Maximum one round damage (Master Assassin) (5e Optimized Character Build)

Master Assassin

Have you ever felt that the Tarrasque has too much health? Do you love dealing massive damage? Do you hate long fights? Do you want to be able to kill a young dragon in one round at level 10? Have you ever had the need to smite anyone in your path? Then this is the class for you!

Warning; This build is heavily multiclassed, only has one ability score improvement, is only effective once per long rest and if you surprise the enemy.

The current reasonable highest average damage is 1184, with spell points variant rule and good set up the highest average damage is 1783, almost enough for three Tarrasque (676).

Core rules only builds

Base level 10 build

• Rogue 3 (Assassin Archetype)
• Fighter 5 (Battle Master Archetype)
• Warlock 1 (Any Patron)
• Cleric 1 (War Domain) with at least 12 Wisdom.
• Half-orc race
• 20 Strength
• Greataxe (because half-orcs savage attack only adds 1d6 to greatsword crits)

Rogue assassin gives you autocrits against surprised enemies and advantage on attacks against enemies that have not taken a turn yet.

Battle master fighter gives you two attacks per action, action surge for an extra action, great weapon fighting style to reroll 1 & 2's on weapon damage dice and on 4 attacks you can either get +1d8 to attack rolls after you've rolled from the precision attack maneuver or +1d8 (x2 crit) damage plus an effect from some other maneuver.

Warlock gives you the hex spell which gives you +1d6 (x2 crit) damage on each attack.

War cleric gives you one attack with your bonus action.

Half orc gives you Savage Attacks which gives you +1 weapon damage dice on a critical hit.

This gives you five attacks with numerous buffs. Assuming all attacks hit (not unreasonable with advantage and precision attack) you deal 15d12 (rerolling 1 & 2's) + 10d6 + 25 and up to + 8d8 damage which is on average 170 up to 206 depending if precision attack was needed or not.

For reference, a young red/gold dragon has 178 hitpoints.

Level 19 build

• Ranger 2

or

• Warlock 1 (Any Patron)
• 1 level from Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer and or Wizard

and

• Rogue 3 (Assassin Archetype)
• Fighter 3 (Battle Master Archetype)
• Cleric 1 (War Domain) with at least 12 Wisdom.
• Paladin 2
• Bard 6 (Collage of Valor)
• 2 levels from Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer and or Wizard.
• Half-orc race
• 20 Strength
• A +3 greataxe (because half-orcs savage attack only adds 1d6 to greatsword crits)
• A teammate, potion or magic item to cast haste for an extra attack

Spellcaster levels give you spell slots and Paladin gives you Divine Smite which can use those spell slots to add (the spell slot level + 1)d8 damage to an attack up to 5d8 and this damage is also doubled by crits. Since the damage maxes with a 4th level spell slot, you need eleven spellcaster levels to get the maximum damage for six attacks which is +60d8.

You get extra attack from level six Bard (Collage of Valor) which also gives you full spellcaster levels which Fighter and Ranger do not.

You can get Hunter's Mark from Ranger or Hex from Warlock.

With this set up you deal

18d12 (rerolling 1 & 2's) from weapon damage and savage attack

+ 60d8 from Divine Smite

+ 12d6 from Hex

+ 48 from Strength and +3 magic weapon

and up to + 8d8 damage depending if precision attack was needed or not

which is on average 492 up to 528.

For reference, an ancient brown dragon has 499 hitpoints and an ancient gold/red dragon has 546 hitpoints.

Extras

Teammates, potions or magic items for buffs; enlarge (+12d4 avg 30), crusaders mantle (+12d4 avg 30), bless (+1d4 to attack rolls), bardic inspiration (+1d6~12 to a low attack roll if needed and x2 damage if not needed) {Add more here if you find other buffs please}

You can also get the great weapon mastery feat. This lets you take a -5 penalty to attack roll for +10 damage on a hit and make an attack with your bonus action after doing a critical hit. This can mean that you do not need a level in cleric for the bonus action attack, but it means giving up an ability score improvement which you will only have one or maybe two of and you probably need them to get 20 Strength and you need spellcaster levels for divine smite anyway. Otherwise I would not recommend this as anything tough enough to require the extra damage is very likely to have high AC and even with advantage and precision attack, the risk of missing attacks is not worth the +10 damage in most cases.

A large possie of level 2 divination wizards to use Portent and guarantee hits.

Get another level in Cleric for +10 on one attack roll after you've rolled.

Get two levels in Wizard yourself and pick Divination School. This gives you Portent where you roll two d20's after a long rest and record them. Once per turn you can choose to use one of those recorded rolls instead of rolling a d20.

The Sorcerers empower meta magic can apply to the damage from the hex spell. So if you have 14 Cha and have 3-5 levels in Sorcerer you can reroll 3-5 of hex's 2d6 damage. This on average adds 0.75 damage per hex damage dice so total of 7.5 damage added.

If you use the spell points variant rules then you don’t need to be so wasteful with spell slots and the build only needs 7 spellcaster levels. This means the build only needs 17 levels and you can choose to get extra attack from Fighter, Paladin, Ranger or Bard (Collage of Swords).

Get a better magic weapon.

Get something or someone that can cast Fly, Lesser Invisibility and or other stealth spells on you once per day to guarantee surprise.

Get useful boons.

All WotC source books build

The level 10 build does not change much other than your race though you can't take Fighter level 3 to get the level 20 build but the Curse Bringer eldritch invocation which is a better version of divine smite, Grave domain channel divinity causing vulnerability on the first attack, bugbear's +2d6 damage on surprise attacks and Dread Ambusher which gives you an extra attack on your first turn of combat that stacks on extra attack among other changes means the level 20 build is quite different.

• Rogue 3 (Assassin Archetype)
• Fighter 2
• Warlock 3 (Hexblade Patron, Pact of the Blade and Curse Bringer eldritch invocation)
• Ranger 3 (Gloom Stalker Conclave)
• Cleric 2 (Grave Domain)
• Bard 6 (Collage of Swords)
• Sorcerer 1 (Divine Soul)
• Bugbear race
• Great weapon mastery feat
• 20 Charisma (Warlock with Hexblade Patron can use Charisma for attacks)
• A +3 greatsword
• A teammate, potion, scroll or magic item to get Haste

The Warlock Hexblade Patron means that each attack gains your proficiency bonus to damage rolls and you can get the Curse Bringer eldritch invocation which uses spell slots to add +2d8 (x2 crit) per spell slot level damage to each attack.

The Ranger Gloom Stalker gives you Dread Ambusher which gives you one extra attack when you take the attack action on your first turn of combat which deals an extra +1d8 (x2 crit) damage. This is a rare case that stacks with Extra Attack.

To fit the three Ranger levels and not lose too many spellcaster levels, Fighter level 3 has to be dropped which means no precision strike or extra damage from maneuvers.

The Cleric Grave Domain Channel Divinity gives your enemy vulnerability to the next attack against them.

Bard College of Swords gives you Extra Attack and +1d8 damage (x2 crit) once per turn from Blade flourish

Divine Soul Sorcerer lets you add +2d4 to a failed attack roll.

Bugbear gives +2d6 (x2 crit) damage on attacks against enemies that have not taken a turn yet. This means you can use a greatsword instead of a greataxe.

Great weapon mastery feat gives you a bonus action attack without the Cleric War Domain and the Grave Domain Channel Divinity means that it is worth it even if it means you cannot max your combat stat.

Assuming 20 Charisma, you deal

4d6 (rerolling 1 & 2's) from weapon damage

+ 20d8 from level 5 spell slot Curse Bringer

+ 2d8 from Blade Flourish

+ 2d6 from Hex / Hunter's Mark

+ 4d6 from Bugbear's Surprise Attack

+ 6 from Hexblade curse

+ 5 from Charisma

+ 3 from magic weapon

x2 from Grave Channel Divinity vulnerability (8d6 (reroll) + 44d8 + 12d6 + 28)

Plus seven more attacks from Extra Attack, Action Surge, Dread Ambusher, Haste and the Great Weapon Mastery bonus action attack

+ 28d6 (rerolling 1 & 2's)

+ 104d8 from one level 5, three level 4 and three level 3 spell slots

+ 4d8 from Dread Ambusher

+ 42d6 from Hex and Bugbear (Blade Flourish is once per turn)

+ 98

Plus upto +90 from great weapon master by taking the -5 attack roll penalty and using it on the vulnerability attack

Total damage 36d6 (reroll) + 152d8 + 64d6 + 126 plus upto +90 for an average of 1184 upto 1,274.

For reference, the Tarrasque has merely 676 hitpoints.

Extras

If you use the spell points variant rule then the build is even more powerful because you can use level 5 spell slots on every attack. This adds +36d8 (avg 162) to the main build. It also means you only need nine spellcaster levels so your final two levels can be Ranger and you get Extra Attack from there so you don't need Bard Collage of Swords, possibly getting Druid 2 Circle of Spores for +18d6 +2d4 (avg 59) and Bard Collage of Whispers for +8d6 instead of +4d8 (avg +10) or your final level can be Fighter to get superiority dice to add to attack rolls or damage (+1d8 to four attack rolls or +10d8 damage (avg 45)).

Teammates, potions, scrolls or magic items for buffs; holy weapon (+36d8 avg 162), enlarge (+18d4 avg 45), crusaders mantle (+18d4 avg 45), bless (+1d4 to attack rolls), bardic inspiration (+1d6~12 x4 to damage if used on the vulnerable attack or x1 to a low attack roll if needed and x2 damage if not needed)

A large possie of level 2 divination wizards to use Portent and guarantee hits.

You can pick another Warlock Patron and still get the +2d8 (x2 crit) per spell slot damage boost from a different eldritch invocation. You will lose the +6 damage from Hexblade curse but you can get a more reliable damage type than slashing and have more roleplay options.

You can get a teammate to use the Grave domain channel divinity so you can take the Druid circle of Spores for +18d6 +2d4 and get War domain and not Great Weapon Mastery feat or just take some other class.

Build Alternatives

If you replace the ranger levels with two full spellcaster levels then you get a 6th level spell slot which you can use to cast Tensor’s Transformation which gives you extra attack and +2d12 (x2 crit). You’d also be able to take level 3 Fighter for the combat manoeuvres. This only reduces damage by a small amount unless using the spellpoints variant.

You can take wizard bladesinger levels instead of bard to get extra attack.

Notes

Spellcaster levels is your Bard + Cleric + Druid + Sorcerer + Wizard + 1/2 Paladin + 1/2 Ranger + 1/3 Arcane Trickster +1/3 Eldritch Knight levels rounded down.

The great weapon Fighting Style allows you to reroll damage dice that roll a 1 or a 2. The average damage increase this gives is (D-2)/D per dice where D is the size of the dice, e.g. D is 12 for d12's, 6 for d6's ect.

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Optimized Character Builds