Bugbear Introduction
The launch of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse brought us numerous new and updated race options. While these were mostly good, but not problematic, the Bugbear immediately stood out as terrifyingly ripe for abuse. The RPGBOT team latched onto the new Bugbear and brainstormed a series of absolutely terrifying builds, each wildly upsetting the game’s DPR expectations.
This article seeks to refine those brainstorms into a few absolutely horrifying builds.
The Bugbear’s most mechanically impactful feature is Surprise Attack, which allows you to deal an additional 2d6 damage per attack when you hit a creature that has not yet acted in combat. If you roll well for initiative (high Dexterity, a weapon of warning, a sentinel shield, the Alert feat, the Bard’s Jack of All Trades, the Gloomstalker Ranger’s Dread Ambusher, the War Magic Wizard’s Tactical Wit feature, Gift of Alacrity, Guidance, etc.), you can all but guarantee that you’ll have viable targets.
With the issue of initiative solved, the challenge becomes maximizing your number of attacks. Obvious options like two-weapon fighting, Extra Attack, and Flurry of Blows will all draw your attention, and those options are certainly crucial, but the harder you look, the more terrifying your options become. And by multiclassing to some degree, we can make something truly, truly horrifying.
These tactics are inherently “bursty”; this build will intentionally be very effective on turn 1, then less impactful on later turns. The hope is that you can drop so much damage in one turn that it’s not an issue. Much like a wizard who will often drop one powerful spell on turn one then coast on cantrips for the remainder of a fight, this build seeks to define combat on turn one, then spend the rest of the fight cleaning up the leftovers, if there are any.
Our goal is to fully triple the “Dude Stop” DPR range, which means that we’re dealing in one turn what the game expects a 4-person party to do over the course of 3 turns. If we can do 400 DPR in one turn, we can solo a CR 20 enemy in one turn.
This build will draw heavily from our Bugbear Handbook, our Practical Guide to Multiclassing, and the Fundamental Math of Character Optimization.
Table of Contents
- Bugbear Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Feats
- Classes and Subclasses
- Example Build 1 – Ambush Caster
- Example Build 2 – Tam Bush
- Example Build 3 – Bugbearlock
- Conclusion
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.
Feats
- PHB: +5 Initiative.
- PHB: Two-weapon fighting action economy at range with a hand crossbow. If we can find a way to attack as a Bonus Action from another source, Gunner is a better choice. A larger damage die between a hand crossbow and something like a musket may also make Crossbow Expert a suboptimal choice depending on your exact build.
- PHB: +1 Dex and muskets for that awesome 1d12 damage die.
- PHB: 3 times per day, you can roll an extra die to potentially rescue a failed attack.
- TCoE: When you’re rolling a ton of dice, one of them is going to be a 1. We’re almost always making numerous attacks, often with Advantage, so critical hits are likely, making the additional damage die on crit helpful. Still better, we can get +1 to Dexterity. This is basically a perfect feat for us.
Classes and Subclasses
When we consider classes, we want several things: Improvements to our initiative rolls, additional attacks, and stacking on-hit damage bonuses.
To that end, I’ve assembled a collection of class/subclass combinations which suit our purposes, as well as a very brief breakdown of their level progression to cover what we get from each class and when.
Some class options have been omitted for brevity because their entry would amount to “wouldn’t it be nice if this was Dex-based?” Example: Path of the Beast Barbarian.
To show how each of these options contribute, I’ll include DPR calculations in each build.
Artificer (Armorer)
We’re mostly here for infusions, but Infiltrator Armor is decent, especially if you’re not going to have Expertise in Stealth. Starting in artificer can also get us proficiency in firearms so we don’t need to spend a feat on Gunner if we want a musket.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magical Tinkering Spellcasting | |
| 2 | Infuse Item | Enhanced Arcane Focus if we’re relying on Spell Attacks, Enhanced Weapon if we’re relying on weapon attacks, or Repeating Weapon if you’re using a crossbow or firearm. |
| 3 | Artificer Specialist Armorer Tools of the Trade Arcane Armor Armor Model: Infiltrator The Right Tool for the Job | Advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) and Lightning Launcher. Lightning Launcher is a decent ranged attack option, and, since it doesn’t deal normal weapon damage, we have to worry less about damage resistance. |
| 4 | ASI | |
| 5 | Extra Attack |
Cleric (War Domain)
We’re here for War Priest. When using a two-handed weapon like a longbow (or a heavy crossbow if we take Crossbow Expert), it can get us an attack as a bonus action.
Twilight gets an honorable mention here for its ability to get Advantage on initiative rolls.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spellcasting Divine Domain: War Bonus Proficiencies War Priest | War Priest notably doesn’t care about what sort of weapon we’re using, so we can use a longbow. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all that we have going for us, and our only DPR boost until Divine Strike at level 8 is ability score increases. We’re still comfortably in High DPR, of course. DPR: 20.0 |
| 2 | Channel Divinity (1/rest) Guided Strike | DPR: 20.0 |
| 3 | – | DPR: 20.0 |
| 4 | ASI | DPR: 21.3 |
| 5 | Destroy Undead (CR 1/2) | DPR: 21.3 |
Fighter (Echo Knight)
The Fighter gets us a lot in two levels: first a Fighting Style at level 1, Action Surge at level 2, Echo Knight at level 3 for Unleash Incarnation, ASI’s at level 4 and 6, and Extra Attack at level 5.
I did consider Champion for Improved Critical. It is not worth it. If you want better crits, go for Assassin.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fighting Style Second Wind | Fighting style gives us a bunch of useful options. Thrown Weapon can work if we’re going for two-weapon fighting to get an extra attack out of our bonus action. Archery is an obvious choice for a strictly ranged weapon build, especially if we’re going to delay ASIs to take multiple class dips. For two-handed weapon builds,Great Weapon Fighting may be worthwhile because we’re planning to roll a big pile of dice so the damage boost may actually add up to something worthwhile, but we need to build around Dexterity for the bonus to initiative. Assuming we get Bugbear’s Surprise Attack and have a +3 dex mod, let’s compare archery with a longbow, thrown weapon style with daggers (for the TWF), and two-weapon fighting style with daggers. Archery w/ Longbow: 12.95 Thrown weapon style DPR: 16.65 Two-weapon fighting style DPR (daggers): 18.6 TWF style will do more DPR at the expense of being melee-only. The gap grows if we upgrade to short swords. |
| 2 | Action Surge (1/rest) | Action Surge is why we’re here. It’s the best single class feature in the game, often fully doubling a build’s turn 1 damage output unless you can also attack as a bonus action. Adding Action Surge to our ongoing DPR progression: Archery w/ Longbow: 24.91 Thrown weapon style DPR: 25.95 Two-weapon fighting style DPR (daggers): 27.9 |
| 3 | Subclass: Echo Knight Manifest Echo Unleash Incarnation | The Echo Knight is appealing for both Manifest Echo and for Unleash Incarnation. Manifest Echo increases our effective mobility by allowing us to drop our echo in range to attack our enemies, which is crucial if we start too far away or if we need to move between multiple targets. Unleash Incarnation lets us make additional attacks a few times per day, though it does depend on our Constitution modifier. We can use Unleash Incarnation twice because of Action surge (which requires 14 or more Constitution, which is easy to achieve), so we’ll add that to the progression: Archery w/ Longbow: 48.15 Thrown weapon style DPR: 44.55 Two-weapon fighting style DPR (daggers): 46.5 Notice that our DPR doubles or nearly doubles for all three. |
| 4 | ASI | Archery w/ Longbow: 48.8 Thrown weapon style DPR: 47.15 Two-weapon fighting style DPR (daggers): 49.5 |
| 5 | Extra Attack | Two attacks. We’ll want Extra Attack from somewhere, but it doesn’t need to be from this class. With Extra Attack, we add two more attacks on our first turn. Archery w/ Longbow: 73.2 Thrown weapon style DPR: 67.05 Two-weapon fighting style DPR: 69.0 Notice that our DPR doubles or nearly doubles for all three again. Thrown weapon style stays consistently below our other options. Two-weapon fighting style stays in the lead until level 5, and if we can get a bonus action attack from anything except two-weapon fighting, Archery is the clear frontrunner. So if you want to fight at range, don’t bother juggling knives: get a bow. In any case, all three start at Target DPR, hit High DPR at level 2, then hit Dude Stop at level 3 and stay there. If you did nothing else except raise Dexterity to 20 and keep taking fighter levels, Archery stays in Dude Stop range until level 17. That’s not what we’re going for in this article, but it’s still one heck of a first turn. |
Monk
We’re here for Flurry of Blows. It does limit us to monk weapons, but two-handing a spear in exchange for yet another attack is absolutely worth the smaller damage die compared to a better weapon. Two Ki points is enough to get us through two encounters, so there’s little reason to go further.
If you do go further into monk, we have several options for subclass.
- Drunken Master: Free Disengage and +10 ft. speed so you can more easily move between targets
- Long Death: Temp HP when you inevitably reduce something to 0 hp
- Mercy: Hand of Harming once per turn
- Shadow: Cast Darkness or Pass Without Trace
- Sun Soul: Attack at range with lasers
With Way of Mercy, we sit at the upper end of the High DPR range, coming just short of Dude Stop at level 5. Flurry of Blows is a huge boost.
Unfortunately, Martial Arts and Flurry of Blows both require us to be unarmored. Light armor is 12+Dex, so 14 Wisdom gets us the same AC. No problem.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Ki | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unarmored Defense Martial Arts | – | One attack with a two-handed spear and Martial Arts for a bonus action unarmed strike. Assuming we get Bugbear’s Surprise Attack and have a +3 dex mod: DPR: 18.6 |
| 2 | Ki Unarmored Movement (+10) | 2 | Ki gets us Flurry of Blows. That adds a second attack from our Bonus Action. DPR: 27.2 |
| 3 | Monastic Tradition | 3 | Most of the subclasses won’t boost out damage, so let’s look at Mercy as the go-to example. We’ll assume 16 Wisdom so we get another 1d6+3 damage once per turn on hit. DPR: 34.71 |
| 4 | ASI | 4 | Assume +2 Dex DPR: 35.36 |
| 5 | Extra Attack Martial Arts 1d6 | 5 | Two attacks. We’ll want Extra Attack from somewhere, but it doesn’t need to be from this class. Our Martial Arts die also increases, giving us a small boost with our Flurry of Blows damage. DPR: 48.09 |
Ranger (Gloomstalker)
Hunter’s Mark fits very nicely into a weapon-focused build, providing another on-hit damage boost which makes two-weapon fighting unappealing and allowing us to use weapons with a bigger damage die like a rapier or a musket. We’re still built around Dexterity, so most big two-handed weapons aren’t an option.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Favored Enemy Natural Explorer | DPR with a longbow: 10.0 |
| 2 | Fighting Style Spellcasting | The Ranger’s spellcasting gets us access to Hunter’s Mark. At higher levels, we can upgrade to Magic Weapon or Elemental Weapon depending on how far we go. We get access to the Archery and Thrown Weapon styles, which work us just like they do for the Fighter. Archery was the clear winner for the Fighter and we don’t want to spend a Bonus Action on two-weapon fighting, so we’ll only look at archery. DPR: 14.25 |
| 3 | Ranger Archetype: Gloomstalker Primeval Awareness Dread Ambusher Umbal Sight | Dread Ambusher and Umbral Sight are amazing for our purposes. Dread Ambusher gets us an extra attack and some bonus move speed if we’re building for melee or for short-range thrown weapons. Umbral Sight gets us better Darkvision and we’re invisible in darkness, so we can stalk around in dungeons or at night and get guaranteed Advantage against almost every creature in existence. DPR: 28.5 DPR with Advantage: 36.67 |
| 4 | ASI | DPR: 30.0 DPR with Advantage: 38.85 |
| 5 | Extra Attack | Two attacks. We’ll want Extra Attack from somewhere, but it doesn’t need to be from this class. DPR: 45.0 DPR with Advantage: 57.82 |
Rogue (Assassin)
Expertise, lots of skill proficiencies, and Sneak Attack. Sneak Attack only works once per turn, unfortunately, but stacked with Bugbear’s Surprise Attack it’s still a big pile of damage at low levels, especially with two-weapon fighting.
It’s unlikely that we will go beyond 3 levels of rogue.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Sneak Attack | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Expertise Thieves’ Cant | 1d6 | Expertise in Stealth will do a lot to help us ambush our enemies, making it more likely that we’ll get Surprise. We’re not going to use our Bonus Action for anything on turn 1, so we’ll assume two-weapon fighting with shortswords. DPR: 15.37 |
| 2 | Cunning Action | 1d6 | DPR: 15.37 |
| 3 | Roguish Archetype: Assassin Assassinate | 2d6 | Assassinate is why you’re here. Advantage on attacks against enemies that haven’t acted yet massively boosts our DPR. If we manage to get Surprise, (which is really hard for most parties) it nearly doubles our DPR compared to attacking with Advantage since we’re relying almost exclusively on dice. DPR: 19.0 DPR with Advantage: 25.54 DPR with Assassinate: 43.12 |
| 4 | ASI | 2d6 | DPR: 19.64 DPR with Advantage: 26.42 DPR with Assassinate: 44.0 |
| 5 | – | 3d6 | DPR: 23.27 DPR with Advantage: 31.05 DPR with Assassinate: 51.96 |
Paladin (Vengeance)
We’re here for Divine Smite, which is unfortunately melee-only, but there’s nothing stopping us from doing it multiple times per turn except running out of spell slots. We won’t go far enough into paladin to get much spellcasting, but if you multiclass you might have a big pool of spell slots to throw around.
Our choice of subclass doesn’t matter much, but Vengeance is an obvious choice for Vow of Enmity. Activating it as a bonus action to get Advantage is a great option if you can’t get it another way. However, it’s single-target, so if we need to switch targets we’ll be in trouble.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Divine Sense Lay on Hands | At this level, we’re far behind other martial options offensively. |
| 2 | Fighting Style Spellcasting Divine Smite | Paladins get much more limited Fighting Style choices than fighters. We’ll go for dueling because a rapier is our best Dexterity-based weapon. We’ll also add Thunderous Smite since our Bonus Action is unused for the moment. DPR with 1st-level Divine Smite and Thunderous Smite: 22.5 That eats both of our spell slots for the day to compete with a fighter using Action Surge. Oof. |
| 3 | Divine Health Sacred Oath: Vengeance Channel Divinity – Abjure Enemy – Vow of Enmity | Now we ask ourselves if Advantage from Vow of Enmity is better than Thunderous Smite. DPR with 1st-level Divine Smite and Thunderous Smite: 22.5 DPR with 1st-level Divine Smite and Vow of Enmity: 24.38 It is. |
| 4 | ASI | DPR with 1st-level Divine Smite and Vow of Enmity: 25.25 |
| 5 | Extra Attack | DPR with 2 1st-level Divine Smites and Vow of Enmity: 50.5 |
Sorcerer
We’re here for metamagic. Quickened Spell means that we can quicken a cantrip. However, remember that if you cast a Bonus Action spell, you can’t cast a leveled spell as an action. This likely means a leveled spell as a Bonus Action followed by a cantrip as your Action, but you might go for two cantrips if you’re using Eldritch Blast. Sorcerers do get Scorching Ray, which fires 3+ rays and we can add more by using higher-level spell slots.
Tragically, the Sorcerer doesn’t get access to Spirit Shroud like the Warlock and the Wizard do.
Our choice of subclass matters surprisingly little. If you go for 6 levels of Sorcerer, consider Draconic Bloodline. Elemental Affinity will add your damage bonus to one damage roll of each spell. If you cast two spells (ex: Scorching Ray and Quickened Fire Bolt), that adds your Charisma modifier twice in one turn.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spellcasting Sorcerous Origin | DPR with Chromatic Orb: 14.35 |
| 2 | Font of Magic | DPR with Chromatic Orb: 14.35 |
| 3 | Metamagic – Quickened Spell – Subtle Spell or any 1 other | Scorching Ray! Shoot 3 rays, then quickened Fire Bolt for a 4th attack! We want Subtle Spell if we have a way to cast Hex or Spirit Shroud. Both spells have Verbal components, which will spoil your stealth. DPR with Scorching Ray and Quickened Fire Bolt: 38.15 |
| 4 | ASI | DPR with Scorching Ray and Quickened Fire Bolt: 38.15 |
| 5 | – | Scorching Ray adds a 4th ray, and you can still quicken Fire Bolt, which adds another damage die. DPR with Scorching Ray and Quickened Fire Bolt: 51.80 |
Warlock (Fiend)
Hex, Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast, and possibly Repelling Blast. Hex can debuff one target’s Wisdom checks (it can be any ability score, but we want Wisdom because it covers Perception) and the on-hit damage bonus benefits from the same tactics as Bugbear’s Surprise Attack. Eldritch Blast’s number of attacks scales with character level, so a 2-level dip gets you a lot of benefit. If you go further, you can get Spirit Shroud, which will provide a larger damage bonus than Hex using the same tactics.
Unfortunately, since the Warlock’s spell slots cap at 5th level, you won’t match the Sorcerer or the Wizard’s spellcasting if you plan to put more than 10 spellcasting levels into your build.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Otherworldly Patron: The Fiend Pact Magic 1 Spell Slot | We want Fiend for Scorching Ray. DPR with Eldritch Blast and Hex: 11.2 |
| 2 | Invocation: Agonizing Blast 2 Spell Slots | DPR with Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast, and Hex: 13.15 |
| 3 | Pact Boon: Any | Scorching Ray! Shoot 3 rays! DPR with Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast, and Hex: 13.15 DPR with Scorching Ray: 29.4 |
| 4 | ASI | DPR with Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast, and Hex: 13.8 DPR with Scorching Ray: 29.4 |
| 5 | Invocation: Any | Scorching Ray adds a 4th ray, Eldritch Blast adds a second. We can also learn Spirit Shroud at this level, though we can’t cast Spirit Shroud and Scorching Ray in the same turn. Since Spirit Shroud has Verbal components, you may need to pre-cast it then rush to surprise your target(s). DPR with Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast, and Spirit Shroud: 29.0 DPR with Scorching Ray: 39.2 DPR with Scorching Ray and Spirit Shroud: 51.8 |
Warlock (Hexblade)
I know, another warlock and oh look it’s a Hexblade. Daring today, aren’t we?
To no one’s surprise, hexblade works well for a weapon-based build. A guaranteed +1 weapon is a big boost, plus if we go all the way to level 12 we can get Lifedrinker. You can also add Eldritch Smite.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Otherworldly Patron: The Hexblade Hexblade’s Curse Hex Warrior Pact Magic 1 Spell Slot | Hex will be better than Hexblade’s Curse until our PB scales a bit. DPR with longbow and Hex: 12.45 |
| 2 | Invocation: Any 2 2 Spell Slots | DPR with longbow and Hex: 12.45 |
| 3 | Pact Boon: Blade | Retrain one invocation into Improved Pact Blade for that sweet, sweet +1. DPR with longbow and Hex: 13.35 |
| 4 | ASI | DPR with longbow and Hex: 14.05 |
| 5 | New Invocation: Thirsting Blade | Thirsting Blade is effectively Extra Attack. DPR with longbow and Spirit Shroud: 29.6 |
Wizard
While we lose out on the Sorcerer and the Warlock’s other features, the Wizard gets Scorching Ray, Spirit Shroud, and full spellcasting progression.
We have several options for subclass:
- Chronurgy: Access to Gift of Alacrity (+1d8 on initiative rolls for 8 hours)
- Divination: Portent. Using the 2 dice for initiative rolls may not be the best use of that resource, and we’re hoping to make too many attacks to justify using it for attack rolls.
- War Magic: Tactical Wit, which lets us add our Intelligence to our Initiative rolls.
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spellcasting Arcane Recovery | DPR with Chromatic Orb: 14.35 |
| 2 | Arcane Tradition: War Magic Arcane Deflection Tactical Wit | +Int to initiative. DPR with Chromatic Orb: 14.35 |
| 3 | – | Scorching Ray! Shoot 3 rays! DPR with Scorching Ray: 29.4 |
| 4 | ASI | DPR with Scorching Ray: 29.4 |
| 5 | – | Scorching Ray adds a 4th ray. We can also learn Spirit Shroud at this level, though we can’t cast Spirit Shroud and Scorching Ray in the same turn, and we certainly don’t have enough spell slots for the combo at this level. Since Spirit Shroud has Verbal components, you may also need to pre-cast it then rush to surprise your target(s). DPR with Scorching Ray: 39.2 |
Example Build 1 – Ambush Caster
I’m outright stealing this build from Random. He started tinkering with this when we first noticed the bugbear changes, and it’s one of the things that inspired this article. It’s been rattling around in my brain since he first explained the build, appearing unexpectedly and often to my complete surprise.
Scorching Ray is the spellcaster’s best bet for maximizing Bugbear’s Surprise Attack, and Spirit Shroud can add even more, so we’ll lean into using it.
We start as a war magic wizard until level 5, but we’ll add 3 levels of sorcerer for Metamagic, 2 levels of fighter for Action Surge, 3 levels of assassin rogue for easy Advantage, then back to sorcerer so we’re casting spells as a 15th-level caster at level 20.
Ability Scores
We want high Dexterity and Intelligence, but we also need 13 Charisma to dip into Sorcerer. We’ll put the +2 into Intelligence and the +1 into Dexterity.
| Base | Increased | |
| Str | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 15 | 16 |
| Con | 12 | 12 |
| Int | 15 | 17 |
| Wis | 8 | 8 |
| Cha | 13 | 13 |
Feats
We’ll take Alert at some point. Not many ASIs in this one, and with how many rays we’re going to shoot the math boost from better Intelligence is huge. We could take one hybrid feat, but it doesn’t impact the tactics of the build.
Levels
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 – Wizard 1 | Spellcasting Arcane Recovery | At this level, Chromatic Orb is our best turn-1 damage option. DPR with Chromatic Orb: 14.35 |
| 2 – Wizard 2 | Arcane Tradition: War Magic Arcane Deflection Tactical Wit | Tactical Wit gives us +Int to initiative, giving us a total modifier of +6. DPR with Chromatic Orb: 14.35 |
| 3 – Wizard 3 | – | We now get Scorching Ray and Invisibility. DPR with Scorching Ray: 29.4 |
| 4 – Wizard 4 | ASI: Dex 16 ->17, Int 17 -> 18 | We’re staying on the Fundamental Math for now. We could instead take Alert for the +5 to initiative, but, thanks to Tactical Wit, we at least get another +1 from raising our Intelligence, giving us a total of +7 to initiative. Not a guarantee, but pretty good. DPR with Scorching Ray: 29.4 |
| 5 – Wizard 5 | – | 3rd-level spells get us another ray on Scorching Ray and access to Spirit Shroud. We only have 2 3rd-level spell slots at this level, so we need to balance our need for big bursts against the need to get through an adventuring day, which means we need to consider whether or not Spirit Shroud is worth the spell slot. DPR with 3rd-level Scorching Ray: 39.20 DPR with 2nd-level Scorching Ray and Spirit Shroud: 38.85 DPR with 3rd-level Scorching Ray and Spirit Shroud: 51.80 Combining both spells at 3rd level is the biggest burst (no surprise). If you’re only going to use one 3rd-level slot, using it on Scorching Ray gets the best results. It’s also the easiest option because setting up Spirit Shroud ahead of time may be difficult, especially since it only works when you’re within 10 feet of your target. You literally need to sneak up right next to them and blast them from just out of reach. At this point, we multiclass |
| 6 – Rogue 1 | Expertise – Perception – Stealth Sneak Attack Thieves’ Cant | One quick level of rogue for Expertise in Stealth. Our DPR is still good, but not amazing, and it depends entirely on Surprise. If we’re not good at Stealth, we’re not going to get Surprise. We can rely on Invisibility to a point, but our spell slots are limited, and Invisibility doesn’t stop enemies from hearing us. We’ll return to rogue later. If someone in your party can cast Pass Without Trace, postpone this level. |
| 7 – Sorcerer 1 | Spellcasting Sorcerous Origin: Draconic Bloodline Dragon Ancestor: Red Draconic Resilience | Levels in sorcerer advance our spell slots, and we don’t care about any spells above 3rd level, so spell slot advancement is just as good as actual wizard levels as far as we care. We’ll continue to cast spells as a wizard so we can use Intelligence. If you’re using your sorcerer spells known, stick to utility options and buffs. Unfortunately, we are one level behind on spellcasting because of that rogue level, but that won’t kill us. |
| 8 – Sorcerer 2 | Font of Magic | Font of Magic does very little for us at the moment, but we do get 4th-level spell slots at this level. Spirit Shroud improves every other spell level, so our best combo is 4th-level Scorching Ray (5 shots) and 3rd-level Spirit Shroud. Unfortunately, we’re falling behind the Fundamental Math at this point, which is going to hurst us a tiny bit. DPR with 4th-level Scorching Ray: 45.50 DPR with 4th-level Scorching Ray and 3rd-level Spirit Shroud: 60.13 |
| 9 – Sorcerer 3 | Metamagic – Seeking – Subtle Spell | Seeking Spell lets us rescue a missed attack, thereby boosting our DPR. However, the 2 Sorcery Point cost is difficult for us to pay at this level since we only have 3 Sorcery Points. It’s also really difficult to account for it in DPR calculations. Subtle Spell allows us to cast Spirit Shroud without breaking stealth so that we can pre-cast it, then start combat with Scorching Ray. Between fights, melt your low-level slots into more Sorcery Points so that you can use Seeking Spell more than once per day. |
| 10 – Fighter 1 | Fighting Style (Any) Second Wind | This is basically a dead level for us. |
| 11 – Fighter 2 | Action Surge | Action Surge! Our combo now becomes pre-cast Spirit Shroud, then cast 4th-level Scorching Ray twice. DPR with two 4th-level Scorching Rays and 3rd-level Spirit Shroud: 120.25 That eats both of our 4th-level slots, so we can only do this once per day, but for that one encounter we rocket past the “Dude Stop” DPR range. This specific combination will exceed “Dude Stop” until level 20, so as we add more and more spell slots and gain the ability to do this more often and potentially with higher-level spells, it will get progressively further ahead of the math. We could take one more level of Fighter later in the build and go into Eldritch Knight. That would advance our spellcasting just as much as another level of Sorcerer, plus we’d get some more cantrips and more 1st-level spells known. But one more level of Sorcerer gets us one more Sorcery Point. |
| 12 – Rogue 2 | Cunning Action | Jump into combat, drop your big combo, then Dash away as a Bonus Action because you’ve used your biggest resources and you’re 10 feet away from your target(s). Hopefully they’re a smear on the dungeon floor, but big single enemies may have enough hp to still be standing. |
| 13 – Rogue 3 | Rogueish Archetype: Assassin Assassinate | Assassinate’s Advantage relies on the same tactics as Bugbear’s Surprise Attack: you need to go first. Just getting Advantage is a massive boost to our DPR. Surprising our enemies is even harder because we have to rely on our allies to not ruin it for us. DPR with Advantage, two 4th-level Scorching Rays, and 3rd-level Spirit Shroud: 173.44 DPR with Surprise, Advantage, two 4th-level Scorching Rays, and 3rd-level Spirit Shroud: 310.8 Just advantage puts us at more than double the Dude Stop DPR range, which means we’re doing 2 turns worth of a full party of 4’s damage output. Thanks to Assassinate’s automatic crits on Surprised targets, we more than triple Dude Stop DPR until level 16. We can now comfortably one-shot an encounter on our own if we get Surprise and roll well on initiative. |
| 14 – Sorcerer 4 | Feat: Alert | At this point we desperately need to go first. Hopefully by now you’ve found a Sentinel Shield or a Weapon of Warning, but let’s hedge our bets and take Alert for the +5. Our total bonus now hits +12. Still not a guarantee, but pretty good. We also get a 5th-level spell slots. Well, one of them, at least. Now we determine if it makes more sense to upcast Spirit Shroud or to do Scorching Ray once at 5th level and once at 4th. Let’s look at them without Advantage or Surprise first just to get a baseline; Advantage/Surprise will affect them both the same way and will only widen any gaps, so there’s little value in repeating the math. DPR with two 4th-level Scorching Rays and 5th-level Spirit Shroud: 149.5 DPR with 5th-level Scorching Ray, 4th-level Scorching Ray, and 3rd-level Spirit Shroud: 132.28 Spirit Shroud wins! With that in mind, we’ll add Advantage and Surprise: DPR with Advantage, two 4th-level Scorching Rays, and 5th-level Spirit Shroud: 215.63 DPR with Surprise, Advantage, two 4th-level Scorching Rays, and 5th-level Spirit Shroud: 386.4 With just Advantage, our DPR increases by so much that just the increase almost hits High DPR. We’re just a tiny bit short of the 400 DPR we need to solo a CR 20 creature in one turn, and raising or spell attacks by +1 gets us there. Another level of rogue starts to look really good for the ASI. But we also want to do this at least three times per day, so it’s more Sorcerer from here onward. |
| 15 – Sorcerer 5 | We now have enough maximum sorcery points to turn points into 3rd-level spell slots. | |
| 16 – Sorcerer 6 | Elemental Affinity | We now have enough maximum sorcery points to turn points into 4th-level spell slots. This means that we can do our 4th-level Scorching Ray and 5th-level Spirit Shroud combo twice per day without melting spell slots into more Sorcery Points. Elemental Affinity lets us add our +1 Charisma modifier to one damage roll of each casting of a spell that deals fire damage, which means +2 damage on our combo. It’s like throwing a match onto a lit bonfire. We also get a 6th-level spell slot. Unfortunately, we’ll never get a 2nd, so from here on we’ll be casting Scorching Ray at two different spell levels for our maximum burst damage. The above combo is still our go-to, and it’s almost always going to be enough, but let’s see just how far we can go with this. DPR with Advantage, 6th-level/4th-level Scorching Rays, and 5th-level Spirit Shroud: 262.17 DPR with Surprise, Advantage, 6th-level/4th-level Scorching Rays, and 5th-level Spirit Shroud: 465.68 |
| 17 – Sorcerer 7 | We now have enough maximum sorcery points to turn points into 5th-level spell slots, which is as high as Font of Magic lets us go. That’s enough to upcast Spirit Shroud repeatedly, stretching our ability to sustain our go-to burst combo. Sure, everyone else can cast Wish now, but can they drop 400+ damage on a single target in one turn? Unlikely. | |
| 18 – Sorcerer 8 | ASI: Int 18 -> 20 | Finally back on the Fundamental Math, this puts our Surprise+4th-level rays+5th-level shroud combo above 400. We also get 7th-level slots. This is the best that Spirit Shroud will get for us, adding +3d8 damage to each of our rays. We’ll now use our 5th-level and 6th-level slots for Scorching Ray in our max bust combo: DPR with Advantage, 6th-level/5th-level Scorching Rays, and 7th-level Spirit Shroud: 352.04 DPR with Surprise, Advantage, 6th-level/5th-level Scorching Rays, and 7th-level Spirit Shroud: 629.41 Our max burst combo now does enough damage on average to kill Tiamat. |
| 19 – Sorcerer 9 | Dragon Wings | Now we’re terrifying and we can fly. |
| 20 – Sorcerer 10 | Metamagic – Any 2 | Our capstone is 8th-level spell slots, which adds a total of 3 more rays when we raise the slots used for Scorching Ray. DPR with Advantage, 8th-level/6th-level Scorching Rays, and 7th-level Spirit Shroud: 432.61 DPR with Surprise, Advantage, 8th-level/6th-level Scorching Rays, and 7th-level Spirit Shroud: 774.20 Without Surprise, we can now break 400 DPR. We’re expected to kill a CR 20 creature by ourselves in one turn. With Surprise, we do enough damage to kill the Tarrasque and still have 2 or 3 rays to spare. Just watch out for Reflective Carapace. |
Example Build 2 – Tam Bush
This one was originally another one of Random‘s builds, then he, Rocco, and I all started poking at it, and it kept getting more and more effective as we tinkered.
Tam Bush is built for melee. To maximize our number of attacks, we dip into monk for Flurry of Blows, but that does limit us to monk weapons, and even with the Dedicated Weapon optional class feature, we can’t use Heavy weapons (pikes) or special weapons (lance), so the best weapons that synergize with Piercer are off limits. We’re also using Echo Knight’s Unleash Incarnation, which limits us to melee attacks. So our best damage die is 1d8 with a spear or a rapier.
This build does assume the Dedicated Weapon optional class feature from Tasha’s.
This build is one of our 10 favorite DnD 5e builds.
Ability Scores
We need a lot of Dex, Con, and Wis. We’ll put our +2 in Dex and +1 in Wis, then expect to increase things as we add feats/ASIs.
| Base | Increased | |
| Str | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 15 | 17 |
| Con | 16 | 16 |
| Int | 8 | 8 |
| Wis | 15 | 15 |
| Cha | 8 | 8 |
Feats
Piercer and Alert. Piercer is a huge damage boost once we add Assassinate, and we want that +5 initiative bonus from Alert.
Levels
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 – Monk 1 | Martial Arts Unarmored Defense | Two attacks at level 1 is pretty nice. Grab a spear two-handed for now, and remember that your Bonus Action attack must be unarmed. DPR with two-handed Spear, Martial Arts: 18.6 |
| 2 – Monk 2 | Dedicated Weapon Ki Unarmored Movement | 2 Ki points is plenty for our purposes, and we get Flurry of Blows. Remember that we’ll be stuck at the 1d4 damage for the whole build because Flurry of Blows is only unarmed strikes. DPR with two-handed Spear, Flurry of Blows: 27.2 |
| 3 – Fighter 1 | Fighting Style (Dueling) Second Wind | Dueling’, but we’ll use Martial Versatility when we hit Fighter 4 to retrain.’s damage boost is bigger than the damage boost form using a slightly larger damage die for a two-handed spear, but that doesn’t matter because we’re now proficienct with rapiers and have Dedicated Weapon, so we can use a rapier one-handed. DPR with a rapier, Dueling style, Flurry of Blows: 28.5 |
| 4 – Fighter 2 | Action Surge | We start to fall behind the Fundamental Math, but we get Action Surge. DPR with rapier, Dueling style, Action Surge, Flurry of Blows: 36.9 |
| 5 – Fighter 3 | Subclass: Echo Knight Manifest Echo Unleash Incarnation | We have enough Con to use Unleash Incarnation twice per day. Other characters are getting Extra Attack, but we’re at Dude Stop DPR. Sure, the combo only works once per day, but that one turn is glorious. DPR with rapier, Dueling style, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Flurry of Blows: 57.85 |
| 6 – Fighter 4 | Feat: Piercer (Dex 17 -> 18) | Piercer’s damage reroll is minor, the additional damage die on crits is already a big damage boost with 4 attacks. We also increase our Dex modifier, which improves both our initiative and our DPR. We’re also briefly in line with the Fundamental Math for our Action attacks. DPR with rapier, Dueling style, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows: 78.0 |
| 7 – Fighter 5 | Extra Attack | Another attack per Attack action. DPR with rapier, Dueling style, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows: 107.75 |
| 8 – Ranger 1 | Favored Enemy Natural Explorer | We start to fall behind the Fundamental Math again, which hurts our DPR briefly. DPR with rapier, Dueling style, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows: 99.8 |
| 9 – Ranger 2 | Fighting Style (Any) Spellcasting | Ranger spellcasting means Hunter’s Mark. If we can pre-cast it, we can start combat with it running and still use our Bonus Action for Flurry of Blows. DPR with rapier, Dueling style, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark: 118.0 |
| 10 – Ranger 3 | Ranger Archetype: Gloomstalker Primeval Awareness Dread Ambusher Umbal Sight | Dread Ambusher adds another attack to each Attack action, so we’re now making 4 attacks per Action, one of which gets an extra 1d8 damage from Dread Ambusher. DPR with rapier, Dueling style, Dread Ambusher, Extra Attack, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark: 155.95 We also get to add our +2 Wisdom modifier to initiative for a total bonus of +6 at this level. |
| 11 – Rogue 1 | Expertise – Perception – Stealth Sneak Attack Thieves’ Cant | Expertise in Stealth and a bit of Sneak Attack, which adds a bit more damage output even though it only applies once per turn. DPR with rapier, Dueling style, Dread Ambusher, Extra Attack, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark, Sneak Attack 1d6: 162.26 |
| 12 – Rogue 2 | Cunning Action | – |
| 13 – Rogue 3 | Rogueish Archetype: Assassin Assassinate | Assassinate turns things up to 11. DPR with Advantage, rapier, Dueling style, Dread Ambusher, Extra Attack, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark, Sneak Attack 2d6: 238.57 DPR with Surprise, rapier, Dueling style, Dread Ambusher, Extra Attack, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark, Sneak Attack 2d6: 351.68 |
| 14 – Ranger 4 | ASI: Dex 18 -> 20 | DPR with Advantage, rapier, Dueling style, Dread Ambusher, Extra Attack, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark, Sneak Attack 2d6: 247.84 DPR with Surprise, rapier, Dueling style, Dread Ambusher, Extra Attack, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark, Sneak Attack 2d6: 366.75 |
| 15 – Fighter 6 | Feat: Alert | +5 to initiative brings our total bonus to +12. If you have an item or something that adds to your initiative rolls, take +2 Con. Getting +4 Con means that we can do our combo twice per day, provided that we can get Surprise and win initiative. |
| 16 – Fighter 7 | Echo Avatar | – |
| 17 – Fighter 8 | ASI: Con 16 -> 18 | Getting +4 Con means that we can do our combo twice per day, provided that we can get Surprise and win initiative. |
| 18 – Fighter 9 | Indomitable | – |
| 19 – Fighter 10 | Shaodw Martyr | – |
| 20 – Fighter 11 | Extra Attack (2) | DPR with Advantage, rapier, Dueling style, Dread Ambusher, Extra Attack 2, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark, Sneak Attack 2d6: 296.44 DPR with Surprise, rapier, Dueling style, Dread Ambusher, Extra Attack 2, Unleash Incarnation twice, Action Surge, Piercer, Flurry of Blows, pre-cast Hunter’s Mark, Sneak Attack 2d6: 437.83 We broke 400! That means that we can solo CR 20 creatures in one turn! |
Example Build 3 – Bugbearlock
Okay, fine, we’ll do a bugbear warlock. Quickened Eldritch Blast is, without question, the best bonus action we can get. Three eldritch blasts at level 17+ in one turn is a stunning 12 attacks. Throw in Hex, Agonizing Blast, and Bugbear’s Surprise Attack, and you hit 115.6 DPR using cantrips, Action Surge, and two Sorcery Points. Upgrade from Hex to 5th-level Spirit Shroud, you hit 146.4.
But 146 is not 400, so there’s work to be done.
We’re going to add 3 levels of assassin rogue, 3 levels of sorcerer, 2 levels of fighter, and 12 levels of warlock.
Ability Scores
We’re building around Charisma, but we still need Dexterity for the initiative bonus. We’ll get Dex, Con, and Charisma to 16. If we want a hybrid feat, we can move our +1 from Con into Cha.
| Base | Increased | |
|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 15 | 16 |
| Con | 15 | 16 |
| Int | 8 | 8 |
| Wis | 8 | 8 |
| Cha | 15 | 16 |
Feats
Alert. We have very little room for ASIs in this build, and the multiplicative benefits of more Charisma are hard to give up for anything less essential to our success.
Levels
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 – Warlock 1 | Otherworldly Patron: Fiend Dark One’s Blassing | Learn eldritch blast, but use a crossbow or something similar as your go-to weapon until you get agonizing blast. DPR with a light crossbow one-handed and Hex: 12.45 |
| 2 – Rogue 1 | Expertise – Perception – Stealth Sneak Attack +1d6 Thieves’ Cant | With only +2 Dex, we want Expertise in Stealth early. DPR with a light crossbow one-handed and Hex: 14.9 |
| 3 – Fighter 1 | Fighting Style (Any) Second Wind | Once we go back to warlock, we’ll use Eldritch Blast. But until then, our crossbow is very briefly our best bet. DPR with a light crossbow and Hex: 14.9 |
| 4 – Warlock 2 | Invocations – Agonizing Blast – Any 1 | We start to fall behind the Fundamental Math. Sneak Attack keeps our crossbow ahead of Eldritch Blast for the moment. DPR with a crossbow, Hex, and Action Surge: 13.83 |
| 5 – Fighter 2 | Action Surge | 5th level gets us two rays from Eldritch Blast, so that becomes our best Surprise Attack option temporarily. Drop the crossbow and start blasting. DPR with Eldritch Blast, hex, and Action Surge: 52.6 We’re now in the “Dude Stop” DPR range, but only briefly. |
| 6 – Sorcerer 1 | Spellcasting Sorcerous Origin: Any | – |
| 7 – Sorcerer 2 | Font of Magic | – |
| 8 – Sorcerer 3 | Metamagic – Quickened Spell – Subtle Spell | Quickened for more blasts, Subtle so that we can eventually cast Spirit Shroud without giving away our position. We do have some Sorcerer spellcasting to throw around that will work decently well after we’ve had our exciting first turn, or we can burn the spell slots for sorcery points if our pact magic slots don’t make it to the next short rest. DPR with Eldritch Blast, pre-cast hex, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 67.5 Despite falling further behind the Fundamental Math, we’re back in Dude Stop territory again very briefly. |
| 9 – Warlock 3 | Pact Boon: Any | 2nd-level spells don’t get us very much, unfortunately. |
| 10 – Warlock 4 | Feat: Alert | We really need that +5 to initiative. We still only have +8, so success is not a guarantee by any means. |
| 11 – Rogue 2 | Cunning Action | Eldritch Blast adds two more rays, increasing our DPR by 50% and putting us comfortably into Dude Stop DPR range. DPR with Eldritch Blast, pre-cast hex, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 101.25 |
| 12 – Rogue 3 | Assassinate | Assassinate is where things really take off. If we surprise our target(s), our DPR increases by 150. That’s an entire Dude Stop worth of damage at level 20. DPR with Advantage, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast hex, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 150.41 DPR with Surprise, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast hex, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 251.21 |
| 13 – Warlock 5 | Invocation: – Any | From here onward, it’s all warlock all the time. We get 3rd-level spells, which gives us access to Spirit Shroud. The duration is just 1 minute compared to Hex’s multi-hour duration, so you’ll need to sneak into position, Subtle Spell Spirit Shroud to avoid giving away your position with Verbal components, then go into combat with it pre-cast in order to maintain our triple-Eldritch Blast combo. DPR with Advantage, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast Spirit Shroud, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 158.47 DPR with Surprise, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast Spirit Shroud, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 265.57 For invocations, take whatever you like. One With Shadows may be helpful because you can make yourself invisible without casting Invisibility. You can’t move while maintaining the effect, but it may be enough to set up ambushes. |
| 14 – Warlock 6 | Dark One’s Own Luck | – |
| 15 – Warlock 7 | Invocation: – Any | – |
| 16 – Warlock 8 | ASI: Cha 16 -> 18 | Our first improvement to Charisma. DPR with Advantage, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast Spirit Shroud, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 173.68 DPR with Surprise, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast Spirit Shroud, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 287.28 |
| 17 – Warlock 9 | Invocation: – Any | We can now upcast Spirit Shroud at 5th level, adding another 1d8 of damage. This is also the final level at which cantrips improve, adding another 3 total attacks to our combo. DPR with Advantage, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast Spirit Shroud, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 282.19 DPR with Surprise, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast Spirit Shroud, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 473.76 If Spirit Shroud stayed at 3rd level, it drops 90 DPR off of the Surprise DPR. This is why we upgraded from Hex. We’re now comfortably above 3 times Dude Stop DPR at level 20, allowing us to solo a CR 20 creature in one turn. Unlike the other builds in this guide, everything recharges on a Short Rest except the sorcery points, so we can nuke an encounter, take a quick nap, and repeat much of it. If that’s not an option, we still have a Pact Magic spell slot to throw around, and our damage output is excellent even without Action Surge. |
| 18 – Warlock 10 | Fiendish Resilience | – |
| 19 – Warlock 11 | Mystic Arcanum: Any | – |
| 20 – Warlock 12 | ASI: Cha 18 -> 20 | We now get 3 Pact Magic slots and we finally cap Charisma. DPR with Advantage, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast Spirit Shroud, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 304.2 DPR with Surprise, Eldritch Blast, pre-cast Spirit Shroud, Action Surge, and Quickened Eldritch Blast: 505.44 |
Conclusion
Let’s look where each build hits 400+ DPR:
| Build | 400+ Threshold Level | Max DPR |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Ambush Caster | 16 | 774.20 |
| 2: Tam Bush | 20 | 437.83 |
| 3: Bugbearlock | 17 | 505.44 |
There are some interesting similarities in the builds: Action Surge and Assassinate both feature heavily. Beyond that, casters seem to have a clear advantage.
But most games don’t start at high levels, so let’s look at things across the level range. We want to be above triple Dude Stop as early and as often as possible.
| Level | 3x Dude Stop DPR | Ambush Caster | Tam Bush | Bugbearlock |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 84.9 | 14.35 | 18.6 | 12.45 |
| 2 | 99.9 | 14.35 | 27.2 | 14.9 |
| 3 | 114.9 | 29.4 | 28.5 | 14.9 |
| 4 | 129.9 | 29.4 | 36.9 | 13.83 |
| 5 | 144.9 | 51.80 | 57.85 | 52.6 |
| 6 | 159.9 | 51.80 | 78.0 | 52.6 |
| 7 | 174.9 | 51.80 | 107.75 | 52.6 |
| 8 | 189.9 | 60.13 | 99.8 | 67.5 |
| 9 | 204.9 | 60.13 | 118.0 | 67.5 |
| 10 | 219.9 | 60.13 | 155.95 | 67.5 |
| 11 | 234.9 | 120.25 | 162.26 | 101.25 |
| 12 | 249.9 | 120.25 | 351.68 | 251.21 |
| 13 | 264.9 | 310.8 | 366.75 | 265.57 |
| 14 | 279.9 | 386.4 | 366.75 | 265.57 |
| 15 | 294.9 | 386.4 | 366.75 | 265.57 |
| 16 | 309.9 | 465.68 | 366.75 | 287.28 |
| 17 | 324.9 | 465.68 | 366.75 | 473.76 |
| 18 | 339.9 | 629.41 | 366.75 | 473.76 |
| 19 | 354.9 | 629.41 | 366.75 | 473.76 |
| 20 | 399.9 | 774.20 | 437.83 | 505.44 |
Each build has some strengths and weaknesses compared to the others:
- Ambush Caster: Highest max DPR. Can produce triple Dude Stop DPR the most times back-to-back once it has enough spell slots of sufficiently high level, but the limited number of spell slots still places a limitation on how many times we can repeat the combo per day. Ambush Caster hits the 400+ DPR threshold earliest among the three example builds.
- Tam Bush: Works safely in melee (and only in melee), and has the highest initiative bonus. The biggest limitation is the number of Unleash Incarnation uses per day, which is just 2 for most of your career, so you may only be able to repeat the combo once per day. Tam Bush hits the 400+ DPR threshold the latest of the three example builds.
- Bugbearlock: The only build of the three to get above triple Dude Stop and then fall behind it. By relying on cantrips and Pact Magic, we’re able to repeat the combo at least once per short rest. Melting our sorcerer slots and potentially warlock slots for more Sorcery Points means that we may be able to repeat the combo several times between rests. Bugbearlock is never the highest DPR of the three builds, but it is the most consistent, reliable, and repeatable.
