Zardnaar
Legend
This is a general guide line to dealing lots of damage in 5E. I assume you are using feats. If you are not using feats dexterity is generally better than strength so be a hald orc with a great axe, use a two handed weapon fighter or dual wield weapons. I also look at damage form round to round not large damage spikes from certain spells. Damage varies by level of course. In general I would rate damage in 4 tiers. For martial damage ranged options generally deal ore damage, the Polearm Master and/or the Great Weapon MAster feats are where it is at.
Level 1-4 base damage.
Low damage. Generally 1d6+ability damage or less. Most Clerics, Monks, etc generally fall into this range. At level 8+ clerics are still here because the other classes get extra attacks or other sources of bonus damage so it is relative to your level.
Moderate Damage. 1d8+5 through to 2d6/1d12+ability mod. Most basic fighters and sword and board PCs fall into this range along with basic rogue builds. Some clerics can also get here.
High Damage Generally two handed weapons and/or bonus damage from class abilities or spells. Avenger Paladins, classes using hunters quarry, hex, or ability score to damage with spells (Warlock, Invoker). Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master and hunter rangers using Sharpshooter also fall here. This is about the best a sword and board or dual wielder can hope to get to such as a shield bash fighter, ranger or bladelock can hope to get to. Twinked out Rogues can also get here such as builds enabling multiple sneak attacks a round.
Uber Damage. Polearm Master+Great Weapon fighter, Sharpshooter, Half Orc Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter+Crossbow expert with constant sources of advantage/bless and the Sorlock (Warlock 2, Sorcerer XYZ). This stuff usually requires a party built around it to reliably enable the damage. The -5/+10 damage feats combine with bless and advantage such as shield master knock em prone, or spells causing paralysis, greater invisibility, blindness, faerie fire, foresight etc. Things like this will break the game you have been warned. The builds are very simple.
Generally multiple attacks helps and getting extra attacks as a bonus action, reaction or even no action (haste, swift quiver and other abilities).
Note damage is not everything and you do not need to deal uber damage or even high damage but you want the partied overall damage to be respectable so you do not want your main damage dealers to be clerics or fighters using sword and board, +1 AC and some low damage classes. An exception to that rule might be a spell caster heavy party.
Some Non Obvious builds.
Now there are more than one way to skin a cat in 5E. The following builds are more or less high damage builds that I more or less regard as powerful, fun and somewhat fair. They will not wreck the game.
The Bladelock.
Personally I think the Bladelock option on the warlock is a bad idea. The bladelock gets a lot better if you start of with a single level of fighter and multiclass into the warlock class. The main advantages this gives you is heavy armor proficiency, proficiency in con saves for concentration checks, and a combat style. after that you just use hex, armour of agathys and the fiend pact and bladelock options. By level 12 your base damage can be weapon damage+1d6+str+cha to damage and you have bonus hit points and damage from armour of agathys which by level 10 turns into 50 extra hit points per short rest. Armor of agathys also interacts quite well with damage reduction effects such as heavy armor master and stoneskin. Hilarity will ensue if you come across things vulnerable to cold damage though as I have seen a 5th level blade lock deal 120 damage via getting hit from slime zombies. Get hit 4 times by mindless plant zombies for 15 damage that get doubled and roll low damage. Best gish in the game that I know of you will out tank the fighter via temporary hit points, deal more damage than the fighter, have better ranged options via eldritch blast and might even throw the odd fireball. My current party is level 6, in one more level I will be looking at a bladelock and a sorcerer casting twinned stoneskins along with an Oath of the Ancients Paldin granting them half damge to spells le sigh.
Mr Shield Master.
A lot of these builds revolve around two handed weapons but using a shield can be fun as well. Your basic damage will be similar to a two handed weapon fighter if you take the duellist combat style (1d8+2 vs 2d6 or 1d12+ reroll 1 and 2). You are giving up extra attacks via feats such as Polearm Master and Heavy Weapon Master. You do get a accuracy buff via bonus action shield bash that provides you advantage to hit if you knock them prone. If prone following up with an action surge is often great and published adventures for 5E so far seem to include more magical longswords than great weapons. Obviously you are strength based and are trained in athletics, ideally you can get advantage on strength checks via enhance ability or expertise on athletics checks (multiclass rogue/bard) and hex also provides disadvantage on skill checks tied to an ability score. Such a PC is a tag team combo with crossbow expert+sharpshooter or another melee PC using great weapon master as advantage while prone helps to mitigate the -5/+10 part of the feats. The sentinel feat could be a good option for such a PC as they will be busy using their bonus action. An interesting party could have 2 shield bash PCs perhaps one of them as a valor bard and a sorcerer to provide twinned enhance ability while the other one could be a bladelock for bonus action hex abuse. A wizard in the party could also add enlarge into the mix to make you large which means you can shield bash huge creatures. From personal experience trying to knock storm giants prone is fun. A valor bard can multiclass as a fighter for most of the same reasons as the bladelock medium armor is a bit of a trap unless you have high rolled stats. The DM might get sick of this if you play ping pong with his monsters.
The high dex PC.
I am not a fan of dex based melee PCs on the front line. A rogue can get away with it, others not so much. If you really must build a dex based PC here is how I would do it. I would look at getting a bonus dice of damage from somewhere such as being a Ranger, Avenging Paladin or a bladelock or multiclassing into one of them via the fighter. Obviously one would be a duelist fighting style if that is an option. I would also consider the horde breaker ability if you were playing a dex based ranger. One would use a rapier and I would consider dual wielding or using a shield if you have bonus action fun and games with spells like hex or hunters quarry and I would be looking at feats like sentinel to get attacks as a reaction. Dex based bladelock could deal some decent damage. You could get your damage up to a respectable number and have all the benefits of a high dexterity score in terms of saves, initiative, skill use outside combat etc. Just don't go around with a 1d6 or 1d8 weapon adding dex damage and +1 AC and think you are going to be doing your job well and dual wielding is generally a weak option.
The Rogue.
The Rogue IMHO is not really a great damage dealing class in 5E and is often one of the 1st classes in the game to be opted out of generally in favor of a bard or high dex spell caster who subs as a skill monkey. The bard is almost as good as the rogue at skills perhaps better due to enhance ability spell and that spell+ guidance can sub for the rogue. The warrior types also tend to deal more damage. The Rogue also has some of the worst saves in the game as int and dex do not tend to matter than much. The assassin can deal more damage of course but it is still not that exciting. The Rogue however is still one of the best skill monkey's in the game and it gets some great defensive options as well and the thief subclass interacts well with the healers kit so you do get a lot of utility in one package. There are 2 ways IMHO to make the Rogue better. The first one is to maximise your sneak attacks to deal more damage. This means you need the sentinel feat or a battle master fighter to reliably enable an extra sneak attack per turn. The other way is taking a fighter level and picking up a shield and a combat style. If you start as a fighter and multiclass into a Rogue you give up a skill of course but I think con+str is better than dex+int. Now most Rogues probably dump strength but if you have a 10 or 12 strength you can use expertise on athletics checks and try for the same shield bash shenanigans as a fighter except you will be better at it despite your low strength due to expertise. If you knock someone prone you can also enable sneak attack damage. Carried to the logical extreme a fighter 11/Rogue9 by level 20 should be decent otherwise the fighter level is a dip or a pure high dex fighter could dip 1-6 levels of Rogue see the high dex fighter paragraph for more fun and games ideas.
Valor Bards.
Valor bards look fun on paper but they do not do that much damage as they lack the required spells to add extra damage onto them, they are kind of squishy as well if you try and wear medium armor with the default array. Most of those drawbacks go away if you star the game as a fighter and multiclass into valor bard. See the Bladelock for ideas in regards tot he fighter level dip. Otherwise roll scores and try and get 4 scores of 14+ as the Valor bard is to MAD with the default array as you kind of want high dex, strength, charisma and constitution. Or one could play a high dex valor bard but then you lack feats and kind of need to take warcaster if you want to actually buff. One can always be an archer bard however and you want to steal spells like swift quiver at level 10 and take sharpshooter. Your level 10 spells you steal should probably be otherwise low level spells such as armor of agathys and/or hex adding some Paladin spells such as various smites or destructive wave would be another option. Bards are one of the more skill intensive classes similar to the warlock. Bards are good at the shield master feat due to being able to cast enhance ability and having expertise as a class feature. To be a good bard (valor or lore) I recommend choosing something and focusing on it such as blasting, buffing, debuffing, archery or melee combat.
Level 1-4 base damage.
Low damage. Generally 1d6+ability damage or less. Most Clerics, Monks, etc generally fall into this range. At level 8+ clerics are still here because the other classes get extra attacks or other sources of bonus damage so it is relative to your level.
Moderate Damage. 1d8+5 through to 2d6/1d12+ability mod. Most basic fighters and sword and board PCs fall into this range along with basic rogue builds. Some clerics can also get here.
High Damage Generally two handed weapons and/or bonus damage from class abilities or spells. Avenger Paladins, classes using hunters quarry, hex, or ability score to damage with spells (Warlock, Invoker). Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master and hunter rangers using Sharpshooter also fall here. This is about the best a sword and board or dual wielder can hope to get to such as a shield bash fighter, ranger or bladelock can hope to get to. Twinked out Rogues can also get here such as builds enabling multiple sneak attacks a round.
Uber Damage. Polearm Master+Great Weapon fighter, Sharpshooter, Half Orc Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter+Crossbow expert with constant sources of advantage/bless and the Sorlock (Warlock 2, Sorcerer XYZ). This stuff usually requires a party built around it to reliably enable the damage. The -5/+10 damage feats combine with bless and advantage such as shield master knock em prone, or spells causing paralysis, greater invisibility, blindness, faerie fire, foresight etc. Things like this will break the game you have been warned. The builds are very simple.
Generally multiple attacks helps and getting extra attacks as a bonus action, reaction or even no action (haste, swift quiver and other abilities).
Note damage is not everything and you do not need to deal uber damage or even high damage but you want the partied overall damage to be respectable so you do not want your main damage dealers to be clerics or fighters using sword and board, +1 AC and some low damage classes. An exception to that rule might be a spell caster heavy party.
Some Non Obvious builds.
Now there are more than one way to skin a cat in 5E. The following builds are more or less high damage builds that I more or less regard as powerful, fun and somewhat fair. They will not wreck the game.
The Bladelock.
Personally I think the Bladelock option on the warlock is a bad idea. The bladelock gets a lot better if you start of with a single level of fighter and multiclass into the warlock class. The main advantages this gives you is heavy armor proficiency, proficiency in con saves for concentration checks, and a combat style. after that you just use hex, armour of agathys and the fiend pact and bladelock options. By level 12 your base damage can be weapon damage+1d6+str+cha to damage and you have bonus hit points and damage from armour of agathys which by level 10 turns into 50 extra hit points per short rest. Armor of agathys also interacts quite well with damage reduction effects such as heavy armor master and stoneskin. Hilarity will ensue if you come across things vulnerable to cold damage though as I have seen a 5th level blade lock deal 120 damage via getting hit from slime zombies. Get hit 4 times by mindless plant zombies for 15 damage that get doubled and roll low damage. Best gish in the game that I know of you will out tank the fighter via temporary hit points, deal more damage than the fighter, have better ranged options via eldritch blast and might even throw the odd fireball. My current party is level 6, in one more level I will be looking at a bladelock and a sorcerer casting twinned stoneskins along with an Oath of the Ancients Paldin granting them half damge to spells le sigh.
Mr Shield Master.
A lot of these builds revolve around two handed weapons but using a shield can be fun as well. Your basic damage will be similar to a two handed weapon fighter if you take the duellist combat style (1d8+2 vs 2d6 or 1d12+ reroll 1 and 2). You are giving up extra attacks via feats such as Polearm Master and Heavy Weapon Master. You do get a accuracy buff via bonus action shield bash that provides you advantage to hit if you knock them prone. If prone following up with an action surge is often great and published adventures for 5E so far seem to include more magical longswords than great weapons. Obviously you are strength based and are trained in athletics, ideally you can get advantage on strength checks via enhance ability or expertise on athletics checks (multiclass rogue/bard) and hex also provides disadvantage on skill checks tied to an ability score. Such a PC is a tag team combo with crossbow expert+sharpshooter or another melee PC using great weapon master as advantage while prone helps to mitigate the -5/+10 part of the feats. The sentinel feat could be a good option for such a PC as they will be busy using their bonus action. An interesting party could have 2 shield bash PCs perhaps one of them as a valor bard and a sorcerer to provide twinned enhance ability while the other one could be a bladelock for bonus action hex abuse. A wizard in the party could also add enlarge into the mix to make you large which means you can shield bash huge creatures. From personal experience trying to knock storm giants prone is fun. A valor bard can multiclass as a fighter for most of the same reasons as the bladelock medium armor is a bit of a trap unless you have high rolled stats. The DM might get sick of this if you play ping pong with his monsters.
The high dex PC.
I am not a fan of dex based melee PCs on the front line. A rogue can get away with it, others not so much. If you really must build a dex based PC here is how I would do it. I would look at getting a bonus dice of damage from somewhere such as being a Ranger, Avenging Paladin or a bladelock or multiclassing into one of them via the fighter. Obviously one would be a duelist fighting style if that is an option. I would also consider the horde breaker ability if you were playing a dex based ranger. One would use a rapier and I would consider dual wielding or using a shield if you have bonus action fun and games with spells like hex or hunters quarry and I would be looking at feats like sentinel to get attacks as a reaction. Dex based bladelock could deal some decent damage. You could get your damage up to a respectable number and have all the benefits of a high dexterity score in terms of saves, initiative, skill use outside combat etc. Just don't go around with a 1d6 or 1d8 weapon adding dex damage and +1 AC and think you are going to be doing your job well and dual wielding is generally a weak option.
The Rogue.
The Rogue IMHO is not really a great damage dealing class in 5E and is often one of the 1st classes in the game to be opted out of generally in favor of a bard or high dex spell caster who subs as a skill monkey. The bard is almost as good as the rogue at skills perhaps better due to enhance ability spell and that spell+ guidance can sub for the rogue. The warrior types also tend to deal more damage. The Rogue also has some of the worst saves in the game as int and dex do not tend to matter than much. The assassin can deal more damage of course but it is still not that exciting. The Rogue however is still one of the best skill monkey's in the game and it gets some great defensive options as well and the thief subclass interacts well with the healers kit so you do get a lot of utility in one package. There are 2 ways IMHO to make the Rogue better. The first one is to maximise your sneak attacks to deal more damage. This means you need the sentinel feat or a battle master fighter to reliably enable an extra sneak attack per turn. The other way is taking a fighter level and picking up a shield and a combat style. If you start as a fighter and multiclass into a Rogue you give up a skill of course but I think con+str is better than dex+int. Now most Rogues probably dump strength but if you have a 10 or 12 strength you can use expertise on athletics checks and try for the same shield bash shenanigans as a fighter except you will be better at it despite your low strength due to expertise. If you knock someone prone you can also enable sneak attack damage. Carried to the logical extreme a fighter 11/Rogue9 by level 20 should be decent otherwise the fighter level is a dip or a pure high dex fighter could dip 1-6 levels of Rogue see the high dex fighter paragraph for more fun and games ideas.
Valor Bards.
Valor bards look fun on paper but they do not do that much damage as they lack the required spells to add extra damage onto them, they are kind of squishy as well if you try and wear medium armor with the default array. Most of those drawbacks go away if you star the game as a fighter and multiclass into valor bard. See the Bladelock for ideas in regards tot he fighter level dip. Otherwise roll scores and try and get 4 scores of 14+ as the Valor bard is to MAD with the default array as you kind of want high dex, strength, charisma and constitution. Or one could play a high dex valor bard but then you lack feats and kind of need to take warcaster if you want to actually buff. One can always be an archer bard however and you want to steal spells like swift quiver at level 10 and take sharpshooter. Your level 10 spells you steal should probably be otherwise low level spells such as armor of agathys and/or hex adding some Paladin spells such as various smites or destructive wave would be another option. Bards are one of the more skill intensive classes similar to the warlock. Bards are good at the shield master feat due to being able to cast enhance ability and having expertise as a class feature. To be a good bard (valor or lore) I recommend choosing something and focusing on it such as blasting, buffing, debuffing, archery or melee combat.
Last edited:
