All Levels: The "Forgive me Sensei"

All Levels: The "Forgive me Sensei"

Have you ever wanted to play a monk and be able to use all your resources in one turn for an ultimate attack? Well that's exactly what we are going to do today. So lets ask for forgiveness to our master and get on this build!

Race

For the race we will use a variant human with the point buy system. This time we are trying to maximize the amount of damage we can do in one turn as a monk. And for that we need a feat, the magic initiate feat.

Magic Initiate: Choose a class: bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You learn two cantrips of your choice from that class's spell list. In addition, choose one 1st-level spell to learn from that same list. Using this feat, you can cast the spell once at its lowest level, and you must finish a long rest before you can cast it in this way again.

Your spellcasting ability for these spells depends on the class you chose: Charisma for bard, sorcerer, or warlock; Wisdom for cleric or druid; or Intelligence for wizard.

We choose warlock and get the hex spell. Which will let us do an extra 1d6 points of damage every hit we land.

Stats

Our stats will look as follows:

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
8	16	13	10	16	10

Here Dexterity will be our most important stat as it will be the modifier for our ultimate combo. Wisdom will help us for our armor class and some class features. Finally Constitution will give us an extra life point every level we obtain.

Progression

We are going to do something different this time for this part. We are going to advance trough each level explaining how our ultimate combo will evolve.

Level 1

At this point our combo consists on just attacking with a weapon we have and making an unarmed strike while having Hex active. If we assume our monk is using a quarterstaff with two hands; this means that if we hit every attack the damage done will be:

1d8 + 1d4 + 2d6 + 6 → 20

The number at the right side of the arrow is the expected amount of damage given the dices rolled. This assumes that no attacks were critical hits and every attack hit. In the last part of this post will be some calculators to compute the expected damage given an enemy's armor class and under certain conditions.

Level 2

Now we have access to ki, and more important, flurry of blows. With another unarmored strike the damage we can do in a turn escalates to this number:

1d8 + 2d4 + 3d6 + 9 → 29

Level 3

Its time to choose our subclass, here we will choose the Way of the Four Elements and as our elemental disciple we will choose the Fangs of the Fire Snake. 

Fangs of the Fire Snake: When you use the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to cause tendrils of flame to stretch out from your fists and feet. Your reach with your unarmed strikes increases by 10 feet for that action, as well as the rest of the turn. A hit with such an attack deals fire damage instead of bludgeoning damage, and if you spend 1 ki point when the attack hits, it also deals an extra 1d10 fire damage.

With this, the damage we can do on a single turn by expending 1 ki point to trigger the fangs of the fire snake; 1 ki point to use flurry of blows; and 1 ki point to augment the damage of an unarmed strike is:

1d8 + 2d4 + 1d10 + 3d6 + 9 → 34.5

Level 4

Here we will take the ability score improvement and add 2 to our Dexterity, increasing it to 18. We can also use another ki point on our deadly combo to add another d10 to the mix, leaving it in:

1d8 + 2d4 + 2d10 + 3d6 + 12 → 42

Level 5

We get extra attack and another ki point! Also, our unarmored strikes are d6 now. Using our second attack of the extra attack as an unarmored strike we can do another extra d10 by expending a ki point. Adding these all up we get:

1d8 + 3d6 + 3d10 + 4d6 + 16 → 61.5

Level 6

We will multiclass to a fighter now given our high dexterity, and we will take dueling fighting style so we can use our weapon with one hand. You may be tempted to get the great weapon fighting style as we are using the quarterstaff with two hands. However the expected damage of the one-handed quarterstaff with one hand plus dueling is 5.5, while the two-handed quarterstaff with great weapon fighting is 5.25.

All of this will only mean we get a small damage boost to our ultimate combo as it just scales to:

1d6 + 2 + 3d6 + 3d10 + 4d6 + 16 → 62.5

Level 7

Now's when things get insane as we get access to Action Surge with our second fighter level. This means we get two more attacks with the quarterstaff on a turn, to a total of 6 attacks on one turn. This leaves us with:

3d6 + 6 + 3d6 + 3d10 + 6d6 + 24 → 88.5

Level 8

Here we get another power spike as we choose the Battlemaster Subclass on our third level of fighter. We will choose the Goading Attack, Menacing Attack and Trip Attack maneuvers. This will make our combo even more deadly as the enemy will also have to pass saving throws apart from the extra damage we are dealing.

We will use all our superiority dice in our ultimate combo, leaving us with a total damage of:

3d6 + 6 + 3d6 + 3d10 + 6d6 + 4d8 + 24 → 106.5

Level 9

Its time for our next ability score improvement as our fourth fighter level, which we are going to use to add 2 to our Dexterity, leaving it in 20. This will leave the combo in:

3d6 + 6 + 3d6 + 3d10 + 6d6 + 4d8 + 30 → 112.5

Level 10 - 12

We are back to our monk levels and our objective now is to replace the quarterstaff with our unarmed fire monk strikes! For our next ability score improvement we can take the Martial Adept Feat to learn some maneuvers and get an extra superiority die. All this will leave us with a total damage for our combo of:

6d6 + 6d10 + 6d6 + 5d8 + 30 → 127.5

Level 13 - 20

Here we want to get to be a level 11 fighter. This is because of Extra Attack (2) which will let us do 2 more attacks in our combo. Also by this point we get another superiority die and our superiority dice turn to d10s.

Our last level will be used as a monk so we can get one last ki point. As we can no longer improve the damage of every unarmed strike with a ki point, one of our attacks will be done with the quarterstaff. Adding all this our combo escalates to:

1d6 + 2 + 7d6 + 7d10 + 8d6 + 6d10 + 40 → 169.5

Result

I think up until level 12 this build gets very close to the maximum amount of damage you can do as a monk in one turn without magical weapons and other things of the sort. I haven't played any characters that are more than level 5 so I haven't really looked into the abilities of higher level classes. I also didn't took into account the possibility of teamwork, there are various spells that can further increase the power of this combo, like Enlarge/Reduce for example.

Now for the calculator I promised.

AC:

to-hit mod:

d4s rolled:

d6s rolled:

d8s rolled:

d10s rolled:

Damage modifier:

Expected Damage: 0

Level 5: Sword Wielding Wolf

Level 5: Sword Wielding Wolf

How cool would it be to be a wolf wielding a sword or other weapons in your mouth. Its sad in dnd 5e we can't do that... UNLESS. Today we are going to use raw content and a lot of flavor to create a sword wielding wolf like Sif, the Great Grey Wolf from Dark Souls and Zacian, the legendary pokemon.

Image of Sif, the Great Grey Wolf obtained from the Dark Souls Wiki

For this we are going to use the druid's wild shape and some multiclassing to get as close to the idea as possible.

Race

For the race we will use a regular human with the point buy system. There's no reason behind this choice so feel free to choose any race you want.

Stats

With the Racial bonus of a regular human our stats will look like this

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
9	14	14	12	16	14

Wisdom will be our most important stat as we will be using it a lot for spellcasting. The rest can be arranged to suit different needs. As we are going to be a wolf most of the time, strength will be our dump stat.

Progression

Our first two levels will be druid levels, take any cantrip you like. In second level we will take the Circle of the Moon, which will let us turn into a Dire Wolf.

Now its time to multiclass to cleric, for our first level in cleric we will take the Nature Domain. This will give us a new druid cantrip, heavy armor proficiency and a skill proficiency (Animal Handling, Nature or Survival). We also get some basic utility druid spells!

Next we take two more levels of cleric to finally get our sword. You may have figured it out by now, our sword will be summoned using the spell Spiritual Weapon. 

Spiritual Weapon: You create a floating, spectral weapon within range that lasts for the duration or until you cast this spell again. When you cast the spell, you can make a melee spell attack against a creature within 5 feet of the weapon. On a hit, the target takes force damage equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier. 

As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the weapon up to 20 feet and repeat the attack against a creature within 5 feet of it. The weapon can take whatever form you choose. Clerics of deities who are associated with a particular weapon (as St. Cuthbert is known for his mace and Thor for his hammer) make this spell’s effect resemble that weapon.

Result

To summarise, in 5th level we will have a Druid 2/Cleric 3 character. They can turn into a sword wielding wolf by casting spiritual weapon and using wildshape in the same turn. And they have the nature related spells from the cleric class as well as their features and channel divinity.

There is a disadvantage though, the spiritual weapon summoned is not a physical object. This means you can flavor it as the wolf is grabbing it but in the game's logic it can not. It also can only move 20 feet every turn, which is a problem as the wolf has a speed of 50 feet.

Despite all this you can still flavor it saying the wolf spawns with the weapon in its mouth and then throws it. And you can also add to the roleplay by "catching" it whenever you get the chance. 

This build has a big advantage over a real sword wielding wolf though. And that is that you can use your bite attack and the sword in the same turn.

Future Progression
If I were to make this character progress with the same theme even further I would continue taking levels as druid. As you get better spell slots you can increase the damage of the spiritual weapon. And even though the Dire Wolf is the strongest wolf beast that exists in raw 5e, some DMs let you turn into the Winter Wolf (CR 3) even though it is a monstrosity.

When getting to level 13 and being able to transform into an elemental you can flavor it saying that your elemental looks like a wolf (which is hella cool). Finally in level 20 you can finally have access to 9th level spells, which means you can cast shapechange to turn into other strong doggos like the Androsphinx and various dragons.

Level 6: The Thunder Bird Cleric

 I'm starting with this one because of the Tempest Cleric level 6 Domain Feature: Thunderbolt Strike. The idea is for our cleric to be able to use this feature every turn, with as much versatility as posible. The build will focus to be used since level 6 and loosing as little resources a cleric may have as possible.

Thunderbolt Strike: At 6th level, when you deal lightning damage to a Large or smaller creature, you can also push it up to 10 feet away from you.

Race
I like my builds to be independent of race so they can belong in as many worlds as possible. However, the build will be wisdom and intelligence oriented so take this in mind if you want to optimise. For this build we will use a regular human and the point buy system.

Stats
With the Racial bonus of a regular human our stats will look like this:

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
13	9	15	14	16	10

For a cleric wisdom and constitution are the most important stats because you need to stay alive. Because Tempest Clerics get Heavy Armor in level 1 the strength of our cleric is 13 so they can equip a regular Chainmail. Finally we have a high intelligence score because we are going to use some wizard things in the build.

Progression

For this build we will not use multiclassing, so our cleric is not late in getting high level features as higher level spells and more uses of channel divinity are REALLY GOOD. Thus, on level 1 we will choose the Tempest Domain for our cleric and through level 3 we will level up as normal.

In level 4 we will take the Magic Initiate Feat instead of the ability score improvement. Here we will choose the wizard spell list and take the Shocking Grasp cantrip and the Find Familiar spell. The other cantrip can be anything we want but I would choose lightning lure, thunder clap or booming blade because they go with the theme.

For our familiar, as the name of the build says we are going to chose a Hawk, an Owl or a Raven.

Now our cleric can make melee spells attacks against creatures wearing metal armor with advantage with shocking grasp. AND they can use the familiar to deliver this same cantrip at range. Also, familiars are insanely good for clerics as many cleric cantrips and spells have the touch range.

Illustration from Pathfinder published by Paizo Publishing

After that our cleric can just level up as normal until level 6 and beyond, focusing on wisdom and constitution for the ability score improvements.

Result

By level 6 our cleric is now able to cast touch spells from a distance, these include: Cure Wounds, Spare the Dying, Inflict Wounds, Enhance Ability, Bestow Curse, and many others. They can move a creature 10 feet in any direction by attacking it with our thunder bird from the right angle. They can also get out of tricky situations and have a new melee attack option.

This makes them a very versatile support character to have in a party. Having more options to take care of themselves and control the battlefield to get enemies into tricky situations.