Generating 200 hp of damage in a round

[Tels]

I never really had one of those moments, largely because the people who taught me how to play, warned me of what different characters were capable of.

[MrSin]

You can enjoy massive damage and flavor and roleplay all at once.

[BigDTBone]

MrSin wrote:

You can enjoy massive damage and flavor and roleplay all at once.

BLASPHEMER!!!!

[Magda Luckbender]

Gosh, a 10th level reach-style Clericzilla can even inflict 200 HP in a round. Not sustained, but in a burst, sure. Each [buffed] attack hits for about 40 HP. Three regular attacks (hasted) plus three AoOs (not unusual) comes to about 6x40 = 240 HP. Miss once and still hit for 200 HP in a round. That same PC was able to inflict over 100 HP at first level, without any critical hits, if everything went right. If a cleric can do that, consider what an optimized martial character can do ...

[wraithstrike]

Pink Dragon wrote:

Mystic Lemur wrote:

As for why, how many hit points of damage do you feel is appropriate? How did you arrive at that figure?

Average d8 character: 8 + (19 x 4.5) = 94 hp

If 14 CON: +28 hp
Total: 122 hp

That is an average character of 20th level. Anything else is buffing, and is therefore not average.

The simplest buff would be to take 1 hp for every favored class level. Another simple buff is toughness. Another simple buff is more constitution to start. Assuming 18 CON to start, that would add 80 hp for 202 hp, but then the character is starting to focus on being a damage taking machine at the expense of other things.

You can buff a lot more, but that is always at the expense of something else, so when I say average, it is not with a view to getting as many hit points as possible.

At level 20 what is average varies by class. A barbarian or fighter with only 120ish hp is not likely to survive, and their actual hit points, not their hit poitns without magic items is what should be looked since that is how the game will be played 99$ of the time. I am sure those builds doing 200+ points of damage are using magic item and buffs to get their results, so to say one side can use buffs, but the other side has to play the game naked, which would almost never happen, makes it sound like you are just trying to win an argument. A fire giant can probably put out over 100 points of damage and it is only a CR 10 creature, so if a fighter type is expect to withstand 100 points of damage at level 10, there is no way 128 is the standard at level 20.

[CWheezy]

Also, his con calculation is incorrect, 14 con is +40 hp (+1 hp per level).

Looking at a simple fighter, level 20 I put out around 350 damage per round.

[Matthew Downie]

To answer the second part of the initial question, the main reason you'd want to do hundreds of damage per round as a Fighter (apart from just liking big numbers) is that at high levels you are taking on demon lords who can cast Wish and so forth. There really isn't much you can do to withstand magical attacks (a +5 Cloak of Resistance only goes so far). Your only option is to kill them before they kill you and your comrades.
If you don't find that sort of battle fun, your best option is probably to avoid high level play. The rules are better balanced at levels 3-10 than at 16-20.

[Leonardo Trancoso]

Some builds can reach 1k+ of damage. Damage is not a problem in battles, is the solution.

[notabot]

When the Mooks at level 20 have 200 HP (and they do, and even higher). You need to take them down just as fast as you did at level 1. Which is one round per takedown. Anything slower means you fail at your party role as primary damage dealer. Bosses shouldn't be able to survive 3 rounds of full offense, otherwise they are too strong IMHO (Since a boss should be capable of a 1 round take down IMHO if the PCs don't take him seriously, just look at liches or AP end bosses, longer combats mean TPK quite often).

[Akerlof]

Look at what they will be fighting at high levels:

CR19 ancient Red Dragon (He's a non-challenge, mook level enemy for level 20s, he's the kind of thing level 15s and 16s would fight as a boss.)
HP 362
AC 38 (42 with shield up, 50% miss chance with displacement up)
DR 15/magic (and DR10/adamantine with stoneskin up)
SR 30, Immune to fire (Resist cold 30 with resist energy up)

Attacks: (with Power Attack)
Bite +29 (4d6+39 19-20/x2, average 54), 2 Claws +29 (2d8+26, average 35*2) , 2 wings +27 (2d6+13, average 20.5*2), Tail Slap +27 (2d8+39, average 48)

Evem his fire breath does 20d10, an average 110 damage. He's certain to hit the party with that a few times before he moves in for the kill, to soften targets up.

Full attack, auto hitting on any armor class below 28: 213 damage on average. Add another bite because he hasted himself, bumping it to 267 damage. That's not even taking into account most of his magical defenses and abilities.

Your attackers aren't going to be able to do their full damage against him, either he'll maneuver so they cannot get a full attack (He can still greater vital strike for 12d6+21, 59 damage a shot, and move.) His displacement means that even if they do get their full attacks off, and even if they're hitting the AC 42 on their iteraticves, they will be missing a lot unless they've been well buffed or their casters have significantly debuffed him. (They're probably going for the greater invisibility and spell turning first.)

Being able to do 200 or 300 or 500 damage a round means two things: 1.) You've got a pretty good chance to do 50 or 100 or 200 damage a round against the enemy while they're still buffed and fighting tactically, not giving you a change to do your full attack. As a party you will be able to kill him in 1-4 rounds: This still gives him a chance to do really nasty stuff to you, like Limited Wish 4/day. 2.) When your casters finally do knock down his defenses, you can kill him in one round. Which is important because you're probably only going to get one round to do it: He'll either withdraw to rebuff or run and fight another time when he has the advantage.

[MechE_]

Magda Luckbender wrote:

...reach-style Clericzilla ... was able to inflict over 100 HP at first level, without any critical hits, if everything went right. If a cleric can do that, consider what an optimized martial character can do ...

Ok... At first level with an 18 strength and an 16 dex (very stat intensive - will result in lower than desired Con and Wis scores plus completely dumped Int and Cha scores), wielding a longspear, with enlarge person, inspire courage, divine favor... You're looking at 2d6 + 6 + 2 = 15 average damage. So hitting with your one attack on your turn plus making all 4 of your AoO gives you 75 damage in a round.

If we assume that your first level was in fighter (so that you could take Power attack instead to having access to divine favor and get an enlarge person from your Wizard buddy...) AND you managed to get an 18 Str and 18 Dex, then the damage is 2d6 + 6 + 1 + 3 for 17 average points of damage per hit. Hitting with your attack plus 5 AoO's gives you 102 points of damage...

So I hate to do this, but I'm going to challenge the assertion that 100 points of damage per round at first level is actually doable without crits. Even if it is, it's not the "100 DPR" that most people think of when they talk DPR, since the majority of it comes from AoOs and therefore requires enemy actions to happen.