D&D 5E Most powerful class in 5e

[Zaruthustran]

This should probably be in Character Optimization. You'll find plenty of "this class/this combo of classes is powerful" threads there.

Personally, I think Druid is the most powerful.

Wild Shape for melee and mobility perfectly suited to the situation.
Animal summoning. Single-animal champions, multiple-animal swarm attacks, trap tripping, work/labor, mounts, and more. Again, perfectly customized to the situation at hand.
Regional-scale spells like Plant Growth, Control Weather, Earthquake, Tsunami. These can ruin or bless entire nations.
"Epic" spells like Plane Shift and True Resurrection.
Elemental Wild Shape for truly insane mobility & combat prowess, and comfort when traveling the multiverse.
Timeless Body.

Druids can do it all. If they don't like a situation, they can summon a bunch of animals to swarm and grapple the foe, wildshape into something, and escape. And then destroy that foe from afar with waves of animals, rest-disrupting weather, ruined water supplies, and direct-damage attack spells. Druids go big. They're biblical-level protagonists or antagonists.

 

[Remathilis]

After that I discovered the power of multiclassing Cleric/Wizard. Due to the combination of: how wizards learn spells, how clerics gain heavy armor proficiency, and how 5e calculates multiclass spell slot progression, you can be a wizard wearing heavy armor who loses none of their spell progression. There is also a RAW interpretation that allows gives you access to every cleric spell with only 1 level of the class, but it seems clear that was not the intention.

You might be missing this relevant portion...

for example, if you are the aforementioned ranger 4/ wizard 3, you count as a 5th-level character when determining your spell slots: you have four 1st level slots, three 2nd level slots, and two 3rd level slots. However, you don't know any 3rd level spells, nor do you know any 2nd-level ranger spells. You can use the spell slots of those levels to cast the spells you do know-and potentially enhance their effects.

So you a hypothetical Wizard 4/Cleric 2 might have spellcasting slots equal to a 6th level caster, but he's still unable to use 3rd level wizard spells or 2nd or 3rd level cleric spells. He can use those 3rd level spell slots though to cast magic missile or cure wounds for higher effect, but he's not casting fireball or spiritual weapon with them.

I'm sure that's RAI and RAF if not RAW, and it wouldn't fly in the majority of D&D tables. Might be worth a Sage Advice though...

 

[Tony Vargas]

It comes from use of hex, bestow curse, hold person/monster, and a level 9 scorching ray. It really is quite silly. I can map out the concentration juggling you have to go through if you want.

I'll take your word for it. Though it does come down to how you measure DPR. That sounds like a peak damage you couldn't often repeat, if you measure average DPR over a typical day's worth of rounds...

I do have some problems with 5e's philosophy because it opens the system up to exploitation by charismatic players convincing the GM to allow silly things, but overall I think it's better than trying to make rules for everything.

'Gaming the DM' is one of the most powerful, and overlooked, powergaming strategies, yes, and 5e is wide-open to it, in philosophy. Though, really, in practice, all games are, unless the DM just stolidly cleaves to RAW using some outside authority for interpretations.

 

[Jessica]

I think Necromancers are ridiculously powerful. That army of skeleton archers exploiting bounded accuracy though. If you want you can just keep a handful of undead and then support them by still being a high level Wizard. We had a game with 7 players who were all between level 5-8 and sometimes when my turn came up and people were paying attention they would see the level 6 Necromancer with 4 skeleton archers and 2 zombies just cranking out some serious consistent DPR. Like Uncle Joe used to say: "quantity has a quality all it's own".

I think my turn usually consisted of:
Ray of Frost: +7 atk 2d8 damage
Skeleton Archer: +4 atk 1d6+5 damage
Skeleton Archer: +4 atk 1d6+5 damage
Skeleton Archer: +4 atk 1d6+5 damage
Skeleton Archer: +4 atk 1d6+5 damage
Zombie: +3 atk 1d6+4 damage
Zombie: +3 atk 1d6+4 damage

I have a background of playing competitive Warmachine so I can roll like crazy, do math fast, and talk like an auctioneer when my turn comes up. My turns went faster than pretty much all the other spellcasters.

 

[DMCF]

The most powerful character is the sneaky player who doesn't show his power all that often. All characters have a weakness. Show yourself to be too strong i.e., 20 dex, 20 ac halfling ranger/rogues and I will target you and immobilize you if not kill you outright. I have a player who has this but intentionally makes bad decisions so he lives.

I'm justified because one power player (showing off) kills fun for other players and makes them question their perfectly acceptable (often RP necessity) characters.

 

[pancakemaster808]

This should probably be in Character Optimization. You'll find plenty of "this class/this combo of classes is powerful" threads there.

Personally, I think Druid is the most powerful.

Wild Shape for melee and mobility perfectly suited to the situation.
Animal summoning. Single-animal champions, multiple-animal swarm attacks, trap tripping, work/labor, mounts, and more. Again, perfectly customized to the situation at hand.
Regional-scale spells like Plant Growth, Control Weather, Earthquake, Tsunami. These can ruin or bless entire nations.
"Epic" spells like Plane Shift and True Resurrection.
Elemental Wild Shape for truly insane mobility & combat prowess, and comfort when traveling the multiverse.
Timeless Body.

Druids can do it all. If they don't like a situation, they can summon a bunch of animals to swarm and grapple the foe, wildshape into something, and escape. And then destroy that foe from afar with waves of animals, rest-disrupting weather, ruined water supplies, and direct-damage attack spells. Druids go big. They're biblical-level protagonists or antagonists.

If this is in the wrong area I apologize, I'm new to the forum.

Druids are crazy good in 5e. My brother actually included them in his blog as one of "bosses your party has to fight". I'm playing a druid grapple monster in my current campaign, picking up enemies using the swarm of 8 giant owls you've summoned is great fun.

I don't think they're the best at level 20 because a Bard or Wizard can shut them down pretty hard, but I'd put them easily in the top 3 classes.

 

[pancakemaster808]

You might be missing this relevant portion...



So you a hypothetical Wizard 4/Cleric 2 might have spellcasting slots equal to a 6th level caster, but he's still unable to use 3rd level wizard spells or 2nd or 3rd level cleric spells. He can use those 3rd level spell slots though to cast magic missile or cure wounds for higher effect, but he's not casting fireball or spiritual weapon with them.

I'm sure that's RAI and RAF if not RAW, and it wouldn't fly in the majority of D&D tables. Might be worth a Sage Advice though...

What makes this work is a couple things. First, you're right, you'd lose the 2 spells you'd normally add by gaining an extra level in wizard, but the only limitation on copying spells into your book is

"When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a level for which you have spell slots and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it."

This means you're not losing out if you can buy some spell scrolls or just wait a level and you can grab the wizard spells you need.

The reason you get access to every cleric spell with only one level is the unique way clerics select the spells they can cast.

The Cleric table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. You prepare the list of cleric spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the cleric spell list. When you do 50, choose a number of cleric spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your cleric level (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

A level 1 cleric technically knows every cleric spell ever, but can only prepare ones they have slots for. Since multiclassing gives you those slots, your 1 level of cleric gives you access to any cleric spells you have slots for. You can also do this with druids, since they pick spells the same way.

This seems very much against the spirit of the rules, which is why I noted most GMs would probably say no to it.

 

[pancakemaster808]

I'll take your word for it. Though it does come down to how you measure DPR. That sounds like a peak damage you couldn't often repeat, if you measure average DPR over a typical day's worth of rounds...

'Gaming the DM' is one of the most powerful, and overlooked, powergaming strategies, yes, and 5e is wide-open to it, in philosophy. Though, really, in practice, all games are, unless the DM just stolidly cleaves to RAW using some outside authority for interpretations.

Actually you can repeat the damage, on the same opponent at least. Bestow Curse and hold person/monster stay on, meaning each attack afterwards only loses a few dice as you are forced to use lower level scorching rays.

 

[pancakemaster808]

I think Necromancers are ridiculously powerful. That army of skeleton archers exploiting bounded accuracy though. If you want you can just keep a handful of undead and then support them by still being a high level Wizard. We had a game with 7 players who were all between level 5-8 and sometimes when my turn came up and people were paying attention they would see the level 6 Necromancer with 4 skeleton archers and 2 zombies just cranking out some serious consistent DPR. Like Uncle Joe used to say: "quantity has a quality all it's own".

I think my turn usually consisted of:
Ray of Frost: +7 atk 2d8 damage
Skeleton Archer: +4 atk 1d6+5 damage
Skeleton Archer: +4 atk 1d6+5 damage
Skeleton Archer: +4 atk 1d6+5 damage
Skeleton Archer: +4 atk 1d6+5 damage
Zombie: +3 atk 1d6+4 damage
Zombie: +3 atk 1d6+4 damage

I have a background of playing competitive Warmachine so I can roll like crazy, do math fast, and talk like an auctioneer when my turn comes up. My turns went faster than pretty much all the other spellcasters.

Oh man that sounds very fun to play. My current character is a level 7 druid who summons 8 giant owls to aid in combat. They grapple targets, drag them into the air, then drop them for lots of fall damage. My party calls it "summoning parliament". Conjured allies can be extremely powerful in 5e.

 

[pancakemaster808]

The most powerful character is the sneaky player who doesn't show his power all that often. All characters have a weakness. Show yourself to be too strong i.e., 20 dex, 20 ac halfling ranger/rogues and I will target you and immobilize you if not kill you outright. I have a player who has this but intentionally makes bad decisions so he lives.

I'm justified because one power player (showing off) kills fun for other players and makes them question their perfectly acceptable (often RP necessity) characters.

I agree that players shouldn't try to steal fun from others. I actually switched off of a pally I was playing because I had inadvertently made a character that was much stronger than everyone else's (this was our first time making characters).