D&D 5E Nova Damage

[FrogReaver]

How should we best look at NOVA damage in 5e? Should it be damage over the first round? Is a better 5e metric possibly damage over the first 2 rounds? Should we look at prebuffed characters or only what buffs a character can use during a fight. Which classes perform the best at NOVA damage? If you want to increase NOVA damage what are generally the best multiclass dips for doing so or does it vary based on your primary class?

 

[neogod22]

Nova?

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[Yunru]

Nova, by its nature, can only be a single round.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Nova?

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Nova means frontloading your damage output.

For example, in the case of a battlemaster fighter, novaing would be using your action surge to expend all of your superiority dice in the first round.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Nova, by its nature, can only be first round.

I don't know about that. If the party calls for nova and there are creatures still alive at the end of the first round, I wouldn't say that they've stopped novaing if they're still expending their (remaining) hardest hitting resources in the second round. If a 5th level wizard casts fireball in round one and then again in round two, I'd consider them both nova damage.

EDIT:

How should we best look at NOVA damage in 5e? Should it be damage over the first round? Is a better 5e metric possibly damage over the first 2 rounds? Should we look at prebuffed characters or only what buffs a character can use during a fight. Which classes perform the best at NOVA damage? If you want to increase NOVA damage what are generally the best multiclass dips for doing so or does it vary based on your primary class?

Personally, I think there are a lot of factors to consider. First round is definitely the most important, but second and third round are also significant IMO (if your nova damage can be completely exhausted in one round, it's not as good as someone who can do comparable damage in round one and also maintain that output for several more rounds). Another factor is recharge. Someone who can nova several times a day with short rests is better than someone who has to take a long rest, assuming comparable output of course.

 

[FrogReaver]

Nova, by its nature, can only be first round.

Yea, I know that it was used that way in 4e. I don't remember what the acronym stands for or if it even was an acronym. However, 4e nova damage could hit K.O levels for a single character in the first round of combat. I don't believe such is typically possible in 5e. As such the heart of the matter may mean we should either expand the meaning of NOVA to cover more than 1 round in 5e as that may could produce similar K.O. circumstances or to not worry much about NOVA in 5e and instead worry about the damage over the first 2 turns and call that NOVA2 or something to differentiate. I'm not sure which comparison will produce more meaningful results in 5e or how to go about naming it.

 

[Yunru]

Nova isn't an acronym, it's a word. With a defined meaning...

"a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state over a few months."

In terms of Nova damage it must thus refer to a suddenly large increase in damage.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Yea, I know that it was used that way in 4e. I don't remember what the acronym stands for or if it even was an acronym. However, 4e nova damage could hit K.O levels for a single character in the first round of combat. I don't believe such is typically possible in 5e. As such the heart of the matter may mean we should either expand the meaning of NOVA to cover more than 1 round in 5e as that may could produce similar K.O. circumstances or to not worry much about NOVA in 5e and instead worry about the damage over the first 2 turns and call that NOVA2 or something to differentiate. I'm not sure which comparison will produce more meaningful results in 5e or how to go about naming it.

I don't think it's an acronym. I first encountered the term in MMOs. This is just supposition on my part, but I believe its meaning is derived from the idea of an intense explosion (as in a star going supernova); intensely explosive damage output.

 

[FrogReaver]

I don't know about that. If the party calls for nova and there are creatures still alive at the end of the first round, I wouldn't say that they've stopped novaing if they're still expending their (remaining) hardest hitting resources in the second round. If a 5th level wizard casts fireball in round one and then again in round two, I'd consider them both nova damage.

EDIT:



Personally, I think there are a lot of factors to consider. First round is definitely the most important, but second and third round are also significant IMO (if your nova damage can be completely exhausted in one round, it's not as good as someone who can do comparable damage in round one and also maintain that output for several more rounds). Another factor is recharge. Someone who can nova several times a day with short rests is better than someone who has to take a long rest, assuming comparable output of course.

Well sure, we could say every round is an important consideration but that's kind of pointless IMO. If we are actually looking to compare nova damage it should probably be either the damage over the first turn or damage over the first 2 turns. I was all prepared to start post numbers for over 1 turn but I got to thinking that maybe 5e's NOVA environment matches up to a NOVA over first 2 turns better (though 2 turns is a match harder comparison to make).

Maybe it's best to do first turn nova and provide an estimate for how many rounds in a combat similar damage output can be sustained and whether similar nova damage can be attained after a short rest?

 

[FrogReaver]

I don't think it's an acronym. I first encountered the term in MMOs. This is just supposition on my part, but I believe its meaning is derived from the idea of an intense explosion (as in a star going supernova); intensely explosive damage output.

I think you are right about it's origin. So are we all good with considering a 5e comparison of classes based on NOVA damage essentially complete if we calculate round 1 NOVA and then estimate #of rounds that combat we can nearly reproduce that nova damage and say whether we can reproduce it on a short rest or the number of short rests it can be reproduced on if part of it involves a daily resource.