D&D 5E Which characters are the DPR (damage per round) leaders at your table(s)?

[FitzTheRuke]

I have no idea. Not something I've noticed at all. I'll try to pay attention and see what happens.

 

[Flamestrike]

I've found so much variability in this: differences in the number of encounters for a typical adventuring day vastly outweigh differences in character class.

Yep. In campaigns with shorter AD's (fewer encounters between long rest recharges) Paladins are DPR kings, because they can Nova. Battlemaster Fighters are OK here as well, presuming feats are allowed and they're spamming GWM or SS.

The closer you get to the 6-8 encounter recommended median, the more it all evens out.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Again, as I said before in the other thread, my suggestion is to actually track the damage and not go with your gut. It’s often surprising.

Yeah, I've done this. The characters whose players think they're doing the most damage are often not the ones who actually are. The least surprising thing was, yes, Warlocks really do a ton of damage if they just keep casting EB+AB with Hex, it just annihilates monsters. Rogues on the other hand, even played well, just don't seem to actually do that great damage-wise. Of course both the Rogues I've tracked are melee Rogues. There's no issue with DMs being difficult about them getting Sneak Attack, but there is an issue with them having to manuever to stay alive at times and/or getting CC'd or messed with more than other classes. The Samurai Fighter thinks he's Mr Megadamage because his burst is very high, but he's rarely top damage dealer in his group (fairly short adventuring days do factor in there).

 

[Lyxen]

Yeah, I've done this. The characters whose players think they're doing the most damage are often not the ones who actually are.

Indeed, and that's because people are terribly bad at statistics when they are not doing it seriously (which few of them can anyway). They will remember the unusual spikes and think it's the average.

It's the same at our tables (not that we care much - since we have very fights anyway - just people making comments now and then), the warlock is a consistent damage dealer fight after fight after fight that shreds the opposition, whereas the "optimised" gloomstalker assassin is noted for the first round spikes but completely fades away after that. And that is absolutely fine as far as we are concerned, especially since most of our players don't care, they are just there to have fun roleplaying their characters having adventures anyway.

 

[beancounter]

The OP question can be level dependent, so it's not easy to answer.

In my first 5E campaign, I played a barbarian, while the other guys played a paladin and a rogue. For levels 1-5, I was the DRP leader, but by the time we reached 7th level, I was clearly behind the curve.

By then it was usually the Paladin, but when the rogue got a sneak attack (which was quite frequently), he was the DRP leader.

 

[Oofta]

Depends on levels and encounters, so it varies significantly. Do you count those low levels where the wizard is down to cantrips after a few turns or that encounter where they took out a large group of enemies with a meteor storm?

Overall it seems to have been the dual wielding fighter/rogue in one group, paladin in another, wizard in another at higher levels.

So much depends on enemies, approach and style. Have 2-3 encounters where the wizard can go nova every encounter? Do enemies have varied tactics, show up from different directions in waves? Does the player have solid tactics?

But I think this also misses the boat. DPR is not always king. It's a team game, different characters have different roles on the team. Too often people focus on the holy DPR at the cost of every other aspect.

 

[bedir than]

I have no idea how I'd know this. Neither myself nor the dozens I've played with have ever cared about a couple HP damage here or there.

The last battle was with two wyverns attacking an airship suspended from 2 balloons flying through a mountain pass. Everyone enjoyed that experience and no one will remember who did the most damage.

 

[Mort]

Depends on levels and encounters, so it varies significantly. Do you count those low levels where the wizard is down to cantrips after a few turns or that encounter where they took out a large group of enemies with a meteor storm?

Overall it seems to have been the dual wielding fighter/rogue in one group, paladin in another, wizard in another at higher levels.

Sure, tier matters quite a bit as more attacks and higher level spells/abilities kick in.

I'd be surprised if damage potential doesn't shift around quite a bit.

So much depends on enemies, approach and style. Have 2-3 encounters where the wizard can go nova every encounter? Do enemies have varied tactics, show up from different directions in waves? Does the player have solid tactics?

Yes, that too. If the DM sends the villains at the party in perfect AoE formations that's going to be very different than a DM with different tactics.

But I think this also misses the boat. DPR is not always king. It's a team game, different characters have different roles on the team. Too often people focus on the holy DPR at the cost of every other aspect.

The nice thing about message boards is we can focus on specifics every once in a while.

DPR is far from the be all end all and different characters have different focuses (heck bards DPR tends to be abysmal yet they are clearly top tier).

But it's interesting to explore specific claims too.

 

[Helldritch]

The barb 4th/champion 6th is doing a lot of damage and he's the top damage dealer against single target if that target's AC isn't too high. The great weapon master feat is quite instrumental in that. But as soon as the AC becomes a bit higher than 17, the evoker steal the show, even on single target.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

So far in DMing 5E I've seen the most damage from an Oath of Vengeance Paladin (Vow of Enmity increases crit chance thanks to advantage). After that it's been a Rogue.

Personally, when I DM I try to pick monsters according to the party's composition. Monks are highly mobile and can attack multiple times, so I place several monsters with lower HP for them to tear through, sometimes putting them in places the monk can more easily access than other party members (such as on a ledge or across water). Wth a Rogue I put two or three monsters that have a bit more survivability and abilities that can do things like ability score drain, maximum HP reduction, save-or-dies, etc, so that they can take out these targets before they can wreak havoc on the party.

This way it doesn't matter so much who does the most damage. The Monk can focus on taking out a large number of ghouls with lower HP while the Rogue can focus on sniping the maurezhi with higher HP who want to try and Charisma drain the Monk to death.