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Okay, so by now we all know that, more often than not, static modifiers are the way to go. The get multiplied on crits, and usually come with bonuses to hit as well.
This thread is not about that.
This thread is about how awesome it is to pick up a fistful of dice and lay down the pain with 'em. I don't care how much damage your barbarian did, I just threw down more dice than you've ever used since level 1.
So, what are your favorite classes for throwing down lots of dice, or what are some great fistful stories?
My favorites? I mentioned this in another thread, but Magus and Rogue. For SURE. Funny thing is, I usually build both the same way. Charge in and drop the dice bag on some sorry fool. With a Swashbuckling Scout, I get Greatsword proficiency, meaning I'm doing some wicked damage right off the bat. Magus takes a little time to build up steam, but once you throw in a level of Sorcerer, you take dice damage to a whole new level XD.
Incidentally, I was once part of a CR5 group that was fighting off a CR9 protean (can't remember what it was called). I did more damage than anyone else because those extra dice helped me punch through DR (and nobody really had anything to penetrate DR at that level). 5d6+10 hurts a lot more than the poor sucker thought it would.
Did end up turning me into a squirrel and losing my sapience, though. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.
I like this thread.
Two-weapon fighting Rogue is great for this. With haste, probably 5 attacks. That one, special day when you hit the an enemy with all 5, insist on rolling all the sneak attack dice together. Get all your friends' dice, your dice, dice stolen from old copies of monopoly you found in the garage. Spend ten minutes scavenging dice. Roll. Spend ten minutes adding up all the sweet, sweet damage.
Then have the GM tell you the enemy is immune to Sneak Attack.
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Well beyond the Wizards fireball schtick... my favorite fistful of d6's was my Jotunbrud Psychic Warrior tripper with the greater psionic weapon feat wielding a Large guisarm while enlarged! 3d6+x+another 4d6 when I expended my psionic focus. For a self-buffing warrior type who concentrated on defense first I liked dropping 7d6 on my enemies, especially while they were prone!
Ironically I nicknamed a campaign I ran a few years ago a Fistful of Sixes due to high player death!
My second true foray into tabletop RPGs, I played a Goliath Dragon Shaman who wielded a large greataxe. The character was terrible in random encounters, but always managed to make overkill in the clutch moments. His three greatest moments were crits (naturally). Eberron campaign.
At level 2: A crit landed on a carrion crab (or something like that) in the Mournland. Total damage was 60, just shy of max. The DM was a bit pissed. He later told us that my character had saved the halfling rogue who, on the next round would have been impaled on the crab's back and used to improve its AC.
At level 3: Rolled a 20 on an attack check to strike the wheel of a wagon we were chasing that supposedly housed a vampire. The DM called for a strength check. Also a 20. The wagon started tumbling end over end. The inhabitants escaped, of course (plot armor). It was still a pretty epic moment rolling all the dice to smash the carriage.
Also at level 3: A personalized scenario, the DM threw another goliath into a pre-scripted encounter on a lightning rail. He had been sent to take my character back to a slave camp. I won initiative, barely, and my first swing was a crit. I forget the damage, but 9-10d6 plus other modifiers was pretty devastating. DM ruled that the NPCs shield took the brunt of it.
Playing the enormous brute was tons of fun, getting to roll all of those dice. I just wish the DM had focused more on the draconic stuff rather than lamenting powerful build (I still managed not to hit things 80% of the time, despite having a +10 to hit by level 4).
Many years ago, I was running the Age of Worms campaign for my buddies. (All in all, I feel that campaign was the pinnacle of my DMing career. Unfortunately it's all been downhill since then.)
One of the players was a Cleric with a single level of Barbarian- by the end of the campaign, the party (of 3 PCs) was around 21st or 22nd level. The BarbCleric had gotten to the point, with all of his buffs and whatnot, that he could destroy things so quickly that he voluntarily chose (he informed me beforehand) that he wasn't going to be attacking the BBEG of the penultimate adventure because he knew (and I knew) that if he did, the fight would be over too quickly.
His typical suite consisted of Divine Power, Giant Size (accessed via Miracle), Divine Favor, Greater Magic Weapon, Haste, etc. etc. So in short, he was a small-sized gnome with a greataxe that would become colossal with tons of attacks and, because of his size, all of those attacks turned into handfuls of d6s.
One time, during the final adventure, he got a full attack off on an enemy. After the multiple attacks that hit, each dealing tons of d6s, he took out a calculator and figured out that it came out to just over 100d6. However, rather than roll a hundred of dice (which would have definitely been fun for the whole group), he actually had an idea he liked more- with my permission, he rolled six percentile dice instead. Yeah, it was less dice, but to him, it was awesome to be able to roll d100's instead.
So it's not exactly what this topic is about (kinda the opposite), but definitely worth mentioning.
Oh, another (not-quite-what-you're-looking-for-but-still-worth-mentioning) story:
I came across a build on a 4e board a while back that was interesting. It was for a Fighter that wielded a Vorpal Falchion with a couple synergistic magic items/feats/class abilities/whatever. Here's how it worked:
Every time he hit with an attack, he rolled 2d4. Because the weapon was vorpal, every time he rolled max on a damage die (25% of the time), he'd reroll that die and add the second result as well, ad finitum. (You could theoretically keep rolling max over and over. Since he was using a 2d4 weapon, the chances of that were actually far higher than, say, a fullblade, which has a one in 12 chance.)
In addition to this, he had a couple other things (can't remember exactly what, but they were magic items/class abilities/feats/whatever) that allowed him to reroll any 1's or 2's on damage dice and use the second result instead (as long as the second result was more than a 1 or 2). Oh, and because of how 4e works, many of his attacks would deal 7 or 8 [w], which means it would not be uncommon for him to roll 16d4 for an attack. Rerolling any 1's and 2's. And adding on a d4 for every 4 he rolled.
End result? Tons and tons and tons of rolls per attack.
Kirth was running for our 3rd level characters. The bad guy decides to take us out and fires a ray. Fortunately, he rolls a 1 and strikes the other NPC bad guy.
He then proceeds to roll 7d6 for damage. Pants-wetting ensued around the table.
And as it turns out, his CR was just about right, since you guys managed to whack him out, and his minions, during the carnival. Good show!
P.S. I went back and looked at how I could've given him Precise Shot... I would have had to have gotten rid of Skill Focus (Spellcraft/Use Magic Device), which would have considerably increased his misfire chance. 3d6 electric plus 4d6 sneak attack at 7th level isn't ever a sure thing...