How to roll the most damage dice per turn (without needing a crit)?

[samcifer]

So I got curious as to how to roll as many damage dice as possible during a single turn without needing to get a crit.

Let's say it's a level 11 character using all legal content to draw from in 5e. Also, 2 classes max to keep things reasonable as to making a plausible character.

Other than a rogue/paladin multiclass, I can't think of much.

[Jervis]

So I got curious as to how to roll as many damage dice as possible during a single turn without needing to get a crit.

Let's say it's a level 11 character using all legal content to draw from in 5e. Also, 2 classes max to keep things reasonable as to making a plausible character.

Other than a rogue/paladin multiclass, I can't think of much.

Insert the bugbear ranger/fighter build that deals something around 250 damage in a surprise round here

[Naanomi]

Only two classes? Fighter/Sorcerer maybe? Just throw around whatever high dice count spells you can twice plus a cantrip

[kazaryu]

Only two classes? Fighter/Sorcerer maybe? Just throw around whatever high dice count spells you can twice plus a cantrip

quicken doesn't work with action surge in that way. if you cast any spell as a BA, the only other spells you can cast that turn are action casting time cantrips. so you'd want to just cast 2 spells using action surge. i think you'd want to do something like

cast delayed blast fireball.
on a later turn: cast delayed blast fireball as an 8th level spell, action surge: cast meteor swarm. which would net you

40d6 from meteor swarm and 26d6 (minimum) from both delayed blast fireballs. with 1 extra die added for every turn you wait, up to a max of 35d6. so...66-75 damage dice in a single turn.

that being said, i think OP intended for number of damge dice on an attack, or from attacks in a single turn. not just damage dice total (based on the title).

so...im thinking some combination of 11 levels in eldritch knight 2 levels (at least) in paladin, and possibly some levels in a full caster (or maybe 5 levels in warlock for eldritch smite) to get higher spell slots. which would get you up to 7 attacks in a turn that you can dump smites into....so i think you'll want to not go warlock.

if you just put the levels in a full casting class i think you overall end up with more. so something like
11EK, 2 paladin, 7 wizard would be an overall casting level of 11. and high enough level to cast spirit shroud. so if you precast spirit shroud at 5th level. then the following turn do the full attacking thing you get

7 dice (weapon)+ 14dice( spirit shroud)+ 33dice (divine smite (3x4thlevel 1x5th level, 1x6th level, 2x3rd level)) for a total of 54 dice.

of course if you add in magic weapons and allys you can also get an extra 2dice from holy weapon, 1 die from divine favor and 2 dice from a flame tongue *per hit* for an extra 35 dice, so 89.

of course, an 18wizard/2fighter could do spirit shroud at 7th level, then next turn do 9th level scorching ray-.action surge: 8th level scorching ray. with each ray getting 5 dice per hit (2d6+3d8) meaning a total of 95 dice rolled if they all hit.

[animorte]

Monks probably get the most attack rolls because of Flurry of Blows. Pair that with Fighter's Action Surge. Maybe two-weapon fighting style.

Maybe some form of Eldritch Knight 7 with War Magic and Magic Initiate for Eldritch Blast 3 attack rolls. Add Sorcerer's Twinned Spell.

I was initially thinking about damage dice (AoE spells, Sneak Attack, etc.) but then reread the title. Attack, not damage.

[Speely]

Monks probably get the most attack rolls because of Flurry of Blows. Pair that with Fighter's Action Surge. Maybe two-weapon fighting style.

Maybe some form of Eldritch Knight 7 with War Magic and Magic Initiate for Eldritch Blast 3 attack rolls. Add Sorcerer's Twinned Spell.

I was initially thinking about damage dice (AoE spells, Sneak Attack, etc.) but then reread the title. Attack, not damage.

I thought the same, but upon reading the content of the first post, they clearly meant damage dice. You were right from jump.

[samcifer]

Yeah, sorry. I meant number of damage dice, not number of attacks per turn. I updated the name of the thread to avoid further confusion.

[animorte]

I thought the same, but upon reading the content of the first post, they clearly meant damage dice. You were right from jump.

Yeah, sorry. I meant number of damage dice, not number of attacks per turn.

In that case, the number of damage dice is directly relevant to how many enemies you are facing.

I would say that you could summon a swarm of something and then cast a massive AoE to hit as many enemies as possible while your summons also do everything they have at their disposal, perhaps even more AoE.

[kazaryu]

In that case, the number of damage dice is directly relevant to how many enemies you are facing.

I would say that you could summon a swarm of something and then cast a massive AoE to hit as many enemies as possible while your summons also do everything they have at their disposal, perhaps even more AoE.

That doesnt require a swarm a 3rd level fireball is still only 8 dice, no matter how many enemies it hits

[samcifer]

And what if we focus on maxing damage on attacks that require an attack roll (thereby opening up the possibility of doubling damage dice on a crit)?

[strangebloke]

No magic items/spell support from allies? Okay. Here's a start.

bugbear thief 17/ battlemaster fighter 3.

Use alert + ambush to win initiative by a LOT. Apply purple worm poison to blade as a bonus action (fast hands). First attack deals 1d8 (rapier) + 9d6 (SA) + 12d6 (purple worm) + 1d8 (trip attack) + 2d6 (surprise attack/bugbear)

You get a second turn (lightning reflexes) and enemy still hasn't gone. You apply purple worm poison again (fast hands). New turn, new sneak attack. 1d8 (rapier) + 9d6 (SA) + 12d6 (purple worm) + 1d8 (trip attack) + 2d6 (surprise attack/bugbear)

You action surge. You ready an action to attack as a reaction after your turn. New turn new sneak attack. 1d8 (rapier) + 9d6 (sneak attack) + 1d8(trip attack) + 2d6 (surprise attack/bugbear)

That's 6d8+57d6+15.

obviously loses a lot if you don't allow purple worm poison, or if the enemy succeeds on saves or you miss, but that's show biz. I think this is the best you can do without magic, though as already mentioned spirit shroud and such are the way to go.

[kazaryu]

And what if we focus on maxing damage on attacks that require an attack roll (thereby opening up the possibility of doubling damage dice on a crit)?
Oh shoot, sorry.my.previous suggestions missed the '11th level' limitation.

Ummm, in that case probably wizard 9/fighter 2. Basically the same as above, but using lower spell slots. 5th level spirit shroud means 2 extra dice per ray. So 4 di e per ray. Using 4th level slots to cast the ray you get 10 rays total. So 20d6+20d8. That'll be tough to match.

If you want to stack more per attack, even if its fewer overall dice. Then bladelock5 paladin 6 then you can do

4d6 (greatsword)+ 6d8(divine smite)+8d8(eldritch smite)+2d6(thunderous smite or hex) for 20 total dice in 2 attacks...

Otoh paldin 9+fighter 2 would have 4 attacks and bigger spell slots so..
8d6(greatsword) +14d8(divine smite)+2d6 thunderous smite) which is 24...

[animorte]

That doesnt require a swarm a 3rd level fireball is still only 8 dice, no matter how many enemies it hits
I was thinking the exact same thing after I went to bed, but not willing to get up to correct myself. Thank you.

[Sorinth]

Since the op mentioned level 11, how about something along the lines of a Bugbear Battlemaster 8/Gloomstalker 3.

BA Hunter's Mark then Attack action for 3 attacks, action surge for another 3 and spending all your superiority dice and using a greatsword would give you 30d6 + 6d8 (Extra one from fighting style or feat).

[Amechra]

The cheesy answer is actually (drumroll please)...

Our Poor, Poor Contestant

A Boros Legionaire Hill Dwarf Fighter 2/Evocation Wizard 18. Take the Tough and Durable feats (because we're going to need the bonus HP), max out your Constitution, and pick up a Periapt of Wound Closure.

Assuming that you didn't roll for HP, you should have 248 HP, and you should recover 20 HP per hit-die you spend, meaning we can more-or-less go back to full HP with a single short rest. You can also cast a damaging spell at-will thanks to Spell Mastery (let's say Burning Hands). Cool, right?

Preparation

We want to Overchannel as many times as we possibly can. Assuming for simplicity that all dice roll their average, overchanneling 8 times drops us to 20 HP. We can then take a short rest, spend 11 HD and our Second Wind, and go back up to full. The second time around, cast Death Ward on yourself... because four more overchannels are going to hit you for 273 damage. Death Ward triggers, leaving you at 1 HP — take another short rest and spend all of your remaining HD (and Second Wind) to bring yourself back up to ~188 HP. Cast Death Ward on yourself again, and overchannel three more times, triggering it again, leaving you at 1 HP.

OK, so so far you've Overchanneled 15 times and you've spent two of your ten level 4+ spell slots. Burn through all of your remaining high-level spell slots other than one 5th level spell slot, for a total of 22 total Overchannels. Take a short rest, and use Arcane Recovery to get back a 4th level slot and a 5th level slot. Cast one last Death Ward on yourself with that 4th level slot, then get ready for the fight of your life.

The Actual Round of Combat

With your Action, Overchannel a damaging spell out of one of your remaining 5th level slots — it doesn't matter what spell you're casting, because what we really care about is the 115d12 Necrotic damage you just dealt to yourself! Luckily, Death Ward doesn't have a clause that prevents it from working if the damage would be enough to insta-kill you, so you go to 1 HP instead of dying... so you can Action Surge and Overchannel another damaging spell out of the other 5th level spell slot, dealing 120d12 Necrotic damage to yourself... which probably turbo-kills you.

Congratulations! You just rolled 235 damage dice in a single turn! My condolences to your next of kin.

[Kane0]

Simple baseline:
Paladin 11 with GWM spamming smites with a greatsword would be 6d6 + 3d8 + 12d8 plus another 3d8 vs fiends or undead
Edit:
1) If you pre-cast Hex/Hunter's Mark/Divine Favor that's another 3 dice.
2) Gift of the Chromatic Dragon and Poisoner feats net you an extra 3d4 and 2d8 respectively
3) Someone Hasting you is of course an extra 2d6 +1d8 +1d6 + whatever smite you put in

Stupid idea 1:
Vuman or TCL Battlemaster 11 with Gift of the Chromatic Dragon, Poisoner, Fey Touched (Hex/Hunter's Mark) and Crossbow Expert. This uses all your ASIs so hope you rolled well for stats.

Prepare by applying feat poison and a dose of basic poison to your quiver, GotCD to your crossbow and Hunter's/Hex to your target. This will take minimum of two turns but you have a minute to work with.

Action surge with your Extra Attack x2, burning all your maneuvers. This ends up being:
7d6 Crossbow
5d10 Superiority Dice
7d6 Hunter's Hex
7d4 GotCD
8d8 Poisoner
3d4 Basic Poison
For a total of 37 damage dice should your attacks land and the victim doesn't save/resist, plus static modifiers.

For bonus points have someone cast Elemental Weapon on you for another 7d4, or 14d4 if upcast.
Someone else can also cast Haste on you for another attack but your returns are greatly diminished since you've already burned through your maneuvers and poison already, only giving 1d6 Crossbow, 1d6 Hunter's/Hex and 1d4 GotCD

Better poison will be more dice of course, but it feels much harder to justify you having access to wyvern venom or whatever rather than the basic common variety (like potions of healing).

This is only marginally better than the Paladin 11 pulling the same GotCD + Poisoner combo with a greatsword and smites though.

[Contrast]

So this is more a case of targets than damage but without a restriction on that...

A tiny creature occupies a 2.5 cube so we can fit 4 in a 5ft cube. We want a flying creature to maximise so lets imagine a hoard of bats flying about. If we're snapping to the grid and using the standard 'diagonals don't exist' 5E measuring rules this means a 10ft radius results in a 20ft cube (which comprises 48 5 ft cubes). 48 times 4 results in 192 bats in our 10ft radius.

A level 11 Hunter Ranger then walks into the room and uses the Volley action, letting them make an attack against any number of creatures within 10ft of a point. Our level 11 ranger has +11 to hit and our poor bats have an AC of 12 meaning you only miss on a natural 1.

Throw in a Horde Breaker against a stray bat and a Hunters Mark and we're at 194 max damage dice rolled with 184 on average.

Edit - Bonus, the bats only have 1HP so rolling damage is entirely superfluous in this situation.

[tokek]

So purely on a technicality that this is not a crit:

Chaos bolt upcast to 6th level does 8 dice each time. If you have 10 targets and keep rolling doubles on the d8 you have 80 damage dice right there. Unlike most spells each one is its own attack roll and damage dice roll.

By all means multi-class with another full caster (or just take chaos bolt via a feat on another class) to get more damage on each attack roll. If you have spirit shroud up and running at 5th level that would be another 20 dice for example. For a total of 100 damage dice.

100 dice will do for me, feel free to tweak and improve it.

[Arkhios]

Paladin 2/Arcane Trickster 18

Spell slots as a 7th level spellcaster, so you get the fourth level spell slot(s)

3rd level Shadow Blade 3d8
4th level Divine Smite +5d8 (or 6d8 if target is fiend or undead)
Sneak Attack +9d6

At least, that's how I think you'll get the most dice for just one damage roll.

[kazaryu]

Simple baseline:
Paladin 11 with GWM spamming smites with a greatsword would be 6d6 + 3d8 + 12d8 plus another 3d8 vs fiends or undead
Edit:
1) If you pre-cast Hex/Hunter's Mark/Divine Favor that's another 3 dice.
2) Gift of the Chromatic Dragon and Poisoner feats net you an extra 3d4 and 2d8 respectively
3) Someone Hasting you is of course an extra 2d6 +1d8 +1d6 + whatever smite you put in


Out of curiousity, how are you getting the 3rd attack using a greatsword? Are you assuming that you proc gwm's extra ba attack?

[Kane0]

Out of curiousity, how are you getting the 3rd attack using a greatsword? Are you assuming that you proc gwm's extra ba attack?

Yeah crit or kill, i wouldnt call it any more rare to achieve than getting surprise for bugbear or the correct number of targets for hunter

[Rukelnikov]

The cheesy answer is actually (drumroll please)...

Our Poor, Poor Contestant

A Boros Legionaire Hill Dwarf Fighter 2/Evocation Wizard 18. Take the Tough and Durable feats (because we're going to need the bonus HP), max out your Constitution, and pick up a Periapt of Wound Closure.

Assuming that you didn't roll for HP, you should have 248 HP, and you should recover 20 HP per hit-die you spend, meaning we can more-or-less go back to full HP with a single short rest. You can also cast a damaging spell at-will thanks to Spell Mastery (let's say Burning Hands). Cool, right?

Preparation

We want to Overchannel as many times as we possibly can. Assuming for simplicity that all dice roll their average, overchanneling 8 times drops us to 20 HP. We can then take a short rest, spend 11 HD and our Second Wind, and go back up to full. The second time around, cast Death Ward on yourself... because four more overchannels are going to hit you for 273 damage. Death Ward triggers, leaving you at 1 HP — take another short rest and spend all of your remaining HD (and Second Wind) to bring yourself back up to ~188 HP. Cast Death Ward on yourself again, and overchannel three more times, triggering it again, leaving you at 1 HP.

OK, so so far you've Overchanneled 15 times and you've spent two of your ten level 4+ spell slots. Burn through all of your remaining high-level spell slots other than one 5th level spell slot, for a total of 22 total Overchannels. Take a short rest, and use Arcane Recovery to get back a 4th level slot and a 5th level slot. Cast one last Death Ward on yourself with that 4th level slot, then get ready for the fight of your life.

The Actual Round of Combat

With your Action, Overchannel a damaging spell out of one of your remaining 5th level slots — it doesn't matter what spell you're casting, because what we really care about is the 115d12 Necrotic damage you just dealt to yourself! Luckily, Death Ward doesn't have a clause that prevents it from working if the damage would be enough to insta-kill you, so you go to 1 HP instead of dying... so you can Action Surge and Overchannel another damaging spell out of the other 5th level spell slot, dealing 120d12 Necrotic damage to yourself... which probably turbo-kills you.

Congratulations! You just rolled 235 damage dice in a single turn! My condolences to your next of kin.

I'd be pleasantly surprised to see a more creative answer than this one. Kudos!

[Kane0]

I'd be pleasantly surprised to see a more creative answer than this one. Kudos!

Thats one hell of a power move, get to level 20 just to show your DM how its done and delete yourself.