Best ranged attacker?

[Avigor]

What would make for the best ranged attacker, not counting just tossing spells around?

This thread exists because I recently noticed that an Elven Accuracy Half-Elf Hexblade Improved Pact Weapon Eldritch Smite Thirsting Blade Lifedrinker Warlock Crossbow Expert Sharpshooter with a hand crossbow is just plain ridiculous (albeit the strongest burst options do require using that bonus action for a spell instead of an attack), getting even worse if you multiclass 5 levels of Whisper Bard for Psychic Blades 3d6 Psychic "smite" Charisma bonus times per rest and 1 level of Fighter for Archery's +2 to hit. Too bad Divine Smite actually specifies that it only works for melee weapons as that discounts the insane ludicrous all-smites option.

If I start at level 1 as a Fighter I can wear full plate and pretend to be Robocop (and since I will likely lack the 15 Strength I'll be slowed and thus will more resemble the OG Robocop; I could even take Heavy Armor Mastery for more tankiness). If paired with either of the below MC options such as Champion Fighter or trading Warlock for Ranger but keeping the Fighter level it's even possible to gain the Defense fighting style for even more tankiness as well (albeit the Ranger + Fighter option does mean giving up Lifedrinker to boot).

As an alternative to full plate, I can take Medium Armor Mastery and Stealth proficiency and pretend that my half-plate is a Batsuit, even if Batman doesn't use guns very often (and in fact often claims he never does, despite there having been historical exceptions).

Then there are a few more multiclass options:

I can trade 3 levels of Warlock (losing Master of Hexes) for Rogue Assassinate for one shot, one kill with enemies I get the drop on; this would essentially require Stealth proficiency and expertise, all but guaranteed with the Rogue multiclass.

If I take 2 more levels of Fighter I can trade Master of Hexes for Action Surge 1/day and a Fighter archetype for either Improved Critical vs all, spontaneous advantage (Fighting Spirit) 3/day, 4 Superiority Dice per rest, or two Arcane Shots per rest.

If I trade 2 Warlock levels (sacrificing Master of Hexes) and the Fighter level to instead get 3 levels of Ranger, I can get the ability to just declare any attack to be pure Force damage with +1d8 at any time (at the cost of that bonus action), Dread Ambusher + Umbral Sight, a Hunter's Prey option, or Hunter's Sense + Slayer's Prey.

If I trade enough Warlock levels to get 10th level in Bard (which loses Master of Hexes, Lifedrinker, and Armor of Hexes, but adds 2d6 to Psychic Blades, and I'll still have 5th level Pact Magic for the strongest Eldritch Smite + Banishing Smite), I can gain access to Swift Quiver via Magical Secrets.


It seems that this build (and at least most variants... looking at you, Fighter, especially Samurai, those per day instead of per rest abilities make me feel disappointed) would be mostly limited by his ammo capacity and ability to take short rests. What else could make this even more insane? I know Mystic can do so but that's not in a standard book so yeah I won't take that into consideration at this time.

EDIT: just noticed that hand crossbows aren't listed in Improved Pact Weapon, so you can't get the bonus action attack from Crossbow Expert, but the rest is still sound as far as I can tell. Is there anything else I'm missing?

[Rerem115]

I've put a little thought into it too, but unfortunately it's probably better to go EB.

(For simplicity's sake, I'm assuming that you have a 20 in your relevant stat, know Hex and any required feats)

Round 1
Eldritch Blast Hex"blade" -- +11 to hit, 4 x 1d10+5+6 = 66
Sorlock Quicken -- +11 to hit, 8 x 1d10+5 = 84, burns 2 Sorcery Points
Sorlock Cheeseblade -- +11 to hit, 4 x 1d10+5+6 = 66

Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+6d8) = 119, burns 2 spell slots, less accurate
Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter/Bard Multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+6d8+3d6) = 140, burns 2 spell slots, less accurate, weakens progression

Round 2
Eldritch Blast Hex"blade" -- +11 to hit, 4 x 1d10+5+6+1d6 = 80 (146 total), burns 1 spell slot
Sorlock Quicken -- +11 to hit, 8 x 1d10+5 = 84 (168 total), burns 2 Sorcery Points (4 total)
Sorlock Quicken Cheeseblade -- +11 to hit, 8 x 1d10+5+6 = 132 (198 total), burns 2 Sorcery Points

Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+6d8+1d6) = 119 (228 total), burns last 2 Warlock spell slots, less accurate
Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter/Bard Multiclass -- +9 to hit, 1 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+6d8+3d6+1d6) + 1 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+3d6+1d6) = 120 (260 total), burns last 2 Warlock spell slots, burns 1 Bard spell slot less accurate, weakens progression

Round 3
Eldritch Blast Hex"blade" -- +11 to hit, 4 x 1d10+5+6+1d6 = 80 (226 total), has burned 1 spell slot
Sorlock Quicken -- +11 to hit, 8 x 1d10+5 = 84 (252 total), burns 2 Sorcery Points (6 total)
Sorlock Quicken Cheeseblade -- +11 to hit, 8 x 1d10+5+6 = 132 (330 total), burns 2 Sorcery Points (4 total)

Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10) = 65 (303 total), less accurate
Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter/Bard Multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+3d6+1d6) = 93 (353 total), less accurate, weakens progression, 1 Bard slot burned

Round 4
Eldritch Blast Hex"blade" -- +11 to hit, 4 x 1d10+5+6+1d6 = 80 (306 total), has burned 1 spell slot
Sorlock Quicken -- +11 to hit, 8 x 1d10+5 = 84 (336 total), burns 2 Sorcery Points (8 total)
Sorlock Quicken Cheeseblade -- +11 to hit, 8 x 1d10+5+6 = 132 (472 total), burns 2 Sorcery Points (6 total)

Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10) = 65 (368 total), less accurate
Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter/Bard Multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+3d6+1d6) = 93 (446 total), less accurate, weakens progression, 1 Bard slot burned


While the crazy multiclass build does have better nova, by the time round 4 hits, the standard EB SorHex has surpassed its damage and has a lot more of its resources remaining. It's actually kind of depressing how good EB is; it requires no feats or items (but still benefits from both!), synergizes amazingly with both Hexblade and Hex, and generally has a better level progression. While the smite build might have some memorable spikes on crits, you can't control the dice, and the damage curve of SorHex is just too good.

[Citan]

I've put a little thought into it too, but unfortunately it's probably better to go EB.

(For simplicity's sake, I'm assuming that you have a 20 in your relevant stat, know Hex and any required feats)

Round 1
Eldritch Blast Hex"blade" -- +11 to hit, 4 x 1d10+5+6 = 66
Sorlock Quicken -- +11 to hit, 8 x 1d10+5 = 84, burns 2 Sorcery Points
Sorlock Cheeseblade -- +11 to hit, 4 x 1d10+5+6 = 66

Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+6d8) = 119, burns 2 spell slots, less accurate
Heavy Crossbow Hexbow/Fighter/Bard Multiclass -- +9 to hit, 2 x (1d10+6+6+5+10+6d8+3d6) = 140, burns 2 spell slots, less accurate, weakens progression

While the crazy multiclass build does have better nova, by the time round 4 hits, the standard EB SorHex has caught up to its damage and has a lot more of its resources remaining. It's actually kind of depressing how good EB is; it requires no feats or items (but still benefits from both!), synergizes amazingly with both Hexblade and Hex, and generally has a better level progression. While the smite build might have some memorable spikes on crits, you can't control the dice, and the damage curve of SorHex is just too good.

I'd nuance your analysis with the two following facts.
1. Warlock can get several ways to provide advantage in a "permanent" (in context of a fight) and reliable (in terms of working in many situations and being maintainable in concentration) way.
Darkness+Devil's Sight or Greater Invisibility being the obvious ones.

2. And once you got advantage, with Elven Accuracy, the -5 penalty does not mean that much...
Not only, with the Hexblade improved critical, do you score heavy criticals many more times (which offsets the number of misses), even a +4 with triple advantage means even against an AC 17, while normally you'd have only 63% chance to hit, now you get 1-(0.60*0.60*0.60) = 81% chance to hit.

Compare to that regular weapon attack (no -5), 99% chance to hit.
Or to EB, +11 with classic advantage, 93% chance.
And that is against AC 17.
It means that...
- against high AC targets, you can "just hit" whatever spell/weapon you use as long as it's an attack.
- against lower AC targets, you can "just power hit" enemies.

So that +10 ends at a huge difference. And this is before taking smites into consideration, which can be kept precisely for one of the several times when you'll score a critical (30% chance against Hexed enemy).
On that note, multiclassing Whispers Bard is one of your best bets for sustainable nova, but I won't digress. ^^

Then comes the questions of action economy and short rests.

3. Action economy: Sorcerer is the best multiclass thanks to Quicken (GI / Darkness).
But Bard is the next best thing: you can pick Find Familiar with Magic Secrets to have it use a Ring (honestly though would double check that one with DM first ;)) while getting many other goodies. Or you may throw away Lifedrinker to instead get Bard "main" and pick Simulacrum or simply Contingency to auto-get your buff up and going for the toughest fight, no action/bonus action required.

4. Short rests: Sorcerer and Bard get Catnap which is essentially "Warlock 20 but earlier for 10* time". Both also get Polymorph which can be used for all sorts of shenanigans to (short) rest unless really, really hostile environment. Bard finally also gets Leomund's Tiny Hut and can grab Rope Trick from Magic Secrets (as Lore obviously).

---
So, really, if one is set on using the same combo until it gets old or debunked by enemy factions (which is reasonably bound to happen, but may be at level 7 or level 13 really depends on campaign/DM), you can deal much better damage than Eldricht Blast for "overall comparable resource consumption".

By the way, the highest nova damage is actually not requiring any Sharpshooter neither Crossbow Expert but that's another story.

[Rerem115]

I'd nuance your analysis with the two following facts.
1. Warlock can get several ways to provide advantage in a "permanent" (in context of a fight) and reliable (in terms of working in many situations and being maintainable in concentration) way.
Darkness+Devil's Sight or Greater Invisibility being the obvious ones.

2. And once you got advantage, with Elven Accuracy, the -5 penalty does not mean that much...
Not only, with the Hexblade improved critical, do you score heavy criticals many more times (which offsets the number of misses), even a +4 with triple advantage means even against an AC 17, while normally you'd have only 63% chance to hit, now you get 1-(0.60*0.60*0.60) = 81% chance to hit.

Compare to that regular weapon attack (no -5), 99% chance to hit.
Or to EB, +11 with classic advantage, 93% chance.
And that is against AC 17.
It means that...
- against high AC targets, you can "just hit" whatever spell/weapon you use as long as it's an attack.
- against lower AC targets, you can "just power hit" enemies.



I didn't include permanent trivantage from Elven Accuracy+Darkness+Devil's sight in the equation because both variants have access to it, being Warlocks. The weapon variant appreciates the increased critical chance a little more, but it's a wash overall. Also, it requires you to make assumptions about the target's AC. On that note, at 20th level, most threats have somewhere between 19-25 effective AC, which means that the to-hit penalty of Sharpshooter is still relevant and potentially painful.

While high level characters do have many ways of mitigating resource expenditure, it's still possible to catch you with your pants down if you can't take a rest immediately after a fight for one reason or another, so I wouldn't dismiss the fact that the weapon variant burns through spell slots quickly out of hand.

*EDIT*
I made a slight miscalculation; with 6 levels taken up by Bard and Fighter, the character would have at most 3 spell slots, so I have to remove some damage from my calculations.

[Citan]

I didn't include permanent trivantage from Elven Accuracy+Darkness+Devil's sight in the equation because both variants have access to it, being Warlocks. The weapon variant appreciates the increased critical chance a little more, but it's a wash overall. Also, it requires you to make assumptions about the target's AC. On that note, at 20th level, most threats have somewhere between 19-25 effective AC, which means that the to-hit penalty of Sharpshooter is still relevant and potentially painful.

While high level characters do have many ways of mitigating resource expenditure, it's still possible to catch you with your pants down if you can't take a rest immediately after a fight for one reason or another, so I wouldn't dismiss the fact that the weapon variant burns through spell slots quickly out of hand.

*EDIT*
I made a slight miscalculation; with 6 levels taken up by Bard and Fighter, the character would have at most 3 spell slots, so I have to remove some damage from my calculations.
Honestly that argument is irrelevant.
First because nobody forces you to use the -5+10.
Second because nobody forces you either to use weapon attacks if the priority is to hit reliably.
Third because even a Warlock focusing on weapon attacks may still multiclass into Sorcerer, and get Quicken, which stresses previous point.

Fourth, and the most important, because nobody should care that much about level 20.
My point is, with Elven Accuracy + Sharpshooter, you rock from level 4 to level 20.
With Eldricht Blast, you rock from level 11 to level 20.

Also, not including triple advantage on the premise both variants have access to it is at least a big flaw of reasoning, if not borderline intellectual dishonesty.
Precisely because the impact of triple advantage is vastly varying depending on where you start from, so on a -5 to hit it provides a tremendous help.
It's not *AT ALL* a wash. Confer my sourced illustration.

At level 8, attacking an AC 16 target...
- EB, considering optimized for that from start (so 20 CHA: 17 start + Elven Accuracy + 2 CHA) will have a chance to hit of ~99% with Elven Accuracy (3+5 needs 8 min, normal chance 65%, advantage 87%), dealing (1d10+5)*2 = 21 average.
- Sharpshooter, considering optimized for that from start (so 20 DEX: 17 start + Elven Accuracy + 2 DEX OR even 20 CHA because you got Improved Magic Weapon to directly use longbow): same chance to hit of 99% with Elven Accuracy, dealing (1d8+5)*2 = 19 average...
OR get improved damage by tanking accuracy, getting instead of +8 just a +3: now needing a 13 roll: normal chance 40%, with advantage 64%, with triple advantage >80%.

And that is before taking into account things that can help you with to-hit with weapon attacks: Improved Weapon Pact, Sacred Weapon (Paladin 3), Archery (Fighter 1), or simply finding magic weapons, which are far enough to completely crush Eldricht Blast.
Provided of course you want to optimize that much, which is not necessary either imo (although maybe one starting level of Fighter may be worth).

There is also the question of cover. Intelligent enemies will usually try and get at least half-cover, from environment or (their) enemies itselves. This is especially true in narrow places like dungeons often have. Sharpshooter guy will have no problem, contrarily to EB one (unless this one decided to pick Spell Sniper instead of +2 CHA).

And there is the question of range: longbow with Sharpshooter provides an effective range of 600 feet, which EB user can reach only with severe investmnet (Spell Sniper feat + Eldricht Lance).

At level 12, Eldricht Blast simply loses the competition.
Past the first round when you use bonus action to setup whatever you'd like...
- Eldricht Blast is only 3 attacks with 1d10+5.
- Blade one (having picked Crossbow Expert as level 12 feat + Lifedrinker) has 3 attacks each dealing 1d6+5+5, and that is *before* deciding whether to use Sharpshooter benefit or not.
So, with *absolutely no other resource than one spell slot*, you can deal more damage as reliably (if going hand crossbow) or deal less damage with total security (by staying at very long range).

And at level 17 (provided pure Warlock of course), you can buff yourself with Foresight in the first place. So, instead of using Darkness/Greater Invisibility, and provided in spited of reaching that level you didn't find any decent magical weapon (doubtful), you can buff yourself with an auto-upcasted Elemental Weapon.
Meaning another +2 to-hit and +2d4 on every attack.
Meaning...
- EB: 4*(1d10+5) = 42 (o/).
- Blade: 3*(1d10+5+5+2d4) = 3*(20.5) = 61.5, before trying -5+10 or using smites.

In other words, Elven Accuracy is completely overkill for the sake of optimizing Eldricht Blast until level 17, while it's the perfect fit (possibly even deemed required depending on your view about bearing bad rolls) for any guy that wants to be a Sharpshooter, unless such a guy is ready to build a heavy multiclass to make Elven Accuracy equally irrelevant by pushing to-hit through static bonuses..

Whether investing that much into dealing damage as a Warlock is interesting is equally irrelevant by the way: if this is the concept someone wants to play, then it's good enough of a reason.
If a player wants to deal "a pure Warlock dealing as much damage as possible", it's equally a good choice.

If on the contrary a player just wants to "optimize the build investment on a Warlock", then obviously I'd agree the best advice is "just choose anything other than Pact and simply pick Repelling Blast and Agonizing Blast somewhere along the way".

[Rerem115]

Honestly that argument is irrelevant.
First because nobody forces you to use the -5+10.
Second because nobody forces you either to use weapon attacks if the priority is to hit reliably.

That WAS the topic of the OP, "best ranged attacker, not counting just tossing spells around". I was using a known value (SorHex) as a point of comparison, mostly to satisfy my own curiosity as to whether going weapons or spells was quantifiably better.



Third because even a Warlock focusing on weapon attacks may still multiclass into Sorcerer, and get Quicken, which stresses previous point.

Hmm, come to think of it, that could be an interesting build for a high-level campaign; Warlock 12/Fighter 1/Sorcerer X. Pop off a couple shots with your bow, then fire the finger lasers for even more damage. For melee focused builds, swap EB for a SCAG cantrip.



Fourth, and the most important, because nobody should care that much about level 20.


It was the white room scenario given by the OP, a theoretical max level triclassed Warlock.



Also, not including triple advantage on the premise both variants have access to it is at least a big flaw of reasoning, if not borderline intellectual dishonesty.
Precisely because the impact of triple advantage is vastly varying depending on where you start from, so on a -5 to hit it provides a tremendous help.

I just wanted to scribble out some back-of-the-napkin damage calculations; just white-room no tactics damage. I was still surprised that even when accuracy wasn't a factor, EB+Quicken still managed to out-damage Smite+SS by round 4.



And that is before taking into account things that can help you with to-hit with weapon attacks: Improved Weapon Pact, Sacred Weapon (Paladin 3), Archery (Fighter 1), or simply finding magic weapons, which are far enough to completely crush Eldricht Blast.

Since it is a class feature, I did include Improved Weapon Pact and Archery in my calculations. I didn't add Paladin 3 because then you'd be a Warlock 11/everything else 9, which means you'd miss out on Lifedrinker. If magic items are coming into play though, then both would wind up with a +3 item, since Wands of the Pact Keeper exist, so for simplicity's sake I didn't add any (if I did, I think they'd favor EB though, since that +3 damage would stack up fast when added 8 times a turn).



There is also the question of cover. Intelligent enemies will usually try and get at least half-cover, from environment or (their) enemies itselves. This is especially true in narrow places like dungeons often have. Sharpshooter guy will have no problem, contrarily to EB one (unless this one decided to pick Spell Sniper instead of +2 CHA).

Good point. It means that the EB build has 2 core feats (SpSn+EA) instead of 1, while the weapon variant has 3 (SS+CE+EA).



At level 12, Eldricht Blast simply loses the competition.
Past the first round when you use bonus action to setup whatever you'd like...
- Eldricht Blast is only 3 attacks with 1d10+5.
- Blade one (having picked Crossbow Expert as level 12 feat + Lifedrinker) has 3 attacks each dealing 1d10+5+5, and that is *before* deciding whether to use Sharpshooter benefit or not.
So, with *absolutely no other resource than one spell slot*, you can deal more damage as reliably.

I'm not sure where you're getting the third attack; if you're using Crossbow Expert, the bonus action attack requires you to use a hand crossbow as your primary weapon. Problem is, as the OP stated, you can't get a Hand Crossbow as your pact weapon. Level 12 is probably when the weapon variant is strongest compared to EB; all of its core parts have just come on line, and EB hasn't picked up its 4th shot yet. EB comes on line earlier and scales harder, but for the 12-16 level window, it's very close.

[Keravath]

"EDIT: just noticed that hand crossbows aren't listed in Improved Pact Weapon, so you can't get the bonus action attack from Crossbow Expert, but the rest is still sound as far as I can tell. Is there anything else I'm missing?"

Improved pact weapon allows you to summon bows/crossbows as your pact weapon. However, you can transform any magic weapon into your pact weapon with an hour long ritual. So if you find a magic hand crossbow you can make it your pact weapon. If it already has a +1 to hit/damage then improved pact weapon will not affect it ... however, if it doesn't have a +1 bonus then improved pact weapon will add it.

In addition, a hexblade can use hand crossbows with their hex warrior feature since it is one-handed. Only two handed weapons are excluded from the hex warrior feature using charisma for to hit/damage. So you can pick any hand crossbow and just use it with charisma.

[MeeposFire]

I figure it does not do the most damage but I really like it due to its skill use and defensive options on top of some good ranged damage.

Fighter8(EK)/warlock2/rogue10

Using warmagic you get EB and then a ranged weapon attack as a bonus action with sneak attack damage. I like getting crossbow expert with it so you can still fire at close range. The sharp shooter feat can still be good though more for its ability to ignore cover rather than the damage. You get access to expertise, uncanny dodge, and evasion so you have some solid defensive and skill options to go with some very solid offense.

Alternatively you can get only 7 levels of fighter and increase your rogue level to 11. This gives you reliable skill use and more sneak attack at the cost of an ASI.

One nice thing about this combo that may not be obvious is that unlike many multiclass combinations it works very well from level 1-20 with no real dead times as you will always be effective. Level 1-8 you are a straight fighter which is very effective, you then gain your warlock levels which pairs well with your warmagic ability, and then you gain rogue levels which improves your damage, skills, and defensive options. Very effective and you will not feel like you are waiting to be effective.

[Rukelnikov]

Well here are a couple builds:

Bolt and Blast!

The idea here is combining weapon attacks with spell attacks, a littlr unreliable because of the to hit, but funny and viable.
Attack x3 with HXbow, quicken EB! Improved Pact Weapon helps us with to hit

Aasimar(Protector) Ftr11(BM)/Sor6/Hex3

ASIs: +2 Cha, +1 Cha +1Dex, SS, ??
Invocations: Ago Blast, IPW(Heavy Xbow)
Concentration: Hex

XB: Attack: +9 (+6+5+2+1-5) Damage: 1d10+1d6+5+6+10+1 = 31
EB: Attack: +11 (+6+5) Damage: 1d10+1d6+5+6 = 20

1st: 3*31 + 4*20 + 20(Aasimar) + 3d10 (Superiority) = 207.5 (2 sorcery, 3 superiority)
2nd: 3*31 + 4*20 + 20(Aasimar) + 2d10 (Superiority) = 202 (2 sorcery, 2 superiority)
3rd: 3*31 + 4*20 + 20(Aasimar) = 191 (2 sorcery)

Total: 600.5

You still have AS, and can recover 4 sorcery points per short rest.

This is complete BS, because in practice you would have to spend your BA switching Hex, and with +9 to hit, you are not gonna hit every attack. However, switching would mean saving some sorcery points, and because of the damage we are dealing, we could use the superiority dice for precision attack instead of damage + rider.

In practice its probably better to go EK instead of BM, you could use the extra spell knowns, you would count as a lvl 9 caster for slots, get a familiar, and I think it would make the lower levels better.

************************

Now for a more "flexible" one, which I like because it uses Tenser Tranformation which is something I never see being used.

Pegasus Whisper

The idea here is to fly on a Pegasus raining death from above with a pretty good crit fishing build that deals respectable damage even when it doesn't crit, has 3 lvls of room for "customization" (more on that at the end), and can always go back to spellcasting if need be.

Helf(Any)
Bard16(WH)/Lock1(Hex)/Variable3

8 8
15+1 16
8 8
15+1 16
8 8
15+2+3 20

ASIs:

ASIs: XBE, +2 Cha, SS, EA(+1Cha)
Magical Secrets: Find Greater Steed, Aid??, Tenser's, Find Familiar??
Concentration: Tenser's

What does Tenser bring to the table:

50 tmp hp, it will block a couple hits
Advantage on all weapon attacks, we get trivantage on every attack!
+2d12 force damage, we are already crit fishing, this is awesome
Proficiency with all weapons, armors and shield... not very useful tbh
Proficiency in Str and Con saves!!! This is awesome, the spell has a built in method to not lose concentration on it.
Attack twice when we take the attack action! Take that swords and valor!


And the awesome part, everything above applies to our Pegasus! So it will have 109 EHP (more if Aid was used prior), and AC 18 if it is allowed to equip armor (it will have proficiency thanks to Tenser)

Finally we would end up with:

XB: Attack: +6 (+6+5-5) Damage: 1d6+2d12+5+6+10+1 = 38.5

This +6 is pretty deceptive, with trivantage it is just a bit less likely to hit any given opponent than someone attacking at +9 with advantage, and just a bit BETTER than someone attacking at +13 without advantage. Also, we will LIKELY have a magic weapon by this point, and with 3vantage every +1 makes an absurd difference in DPR. And if the enemy happens to have a ridiculous AC (25+), we can just not use SS, and att at +11.

1st: 3*38.5 = 115.5 + 8d6 (whisper) = 143.5

Again this is complete BS, because in practice you would spend your whisper smites on crits. With trivantage on 3 attacks your odds of critting are really good (~61% a round), and when you crit it will make a lot of difference (+9d6+2d12 = 44.5).

Now, we still have 3 levels left, than can help us become even more awesome:

3 more levels of Bard, gets us another ASI, 2 more magical secrets, 9th level spells, and a couple more high level slots (a second 6th for more Tenser)
3 levels of Ranger gets us +2 to attacks and Horde Breaker for an extra attack when conditions are met. (since we fly as long as there 2 enemies side by side we can do it)
3 lvls of Rogue, gets us Assassin, combined with whisper smite, its an absurd first round damage, and the always advantage assures +2d6 every round, it also gives us cunning action.
3 lvl of Ftr gets us +2 to attacks, Maneuvers, and AS that we can use in any round in which we didn't crit, as not to "waste" that rounds whisper smite on a non crit.

I honestly think this build deals massively more damage than the previous one, when on paper it may seem like it doesn't.

NOTE: Straying a bit from the Ranged DPS thing, if we have the stones to fight on the ground, we could get a Rhinoceros instead of a Pegasus and with TT the Rhino is a complete beast, making 2 attacks at +7 with advantage for 2d8+2d12+5 = 27 plus an extra 2d8(9) on each and 2 chances to knock the enemy prone provided it moved 20 ft before attacking. Bonus points if you call him Rhymenoceros.