Barbarian, hands down.
There are many things more important about each character than their ability to dish out damage in combat, but it's still something I find fun to analyze. I was planning to model the damage output of various classes via a simulated adventuring day and other complicated means. I even have some of those results. But it became clear that one build had a dominating lead and no one else was going to catch up.
That build is a Barbarian with the Great Weapon Master feat and Reckless Attack. As a human, you can have that at level 2.
Let's look at a 3rd-level Barbarian. When raging and taking the -5 to attack rolls from the Great Weapon Master feat, he'll hit for 2d6 + 3 (Strength) + 2 (rage) + 10 (GWM) damage, for an average of 22. If we assume AC 14 enemies, Reckless Attack (advantage on attack rolls) lets him crit 9.75% of the time and hit 48% of the time. If we assume that half the time his hit will reduce an enemy to 0 hp (those are big hits!), that's a 33.75% chance of a bonus attack from GWM.
Accounting for all that, his expected (average) damage each round will be 17.9.
At 5th level, assuming AC 16 enemies that go down 1/3 of the time when hit, his expected damage per round is 34.2.
Past 5th, it may be best to multiclass into Fighter for Great Weapon Fighting, Action Surge, and Battle Master maneuvers (especially Precision Attack), but a pure Barbarian is still a strong choice.
Eventually, of course, nothing can compare to a well-placed Meteor Swarm, but I think the Barbarian is likely to stay ahead on overall damage output even compared to Fireballs being thrown around on a fairly regular basis.
A couple more notes: Reckless Attack means the Barbarian can be taking lots of hits in return. Fortunately he has damage resistance while raging and lots of HP, which I think is a pretty decent trade. Also, a tempting target out in front is often very helpful for the rest of the party. Finally, a Barbarian following the wolf totem seems like one of the strongest ways to boost party damage, on top of the Barbarian's own damage.
There are many things more important about each character than their ability to dish out damage in combat, but it's still something I find fun to analyze. I was planning to model the damage output of various classes via a simulated adventuring day and other complicated means. I even have some of those results. But it became clear that one build had a dominating lead and no one else was going to catch up.
That build is a Barbarian with the Great Weapon Master feat and Reckless Attack. As a human, you can have that at level 2.
Let's look at a 3rd-level Barbarian. When raging and taking the -5 to attack rolls from the Great Weapon Master feat, he'll hit for 2d6 + 3 (Strength) + 2 (rage) + 10 (GWM) damage, for an average of 22. If we assume AC 14 enemies, Reckless Attack (advantage on attack rolls) lets him crit 9.75% of the time and hit 48% of the time. If we assume that half the time his hit will reduce an enemy to 0 hp (those are big hits!), that's a 33.75% chance of a bonus attack from GWM.
Accounting for all that, his expected (average) damage each round will be 17.9.
At 5th level, assuming AC 16 enemies that go down 1/3 of the time when hit, his expected damage per round is 34.2.
Past 5th, it may be best to multiclass into Fighter for Great Weapon Fighting, Action Surge, and Battle Master maneuvers (especially Precision Attack), but a pure Barbarian is still a strong choice.
Eventually, of course, nothing can compare to a well-placed Meteor Swarm, but I think the Barbarian is likely to stay ahead on overall damage output even compared to Fireballs being thrown around on a fairly regular basis.
A couple more notes: Reckless Attack means the Barbarian can be taking lots of hits in return. Fortunately he has damage resistance while raging and lots of HP, which I think is a pretty decent trade. Also, a tempting target out in front is often very helpful for the rest of the party. Finally, a Barbarian following the wolf totem seems like one of the strongest ways to boost party damage, on top of the Barbarian's own damage.
