D&D 5E 5th Edition -- Help Me Break the Game!

[omniknight]

Or not worry about it. The whole "OMG WIZARDS IN ARMOR" thing is kind of silly. Sure, being able to wear heavy armor is handy, but when you consider that you can do just as well stacking mage armor with bracers of defense and a 14 Dex, it's hardly game-breaking.

Ultimately, it's very, very hard to break the game with purely defensive attributes like AC. In this case, you can't even get your AC to unusual levels; all you can manage is to bring it up to where the fighter's already is.

You hardly put any thought into it. Heavy Armor + Shield + infinitely castable Shield spell (level 18 Wizard feature) = consistent 25 AC. Plus BoD equals 28 AC, which is overkill, so instead you have something like Bracers of +INT or +STs (if exists). And this AC is possible way before level 18 (like level ~3-5 if you dip Cleric first level), you just have to spend a L1 spell slot for it.

 

[hyphz]

I don't know if this counts as broken but it seems a bit off to me:

Monk/Way of the Four Elements 7 Fighter 2 Barbarian 1, assume +3 strength, wielding a short sword. Fighter fighting style: Dueling.

Short sword damage d6 +3, plus rage +2, plus dueling +2, plus fangs of the fire snake +1d10, *2 for extra attack from monk 5, all *2 from action surge
Plus flurry of blows, monk 7 unarmed damage d6+3 plus rage +2, *2 for flurry of blows
= 6d6+38+4d10, average 76 damage to a single target in 1 round at level 10

I'm not aware that any of these classes on their own can equal this. Fighter does best, 5d6+35, with two shortswords, champion path, dueling and two-weapon styles.

 

[kerbarian]

Sorcerers already have Twin Spell. Action Surge is more flexible, but you loose two Caster Levels

Twinned Spell lets you hit more targets but not stack extra damage/effects on the same target. If you really want to stack up the Fireballs, how about this:

2 levels of Fighter
2 levels of Wizard (evocation)
6 levels of Sorcerer (draconic)

You'd be falling well behind on the level of your known spells, but you'd still have a lot of spell slots. Every short rest (up to 3x per day) you can start out a combat with an Action Surge for two Empowered (reroll a bunch of damage dice), Scuplted (don't damage allies) Fireballs on your first turn, and you'll add your Charisma modifier to all the damage rolls. If you can hit four targets (not hard with Sculpt Spells), that would average a bit over 300 damage before saves.

Of course, doing that three times burns through almost all of your spell slots for the day .

 

[Lwaxy]

There are those of us who wish to see an end to the min-maxing, break the game days of old, and would hope that 5e is the means to that end.

defy us at your risk.

we are legion.

Yes, yes, he can do that.

You don't get to tell anyone how to play or not play the game, so just don't. Nothing constructive to add to the discussion, leave it be.

 

[Dausuul]

And this AC is possible way before level 18 (like level ~3-5 if you dip Cleric first level), you just have to spend a L1 spell slot for it.

For one round. Have you played a wizard in 5E? A L1 spell slot is valuable. At levels 3-5, it's a major asset. You could be putting 4-5 kobolds to sleep with that slot, shutting down half an encounter. Instead you're burning it for a 1-round AC spike. Worth it under certain circumstances, but you aren't going to be doing it regularly.

More to the point, the non-armored wizard can cast shield just as easily and will get more mileage out of it in terms of damage prevented. The 18th-level Spell Mastery pick is a very good idea, quite possibly the best choice for your first-level SM slot; but again, any wizard can do the same thing. (I also don't put a lot of weight on anything that starts with "At 18th level..." It's kind of like saying, "When I win the lottery..." Fun to daydream about, not a lot of practical impact for most folks.)

 

[outsider]

Had something kinda snarky here, and thought better of it. My bad.

 

[Quartz]

This is something I'd want to see in actual play before judging whether it was broken. In 3E, it would have been grotesque, but this isn't 3E; I have found that the main constraint on a spellcaster is spell slots rather than actions. You get so few in 5E that almost every combat involves at least a couple of rounds where you cast a cantrip or make a weapon attack. It might turn out that Action Surge just lets you burn up your spell slots faster.

Don't forget the possibility of reading a scroll or activating a magic item.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I don't know if this counts as broken but it seems a bit off to me:

Monk/Way of the Four Elements 7 Fighter 2 Barbarian 1, assume +3 strength, wielding a short sword. Fighter fighting style: Dueling.

Short sword damage d6 +3, plus rage +2, plus dueling +2, plus fangs of the fire snake +1d10, *2 for extra attack from monk 5, all *2 from action surge
Plus flurry of blows, monk 7 unarmed damage d6+3 plus rage +2, *2 for flurry of blows
= 6d6+38+4d10, average 76 damage to a single target in 1 round at level 10

I'm not aware that any of these classes on their own can equal this. Fighter does best, 5d6+35, with two shortswords, champion path, dueling and two-weapon styles.

Too lazy for real math, but level 11 fighter with great weapon master and +5 str using action surge:
12d6+90

 

[Mouseferatu]

If you start with the two levels of Fighter, you also get heavy armor and proficiency on Constitution saves for concentration. It's a strong combo by the time you hit 7th level (for double fireballs), but losing two caster levels puts you a big step behind pure Wizards in other ways. I'd call it a viable multiclassing option but not broken.

Of course, you're also losing proficiency in Will saves. Yes, Con saves are necessary for concentration, but I still think that, overall, it's more a trade than a net gain.

 

[Quartz]

I don't know if this counts as broken but it seems a bit off to me:

Monk/Way of the Four Elements 7 Fighter 2 Barbarian 1, assume +3 strength, wielding a short sword. Fighter fighting style: Dueling.

Short sword damage d6 +3, plus rage +2, plus dueling +2, plus fangs of the fire snake +1d10, *2 for extra attack from monk 5, all *2 from action surge
Plus flurry of blows, monk 7 unarmed damage d6+3 plus rage +2, *2 for flurry of blows
= 6d6+38+4d10, average 76 damage to a single target in 1 round at level 10

Can you be a monk and rage? In 3E, monks must be of lawful alignment and barbarians cannot rage if lawful. Another problem might be that the Duelling style only gives you a bonus if you have a weapon in hand, and the Unarmed damage requires you to be unarmed - these would seem to be mutually exclusive.

I'm not aware that any of these classes on their own can equal this. Fighter does best, 5d6+35, with two shortswords, champion path, dueling and two-weapon styles.

Unfortunately the Duelling style only gives the +2 damage if you are wielding only one weapon. A L11 fighter with Str 16 gets d8+3 (Str) +2 (duellist) all x3 (for 3 attacks) x2 (action surge) for 6d8+30 or an average of 57 HP excluding criticals.