lvl 1 1 shot : best combat build

[da newt]

All hardcover books are in play, 27 point buy stats, no idea what the rest of the party will be, no magic items, what do you bring to the table to ensure you survive and rule the day in a first level one shot?

Goblin rogue archer? Bugbear barbarian w/ a glaive? Shadar Kai Twilight Cleric? Goliath Druid? V.Human Fighter w/ SS?

[KorvinStarmast]

Goblin rogue archer? Bugbear barbarian w/ a glaive? Shadar Kai Twilight Cleric? Goliath Druid? V.Human Fighter w/ SS?
Do you want to be able to do ranged attack, melee attack, or both?
A vHuman Fighter with a feat, sword and board, meets two different criteria: Survivability (second wind), decent damage (Warhammer/longsword/battleaxe), and armor reduction if you want the Fighter to take Heavy Armor Master. At level 1, those -3's to damage are quite nice.
With that in mind, HAM in either Chain or Splint with a great sword probably covers both damage and survivability; but ranged attack is limited to the occasionally thrown javelin.

Or, you can go HAM (survivability) and choose two weapon fighting as a fighting style: two short sword attacks with full damage bonus each round, more chances to hit at level 1 is a key benefit here.
FWIW, TWF is actually pretty good DPR until level 5 when second attack kicks in.

If you are just optimizing for damage, though, I'd be careful about any level 1 character and the ease with which they are dropped.

I am sure others will have a different take on this.

If you did Custom Race from Tasha's, you could end up with a 18 STR if you take HAM ... dump Cha and/or INT, up to you. Throw that in with Two Weapon Fighting Style and 1d6 +4 twice is nice damage.

[Pildion]

All hardcover books are in play, 27 point buy stats, no idea what the rest of the party will be, no magic items, what do you bring to the table to ensure you survive and rule the day in a first level one shot?

Goblin rogue archer? Bugbear barbarian w/ a glaive? Shadar Kai Twilight Cleric? Goliath Druid? V.Human Fighter w/ SS?

Standard vHuman with XBE and a hand crossbow + shield and scale mail. I don't think anything will out damage you and have 18ac to boot.

[Eldariel]

The best? Vuman Wizard with Light Crossbow, Familiar and Sleep. 3 slots/day (2 if you want Mage Armor, which is not a bad idea especially since you have both Silvery Barbs and Shield: Mage Armor, Shield, Silvery Barbs, Sleep is a reasonable loadout though you could skip on Shield and go with Expeditious Retreat instead to kite-kill enemies that can't fight at 320' range or 120' range for no ammo Firebolt, for 10 minutes which is enough to take down most things you might run into on level 1), familiar's Help-actions, your Light Crossbow attacks and Sleep make you a veritable monster. You can afford all the utility cantrips including combat-relevant stuff like Mold Earth, Minor Illusion, etc.

16 Dex, 16 Int, 14 Con. Alert or Lucky is probably the best feat: Alert lets you get your Sleep or whatever off before enemy gets to act and prevents surprises, which is huge on level 1, while also letting you use concealment for enemy attacks at disadvantage. Lucky OTOH lets you reroll some Initiatives, saves, or enemy hits. Aarakocra, Faerie, etc. flying races are also really good and definitely worth considering.

EDIT: Notable honorary mentions. Twilight Cleric (heavy armor and shield and Sleep and advantage on Initiative natively; lacks familiar though), Hexblade (self-healing in the mix alongside SR recovery spell slot and again, armor + shield and even martial attacks off Cha; the spell list isn't amazing but it has some decent ones including Shield, which goes great with your 18ish AC) and Genielock (highest damage on level 1 probably, but obviously has the Light Armor issue). Twilight Cleric or Hexblade can use Crossbow Expert or PAM as well as anybody, though without fighting style (but all the good stuff they get more than makes up for that).


Standard vHuman with XBE and a hand crossbow + shield and scale mail. I don't think anything will out damage you and have 18ac to boot.

Need free hand to load Hand Crossbow. That said, XBE and PAM builds are still very strong DPR-wise; though I still think Sleep will end more encounters, and advantageous attacks from familiar are huge.

[animorte]

Everyone is approaching this with best DPR for combat, but there’s a lot more that goes into combat. Like the Sleep recommendation.

I would look at Peace Cleric, emboldening bond gives everybody +1d4 to one roll of choice each round. 10 minutes, proficiency bonus / long rest.

Unless it’s a battle royale, everybody doesn’t need to focus on strictly damage output. Though I do agree Vhuman is hard to beat strictly at level one.

[da newt]

Ranged or melee, weapon or magic, I'm pretty impartial. DPR & Survivability are equally important.

Goblin for hide w/ light Xbow + SA at ADV is pretty decent
Sleep is nasty at this lvl
Forge Cleric Warforged makes for some great AC
HAM can be huge here
Any flying race with ranged attacks could be great


I expect that kiting could work very well for my PC, but there is almost no chance the party composition will support it as a team strategy.

[RogueJK]

I'd say a VHuman Twilight Cleric 1 is probably the most well-rounded.
STR 14+1
DEX 12
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 15+1
CHA 8
Feat: Heavy Armor Master (16 STR)

You've got an AC of 18 with Chain Mail and a Shield, plus HAM's quasi-Damage Resistance, plus buffs/heals and Sleep, plus Guidance for skill checks, plus 300' Darkvision, plus +1 and Advantage to Initiative rolls, with Longsword/Warhammer/Battleaxe for melee and Sacred Flame/Toll the Dead for ranged.



Alternately, VHuman/CLineage Longbow Fighter 1 with Archery Fighting Style and Sharpshooter is potentially nasty, provided you can engage them at long range (up to 600' away).

[nickl_2000]

VHuman Sword and Board Fighter, Defense Fighting Style, Heavy Armor, and HAM.

16 Con, 16 Str, and 16 in whatever else you want.


You have good AC, resist a lot of damage at that level, and good HP.

[Eldariel]

Don't sleep on Familiars on level 1 tho. 18 PP, 120' Darkvision and Help-action are huge on level 1. And if enemy attacks it, first of all, they need ranged weapons in hand, and also a full round's worth of actions and they can still miss (and that's an action that doesn't hit/kill a PC). And you just need 10gp and one hour to resummon it if it goes down; 10gp isn't trivial on Tier 1, but a lot of enemies can give that much loot.

[Mastikator]

VHuman with PAM, fighter with duelist fighting style. Chainmail and shield and spear. With 16 STR you have attacks, +5 to hit, 1d6+5 / 1d4+5. 18 AC with 13 HP from 16 Con. Second wind from every short rests is a lot of HP at level 1.

[Slider Eclipse]

Custom Linage Hexblade Warlock taking the Shadow Touched Feat.

Str 8
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 18

Using the Silverquill Initiate Background you start off with Eldritch Blast, Prestigitation, Thamaturgy and Vicious Mockery as your Cantrips giving you a couple of solid ranged options in combat, paired off with your free once per day uses of Invisibility, Color Spray and Cure Wounds for solid healing and control options, as well as Shield (or Silvery Barbs) and Hex for your 1st level spells known from the Class. Sell off your gear to pick up a Scale Mail and Shield to pair with your Arcane Focus Staff (which doubles as a Quarterstaff RAW) and you have a character with an AC of 18, a +4 Mod to Casting as well as To Hit/Damage rolls and solid ranged, melee and control options, plus a once per day Invisibility as a get out of danger free card. (if this wasn't in terms of a one shot I'd say go Fey Touched instead for Misty Step and Silvery Barbs, which might be a better option anyway if you don't mind losing the Control Spell, or alternatively go Hunter's Mark and pick up Silvery Barbs as your other 1st level spell for the same effect but a free once per day 'Hex' Equivalent)

[Eldariel]

If you go Hexblade with stat feat, I do recommend just Fey-Touched for Sleep. That's really, really solid. 1/LR and 1/SR.

[Frogreaver]

Not sure what class yet but I'm starting as a variant human with eldritch adept - fiendish vigor.

Top Tier
Fighter with 2nd wind seems really solid here. Recharge hp on short rest with 2nd wind. Add temp hp anytime. Good AC and damage output. He really can go all day.
Cleric - war or tempest both would be really solid.
Wizard - Primary focus would be sleep + light crossbow + familiar.

Tier 2
Druid - entangle + armor + shield + shileleagh would be solid.
Barbarian - rage with solid temp hp from fiendish vigor. Fighter is better unless we can anticipate a low encounter day

Everything else
Paladin
Ranger
Rogue
Bard
Artificer
Monk
Sorcerer
Warlock

I think I'm going with the fighter just because there's no one that can keep taking hits all day like him.

[Spacehamster]

1 level custom lineage fighter with heavy armor mastery and defense fighting style and sword & board, stats after racial and feat: 18/12/14/8/14/8.
AC of 19 and if you get hit you deduct 3 from the hit which should be a weak hit to start with at lvl 1.

[follacchioso]

Dual Wielder Fighter with Two-Weapon Fighting style is not bad at lv1, as everybody will be jealous of your two attacks per turn. You will have decent AC thanks to your armour.
As for race, Orc for extra resilience and mobility, or an Elf race for immunity to Sleep and nasty effects. On the same theme, Valenar Elf with Revenant Blade.

[Eldariel]

Level 1 offers some interesting options with the feats granting level 2 spells too. Tho it'a only 1/day which is highly restrictive. Invisibility + Mount would be pretty sweet by the ruling that a carried creature becomes invisible too.

[x3n0n]

Not sure what class yet but I'm starting as a variant human with eldritch adept - fiendish vigor.

Top Tier
Fighter with 2nd wind seems really solid here. Recharge hp on short rest with 2nd wind. Add temp hp anytime. Good AC and damage output. He really can go all day.
Cleric - war or tempest both would be really solid.
Wizard - Primary focus would be sleep + light crossbow + familiar.

...

I think I'm going with the fighter just because there's no one that can keep taking hits all day like him.

I think Eldritch Adept has a Spellcasting (or Pact Magic) prerequisite, so I don't think Fighter works. However, both of your other top picks do.

[Eldariel]

I think Eldritch Adept has a Spellcasting (or Pact Magic) prerequisite, so I don't think Fighter works. However, both of your other top picks do.

This is true and forces HAM Fighter if you want to go that route.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Unless it's a short adventuring day I'm not seeing anything but fighter with either Custom Lineage or VHuman being the #1 choice. Yes, there are spells like Sleep that let you dominate 1 encounter, but over the course of 6-8 encounters the combination of all armor options, fighting style, and a feat to support are solid. Second Wind pushes it over the top for survivability.