Highest DPR at Level 1?

[mellored]

At low levels, big hits are often wasted. A creature with 4 HP doesn't care if you smash it for 20 damage or just nick it for 1d4+3. You really only did 4 damage either way.

So a human fighter with crossbow expertise and archery style. That gives you the best chance to hit (and kill) 2 kobolds or zombies each turn. Also decent HP, AC, and flexible targeting.
2d6+6 with +7 to hit isn't far behind against big threats either.

Green flameblade is pretty good too, but that requires enemies to be very close together.

 

[Blue]

Sure, but the encounters where the War Cleric doesn't use their +10 feature, they can use Bless. Focusing only on single character, Bless is better than Archery fighting style.

I'm not expecting great DPS round 1 (unless you use your BAA the time you Bless), but it offers great party support, and good DPS rounds 2 onwards.

For sure, level 4 War Cleric can do serious sustained damage, as a War Cleric can breach 300 dpd even when capped at 16 Wis.

I agree the cleric is a boon for the whole party and would definitley play one. But when it comes to looking at single character DPR I find self-cast-Bless to be inferior to fighting style: archery.

First it takes an action to cast. You can't use your BAA from the War Priest feature becaus that does still require the Attack action. If your average combat lasts 4-5 rounds, missing one round drops your damage output by 20-25%.

Second the OP says to expect 4 encounters per long rest. Assuming no other spells, you'll have two Bless at 1st level and three Bless at 2nd level. So that's either 50% or 75% of your encounters while fighting style is all of them.

(Since we're talking archery I'm not going to lodge a serious complaint about losing concentration, but it can occur.)

So basically it either you don't cast it, or you cast it and then need to make up a deficit of a missed round.

Again, I'm all for Bless because it will also boost two others and be a much greater effect than a point of DPR. I'm just saying if your primary criteria is your own damage dealt then fighting style: archery will give you more then self-casting bless because of the action economy.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

Bonus Action Ata-a-a-ack. (I'm not sorry )

Haha! Awesome, thanks! =D

 

[bid]

Assuming baseline 65% hit chance:

Variant Human Rogue, Dex 16, Dual Wielder, rapiers: 11.49 DPR

For the rogue, DPR drops to about 10 if you can't afford two rapiers, at which point you're much better off with Crossbow Expert. (Many would say 120 ft. range is better than 1.5 DPR at 1st level, and they would be right. But you asked for DPR.)

I'm getting slightly better result for the CE rogue than DW:
- CE rogue = 1d6+3 * .65 * 2 + 1d6 * .88 = 8.45+.35 + 3.08+.175 = 12.05 DPR

 

[Greg Benage]

I'm getting slightly better result for the CE rogue than DW:
- CE rogue = 1d6+3 * .65 * 2 + 1d6 * .88 = 8.45+.35 + 3.08+.175 = 12.05 DPR

Yeah, me too. Turrible feat.