D&D 5E (2024) Which class is the most durable (level 1)?

[ECMO3]

So, curious, would: Mage Armor, (8 hour duration) work for, say, the human barbarian with magic initiate. So, if the character cast it like 3 hours before combat/rage use?.. would that barbarian now be around 21-22 AC?

He would be at 13+Dex. Depending on Constitution that could be better or worse than Unarmored Defence.

 

[ECMO3]

Ok. So the most durable is the Sphynx of Wonder, who can be resurrected 10 times a day by it's patron.

If your 1st level Warlock plays naked with no food, weapons, armor or gear. Otherwise 8 or 9 is probably the realistic limit.

 

[FrogReaver]

Because at first level it will be better in play.

Relentless endurance is generally going to much better than one extra hp from being a Dwarf.

Relentles Endurance also has several advantages over Stone Endurance is that at level 1 Stone Endurance is usually 1 attack negated. It is rare damage will be higher than 1d12+Con and if it is, that is usually because you rolled really bad. It also can be ineffective, especially with a bad roll. You have 10hps left a Goblin hits you for 7 hps. You have 3 left and the Goblin rolls another 7 on a hit. You use Stone Endurance and roll a 4 and you are still dead.

Relentless endurance is also 1 attack, however Relentless Endurance always pays out when it is used. Regardless of how much damage they do it always puts you at 1 hp. Additionally you don't have to use a reaction or anticipate, it works on damage not caused by attacks and you have it even if you already used your reaction.

None of these abilities depend on being attacked. They all depend on taking damage.

I do agree with you that relentless endurance is better than the extra hp from being a dwarf! I'm not sure how to account for the dwarfs poison resistance, but my gut says relentless endurance is better than +1 hp/lvl and poison resistance (at least in early levels).

I don't find your Stone Endurance analysis compelling. You highlighted a case that relentless endurance could be better, yet there's a range of cases where Stone Endurance will be better. Stones Endurance can in many cases provide you with 2 extra hits compared to the Orc and possibly 3 in some rare cases. Not to mention there's 2 uses of it. Orc still has darkvision going for it, which has some defensive properties, so it's not perfectly clear cut, but I think Stone's Endurance clearly provides more low level durability than Relentless Endurance, at least for the average case.

Still, Orc is a good call out!

 

[ECMO3]

There are plenty of 1/4 CR mini-hordes though. Giant insects, rodents, beasts all clip along over difficult terrain with ease, I cannot remember what your summon's move speed is but it cannot hit every round if it is out-paced.

I don't remember the immunity to difficult terrain for Rodents or beasts, but the Sphinx of Wonder has a 40 fly speed. There is not much that is going to outrun it at 1st level.

t Lv. 1, with that warlock, I would probably let that summon 1-shot a weiner, then use my awesome charisma on an intimidate action from 50' away to end the fight through demonstration of pure power ... and this build would certainly allow you the evasiveness to "waste" actions on the unconventional like that.

If I was building a Warlock for Durability at 1st level I would dump Charisma. It is the least useful stat for a durability build at 1st level.

However, along a broad range of encounters and accounting for possible multiple encounters (endurance). White, Grey, or Neon room discussion, I would bet on the barb or fighter. With that magic initiate fighter taking the edge potentially on a mini horde, but the barb taking the edge potentially off higher attack mini bosses.

Sphinx of Wonder will outdamage a 1st level point buy sword and board Fighter or Barbarian by quite a bit.

A Sphinx of Wonder is +5 attack doing 12 damage. That is the same as a Raging Barbarian with a Maul and 2 points more than a Fighter with a Maul or the same Barbarian out of Rage with a maul.

It also has way more hit points and can be resummoned with full hit points as an action+10gp.

Finally you mention swarms above and they are common low level enemies. They also often have resistance to BPS damage and out of the 12 damage done by the Sphinx, 7 of it is Radiant Damage.

 

[FrogReaver]

Anyways, it strikes me that broadly speaking there are 3 primary durability considerations here. We can add a few more categories but I think most important differences summarize into these categories.

1. First Turn no-prebuff Enemies go first
2. BPS vs AC only 1st encounter
3. Non BPS 1st encounter

For Fighter vs Barbarian.

1. Fighter does meaningfully better. Higher AC, 2nd Wind can be used as long as not immediately downed on first blow (which if occurs likely downs the Barbarian as well as their hp difference is 2).
2. After AC and 2nd Winds are factored in, it's essentially a tie.
3. Fighter does better as 2nd wind helps here and can be used twice and rage does not.