D&D 5E [Fun]Really Broken Combos

[Reynard]

Now that Tasha's is out, it seems like there are enough official player options for unforeseen consequences to start popping up.

Has anyone seen or designed a really OP combo using 5E. I know I still cringe at paladin sorcerer combos, but I am guessing they have been eclipsed by other builds.

Note: this is supposed to be fun, not an excuse to beat on 5E.

 

[Horwath]

Twilight cleric + peace cleric if you are thinking of more than one PC combo.

and they said that giving Rangers non-component, non-concentration Hunters mark few times a day as 1st level spell instead of Favored Enemy was too powerful...

 

[TwoSix]

I haven't seen any really broken new combos yet. Definitely some new A/S tier stuff, though.

Bladesinger comes to mind, especially if you rule that a haste-granted attack can be swapped for a cantrip. (I don't think it's legal, personally, but it's been a point of contention.)

Both new clerics are very solid. Clerics have been getting stronger with almost every release, and almost every newer domain seems a bit better than previous ones. It's really their lack of strong at-will attack scaling which really prevents them from being viewed as a top-tier class.

One combo I like is using the new monk class features along with kensei to make a really good monk archer.

 

[Hohige]

Dragon Sorcerer level 6, Custom Lineage (Tasha)
Flames of Phelethos feat.
Elemental Adept feat.
Metamagic: Empower and Quicken

Damage:
Elemental Adept , Flame of Phelethos, Elemental Affinity Empowered Quickened Fireball for average 41 damage that ignores resistence.
Empowered, Elemental Affinity , Flame of Phelethos and Elemental Adept Fire Bolt for sweet 21 average damage that ignores resistence.

Total damage AoE: 41
Single target: 21
Total damage: Average 62 damage.

It's a lot of damage.

If you can precast, Empowered Elemental Adept, Flame of Pheletos, Elemental Afinity Dragon Breath upcasted level 3. It deals more than 30 damage on AoE spell + Super Quickened Fireball
Total of 71 damage AoE on single turn.

---

Optional: Rakdos Cultist Background for Hellish Rebuke Spell.
That is upcasted to level 3.
It's Empowered Elemental Affinity, Elemental Adept, Flame of Pheletos that can deal more than 30 damage.


Dragon's Breath using an action each turn (Precasted), Quickened Super Fireball and Hellish Rebuke is more than 110 damage per turn that ignores resistence.

 

[kerbarian]

The new summon spells are great for sustained damage without the headaches or DM-dependence of previous conjure/summon spells. The highest-damage build I'm seeing so far is a genie chainlock with Investment of the Chain Master and Summon Fey (or another summon spell).

At 3rd level they can attack for 1d10+3 (eldritch blast) + 2 (genie) + 1d4+3+3d6 (imp) = 26.5.
At 5th level it's 1d10+4 (eldritch blast) + 1d10+4 (eldritch blast) + 3 (genie) + 1d4+3+3d6 (imp) + 2d6+6 (fey spirit) = 51.

The imp poison damage gets a save for half (at the warlock's spell DC), but the fey spirit is attacking with advantage which I think more than makes up for it. Other summon spells can be better for utility, bypassing damage resistances, etc.

The imp and summon can be taken out but I generally think it's fine if they're tanking and protecting the rest of the party when you can just resummon them. The imp can be surprisingly tough with resistance to all damage (many inherent resistances plus resistance from Investment of the Chain Master when needed), and the warlock can also be VHuman with Inspiring Leader to hand out temp HP to their minions (and the rest of the party!). Eldritch Mind makes concentration checks very reliable so the summon won't disappear that way.

Honorable mentions go to Circle of Stars and Wildfire Druids who can start using Summon Beast at level 3 and also get bonus-action attacks from their circle. Plus the Wildfire Spirit offers great utility with its at-will teleport.

 

[Gorg]

I don't know about broken, but a Guiding Bolt- followed by any good ranged attack (Melf's acid arrow, chromatic orb, sneak attack w/a bow) can inflict massive damage. Enough to drop the big tough guy in one round, sometimes.

Dual burning hands can clear quite a swath through a group of weaker enemies- or soften up stronger ones, nicely.

My Abjurer Mage, and Cleric of Lathander (light domain) like to team up and combine their spell castings for maximum effect. ( like I said before- whoever wrote the domain spell list for the Light domain is just plain mean, lol) * Both of these guys were first ever attempts at creating an X class character for 5E. They are NOT min-maxed or optimized, Just picked a logical domain for the cleric, and a specialty I'd never used before, for the mage.

 

[Arvok]

5th level Ranger (Gloom Stalker)/3rd level Rogue (Assassin). You're invisible to darkvision, you should have a very good initiative modifier since you add Dex AND Wis, you get an extra attack at the start of combat, that attack does an extra d8, you have advantage on attack rolls on the first round of combat against creatures that haven't acted yet, AND any hit against a creature that is surprised is a critical. Given that you're probably invisible at the start of combat your first action should be 3 attacks, all at advantage, all at +1d6 damage from Hunter's Mark, 1 at +2d6 from sneak attack, 1 at +1d8 damage from Dread Ambusher, and all hits probably crits since the target is surprised if you managed to sneak up on your target (since you're invisible). This isn't a sure-fire thing, but it's not that hard to pull off. If you manage to get an oathbow, each of those attacks does an extra 3d6 (6d6 if your target is surprised, which--again--it should be). You can take a boss monster down by half its hit point total before the party fighter moves into melee.

 

[Seramus]

Wish that all woodland creatures are True Polymorphed into ancient red dragons forever.

Wish the princess is never in any castle.

Wish for multiversal democracy, but nobody can agree on anything.

 

[Zero Cochrane]

The Psi Warrior's Telekinetic Movement feature is broken. It needs a saving throw, like Telekinetic Thrust has. Otherwise, it's an automatic 3d6 damage to any target you choose to lift 30 feet straight up... or worse if you drop him over a cliff.

I wonder if the Noble Genie's Elemental Gift feature is too good -- effectively it is multiple fly spells that don't require a spell slot or concentration.

 

[Mort]

The Psi Warrior's Telekinetic Movement feature is broken. It needs a saving throw, like Telekinetic Thrust has. Otherwise, it's an automatic 3d6 damage to any target you choose to lift 30 feet straight up... or worse if you drop him over a cliff.

I wonder if the Noble Genie's Elemental Gift feature is too good -- effectively it is multiple fly spells that don't require a spell slot or concentration.

You can't target an unwilling creature with Telekinetic movement ("As an action, you target one loose object that is Large or smaller or one willing creature, other than yourself.") So that's not a problem.