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

[Argyle King]

Haven't played in a while, but (in previous campaigns) paladin and warlock seemed to be the big damage dealers.

One of my early 5E characters was a bow-using fighter (battle master) with archery style. I may be misremembering, but I recall doing a lot of damage. Being able to stack on sharpshooter damage for multiple attacks was pretty good. Though, in hindsight, maybe it wasn't as good as I remember. The main thing was being able to hit hard from far away.

For me personally, Intypically find DPR to be a poor use for spell slots most of the time. Being able to warp reality and inflict crippling status effects can end a fight without chopping through hit points.

 

[LordEntrails]

Spirit guardians is like an ongoing relentless fireball. I don't know how a wizard could match it in damage.

This can be mitigated pretty significantly by the DM. It all depends upon the terrain and NPC tactics. I certainly don't run my NPCs into a ongoing AOE unless their is good tactical reason to do so. Heck, often times they will run away rather than run into certain death.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

This stance is not very useful when every gamer worth his salt very quickly zeroes in on those feats.

This doesn't mean my players are roll-playing munchkins. It just means they have correctly identified the competitive fighter paths. When DPR isn't the main concern, you play another class, not a middling fighter build.

So this stance comes across as somewhat ivory-tower wishful thinking...

Oh my.
I knew your players were unpleasant. But to spark a response like this over the thought of playing a class in a less-than-hyperoptimised manner?

Tell me, how do they feel about . . . Monks?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'd say the ranged rogue had the most steady damage in my game. They very rarely missed, almost always got sneak attack, but with only one attack a round rarely overshadowed the GWM paladin who on a crit/smite would just delete opponents.

I mean, that may be true in your game, but either you had no Warlock or a Warlock who was either incompetent or not building for DPS, if so, because DPS difference between a very mildly optimised Warlock (like basic, obvious choices) and even a well-optimised ranged Rogue is significantly in the favour of the Warlock. GWM Paladins are flashy but have limited staying power and are very RNG-reliant if crit-fishing.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I just realized that in two campaigns with different players and dms, the answer is “mine.” In one it’s a fighter, in the other it’s a wizard.

My rune knight fighter is actually anout tied with the paladin, and the ranger, rogue, and eldritch knight are all played sub-optimally, so the only lesson I really learned is that Heavy Armor Master is really good.

The wizard was not a real damage powerhouse until we got to high enough levels that spamming disintegrate was an opition.

In the other 5e game we all optimize, but the weapon-usersusually out-damage spell-focused characters although the later can have huge impact when the right spell lands.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I mean, that may be true in your game, but either you had no Warlock or a Warlock who was either incompetent or not building for DPS, if so, because DPS difference between a very mildly optimised Warlock (like basic, obvious choices) and even a well-optimised ranged Rogue is significantly in the favour of the Warlock. GWM Paladins are flashy but have limited staying power and are very RNG-reliant if crit-fishing.

I'm the only person who played a full warlock, and didn't use EB at all.

Edit: But you might be mistaking what I was saying . I think the ranged rogue is very steady (in that they rarely deviate up or down from the same general damage range) moreso than most other classes because 99% of the time they use the same single attack each round. They don't compete for DPS king.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Yes, Paladins can really pile on damage.

I've found 2 things work well to mitigate (though this will heavily depend on both the campaign and the players(s) so your mileage may vary) 1. Give them less opportunity to Nova and 2. Give them more opportunities to use spells for things other than smiting



My players have not had amazing success with this spell. Cleric tends to get hit hard and lose concentration, or the baddies aren't grouped right for it etc. But yea, under the right circumstances, the spell is huge.

The true issue with paladins is that they get to wait to see what they rolled in order to decide if they want to smite. I don't have a problem with this idea so they don't lose a charge on a miss, but the (I believe) unintended consequences is they can wait until they crit to get double value from all the smite dice.

A better rule would be to either have them declare ahead of time they will use X level smite if they hit...OR...say that you do not double smite dice on a critical hit and let them decide after the roll as normal.

I think this would bring them in line with the rest of the pack, and you would see more actual spellcasting rather than just lots of smites.

As far as mitigation....I feel like stacking encounter against a character be sure they are the proud nail feels very unfair. Some of the slowest healing wounds in my playgroups through time have been characters or items lost to obvious "I'm taking your toy away" battles. Whether it's the jetpack a StarWars bounty hunter lost or an army of acrobats using 15' poles to spring around and stab the character with 10' reach and auras in 4e, it's always a recipe for hard feelings when it tips your hand to too obvious.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

This can be mitigated pretty significantly by the DM. It all depends upon the terrain and NPC tactics. I certainly don't run my NPCs into a ongoing AOE unless their is good tactical reason to do so. Heck, often times they will run away rather than run into certain death.

Depends on the bad guys for sure. Undead hoards are generally too stupid to think that tactically (undead hordes being the best use case because of number of targets and radiant damage) but also cornered animals, held or stuck opponents, or dungeon style tight space encounters all get weedwhacked.

Consider: Web+Entangle+SpiritGuardians=near instant win.

 

[Mort]

The true issue with paladins is that they get to wait to see what they rolled in order to decide if they want to smite. I don't have a problem with this idea so they don't lose a charge on a miss, but the (I believe) unintended consequences is they can wait until they crit to get double value from all the smite dice.

A better rule would be to either have them declare ahead of time they will use X level smite if they hit...OR...say that you do not double smite dice on a critical hit and let them decide after the roll as normal.

I think this would bring them in line with the rest of the pack, and you would see more actual spellcasting rather than just lots of smites.

As far as mitigation....I feel like stacking encounter against a character be sure they are the proud nail feels very unfair. Some of the slowest healing wounds in my playgroups through time have been characters or items lost to obvious "I'm taking your toy away" battles. Whether it's the jetpack a StarWars bounty hunter lost or an army of acrobats using 15' poles to spring around and stab the character with 10' reach and auras in 4e, it's always a recipe for hard feelings when it tips your hand to too obvious.

I will say this. When I actually kept track of PC damage, the Paladin seemed to be doing more because they could do so much focused on one hit.

BUT, when actually looked at over average, the fighter (and often rogue) more than kept up.

In fact, an optimized fighter can trounce a paladin on DPR over any decent length of time (assuming, again, the paladin isn't allowed to nova all the time).

 

[kigmatzomat]

Our group is cleric-healing 10, warlock 10, fighter-champion 10, paladin 10, monk-kensai 9/rogue1 and a bard 10.

The champion is a consistent high dpr because of crits. Paladin is a bit burst-y with smites but seems to average out the same. The monk has solid dpr but is a bit brittle so at times has to retreat, losing rounds of damage.

The casters hit higher peak dpr with AoE but are generally more conservative with spell usage. The cleric saves quite a few slots for healing. The warlock could be the highest damage dealer but our GM likes "surprise backups arrive" so the warlock. The bard (me) doesn't do a ton of damage but I focus on nerfing/juggling enemies and/or boosting allies.