Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The highest-damage fighter power is level 3?!
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="kerbarian" data-source="post: 4300164" data-attributes="member: 40393"><p>Specifically, I was looking at single-target damage and not considering status effects. And the top-damage power looks like Rain of Blows, a level-3 encounter power.</p><p></p><p>The reason is that it gives you the most attacks against a single target of any fighter power, which means you get to apply the weapon, strength, and feat bonuses to damage the greatest number of times.</p><p></p><p>You do have to be using a light blade, spear, or flail for the full benefit, but I compared it with other powers assuming that they also were used with their preferred weapons. In order to compare powers of different levels, I just went with a level-30 character using them. I assumed a final strength of 26, a +6 magic weapon, and +1 damage from weapon focus -- all pretty basic stuff for a level-30 fighter.</p><p></p><p>Assuming the fighter hits about half the time, that means an average of three attacks from Rain of Blows (two initial attacks, one of which connects to allow a secondary attack).</p><p></p><p>Assuming the highest-damage weapon (2d6), each hit would be for 2d6 + 8 (str) + 6 (weapon) + 1 (feat) = 22 average damage, or 66 for 3 hits.</p><p></p><p>No Mercy, the level-29 daily, would hit for 2d6 * 7 + 8 + 6 + 1 = 64 average damage.</p><p></p><p>If you insist on the +3 proficiency bonus and only go with swords, the best options would be a rapier for Rain of Blows and a Bastard Sword (two-handed) for No Mercy. In that case, the damage for Rain of Blows is 1d8 + 15 = 19.5 * 3 = 58.5, and the damage for No Mercy is 1d10 * 7 + 15 + 1 (versatile) = 54.5.</p><p></p><p>Rain of Blows even comes out better on crits. While No Mercy gets a big bump from all those weapon damage dice that can be maximized, Rain of Blows can crit multiple times and thus get the +6d6 crit bonus from the magic weapon multiple times.</p><p></p><p>There is one power that can compete (that I found): the level-15 daily Dragon's Fangs. That gets you two attacks for 3[W] + strength instead of three attacks for 1[W] + strength. For that level-30 character, Dragon's Fangs comes out ahead if you're using a 1d10 or larger weapon. It also does half damage on a miss, which puts it well over the top, but there are other factors that muddy the situation. For example, rerolls or attack bonuses would disproportionately help out Rain of Blows, because anything that helps you land the initial attacks means that you'll get more secondary attacks. Damage bonuses (e.g. the +4 from Kensei) also help Rain of Blows more, since you get to apply them on every hit.</p><p></p><p>(Note that the "average damage" I'm listing is the average damage when you hit. For true average damage, all those numbers should be multiplied by your chance to hit, but that doesn't affect their relative values.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kerbarian, post: 4300164, member: 40393"] Specifically, I was looking at single-target damage and not considering status effects. And the top-damage power looks like Rain of Blows, a level-3 encounter power. The reason is that it gives you the most attacks against a single target of any fighter power, which means you get to apply the weapon, strength, and feat bonuses to damage the greatest number of times. You do have to be using a light blade, spear, or flail for the full benefit, but I compared it with other powers assuming that they also were used with their preferred weapons. In order to compare powers of different levels, I just went with a level-30 character using them. I assumed a final strength of 26, a +6 magic weapon, and +1 damage from weapon focus -- all pretty basic stuff for a level-30 fighter. Assuming the fighter hits about half the time, that means an average of three attacks from Rain of Blows (two initial attacks, one of which connects to allow a secondary attack). Assuming the highest-damage weapon (2d6), each hit would be for 2d6 + 8 (str) + 6 (weapon) + 1 (feat) = 22 average damage, or 66 for 3 hits. No Mercy, the level-29 daily, would hit for 2d6 * 7 + 8 + 6 + 1 = 64 average damage. If you insist on the +3 proficiency bonus and only go with swords, the best options would be a rapier for Rain of Blows and a Bastard Sword (two-handed) for No Mercy. In that case, the damage for Rain of Blows is 1d8 + 15 = 19.5 * 3 = 58.5, and the damage for No Mercy is 1d10 * 7 + 15 + 1 (versatile) = 54.5. Rain of Blows even comes out better on crits. While No Mercy gets a big bump from all those weapon damage dice that can be maximized, Rain of Blows can crit multiple times and thus get the +6d6 crit bonus from the magic weapon multiple times. There is one power that can compete (that I found): the level-15 daily Dragon's Fangs. That gets you two attacks for 3[W] + strength instead of three attacks for 1[W] + strength. For that level-30 character, Dragon's Fangs comes out ahead if you're using a 1d10 or larger weapon. It also does half damage on a miss, which puts it well over the top, but there are other factors that muddy the situation. For example, rerolls or attack bonuses would disproportionately help out Rain of Blows, because anything that helps you land the initial attacks means that you'll get more secondary attacks. Damage bonuses (e.g. the +4 from Kensei) also help Rain of Blows more, since you get to apply them on every hit. (Note that the "average damage" I'm listing is the average damage when you hit. For true average damage, all those numbers should be multiplied by your chance to hit, but that doesn't affect their relative values.) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The highest-damage fighter power is level 3?!
Top