What is the most damage that a character could do in 1 hit against an AC 80+?

[Caliban]

Then cast 5 delayed tensor's transformations in four rounds all delayed so that they will all go off the fifth round.
Charge your opponent during the surprise round - when he loses .

This won't work. Each instance of the spell gives a Base Attack Bonus, and identical bonuses don't stack.

 

[Pielorinho]

My suggestion would be similar to ones already used, only a little bit different:

Attack him with a rog19/ass1 wearing a ring of blinking. Your opponent is denied dex bonuses vs. all attacks. Cast haste on yourself with a potion. Using the quickdraw feat, attack him with alchemists fires, at +14/+12/+12/+7/+2 BAB. Obviously, a 20th level PC can pump those up. And you ignore all dex bonuses, all armor bonuses, and all natural armor bonuses. Each successful hit does 1d6+11d6 sneak damage +1 (point blank shot) damage.

Note that the ring of blinking denies the opponent any dex bonuses and therefore any dodge bonuses (PHB, p81) as well as his uncanny defense bonus (S&F, p18). Mr. AC doesn't lose his monk wisdom bonus; anyone know a way to immobilize him with a touch attack? I'm thinking maybe you take the leadership feat and have several followers equipped with rings of blinking (and fire immunity) who then grapple Mr. AC; if a grappled opponent is immobilized, this will get rid of the pesky monk bonus to AC.

By my count, so far we're ignore 115 points of AC, counting only armor, natural armor, dodge, haste, and dex bonuses. I'm thinking he gets to keep his cha bonus from mystic wanderer, sadly.

Ooh! Ooh! A better tactic.

This time you're a cleric using shuriken coated with dragon bile. This is a contact poison, DC 26, that does 3d6 points of str damage. You can fire off 15 of these/round; within the first three rounds, you're likely to have two of them succeed at least on touch attacks. Drop the poor fellow to 0 strength, and then CDG.

If you want this strategy to be even better, take the leadership feat. At 20th level, you can easily have 163 followers, all fighters, each of them with exotic weapon proficiency (shuriken), point blank shot, and rapid shot. That means that each round, poor Mr. AC will be facing 978 shuriken. One in 20 of those will hit poor Mr. AC, meaning that he'll take 48 points of damage/round, most likely. And if half of them are poisoned, that means he'll need to make 24 saves, DC26, against a 3d6 STR poison.

You, of course, are delaying your action. Once the last of your minions has gone, you take an MEA action to move next to poor O STR Mr. AC, and then you CDG. Power attacking. Using a miner's pick. Coated in black lotus extract.

If it matters, you've cast tenser's transformation, righteous might, divine favor, greater magic weapon, and whatever other spells are appropriate to increase your damage. And you have the strength domain. And, of course, you're hasted.

I'm guessing that poor Mr. AC wouldn't survive long in this arena battle.

Daniel

(I'm also thinking that you weren't intending followers to participate in this battle, but hey -- that wasn't against the rules! )

 

[nwn_deadman]

Will Living Armor stop the special effect of Brilliant Engery Weapons?

 

[RogueJK]

If you want this strategy to be even better, take the leadership feat. At 20th level, you can easily have 163 followers, all fighters, each of them with exotic weapon proficiency (shuriken), point blank shot, and rapid shot.

(I'm also thinking that you weren't intending followers to participate in this battle, but hey -- that wasn't against the rules! )

Actually, Followers are limited to Commoners, Experts, and Warriors. So you could possibly have 163 Warriors. (Assuming your DM was nice and gave you all warriors and none of the other 2 classes.) They would be limited to 2 feats each, though. (Assuming, again, that they are all human warriors. Nonhuman Warriors would only have 1 feat.)

[Edit] And another thing... Where are you getting all those shuriken? I seriously doubt that they would be mass-produced in a Medeival European setting. You might be able to import a small amount from the Oriental portion of the world, but not enough to equip 163 warriors who are throwing 3 shuriken each round for the entire battle. [/Edit]

 

[Pielorinho]

Actually, Followers are limited to Commoners, Experts, and Warriors. So you could possibly have 163 Warriors. (Assuming your DM was nice and gave you all warriors and none of the other 2 classes.) They would be limited to 2 feats each, though. (Assuming, again, that they are all human warriors. Nonhuman Warriors would only have 1 feat.)

Good catch! I also just realized that they'd need quick draw for this tactic. So, a change:

These warriors have point-blank shot and quickdraw as feats. They get a -4 penalty to hit with shuriken for not being proficient? Too dang bad for them! They'll only hit on a natural 20, and a good 15% of them are going to fall prey to poison damage anyway.

On the down side, that means Mr. AC only has 12 DC26 saves to make (well, slightly more: my 3rd-level and above warriors will get the rapid shot feat).

On the up side, each of those hits will do an extra point of damage. Whoopee.

And just for fun, my 17th-level cohort will also take the leadership feat, as will her 16th-level cohort, and all the way down. These folks will all have mass hastes memorized , meaning that my followers will pretty quickly all be hasted, getting their attacks back up to 6/rnd.

Anyway, it's pretty hard to make 12 straight DC24 saves, especially if you've pumped all your stat points into non-CON abilities. If he fails even three of these, he'll almost certainly be paralyzed.

Daniel

 

[Pielorinho]

[Edit] And another thing... Where are you getting all those shuriken? [/Edit]

From the PHB, natch!

This is an arena contest, not something remotely logical. But if you need a rationale -- it just so happens that Mr. AC is famous throughout the land, and so I, ancient enlightened master of the dragonpuke star school, have brought all my students on a long journey to see if Mr. AC is really all that.

Turns out he wasn't -- he couldn't survive a single round against our school.

Daniel San

 

[Al]

Try this on for size...

Wiz1/Ftr10/Order of the Initiate of the Bow9 (elven)

Before the battle: Cast Haste from scroll.
Round 1: Cast True Strike and shoot...

Your to hit:
+19 Base Attack Bonus
+2 Superior Weapon Focus (OoIoB)
+5 Bow
+5 Arrows
+13 Dex (18+2racial+5wish+5advancement+6gloves=36)
+9 Wis (17+5wish+6periapt=28) (Improved Zen Archery)
+1 Point Blank
+2 Bracers of Archery
+20 True Strike
=+76 to hit...so you hit on a 4.

But of course the arrows are coup de grace arrows from PsiHB.

So damage= d8+5arrows+5bow+4str+4superiorweaponspec=d8+18 x 3=(average) 68.

So a Fort save DC78 or die.
Bye bye AC man...

Regarding equipment: Easy. Three books of wish sufficient to raise Str/Dex/Wis are only around 400k.
Coup de Grace Arrow (1): Very cheap
Anything else...not really. Still 360k left, so plenty of stuff really.

Regarding statistics:
(base)
9 20 6 9 17 8 (32pts)
(enhanced)
18(+3wish+6belt) 36 (see above) 6 (who cares?) 13 (+4headband, req'd to cast Haste from scroll) 28 (see above) 8 (exactly.)

 

[nwn_deadman]

sorry, no psionics...so your plan will not work out as great...

 

[francom13]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think Dex bonus with a ranged weapon stacked with someone using Zen archery I thought the Wisdom bonus took the place of the dex bonus.

-Matt

 

[RogueJK]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think Dex bonus with a ranged weapon stacked with someone using Zen archery I thought the Wisdom bonus took the place of the dex bonus.

-Matt

That's correct. Zen Archery states "the character can use her Wisdom modifier instead of her Dexterity modifier when making a ranged attack at a target within 30 feet."