Best Level 5 DnD Build EVER
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- Опубликовано: 20 авг 2024
- Do your friends annoy you so much that you just wish there was a clever way to get back at them without hurting their feelings? Do you want to make your dungeon master throw away his dice? Are you a fan of rhetorical questions? Well then do I have a character for you! May I introduce you to, THE BEST LEVEL 5 DND CHARACTER EVER. This character will single handedly make your players/dungeon master/family want to leave the table, and potentially your life. Please play responsibly.
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You could instead of going for that 5th level in paladin go for the 5th level in warlock, swap devil’s sight for thirsting blade which lets you make extra attacks with your pact weapons and, more importantly, take the eldritch smite invocation, because you technically can eldritch smite and divine smite on the same attack, adding 8d8 to your attack, at level 7
You need 5 warlock levels to het thirsting blade
@@andreymontag that is indeed what i said
@@Dreadnought_XIII ah, sorry
but then you can't use booming blade?
@@cloudthunder2469 thirsting blade is not a spell.
Before critiquing the build PLEASE READ
Make sure you are up to date on all the rules, spells and features that are available/have been changed as of Tashas Cauldron of Everything
Eldritch Smite cannot be used on this build as it requires you to be a 5th level warlock, not a 5th level character to take the invocation as the invocations feature reads “a level prerequisite refers to your level in this class”.
Just a couple questions. Does Eldritch Smite work with Divine Smite? I couldn't find many sources saying yes or no. I think it would work for they deal different damage types, use different dice, and have different additional effects. Please correct me if I am wrong or if there is a source I missed.
Second question could you go fiend warlock 3/paladin 2 with the invocations eldritch smite (with blade pact) and misty visions lets say theoretically this was in my game could they be able to abuse infinite double smites, Dark One's Blessing, and Lay on Hands; to perhaps become a dps, tank, and healer all at the same time? That is also level 5.
I am asking as a DM who is kind of interested to see how it goes.
@@autoreply7309 you cannot get eldritch smite as the class feature eldritch invocations states “a level prerequisite refers to your level in this class” but if you were a 5th level warlock and 2nd level paladin you could stack smites
@@OffbeatOutlaw Thank you for the information it was very appreciated and may saved me a bit of balancing for the party.
@@OffbeatOutlaw Booming Blade actually does not require Improved Pact Weapon to do with a greatsword, as the greatsword is already the actual material component of the spell. That said, IPW is just gravy to the build.
@@EvanFarshadow I have recently learned this nuance, but yes this is true 😁
I'd love to see more lvl 5 builds like this! Maybe some for barbarians, sorcerers, etc.
If you want the maximum amount of damage, and don't need doing it in one turn, maybe try casting hold person first? Then you are guaranteed to crit on your Attack, allowing you to make a bonus action swing with Great Weapon master.
Hold person is concentration, thunderous smite is also concentration so you lose out on the thunderous smite
Also it is a good spell but situational as only works against humanoids, also, if your turn is before the targets turn, they get to make a save when you cast it, then on their turn they make another save so by the time your turn comes around again they've had 2 tries to get out of the spell.
I’ve always loved low level power builds
I’m currently playing a level 5 variant human genie (Dao) warlock with metamagic adept for quickened spell, for invocations he has agonizing blast, repelling blast, and grasp of hadar. on turn 1 he quickens a spike growth and then fires 2 eldritch blasts to pull and push them through the area dealing 12d4+2d10+8 or an average of 49 damage.
ANNNNDDD now my party will face this as an npc
@@joshgooding3273 I’m sorry for any of the melee characters in the party
@@joshgooding3273 MUHUHHAHAHAHAHA
It's beautiful 😍
You know those blasts pretty much hit the creature at the same time... Right?
The effect of eldritch blast is instantaneous, you cant fire them and delay one before the other...
So there is a reason that we tend to include hit/miss on our damage calculations, this build takes a -5 to hit for that +10 damage and you skipped your ASI due to multiclassing so you only have a +3 CHA. This means that your attack bonus is a +2, yes when you hit it hurts but you will hit less than half of the time.
Assuming your first turn set up goes as planned and you are trying to strike at a 16ac your actual average DPR for expending your hexblades curse, 2nd level divine smite and your 1st level thunderous smite is 26.6, it actually goes down to 20.35 if you attempt a GWM attack because you have a lot of damage riding on hit so decreasing your hit chance decreases the potency of that damage on average more than the GWM +10 damage grants. If we count first turn damage into the calculation as well let’s say you used hexblades curse, booming blade, and your other 2nd level divine smite as set up then your average damage over 2 turns would be 47.1 (eating 2/2 warlock spells and 1/2 paladin spells as well as your Hexblade’s Curse)
Compare to a straight lv.5 hexblade half elf running Elven Accuracy who with 1 Eldrich Smite on turn 1 does 40.2 average damage over 2 attacks and can do so again the next turn inflicting 80.4 over 2 turns. Eldrich Smite knocks the target prone granting advantage on the follow up strike, boosting accuracy and crit chance immensely with the double advantage granted by elven accuracy.
Great Weapon Master is a powerful feat, but if you are power gaming with it you HAVE to take its accuracy penalty into account. For example a Battle Master Fighter’s Precision Attack grants an extra d8(4.5) accuracy that all but negates the penalty, or the Devotion Paladin who’s channel divinity allows her CHA bonus to be added to attack rolls, or as per a straight hexblade taking it at level 8 and using it on the afore mentioned triple advantage attack and gaining an extra bonus action attack if they did land a crit. But if you just drop it into a build with no thought of accuracy you will see a lower average damage than if you had just taken any other relevant feat.
I’d suggest using “LudicSavant and AureusFulgen’s DPR Calculator” a free online spreadsheet that calculates actual average DPR.
Edit: the resource expenditure isn’t as bad as it would seem on first glance, because smites unlike most spells do not expend on miss so they would only be burned when getting their full effect.
This is the way
This deserves more attention
I created lots of spreadsheets at one stage for helping me build characters, builds which ignore hit chance are indeed unrealistic.
More Level 5 builds are needed.
Fr
Hey Offbeat! I love your content recently :) You make me wanna play a session everytime i watch your videos.
that’s the dream 😎
Yes yes it is
So, playing a pure 5th level vengeance paladin I can deal an average of 99 damage, and how I do that is by playing a variant human picking up the pole arm master feat, and at 4th level I pick up the great weapon master feat. What you do to get this damage is on your first turn cast hunters mark for an extra D6 per hit using whatever else you'd like on that turn, and on the following turn you make three attacks with a glaive using your remaining spell slots on smites dealing a total of 2d10+8d8+3d6+1d4+39 damage which comes out to the previously stated average of 99 damage. In other words going pure vengeance paladin out damages this hexadin builds average damage on the low end, and easily exceeds it on the average to high end.
Also, without any spell casting I can deal an average of 53 damage which is competitive with this build while bursting, and I can do this damage non-stop.
Are your spell saves good?
This also means that you have used up 4 of your 9 spell slots. Let's hope the DM doesn't account for your burst and doesn't put more encounters where you're going to need those spell slots! White room theorycrafting is nice and all but actual games will often see you using your spells for stuff other than smite
Yeah that’s burst not sustained
Can you by chance send me your character sheet
*after the battle
Can we take a short rest now
- Be a variant human Hexblade warlock with Polearm Master and GWM
- Have thirsting blade, improved pact weapon hand devil’s sight
- Cast Darkness and use Hexblade’s Curse
- With 16 Cha, +2 to hit with advantage. 2d10+1d4+12+30. 55.5 every turn.
Sorry can you explain me that numbers? +30?
@@Thunderclocker 2d10=11, 1d4=2.5, +9 for cha, +9 for Hexblade’s curse, +30 for gwm. 11+2.5+9+9+30=61.5. I actually forgot to add Hexblade’s curse and Cha for the third attack in the original comment lol
@@RGNRK-ms8rk tnx dude
"How do we do all of the damage at once?"
Proceeds to do a passable amount of damage that takes a turn to set up
First of all you're forgetting Improved Pack Weapon's damage bonus of +1.
Second, the 4d6(14)+4d8(18)+16 damage is 48 average, not 57. Make it 49 for the little modifier you forgot about.
He uses Max not Average. Also it's only about 22.8 once you factor in hit chance, that first turn of combat it's about 12.55
Love how we just chose not to use 2 of our point but points also remember to take the shield spell from hexblade warlock because warlock pact spells don't go onto your spells known they're just added to the list of spells you can learn
Was gonna say that hex blades curse didn’t let you cast hold person cause concentration... Nope! You can curse a man, cantrip a man, and a hit a man while concentrating on holding that man.
I love this game
One of my favorite level 5 characters to play is a rouge gunslinger with the sharpshooter feat.
Being able to attack people from hundred of feet away, while in cover, while ignoring there cover is amazing. Cause you can add sneak attack damage as well.
It’s not the most damage output yes, but it sure is a lot of fun to play being the sniper hiding in the trees
That's some pretty good damage tbh, whatever damage your gun does with archery fighting style and sneak attack. That's still gun damage +2d6 +2 +dex mod
I thought sneak attack only works if you're wielding finesse weapons? Are guns finesse?
@@amberlovely1 it’s been a bit since I’ve last checked but I do believe so, at least my dm let it be that way
@@amberlovely1attacking with a ranged weapon also works.
DM: what’s your background?
Me: Professional Unhealth care worker.
My favorite is the perfect turtle at level 1
Take the lizard man from the back of the dmg, this gives +2 AC without specifying unarmored
Take fighter with the defensive style, this allows +1 AC
Take chainmail and a shield as well as your weapon of choice, this gives 20 AC
Your new level 1 AC at the cost of almost nothing is 23 at base without augmentation. With plate mail it can be brought up as far as 25 easily and early.
With even basic +1/+2 plate as you would encounter at about level 5-9 in most campaign your AC will rival ancient dragons at a whopping 27 before you even have 100 hp
Take battle master at level 3 evasive maneuvers so add a d8 to that
You'd have to knock two of the booming blade damage dice off of the hold person attack, because they have to move in order to trigger the additional damage from booing blade, and they can't move while I'm hold person.
We need more low-level builds!!!
My face when this build can be out damaged by a smite happy 5th level vengeance paladin.
It can be! But consistently over long fights and short rests this build will on average be better 😁
@@OffbeatOutlaw except it won’t because a if you build it right it will do 53 average damage without casting a single spell and using a single 1st level slot let’s you deal 63 to 64 average damage
@@OffbeatOutlaw also on the next level you can add your charisma modifier to all your saving throws
Also the way I would set it up means the enemies will take an opportunity attack from you adding an additional 18.5 average damage or 22 with a first level spell
This is worthy destroying someone who wasn't prepared for level 5 to be wild.
You can't get improved pact weapon until you have 5 levels of warlock, as the invocation section says, "A level prerequisite refers to your level in this class" - PHB.
Seeing as you don't have a dex mod, I'd recommend starting as a paladin so you get heavy armor proficiency, also means you have 2 more hp.
I don't know if this really compares to just 5 levels of hexblade. You take polearm master and great weapon master, improved pact weapon, thirsting blade, and spirit shroud, and you got a solid 2d10+1d4+3d8+30+3+3xCHA every round after you cast spirit shroud. That's 69 average damage right there, and as long as you can hold concentration on spirit shroud, which can be cast as a bonus action, it doesn't require more spells cast round to round.
Improved pact weapons only prerequisite is the pact of the blade feature. Please look things up before attempting a correction.
However, your level 5 warlock build is pretty cool! I wanted to make a build that’s more capable of sustained damage over the day, not just one battle, but for a single battle build I can see 5 levels in hexblade being really good!
@@OffbeatOutlaw Fair on the correction, I assumed incorrectly, my bad.
I don't understand your point about my build only being good once a day; your build uses more spell slots than mine, spirit shroud doesn't need to be cast more than once per battle, it uses pact slots, and no other ability I talked about is limited use.
Hmm true point. Either way I think both builds are valid, yours relying on multiple attacks and mine on a single attack doing a lot of damage 👍
Sorry can you explain me that +30 and +3xCha?
@@Thunderclocker With my build you make three attacks: one from the attack action, one from using your pact weapon while having the thirsting blade invocation, and your bonus action from polearm master. A hexblade using their pact weapon adds their charisma mod to damage from each of their weapon attacks, so that explains the x3 Cha. With great weapon master, you can take -5 to your attack roll to add 10 damage on a hit, so that explains the +30.
Fun Fact: A Hexblade Bladelock 12/Oathbreaker 8 multiclass can, with feats, a Haste buff, and a couple rounds of set up (possibly out of combat), NOVA for 33d8 + 14d6 + 128, an average of 326 damage in a single turn. An Ancient White Dragon has 333HP. This assumes all attacks hit along with a single crit to activate the GWM bonus action attack. With this build you also have very high magical non-NOVA damage, viable magical ranged damage, healing, minimum 19 AC with plate, high health, minimum +4 in saving throws, decent utility, and great RP skills. You can also achieve all this with just about any race, as this is a SAD CHA build. It’s definitely my favorite build I’ve come up with so far because literally the only thing you need to pull off that NOVA is a Potion of Haste or another party member. Any other magic items are just gravy for this build.
Man from 2 years ago please tell me how and what plan to use.
Not that this is about "to hit" capability but since it's 5th level: Devils Sight = Cast Darkness on self (or blade to throw off the "center" targeting) and suddenly you are getting advantage and opponents get disadvantage due to blindness. It is concentration so it does reduce the thunderous smite benefit
tbf that's about what a normal Paladin can do
However, do to this character only making one attack you reduce the variance in your damage 😁
Not sure if you’ll ever see this or if you’ve covered it before but for my first ever campaign I played a Grave Cleric, and at level 3 I was able to combo my channel divinity + highest spell slot inflict wounds + sleeping target (or any form of autocrit) to do some insane damage. Only problem is it takes 2 turns to do, also getting into a situation where you can autocrit and its not a consistent option. I got lucky fighting a certain young green dragon, rolled a 20 and one tapped it :D
5th level hexblade pact of blade warlock. + eldritch smite , improved pact weapon, thirsting blade + GWm = 4d6 (wpn dmg) + 2d6 ( hex) + 4d8 eldritch smite + 8 cha + 6 prof + 2 IPW + 20 (gwm) = 75 ( you can go for half orc for extra crit damage)
take 2 levels in fighter for action surge and you add another 6d6+36 = 75+57 = 132 in second round of combat at level 7.
Nothing too wild, but can hit more consistently.
2 Cleric 3 Sorcerer Death Cleric and Divine Soul, throw in Aasimar Fallen for the extra necrotic damage in your winged form.
Meta Magics: Subtle and Twinned Spell. Select Inflict Wounds as your alignment spell. The set up on an ambush scenario kinda sucks, but I prefer the fact this combo takes two rounds. (I'm sure half of you reading this already know where this is going)
Round 1: Action Necrotic Shroud.(The fear can screw your allies, but super low DC, odds are it won't even bug your enemies) Bonus action Sanctuary for oncoming attacks or Healing Word if you're lower in the order and someone took a high rolling hit. (Sanctuary is preferred for next round reasons) Use movement accordingly if you're being ambushed or ambushing.
Round 2: Movement to close in on your target, Sanctuary will cause them to both use their reaction and have to make a wisdom save to hit you (not fullproof, but odds are in your favor). If you're ambushed and surrounded, Inflict Wounds, Channel Divinity, Necrotic Shroud if you leveled it to a 3rd it's 5d10+14 to two targets in a round. 42 damage average. (1st level (Channel Divinity states "with a melee attack" and Inflict Wounds is a melee spell attack) ((Meaning this can be done with shocking grasp too as an example.))
It's pretty niche for sure, but the build carried me through a Curse of Strahd run. Not to mention him being Evil, the party didn't have access to the amulet that turns Strahd into a CR 5 fight.
The obvious cons being how many resources this uses, the lingering shroud and Death Cleric's Reaper makes your Toll of the Dead and Chill Touch. So you're pumping out consistent necrotic damage to multiple targets, position dependent.
If you pick the Eldritch Smite invocation instead of Devil sight you can hit you enemies with a Thunderous Divine Eldritch Smite enhanced Booming Blade. This will let you deal an extra 3d8 Force damage and knock your opponent prone. So when you get extra attack your second attack will have Advantage.
You can only get eldritch smite once you’re a 5th level warlock
@@OffbeatOutlaw Oh right, forgot about that.
My personal favourite lv 5 power build is a Sorlock. 4d10+4d6+24 if all 4 eldritch blasts hit is just so sweet. And if you have advantage youll hit most of the time AND you're going to crit atleast once if not twice.
It's a classic for a reason lol
This is a bit missleading as the "4d10+4d6+24" doesn't come online until round 3. Considering that this is all single target damage and that most fights end within 4 rounds I'd say that it's cool when it hits, but this seems like a fairly situational combo. Please correct me if I've messed up anything in the following.
I'm assuming the combo is:
Agonizing Blast for +Cha bonus (3) per hit
Hexblades Curse for +PB (3) per hit
Hex for +1d6 per hit
Quickened Spell to do 2 * 2 Eldritch blast (2 * 2d10)
That makes it 4 * (1d10 + 1d6 + 3 + 3) = 4d10 + 4d6 + 24
The problem is that HBC and Hex are both bonus actions and so is the quickened casting of EB. Best you can do then is
Round 1: Hex + EB for 2d6 + 2d10 + 6
Round 2: HBC + EB for 2d6 + 2d10 + 12
Round 3: EB + quickened EB for 4d10 + 4d6 + 24
With regard to the chance to crit, the chance for at least 1 crit with advantage, but w/o Elven Accuracy is ~57%. With both advantage and Elven Accuracy its ~72%
Nice BGM, I liked catching the Psycho Soldier theme in the background.
If you are going to use this build for higher levels, half-elf (or any elf) is the better option.
Because once you can attack with CHA, you can use Elven Accuracy on that attack even if it's a great weapon.
Critical hits are extremely valuable to this kind of build as they also double the added dice damage.
The bonetrousle in the back ground just added the final touch
You can stack all that!? It's time to experiment.
Can’t wait to troll the dm with this lol thx for the idea
This is fun and all, but you can do an average damage of 134 in a turn at level 5 as an echo knight fighter. You can take an extra attack per attack action using your echo, and you have multiattack already, and you can action surge, giving 6 attacks at level 5. Be a variant human and get great weapon master, then at level 4 get your Strength up to 18. Use a great sword and pick great weapon fighting as your fighting style. This raises the average damage of your d6s from 3.5 to 4.16666666.... With all this in mind, 6 attacks each dealing 2x4.166+4+10 means 134 damage at level 5.
I think this build is about versatility and staying power rather than straight up damage
@@novadominus I agree, but in that case don't necessarily market it as a damage build.
@@theobarrett-johnson8585 For one thing, there is a difference between sustain and burst damage, and for another thing just because it doesn't do the most damage you've ever seen ever doesn't mean the build isn't valid.
@@novadominus and I never said it wasn't valid, just maybe don't market it as a damage build.
I have a 5 level hexblade paladin that can (on advantage that I get very often) do a swing with a long sword for 1d8 + 20(2d10 no advantage) + 8 + 2d6 with +13 to hit and I can reroll twice and I have 20AC with a reaction to do shield.
I mean, a 5th level Battlemaster Fighter with GWM and a +4 to strength with a greatsword could :
-Action Surge for 4 attacks
-add all their superiority dice (on let's say trip attacks)
for a total of 40 + 16 + 8d6(average of 28) + 4d8(average of 18).
Which means an average of 102 damage.
And if they took like Giant Foundling as their background giving them Strike of the Giants, they could add an average 5,5 once a turn to that.
1. Your build doesn’t account for chance to hit which is always more relevant in scenarios concerning GWM. Bringing your average much closer to the one I presented.
2. Giant foundling wasn’t out yet at the time I made this video
@@OffbeatOutlaw it's still better than yours as this many attacks are less punishing when one misses than your one-hit combo who makes for a great loss and doesn't feel good to play when it misses. But yeah you're right about both things, I wouldn't play either build myself anyway
Great weapon master seems like a bad choice to me. You will have around a 30-35 % chance to hit most enemies using Great weapon master. Now for something like a fighter, where +10 damage represents a doubling of damage, or a barbarian where advantage can help you hit regardless, it is a good deal. But for someone who uses booming blade, then you really want to increase the chance to hit.
It may not be the best choice, but it’s still a cool option! And using a great sword for booming blade is a lot of fun already 😁 but yeah it’s not the greatest, but with a good team there are definitely moments where this can work
@@OffbeatOutlaw A 5th level human barbarian with polearm master and greatweapon master can make two attacks that are like:
1d10+10+3+2 ~ 20.5 damage each (on average).
So those two attacks add up to 41 damage,
Then we add 1d4+10+3+2 from the bonus action attack. For another 17.5, for a total of 58.5 damage.
Now make that barbarian the zealot subclass, and add another 1d6+2 for a total of 64 damage.
These attacks are done with advantage and the only resource you expend is rage, meaning you can do this pretty much every turn, and if you don't rage, you only lose a few points of damage. In addition when an enemy comes close we can whack them with our reaction due to polearm master.
Fighters can do something similar, they just have an accuracy problem they need to solve, but get action surge.
Sharpshooter and crossbow expert feats can obtain similar numbers, and take advantage of the very strong archery fighting style for accuracy.
The build in the video is not high damage for level 5, considering you are expending so many resources. Not saying it is unplayable or anything, just not very impressive when compared to other builds trying to do damage at level 5.
@@peterrasmussen4428 Ya I posted giving props to a straight Paladin Conquest build. Lvl 5 you have high AC, 2x attack with dueling style, and spiritual weapon. So 2d8 + 10 (assuming 16 Str), plus 1d8 + 3. So decent steady dmg, throw a smite whenever you want. Or, take Fey Touched either lvl 4 or Variant/Custom race and grab Hex. Then you're doing 3 attacks with Hex on each for an extra 3d6 per round and smiting whenever you want.
Halfling, Divination Wizard with Lucky feat. J/K roll through life 😆
So, I recently started a game where we used a roll 4d6 drop the lowest and always reroll 1's which allowed for some nice rolls, the top 3 being 18, 16, 15... of which I put the 18 in STR and took Bugbear (MPMM) and put my +2 in STR to start with a max 20 in STR... we also started at level 3.
I am playing a fighter (echo knight) and took Great Weapon Fighting for my 1st level fighting style and am also rocking a greatsword. Very early in the campaign, right after arriving at the setting the DM had a wight and some zombies attack the party.
On my turn I moved up to within 15 feet and used a bonus action to summon my echo next to the zombies. I then made my one attack from the echo's location and used Unleash Incarnation to make another attack from the echo.
2d6 for greatsword + 2d6 from bugbear's surprise attack (the new one doesn't need surprise, just go before the target has taken a turn) +5 from STR for each of those 2 attacks. I got to reroll some 1s and 2s from the 2d6 greatsword attacks.
1st and 2nd attacks were 16 and 25 respectfully and then I used action surge and made another attack and therefore another Unleash Incarnation, also rerolling a 1 for the 4th attack. Results for 3rd and 4th attacks were 21 and 21 respectfully.
So, all together my bugbear echo knight did 83 total damage on the first round of the fight at level 3.
So a lvl 5 build I would try out is variant human gloomstalker3 fighter2.
Take the gwm feat and gwf and your greatsword.
So on your first turn you can use your bonus action to hunters mark and then attack action, which gains an extra attack because of gloomstalker... and then you action surge and do it again.
So you get 4d6(hunters mark)+8d6(greatsword)+2d8(extra damage from gloomstalker)+1d4(favored foe)+12(str)+40(gwm).
Which gives you a nice little 105.5 average damage in a single turn at lvl 5.
edit: so i forgot to calculate the gwf as well, it brings up the dmg to 110.8 average damage
Favoured Foe requires concentration, also I believe you forgot to account for hit chance
More 5th lvl builds like this please!!
"We start as a Warlock by the way"
So.. Medium Armour with +0 DEX?
Heres a alternative (but success depends on vague ruling): be a lore bard then grab dragon breath and find steed, at 5th level you have damage of a fireball for a whole minute since your steed will also have that spell effect on themself
You could do it as a lvl 6 build.
If you make it a Custom Lineage, call it an Elf so at Hex 4 u can grab Elven Accuracy.
You have devils sight already, get darkness, cast it on your sword so you 1.won’t depend on the target failing the hold person’s save, 2.will be effective against multiple targets or 3.be effective against non humanoid creatures
With advantage to hit, elven accuracy and disadvantage to being hit, pick your Hexblade’s curse target and smite the life outta’em with your 95.7% chance to hit (assuming 15 ac) and your 27.1% chance to crit. 👌
I think there must be a mistake somewhere since I just recreated this build and you can't add Sword Burst or Detect Evil and Good due to lack of slots. Unless you are supposed to pick those up later.
Double short swords, half elf, ranger, str build, hunter's mark
4d6+2+x
(X=str/2)
No feats required except two handed fighting
In later levels of this build, I'd level the Paladin to 6 for Aura of Protection (save-or-suck spells can save or suck my Paladin), Warlock to 5 and then add 9 levels of Sorcerer. Still get level 6 spells, got some healing going and can coffee-lock to have RIDICULOUS amounts of Smites. Granted, true coffee-locking would require spending a lot of money for Restoration spells to keep yourself from dying to exhaustion, but if your team agrees to prep before a big fight by spending a few days and some gold on it... it can REALLY put some heavy pain out.
Couple of optimization things around ability scores for this build, without starting as a paladin you do not get access to heavy armour and with 13 str you cannot effectively wear heavy armour other than chainmail meaning you are missing 2 AC from plate which is pretty big. With only 10 dex you are also missing out on a +2 dex bonus. Using a 2 handed weapon also means no shield bonus so as a frontline character you will be taking quite a few hits.
A simple fix is to go 15 str 15 cha 13 con 10 dex 10 wis 8 int. Start as paladin for access to plate armour which gives a base AC of 18. Also take the defense fighting style of +1 to make that 19AC, also as a hexblade you get access to the shield spell and using a 2 hander you can cast it without needing warcaster. Meaning you can bump your AC to 24, 26 if you also cast shield of faith.
I get that this is a damage build but it was not that hard to make this an exceptionally tanky build also. The +2 ac from shield of faith or the +1d4 from bless would be a much better use of your limited spell slots than 2d6 (average of 7 damage once per spell slot that takes concentration). Bless also makes up significantly for the -5 to hit from GWM.
This build but take 3 more levels in warlock to get eldritch smite and change the devils sight for agonizing blast. Then take 6 levels in wizard taking bladesinger so you now have level 7 character spell slots and you can cast eldritch blast as part of your attack and then take two levels in fighter for action surge. Instead of variant human take half elf and take elven accuracy as one of your ASI’s as well as great weapon master. Since you have the feature to attack using charisma you can use elven accuracy on a great sword. You now have Nearly a 30% crit chance when you have advantage with hexblades curse and you can make a shit Ton of attacks a turn with many chances to smite on a crit. For extra spice dip into gloomstalker Ranger (assuming you have a good wisdom score) for dread ambusher and the extra bonus to initiative.
Try this out:
Whisper bard lv5, vhuman
Take warcaster, cast dissonant whisper at lv3 and as the opportunity attack cast booming blade
5d6 from diss whisp
1d8+4 from rapier
1d8 from booming blade
Most likely 2d8 from booming blade cause the enemy had to move away
3d6 from psychic blade
More or less 50 damage without any multiclass, just using a 3rd level slot
Rolls a Nat 1, trips as they attack and decapitate themselves
Good build, but don't underestimate Paladin lvl 5 straight out either. Go Variant (or Custom Lineage) and take Fey Touched and grab Hex. Take Oath of Conquest Paladin for Spiritual Weapon, and Dueling Fighting style. Now you have min 18 AC (20 with better armor) hitting 1d8 +5 (assuming 16 Str combined with dueling) x 2 plus Spiritual Weapon 1d8 +3 and then add Hex on top (it would take 2 rounds to get up and running) but you're now averaging 3d8 +13 + 3d6 a round = 37 dmg on average. And of course you can throw a Smite anytime you want to increase to 46 dmg per round. Good sustained dmg with a tanky build.
...I did 50 damage at level 1...but I was the definition of a glass cannon. I was a Rogue with a mercurial fullblade (this was iron kingdoms) I got a sneak attack/crit only to be taken to 0 health on the very next enemy action.
Problems incur as blade singing requires one handed non heavy weapons , great weapon fighting requires a heavy weapon , the pact weapon conjures a weapon of a type that you are now proficient with. Also holy weapon , haste,enlarge , and elemental weapon and hold person are Consintraton spells. Also u need to be an Elf to blade sing its possible with custom lineage. You can't touch a terraske with a spell below level 8 , a paladin of lvl8 can get past the fighting aura , but not possible and you lie to ur audiance.
Drop devils sight, get curse bringer invocation (silvered great sword) on hit you can spend a 1st level slot to add 2d8 also if you kill with this weapon you can transfer the remaining duration of hexblade’s curse to another target, meaning the next target on your attack with great weapon master also gets you CHA mod to the damage roll
Dealt 71 damage in one attack as a 3 Bard 2 Paladin mix recently. Crit + 2nd level smite + Thunderous Smite + Slashing Flourish from College of Swords Bard for.
8d8+6d6+5 Damage (Average being 62). No feats cause I picked Dwarf, sword and board with duelist fighting style with 16 strength. Of course, this isn't consistent because it's a crit, but no crit is still. 4d8+3d6+5 per hit (37 average) if you just want to blow all your slots and inspirations on normal hits.
I built a hexblade Paladin before I even knew it was the most overpowered build in the game just because I wanted to make a character that had every ability/spell with Smite in the name that exists in the game.
MY GODS SMITE THEE
Any Outlaw's first question: Can I turn my attack into a fireball?
I would argue this specific build doesn't work since Booming Blade requires somatic component which you can't perform while holding a two-handed weapon
This is cool but there's one problem. Hex is a concentration spell but so is thunderous smite so you can only cast one at a time... That being said it isn't a deal breaker to only do 1d6 less damage from hex,
now i have the build for a character idea i had, thnx offbeat
Who that’s a serious build
I may have to try it
I love some good brewed content lol
I'd like to note a Sorcadin is going to be able to do more than this in a round at 5... Not many times a day, but it can. Quicken hold person into BB Smite and GWM is going to get you on average 63 damage. If you just Quicken BB and Smite GWM on both hits you do on average 76 damage. Depending on how your interpret the new Tasha's BB you could twin BB and quicken GFB. This requires you being in combat with 2 enemies, but if you can pull it off it ends up being on average 118 damage split between 2 enemies. This is all assuming at level 5 with +3 attack you aren't whiffing a majority of your GWM swings AND that BB can be twinned at your table.
Especially because considering at like level nine you can sacrifice a level 3 spell due to attacks that deal 3 d6 damage plus thunder smite that does 2d6 damage plus the greatsword that deals 2d6 damage
Yay for "Smite Stacking". 😛😁
I can readily see this as a 16/2/2 build over 20 levels (16 Hexblade/2 Paladin/2 Fighter). Granted, the PC's Dex, Int., and Wis. will suffer greatly over the long term, but if the party's worth their weight in salt, they'll help defend against attacks that target those saves.
Invocations I could see taking along the way include Improved Pact Weapon (w./Pact of the Blade), Eldritch Smite (at level 5), Thirsting Blade (at level 5), & Lifedrinker (at level 12). Fighting Styles from both could be:
Fighter: Superior Technique (for Precision Attack or Tactical Assessment), Blindfighting, or Great Weapon Fighting.
Paladin: Blessed Warrior (for Guidance + Spare the Dying), or Dueling.
(Guidance isn't the greatest due to required concentration, but it's there as a backup to Precision Attack, for when the PC runs out of dice.)
As for spells early on, I noticed Hold Person was on the list as opposed to Darkness, even though you had the Devil's Sight invocation. Aside from concerns related to "friendly fire" that surround Darkness, was there some other reason why it wasn't taken? Advantage usually offsets penalties from stuff like GWM and Sharpshooter, which is why I asked.
Speaking of advantage, another way I'd build this is using a Half-Elf instead of a Variant Human, for access to Elven Accuracy.
The final path I could see to optimize this further would be Custom Lineage. Stat layout would be as follows, after racial bonus & feat: 15/10/14/8/8/17. This opens the PC up to the Fey-Touched Feat for Misty Step + Silvery Barbs, while granting a high enough Strength for heavy armor.
In any event, I've rambled enough. Good stuff.
50+ damage at level 5?!?
Yes, a war cleric with inflict wounds and a battleaxe
I have a just straight-up pact of the blade hex blade warlock build that does an average of 79 dpr
another good dmg bulld is barbarian 5lvl gwm and polearm master 3 attacks with adventage to offset -5 form gwm and you have 2d10+1d4+39+6(if raging) on avarege is 51+6(if raging) chose whatever subclass you like totem for tankiness or zelot for extra d4 on first hit AND FREE Ressurection because your god likes you or any other subclass later you can take sentinel only think you need is HP points to move forward no waiting for spellslots no wating for rest just pure rage
Do we pretend AC is not a thing?We need a way to get advantage
If you started as Paladin you could get Great Weapon Fighting style to reroll 1's & 2's.
You look like real life goku when he had a hair cut
So i tried making this on dndbeyond, first thing is the stats using pointbuy are missing 2 points. i put them into str since adding to dex doesn't give us more armor but it would add to init. or could flatten out wis at 10 so no negative mod for it. As for fighting style it was never mentioned here but my guess would be Great weapon fighting to reroll 1s and 2s but defense is an ok choice if you think that 1 ac boosting you to 17 will help you not get hit more often but i swapped out hold person for darkness so i can have advantage on hits from being unseen attacker. Thunderous smite also helps if it knocked them prone. giving advantage on the next melee attack though it is unlikely for them to not stand back up but it does prevent them from running too far. I want to also point out this build is heavily reliant on concentrations spells. using thunderous or searing smite would break hold person and darkness if used while concentrating on them.
Great video! Currently I am playing a Eladrin, Fighter 2/Hexblade Warlock 2. Had I seen you video before we started would have followed your build. Can you please expand on your Level progression past 5. We are doing Tyranny of Dragons so this build may last me a while. Keep up the great work.
Why aren't you using Darkness to give you advantage on these attacks?
Edit: Concentration, gotcha
i would have flipped the starting lvl with going 1 in pali and then the following 3 in warlock that way you can wear heavy armor.
A M O G U S A C T I V A T E D
Most campaigns die at level 5, so this is perfect.
I feel like this is a huge clash amongst the players gods which would give the paladin wild magic wouldn’t it?
So I know this is a year old and you might not check but I have a question since I see you add booming blade to a lot but if I remember right doesn't booming blade require the creature to have to move to do damage? "On a hit, the target suffers the weapon attack’s normal effects and then becomes sheathed in booming energy until the start of your next turn. If the target willingly moves 5 feet or more before then, the target takes 1d8 thunder damage, and the spell ends."
So, I've got a lvl 5 Build that I think is even better. Also go variant human, get str and wis as high as possible, snag magic initiate feat for booming blade and find familiar (other cantrip doesn't matter). Go tempest domain cleric 5. At 4th lvl pick up the crusher feat, and for equipment use full plate, a shield, and a warhammer. Familiar uses the help action to give you advantage on an attack every round. Round 1, cast booming blade w/ advantage 2d8+str, cast spiritual weapon 1d8+wis. Round 2, cast spirit guardians and attack w/ spiritual weapon (w/advantage). Round 3+ booming blade+ spiritual weapon.
What makes this so good is that crusher knocks them back 5 ft, meaning on their turn, unless they have reach or a ranged attack, they either stand there doing nothing, or they trigger booming blade's secondary damage. So on their turn, they are definitely taking spirit guardians' damage, but probably booming blade's as well. Additionally, you have a 20AC, so they probably won't hit you, but if they do, that triggers wrath of the storm so they take even more damage. If both attacks hit, they fail their save, and they do nothing on their turn, they take an average of 33 damage per round. If they move, attack, hit, and fail their save, that average jumps to 51. Every turn. No crits needed. And, with your channel divinity, you can max one of your thunder damages.
Hexblades can utilize elven accuracy make of that what you will
You either cast booming blade or make an attack action with gwm. Can't do both.
You don’t know how booming blade works
Now I know why one of my players wanted to make a new character all the sudden he asked if he can make a a warlock paladin build and I was like huh that would be dope but fuck I need to watch these sooner lol
Lmaooo tell him I say hi
You know Dm I won’t make these horror inducing builds of if you stop sending 25 ghouls
I was literally planning on playing a hex blade Paladin before watching this
Playing Human with Alert Feat, 3rd level Rouge/2nd level Shadow Magic Sorcerer and it consistently does similar damage with Booming Blade on the first round. Expertise used in Perception and Stealth to max Assassinate opportunities. Sneak Attack 2d6, Rapier 1d8, Booming Blade 1d8 can be done once almost every round without expending slots. First round I getAdvantage and I manage Assassinate 3/4 of the time which is auto crit.
2 levels of Sorcerer to access Shadow Blade and the War Caster Feat. The damage progression for up casting SB is slower than Smites, but it only needs ONE spell slot and will apply to MANY attacks as the build processes. I can then quicken spell Booming Blade on the off hand.
2 Levels of Fighter gets Two-Weapon Style and Action Surge for another Assassinate Strike on round 1.
3rd level of Fighter for Battle Master with Precision Attack, any preferred damage add option, and Ambush when you want to increase your chances of getting Assassinate off.
Two levels of Fighter for a Feat/ASI and Extra Attack. At this point Shadow Blade really shows it value as that one spell slot can hit up to 4 times in round one and at least twice every other round.
2 levels of Paladin for Divine Smite.
3 levels in Bard for Jack of All Trades (further help Initiative, Perception, Stealth and any other skills) and College of Whispers and Psychic Blades for more damage dice.
Fill to 5th level Sorcerer and Bard, primarily for spells slots that can caste Shadow Blade at 5th level or higher for 4d8 and to feed Divine Smite. Psychic Blades with end up at 3d6. Since this build is not going to have a high Charisma, you can focus spells like Shield, Enhance Ability, and other low level buff/utility spells.
First round damage ranges from sick to mind boggling. After that there are enough slots to poor out another round or two of crazy damage.
Now THIS is what I was looking for. DM just messaged us to make a lvl 5 character for a one off 😈
RIP
While this is a classic and is nice. there is something else just as good, or arguably better then this build that is very bursty and relaying on a single attack to hit, and will run of steam quickly as your constantly burning spell slots for your damage spikes.
You can instead be a Longtooth Shifter, path of the beast barbarian. and have 4 attacks on every single turn at level . (3 claw attacks and 1 bite from the shifter). With a damage of 1d8+5 damage per strike (Using your feat at level 4 to grab the unarmed fighting style, since the claws for the barbarian and the bite of the longtooth shifter are unarmed attacks).
You can also attack recklessly and gain advantage on every attack roll, every turn. And deal up to 52 damage per round at max damage without factoring in critical hits. Every single round. Plus all of the other fun things Path of the beast can do, plus damage reduction from raging. this is only assuming a 16 strength of course. A higher strength score would always be better.
All of this now made better with the updated Barbarian in the new 5.25 PHB.
Hair routine video when?
You should do some lvl 7 builds i know moon druid and barbarian is a beefy boi such tank
I'm using this once my character dies in tomb of annihilation. mwa ha ha
Final calculations seemed to miss out on the +1 damage from the improved weapon.
Interestingly if attempting to attack vs 16 AC or higher with those stats, you actually have higher DPR without power attacking. With or without advantage.
Loving my lvl 4 Warlock hexblade fighter multiclass. Waiting for the next few levels to come together though.
This is good and all but have you heard of War Domain Cleric 3/Paladin 2?
Anatoher extremly low level build Is the caster monk, i played a worlock monk that with haste; the spell that deal 1d6 of mecrotic damage for every hit that i don't remember and use a ki point.
With a crit, it's easy more than 40 damage, and It can go up to 60 and more