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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6662754" data-attributes="member: 6787650">That's called "Shifting the burden of proof." I'll go along with it to a limited extent though, because there are probably readers who aren't familiar with some of these tactics and might find the post beneficial.#0. Sharpshooter (our baseline). Main uses are killing things at extreme range (600', which is "extreme" in D&D terms but not in real life), and adding up to 100% damage against low-AC targets. An 11th level Archery-specialized Eldritch Knight with 20 Dex and the Magic Weapon spell (for a +1 bow) can do 49.88 points of damage (including crits, math on request) per round to a CR 4 AC 12 Ettin, or 31.43 to a CR 5 AC 18 Drow Elite Warrior. (Without Sharpshooter it would be 32.18 and 24.30 respectively, but that doesn't matter for our analysis.) Cost: 15 silver pieces, or 7.5 if you recover 50% of your arrows.#0b. If another PC casts Bless on the Sharpshooter, the Sharpshooter's Ettin damage increases to 57.57, and his damage to the drow increases to 39.115.#1. Sorlock. A Sorlock can also do damage from extreme range (1200' maximum with Distant Spell, which is about the furthest away you usually notice things in real life, at least in my city; Distant Spell is more unpopular than it should be, so 600' for Eldritch Spear + Spell Sniper is a more usual maximum for a Sorlock, or 240' if he doesn't take Eldritch Spear). An 11th level Sorlock with Cha 20 and Quickened Spell will do 58.35 points of damage to the Ettin (cost: 2 sorcery points), or 39.45 to the drow. At close range on a target he's already Hexed that jumps to 78.30 and 53.10 points of damage, respectively, significantly more than the Sharpshooter.#2. Animate Objects. For one 5th level spell and an object manipulation ("turn my coin pouch inside-out"), the Sorcerer can animate ten copper pieces, each of which then becomes a Tiny creature, which then flies at a speed of 30' and attacks at +8 for 1d4+4 points of damage each (with blindsight). They have 200 HP between them all, each with AC 18, and between all ten of them they will do 56.50 points of damage to the Ettin per round, or approximately 37 DPR to the elite Drow. (I didn't account for the Drow's Parry so it will be slightly lower in reality.) In return the Ettin inflicts 14.90 damage and the drow inflicts 19.40 (oddly, the coppers are not immune to poison).#2b. If another PC (e.g. Shadow Monk) casts Darkness, the coppers will do 65.98 damage to the Ettin per turn due to advantage, taking 7.05 damage in return due to disadvantage. They will inflict about 54 DPR on the Drow Elite Warrior per turn (again, I didn't compute Parry), taking 9.07 damage in return due to disadvantage.#3. Since a Sorlock is a Warlock 2/Sorcerer 9, he can of course combine options #1 and #2 to inflict 114.85 points of damage to the Ettin or 76-ish DPR to the Drow, taking a respective 14.90 or 19.40 points of damage to his coins in return. They have 200 HP so it would take a lot of drow to kill all the coins in time to matter.Some of the other options I named such as Polearm Master are merely comparable to GWM/Sharpshooter rather than flatly superior to it; others are more like the ones I just deconstructed for you in this post. E.g. Simulacrum as-written doubles the Sorlock's damage output yet again.Is there anyone who can honestly tell me that option #0 looks like the strongest option on the table here?</blockquote>

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