 handed sword + hexblade's curse + charisma + ultimate weapon invocation
5d8 + 6d8 + 3d6 + 10 + 6 + 5 + 3
5d8 + 3d8 + 3d6 + 10 + 6 + 5 + 3
5d8 + 3d8 + 3d6 + 10 + 6 + 5 + 3

Lets assume crits, because Ganryu is bat**** insane, and it's not that far fetched. (Vengeance paladin and hexblade, so advantage, and can crit on a 19 or 20, more or less 1/125 chance)
30d8 + 24d8 + 18d6 + 30 + 18 + 15
(Max = 603)
120 + 96 + 54 + 30 + 18 + 15
333 damage average.

Now, that's alot of damage. "

Haven't done the math for it, but willing to bet hitting 3 Eldritch blasts in a turn will get us up there too.

[LudicSavant]

You should probably google up past threads in this vein, because 333 damage isn't even worth putting on the charts.

[jdolch]

If you go Warlock you have to at least do 666 Damage. Everybody knows that.

[Kaliayev]

You can't eldritch smite with only three levels in warlock.

[LudicSavant]

You can't eldritch smite with only three levels in warlock.

Yeah. Laid out clearly in the errata:


Eldritch Invocations (p. 110). The following sentence has been added to the end of the first paragraph: “A level prerequisite refers to your level in this class.”

So you need Warlock 5 for Eldritch Smite.

But he said he was "more Warlock than Paladin." So I think that means Paladin 3 / Warlock 17.

[Malifice]

Just came from a different thread, and being a bad munchkin that I am, what's the most damage you could possibly do in a single turn? We will accept any idea, no matter how bad it is! I am waiting for the monks suplexing a mere guard for max fall damage. Or the sorcerer standing in the middle of his own Meteor Swarm. As long as in one turn, we do as much damage as possible.

Math I did earlier was the most damage would be dealt by a Warlock Paladin.

" just want to throw fuel on the fire. We can get so much more damage than that!

Warlock Paladin, an incredibly bad idea with a ton of burst damage!

Eldritch smite can combine with regular smite.

3/17 split, more warlock than paladin. Now, crits are not unbelievable in this build, because Pact of vengeance can give you advantage, hexblade can crit on a 19.

So let's say we are super lucky, and get two crits, we have great weapon fighting on, and our opponent is undead. we have 3 paladin spell slots at lvl 1, and 4 lvl 4 warlock spell slots.

Warlock smite + paladin smite + hex + GWM + 2 handed sword + hexblade's curse + charisma + ultimate weapon invocation
5d8 + 6d8 + 3d6 + 10 + 6 + 5 + 3
5d8 + 3d8 + 3d6 + 10 + 6 + 5 + 3
5d8 + 3d8 + 3d6 + 10 + 6 + 5 + 3

Lets assume crits, because Ganryu is bat**** insane, and it's not that far fetched. (Vengeance paladin and hexblade, so advantage, and can crit on a 19 or 20, more or less 1/125 chance)
30d8 + 24d8 + 18d6 + 30 + 18 + 15
(Max = 603)
120 + 96 + 54 + 30 + 18 + 15
333 damage average.

Now, that's alot of damage. "

Haven't done the math for it, but willing to bet hitting 3 Eldritch blasts in a turn will get us up there too.

Over 1000 using the 3 core rule books alone. Probably more now with Xanathars etc out.

[BobZan]

You can do better, c'mon

[MaxWilson]

Open Hand Monk can do arbitrary amounts of damage with Quivering Palm. If the DM makes up a monster with a million HP (e.g. a Constellant from Spelljammer), and the Open Hand Monk can kill it 5% of the time with Quivering Palm, that's a DPR of 50,000 (especially if you go Open Hand 18/Fighter 2 for Action Surge).

Edit: another cheesy way to theoretically do thousands of points of damage is to exploit mounted combat rules, grappling, and Spike Growth. As an Action Surging Wood Elf Mobile Cavalier 4/Wizard 1 who's been Hasted by a friend, riding a succession of Phantom Steeds that have been Hasted by other friends and received Fly spells to avoid spike damage, under a permissive DM who's abiding by strict RAW on grappling/mounted combat for some strange reason despite the absurdity that results, I have base movement of 55' (35' Wood Elf + 10' Mobile + 10' Longstrider), x 2 for Haste, and Dash action + (Hasted Dash) + (Action Surge Dash) + (Expeditious Retreat bonus action Dash) for a total movement of 550', which I can spend to ride 55 different Flying Hasted Phantom Steeds 660' each (100' + 10' for Longstrider, x2 for Haste, x3 for Dash and Hasted Dash) for a grand total of 36,300', which means that once I grapple someone I can inflict approximately 14,520d4 (36,300) magical piercing damage next turn on whoever I've grappled. But it requires something like a hundred low-level wizards and druids helping me.

In other words, theorycrafting maximum burst damage in a vacuum isn't interesting and doesn't resemble anything that will actually happen in play. How about "who can make the lowest-level PC that can, with at least 90% probability, beat both Strahd and Demogorgon in an underground labyrinth in less than an hour?"

[Corran]

You can't eldritch smite with only three levels in warlock.

Yeah. Laid out clearly in the errata:



So you need Warlock 5 for Eldritch Smite.

We are a 2nd level warlock with two invocations. When we advance at level 3, we can retrain one of these invocations to another one. Given that at level 3 we also get pact of the blade, can we not retrain one of our invocations to ES? I guess one could say that you must first decide whether you retrain any invocation and then get to pick up level 3 warlock features, but I don't think there is a strict rule about the order in which you pick up new or retrain old features when you level up, so couldn't it go both ways, meaning DM's discretion?

[Malifice]

We are a 2nd level warlock with two invocations. When we advance at level 3, we can retrain one of these invocations to another one. Given that at level 3 we also get pact of the blade, can we not retrain one of our invocations to ES? I guess one could say that you must first decide whether you retrain any invocation and then get to pick up level 3 warlock features, but I don't think there is a strict rule about the order in which you pick up new or retrain old features when you level up, so couldn't it go both ways, meaning DM's discretion?

ES has a 'Warlock level 5' prerequisite.

[Corran]

ES has a 'Warlock level 5' prerequisite.
Ah, my bad. Thought it only required having pact of the blade. Should have checked before I posted. Thanks anyway though.

[TheMoxiousOne]

ES has a 'Warlock level 5' prerequisite.

Those goshdern prerequisites! What're those?

[Vorpalchicken]

Might I add that you need 5 levels in Warlock to perform an eldritch smite?