D&D 5E Most powerful class in 5e

[Jessica]

Oh man that sounds very fun to play. My current character is a level 7 druid who summons 8 giant owls to aid in combat. They grapple targets, drag them into the air, then drop them for lots of fall damage. My party calls it "summoning parliament". Conjured allies can be extremely powerful in 5e.

It is so much fun. I happen to have a Staff of Charming and sometimes after my skeleton archers and zombies wreck someone, I'll just use my staff to cast Command: Halt on someone so they don't even get to retalliate against my undead.

 

[pancakemaster808]

It is so much fun. I happen to have a Staff of Charming and sometimes after my skeleton archers and zombies wreck someone, I'll just use my staff to cast Command: Halt on someone so they don't even get to retalliate against my undead.

That sounds awesome. My favorite character I've made so far is a rogue who rides a warhorse around the battlefield, using the mounted combatant feat to get advantage on people who aren't mounted, allowing for sneak attack damage. The visual image of a rogue charging around on a horse "sneak attacking" people always gets a laugh out of the table.

 

[Jessica]

That sounds awesome. My favorite character I've made so far is a rogue who rides a warhorse around the battlefield, using the mounted combatant feat to get advantage on people who aren't mounted, allowing for sneak attack damage. The visual image of a rogue charging around on a horse "sneak attacking" people always gets a laugh out of the table.

Dang! That sounds really cool. I kind of imagine the Menite light cavalry from Warmachine.

 

[aramis erak]

Like others, I've not seen any one class stand out as significantly over-the-top.

I've seen a few two-character synergies that are pretty hot: Rogue & Barbarian, Bard & Cleric (double-buff)...

But no single class dominates. (The closest has been the Tiefling Book pact of the Old Ones Warlock... but only if you let them rest...)

 

[Celtavian]

The college of lore allows you to use bardic inspiration on an enemy to subtract from their rolls.



I didn't mention it because it has less direct influence on combat, but you're right, it is quite good.



Bards actually do the most damage as far as I can tell, topping out at 40d6 and 20d8 without any magic items. You're right that classes can do certain things better than others, but in my opinion there are some classes that are straight up better than others.

Are you talking level 20 taking one time a day meteor swarm? Bards do not do the most damage. There are a lot of other classes that do a lot more than a bard more often than a bard can do it. Bards are not high on the damage curve.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

What do you guys think? I'm still looking through the book and I'd love to hear what powerful combos other people have found.

My top three are moon druids, necromancers, and bardlocks.

Druids: tanking (elementals), utility scouting, amazing summons (Conjure Animal: Cobras/Giant Poisonous Snake is fantastic especially if someone casts Fog Cloud/Darkness for you), Pass Without Trace, Spike Growth for terrain control, all spells known automatically (unlike a wizard), fantastic Onion Druid capstone, still has great high-level spells like Planar Binding, Animals Shapes (turn everything into elephants) and Foresight.

Necromancer: Minion-mancer like the druid with a better concentration economy, more information-gathering and miscellaneous spells.

Bardlock: Eventually even better than the Abjuror at Counterspelling due to Jack of All Trades + Peerless Skill. Incredibly sneaky with Stealth expertise, can steal a few choice spells from other classes (Conjure Animals/Aura of Vitality/Spike Growth/Death Ward/Counterspell/Bless/Circle of Power/Wish are my picks, although Circle of Power is the weakest pick there/least likely to get used), skillmonkey, good damage, good healer. At level 19 learn True Polymorph and create Nycaloths/Glabrezus who can e.g. cast Darkness on themselves to leverage truesight before wading into melee, or can ready Dispel Magic to act as a poor man's Counterspell with better range.

I could play any of the above three as a solo character and (usually) win encounters that are designed for a full party. And the ones I didn't win, I could run away from successfully.

P.S. I also love pally-sorcs. They have a fantastic action economy and I also really like the Paladin of Devotion's fluff. (Don't care much for the other paladins even though they are arguably better mechanically.) Strong melee attacks with improved smite and Mounted Combatant/GWM/Sacred Weapon, plus bonus action Mirror Image/Shield of Faith/Polymorph, plus Counterspell access, plus Aura of Vitality healing? Yes, please. There's no level after level 6 that isn't fun for this build.

I also love Shadow Monks, but I wouldn't call them the "most powerful," just fun. They do combo well with all of the above though, e.g. the Shadow Monk's concentration can go towards leveraging the bardlock's cobra's blindsight via Darkness, and the Shadow Monk's PWT-powered scouting makes it less likely that the necromancer's skeletons (etc.) will run into something unexpected that makes them have to run away and reconfigure.

 

[Celtavian]

Peerless Skill working with counterspell is sick. I may have to kill that. Can basically use a 3rd level spell to basically dispel a 9th level spell with a nearly 100% guaranteed chance of success.

Hemlock you are a true min-maxer. It's always good to have a few around on the boards so a DM can read some of these combos and maybe kill them before they become a problem.

 

[SpikeTailDrake]

Can someone with better theorycrafting than me explain why Paladin/Sorc is so much better than straight Paladin? I can understand at level 20 taking those Sorc levels would be better, but let's say I'm a Vengeance Pally, I think I'm doing better sticking straight Vengeance until at least lvl 11.. If you take Sorc at lvl 7 you're delaying great things like Haste.

 

[pancakemaster808]

Are you talking level 20 taking one time a day meteor swarm? Bards do not do the most damage. There are a lot of other classes that do a lot more than a bard more often than a bard can do it. Bards are not high on the damage curve.

It requires level 18 for a 9th level slot, although it can be done with lower level slots for slightly less damage. The way you do it makes use of hex, bestow curse, hold person/monster, and scorching ray (that's the 9th level spell slot).

You can drop the hold spell to save yourself a round of setup, but that does reduce the damage to 30d6 10d8.

 

[pancakemaster808]

My top three are moon druids, necromancers, and bardlocks.

Druids: tanking (elementals), utility scouting, amazing summons (Conjure Animal: Cobras/Giant Poisonous Snake is fantastic especially if someone casts Fog Cloud/Darkness for you), Pass Without Trace, Spike Growth for terrain control, all spells known automatically (unlike a wizard), fantastic Onion Druid capstone, still has great high-level spells like Planar Binding, Animals Shapes (turn everything into elephants) and Foresight.

Necromancer: Minion-mancer like the druid with a better concentration economy, more information-gathering and miscellaneous spells.

Bardlock: Eventually even better than the Abjuror at Counterspelling due to Jack of All Trades + Peerless Skill. Incredibly sneaky with Stealth expertise, can steal a few choice spells from other classes (Conjure Animals/Aura of Vitality/Spike Growth/Death Ward/Counterspell/Bless/Circle of Power/Wish are my picks, although Circle of Power is the weakest pick there/least likely to get used), skillmonkey, good damage, good healer. At level 19 learn True Polymorph and create Nycaloths/Glabrezus who can e.g. cast Darkness on themselves to leverage truesight before wading into melee, or can ready Dispel Magic to act as a poor man's Counterspell with better range.

I could play any of the above three as a solo character and (usually) win encounters that are designed for a full party. And the ones I didn't win, I could run away from successfully.

P.S. I also love pally-sorcs. They have a fantastic action economy and I also really like the Paladin of Devotion's fluff. (Don't care much for the other paladins even though they are arguably better mechanically.) Strong melee attacks with improved smite and Mounted Combatant/GWM/Sacred Weapon, plus bonus action Mirror Image/Shield of Faith/Polymorph, plus Counterspell access, plus Aura of Vitality healing? Yes, please. There's no level after level 6 that isn't fun for this build.

I also love Shadow Monks, but I wouldn't call them the "most powerful," just fun. They do combo well with all of the above though, e.g. the Shadow Monk's concentration can go towards leveraging the bardlock's cobra's blindsight via Darkness, and the Shadow Monk's PWT-powered scouting makes it less likely that the necromancer's skeletons (etc.) will run into something unexpected that makes them have to run away and reconfigure.

I too am a huge fan of the druid, their power curve ramps up very quickly and smoothly, especially with the power spikes of polymorph at level 7.

I'm still not totally convinced by necromancer over other types of Wizard, what makes you place it so highly on your list?

Glad I'm not the only one who loves the bardlock =P. So much power, utility, and consistency wrapped into one class is crazy.