D&D 5E Tasha's Mind Sliver and Shadow Sorcerer. The most efficient spellcaster?

[Hohige]

Your T-Rex isn't doing that damage every round either, since you just calculated the damage if they hit and not the odds of hitting or the odds of damage resistance to non-magical weapon attacks or the odds they won't be able to hit at all due to flying or range or their inability to attac the same target with both attacks or their frequent drawing of opportunity attacks from moving so often between attacks or any of the normal stuff that goes into combat. And yeah, 8th level spellcasters have a lot of spells at those levels.

Resistence against non magical weapons also apply to PC attacks, resistence, immunity to fire too.
Also, The Giant Ape has ranged attacks.

 

[Mistwell]

Resistence against non magical weapons also apply to PC attacks.
The Giant Ape has ranged attacks.

It doesn't because any PC by 8th level can use some sort of magical attack. It's why so many creatures have resistance to non-magic weapon damage by that level.

And Giant Ape doesn't come supplied with rocks.

 

[jgsugden]

Ranged Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, warlock and wizard - "Wait, you want me to stop casting my spells and be a beater... what happens when you lose concentration and I'm in the thick of the melee battle?"
Ranged Rogue / Ranger / Warlock - "I don't want to be in the middle of the action, either".
Monk - "You do realize I get a bunch of stuns, right?"
Melee Defender - "I'm there to keep you from getting hit. If you turn me into an ape, they can end the spell by hitting you an I lose my abilities that help me protect you."
Melee Striker - "My nova damage is better (Action Surge for a fighter, Double Smites for a Paladin, GWM, etc...). Plus, I get special abilities I can combo with my damage."

There are times when Polymorph on an ally is awesome. My wizard used it to protect a fragile ally, to allow the ally to occupy a huge space, to draw the attention to the wizard (enchantment wizard with a great concentration check was able to do fun stuff when he was attacked).

Honestly, this seems like an entire whiteboard discussion as I consider the assumptions about what your allies want you to do would rarely occur at actual tables at which I've played.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It doesn't because any PC by 8th level can use some sort of magical attack.

This also is not true. At least not in published adventures. It’s an assumption, and if you go through all of those campaigns you’ll see there are only a couple magic weapons available by 8th level, and those are not specialized to fulfill the builds above (I can’t think of a single published adventure that has a +2 hand crossbow, but I admit I haven’t read them all)

 

[Hohige]

It doesn't because any PC by 8th level can use some sort of magical attack. It's why so many creatures have resistance to non-magic weapon damage by that level.

And Giant Ape doesn't come supplied with rocks.

Magical Items are DM Fiat and Giant Ape's rocks is also DM Fiat.
Im sure that is easier find rocks than magical weapons.
Lol.
Ok your fighter has a Net+3. Its your Magical Item.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Ranged Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, warlock and wizard - "Wait, you want me to stop casting my spells and be a beater... what happens when you lose concentration and I'm in the thick of the melee battle?"
Ranged Rogue / Ranger / Warlock - "I don't want to be in the middle of the action, either".
Monk - "You do realize I get a bunch of stuns, right?"
Melee Defender - "I'm there to keep you from getting hit. If you turn me into an ape, they can end the spell by hitting you an I lose my abilities that help me protect you."
Melee Striker - "My nova damage is better (Action Surge for a fighter, Double Smites for a Paladin, GWM, etc...). Plus, I get special abilities I can combo with my damage."

There are times when Polymorph on an ally is awesome. My wizard used it to protect a fragile ally, to allow the ally to occupy a huge space, to draw the attention to the wizard (enchantment wizard with a great concentration check was able to do fun stuff when he was attacked).

Honestly, this seems like an entire whiteboard discussion as I consider the assumptions about what your allies want you to do would rarely occur at actual tables at which I've played.

Well, as I mentioned, I’ve seen it in actual play. Often. So it’s not white room for me. It’s actual play experience.

And what I’ve seen is “heck ya turn me into a T. rex, I’ll wreck havoc, and when it drops, I’ll still have all of my class resources left to do even more or to have those available for the next encounter.”

 

[Hohige]

It doesn't because any PC by 8th level can use some sort of magical attack.

That is New to me.

 

[Sacrosanct]

That is New to me.

My tempest cleric in tyranny of dragons had only a javelin of lightning and no other magic weapons (a one time thing) by level 15, and our recently finished Avernus campaign ended with only two people having magic weapons. 5e adventures are very light in magic items, especially compared to earlier editions. No magic swords everywhere like 1e, and no Christmas trees like 3e

 

[Mistwell]

Magical Items are DM Fiat and Giant Ape's rocks is also DM Fiat.
Im sure that is easier find rocks than magical weapons.
Lol.
Ok your fighter has a Net+3. Its your Magical Item.

The word "fiat" does not mean what you think it means. Magic items by level 8 are not required by the rules, but they are norm for the adventures. They are also the norm for the PC classes. Even the classes which are not spellcaster based usually obtain something in the class or subclasses or otherwise to get past resistance to non-magic attacks by mid levels.

Apes appearing with rocks, however, is not a norm - you polymorph into the creature, not their equipment. They simply don't come equipped with them - it's not listed. And since it's the spellcaster determining when the spell is cast, it's not even up to the DM to supply you with rocks. In no way is this a comparable concept.

And I never said or implied anything about a +2 or +3 weapon. I said it's the norm for PCs to have found something to bypass resistance to non-magic weapons by 8th level. That's it - that's my claim. It's not a weird or out there claim. Polymorphing into a Giant Ape appearing with rocks however is a weird and out there claim.

 

[Hohige]

Please, +10 to hit that deals 32 damage and automatically grappled and restrained that gives ALL your party advantage against The target and The target attacks has disadvantage for 1 hour is certainly amazing.