D&D 5E Most powerful class in 5e

[CyanideSprite]

From a breaking the game standpoint, definitely the wizard... From a combat alone standpoint, I would say there are none that clearly stand out. I feel like if anything the only one that's an underdog would be the Ranger. I've looked at the Ranger over and over and I just can't see what makes them strong.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

From a breaking the game standpoint, definitely the wizard... From a combat alone standpoint, I would say there are none that clearly stand out. I feel like if anything the only one that's an underdog would be the Ranger. I've looked at the Ranger over and over and I just can't see what makes them strong.

Hunter Rangers, like druids, go through transitions. Early on he is even better than a fighter at ranged damage, sans Action Surge, due to Horde Breaker/Colossus Slayer. Later on he starts adding brokenly good stealth via Pass Without Trace, and the poor man's Fireball in the form of Spike Growth, and unlike the druid he can maintain these spells while still hammering the foe with ranged attacks. Eventually he turns into a one-man army thanks to Conjure Animals + Sharpshooter + Volley. Or spend concentration on Hunter's Quiver to match the fighter's capstone of four attacks, three levels early.

Beastmasters aren't terrible on paper but they don't excite me as much as Hunters do.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Barbarian of the bear tribe is completely overpowered, pretty much has a ton of Hit Points and has resistance to -everything-.

Paladin is also overpowered due to the smite ability, the 12th level paladin in my game consistently deals ridiculous damage.

Mages are under-powered in this edition I find, there defensive spells (due to the Concentration rule) are rather weak, which makes quite vulnerable. Their damage doesn't even outweigh the other classes either due to the 'Save for half damage' factor and due to the fact of how powerful, Resistance to Fire/Lightning can be.

Personally I think smite should have been a bonus action. Is the paladin also using GWM feat for extra +10? In my experience it is best to delete that part of the feat too (substitute +1 str).

 

[Flamestrike]

DO note that it is really hard to have more than 6-8 encounters per day. Your HP is a limited daily resource, and you only regain half your max HD per long rest. Most games I have been in have seen the fighter types running out of HP by 3-5 encounters per day. It is a myth that the fighter can fight all day long.

Also note, that the suggested 6-8 encounters per day includes encounters of all ranges. The easier encounters will benefit the spellcasters usually however as they tend to be filled with many low CR monsters, which are easily killed by AoE.

In my experience, the warrior types are good at getting big numbers and killing single targets, while the casters have a much more dramatic and powerful impact on the battlefield.

Not sure about the healing thing.

A Fighter 5 with the standard 2-3 short rests per long rest is gaining an extra 3-4 1d10+5 Hp per day baked in via second wind, and that's in addition to potions of healing which are generally common enough to purchase. HP recharge to full on long rests, and he can expend HD on short rests too. Also: healing magic is readily available in 5/12 classes on offer from 1st or 2nd level.

Of all the in game resources, HP are the easiest to replenish.

 

[Flamestrike]

I know one round damage isn't the only measure of class power, but it is fun to measure, which classes do you think can beat it easily?.

A Hallf Orc Fighter (BM) 3, Paladin (vengance) 14, Rogue (Assassin) 3

Weapons: Great-axe.
Skills of note: Perception (expertise), Stealth (expertise)
Class and race features of note: Action surge, superiority dice (d8), Divine smite, Assassinate, Improved divine smite, savage critical, great weapon style,
Feats: Great weapon master
Manouvers of note: Precise strike, menacing attack, shove attack
Spell precast: Haste

Sneak up to a Fiend using your (Stealth [12+dex]) and darkvision. Before combat abjure the enemy (gaining advantage for 10 rounds). Move to melee range. Action surge. Switch GWM 'on'. All hits are made with advantage and are automatic critical hits (thanks to assassinate). Gain an extra attack from Haste and GWM. If they still miss, use precise strike maneuver to ensure they hit.

Deals (18d12+92d8)+90. Re-roll all your 1's and 2's for the lols. Around 600 damage on average.

Add a magic weapon, poison or buffs from buddies (elemental weapon, haste - freeing up your own concentration slot for hunters mark or hex etc) for much higher numbers.

Elemental weapon alone adds 36d4+18 to the above damage.

 

[Ashkelon]

Not sure about the healing thing.

A Fighter 5 with the standard 2-3 short rests per long rest is gaining an extra 3-4 1d10+5 Hp per day baked in via second wind, and that's in addition to potions of healing which are generally common enough to purchase. HP recharge to full on long rests, and he can expend HD on short rests too. Also: healing magic is readily available in 5/12 classes on offer from 1st or 2nd level.

Of all the in game resources, HP are the easiest to replenish.

Math time!!!

So a level 5 fighter with a 14 Con has about 44 HP. He also has 2 HD per day to spend, for another 16 HP. His daily HP is 60. He also has 10.5 HP from each use of second wind. Not bad!

Now a group of 4 PCs fights a Hill Giant and 2 ogres (a hard difficulty fight). The giant does about 23.5 DPR to a 17 AC PC and the Ogres deal about 7 each to a 17 AC PC. This means that combined, they deal about 37.5 DPR.

Now, a group is supposed to be able to get through 6 such encounters per day. Assuming they each of these battle lasts for only 3 rounds (a rather low estimate), that means the party takes roughly 112 damage per combat. Let us say the monsters are dumb and never focus fire, and spread that damage around evenly among the
party. That is 28 damage per party member every combat. Now with just 6 combats per day, that is 168 damage per party member.

So for our fighter to get through this much combat, he would have to take 10 short rests per day, using second wind at every possible opportunity. Of course, the other classes who lack second wind wouldn't be able to keep up. The party rogue, warlock, or Bard with 14 CON only have 38 HP and 14 HP from HD. The party wizard or sorcerer with 14 CON would only have 32 HP and 12 HP from HD. The fighter can't fight on his own, so it doesn't matter how much HP he can regain from second wind if the other party members have no HP left.

Even using every single spell for healing, a cleric, Druid, or bard are only providing about 140 HP per day to the party.

Also, yes my fight assumes the monsters are capable of fighting for all 3 rounds which is unrealistic, but it also assumes all PCs have a 17 AC at level 5, and that they can kill the monsters in only 3 rounds, and that the monsters spread damage around evenly instead of focus firing (which are equally unrealistic assumptions). Even if the monsters only had 2 rounds of up time, that still averages 112 HP damage per party member over the course of the day, which is 2.5x what most PCs can effectively take.

This is why the 6-8 encounters per day assumption is bogus. Players simply lack the endurance to take that kind of punishment. 3-5 encounters per day is far more realistic, especially if your DM ever throws encounters harder than medium at the party.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Now a group of 4 PCs fights a Hill Giant and 2 ogres (a hard difficulty fight).

Now, a group is supposed to be able to get through 6 such encounters per day.

6-8 medium-hard <> 6 hard or 8 medium. Not sure that it does mean anything that specific, at all - but 50/50 sounds a lot more plausible.

 

[Ashkelon]

6-8 medium-hard <> 6 hard or 8 medium. Not sure that it does mean anything that specific, at all - but 50/50 sounds a lot more plausible.

3 Hard 4 medium maybe? And what if the party has deadly encounters, does that mean for every deadly encounter you have, you must remove 2 medium encounters. So maybe 3 hard and 2 deadly is another possible encounter variation. Or 4 medium and 2 deadly? Or no medium and 4 deadly? As soon as you have a deadly encounter, is the fighter worse because you will have fewer than 6-8 encounters per day?

It seems strange to limit yourself to only medium and hard encounters, and only 6-8 of those per day, in an effort to create a small semblance of balance between classes with varying resource recovery rates.

Either way, no matter how you split up the adventuring day, the end result is the same. By the end of all those suggested 6-8 encounters, the PCs will have run out of many multiples of their combined HP + healing resources.

 

[Tony Vargas]

There /are/ exp budgets. You could probably do some more math and puzzle out answers to some of those questions.

The multiplier is a confounding variable, though, I'll admit...

 

[Ashkelon]

There /are/ exp budgets. You could probably do some more math and puzzle out answers to some of those questions.

The multiplier is a confounding variable, though, I'll admit...

Interestingly enough, the EXP per day guidelines also don't support 6-8 encounters per day. For a level 5 party, a medium encounter is 500 exp per PC, a hard is 750 per PC, and a deadly is 1100 per PC. The adjusted EXP budget is 3500 per PC. This means you can have 7 medium encounters, 4 medium and 2 hard, 4 hard and 1 medium, or 3 hard and 2 medium encounters per day. If you have any deadly encounters, you must reduce the total number of encounters you will have per day by ~2 on average.

This shows us that ~5 encounters per day is the real number of encounters per day a party should face if the DM actually follows the encounter building rules. Especially if there are any deadly combats. The 6-8 number seems to have no support, either from the encounter building rules or from actual gameplay experience. It is almost as if the person writing the book chose that number seemingly at random.