Looking for a high damage build


Advice


Hi, first of all I am considerable new to pathfinder. Have been playing others roleplaying system for a while but we've decided to start using Pathfinder.

I'm looking for a combat oriented class with tons of damage, to be honest i don't really feel the need to be useful outside combat, but i love to be the guy who everyone know is going to rip the BBEG apart and beat the crap out of it.

Me and the Bard used to play a combination of Striker/Leader on 4e and it has very fun for us i can't say the same for the DM but i would love some suggestions.

Until now my group consists of:

A Rogue (Probably a Jack of All Trades Rogue)
A Sorcerer (don't know exactly the build but something ranged)
A Bard or a Life Oracle, she is waiting to know what will feel better to the group. (Sugestions accepted too)
Me (Open to Suggestions)
And the last one will get something he thinks we need.

We are all new to pathfinder system but most of us played D&D 4e and Savage World for some time. Our DM allow us to use all avalaible content and if you guys know a good combination of three or two classes i'd be glad to know.

Thanks in advance and sorry for anything. English is not my main language and sometimes its a little hard to express exactly what i want.


You are probably looking for either a Barbarian, Fighter, or Paladin.

You can make crazy tough and strong barbars.
Fighter will get the job done.
Paladin probably brings the most to the table, but comes with RP restrictions.

You are probably going to want a barbar, even though I would play a fighter.


Archer Paladin is pretty good at ripping the BBEG apart. Lots of attacks + Smite Evil = plenty of pain against evil opponents.

Also comes with a very resilient chassis thanks to high Dex + Divine Grace, so it's relatively unlikely that you'll be incapacitated before you can unleash your righteous wrath.

In general ranged builds tend to do pretty good damage. I hear Gunslinger performs well too, but I don't have much experience with those. But Fighter, Ranger or even Zen Archer Monk can all pull off some pretty nice ranged damage. Inquisitor too, actually.


If your group is not opposed to guns and you don't mind that some people on these boards might call you over powered the gunslinger is a solid damage dealer. If you use the Pistolero Archetype and duel wield it becomes even crazier. If you use advanced firearms rules and duel wield Revolvers you are looking at one of the highest output damage dealers in the game.


Hi Guys, thanks for your replys.

I really liked the suggestions, i found three builds that seems to be nice and i liked it.

Pistolero Gunslinger
Invulnerable Rager Barbarian
Archer Paladin

Too be honest Archer Paladin appears to be a good choice because i don't know how generous our DM will be. I already played plenty games with him but never with him as our DM.

Gunslinger comes with touch attacks. I must admit i hate missing my attacks more than anything in the world, after carefully planning our turn and thinking of something extraordinary, rolling low numbers on d20 is attractive.

And Rager Barbarian just because ignoring everything on my way and saying loud and clear, "Come at me bro" looks so awesome!

I'm really glad this builds will fulfill my desires now i just have the impossible mission to choose one.

Any suggestions on what will be good with my group? Specially my Bard/Oracle?


No party doesn't want that life oracle, I vote that.

Now, archery/guns is/are great, but it won't soak up damage. For that, I vote barbar for your character.


I got this concern before, but the last member already said that he will get what we need, probably some heavy armor character.

I couldn't find an Archer Paladin build, but i found an Archer Fighter. What you guys think?

Grand Lodge

Try searching for 'paladin archer build' in the search bar in the top right corner. I got around 5 builds from that.

Silver Crusade

archer paladin, ahh, makes me cringe fluff wise, but I love the numbers. archer pally is def nice, but for PURE damage zen archer is your best bet.

Sovereign Court

I think Barbarian is the way to go. Your party definitely needs a front-liner - I would advise against an archer or gunslinger. Paladins are great when they smite, but there's nothing like good, old-fashioned Barbarian to just wade through a sea of mooks and then smack the BBEG upside the head.

Oh, and Life Oracle x 1000. Bards are nice, but you need a divine caster, and Life Oracle is by far the best medic in the game.

Silver Crusade

Surprisingly, Paladins built for damage (2handed) don't fall to far behind barbs, with the added bonus of healing and realy nice saves.


Hi, thanks for the replies.

We already got a front-liner, my friend will make a Fighter with sword and board.

But after reading a little about Paladins i don't think i'll make one.

- Too dependant on status early, STR for Damage, Dex for hit, Cha and con. We are going to do a 15 points buy build.

- Need to go against an evil guy to really shine.

- Lawful Good. :(

I'm between an Invunerable Rager Barbarian and a Pistoleiro Gunslinger.
But another build i think can be fun is the Alchemist Ragebred (Skinwalker) Beastmorph/Vivisectionist.

Shadow Lodge

Here are a bunch of builds.

If you want crazy nova damage, it's very difficult to beat the Alchemist. The Mad Bomber hits 128 DPR at level 12 against an average touch AC for the level. He can do that four times a day. And, while doing it, he can confuse, blind, entangle and glue his enemies. Which is just silly.

Silver Crusade

Raoni Castro wrote:

Hi, first of all I am considerable new to pathfinder. Have been playing others roleplaying system for a while but we've decided to start using Pathfinder.

I'm looking for a combat oriented class with tons of damage, to be honest i don't really feel the need to be useful outside combat, but i love to be the guy who everyone know is going to rip the BBEG apart and beat the crap out of it.

Me and the Bard used to play a combination of Striker/Leader on 4e and it has very fun for us i can't say the same for the DM but i would love some suggestions.

Until now my group consists of:

A Rogue (Probably a Jack of All Trades Rogue)
A Sorcerer (don't know exactly the build but something ranged)
A Bard or a Life Oracle, she is waiting to know what will feel better to the group. (Sugestions accepted too)
Me (Open to Suggestions)
And the last one will get something he thinks we need.

We are all new to pathfinder system but most of us played D&D 4e and Savage World for some time. Our DM allow us to use all avalaible content and if you guys know a good combination of three or two classes i'd be glad to know.

Thanks in advance and sorry for anything. English is not my main language and sometimes its a little hard to express exactly what i want.

2 handed barbarian with strength maxed.

I ran games with one and my most common question was...
what's your minimum damage?

Okay, he's dead.

This was starting at full health for the baddie by the way.

I'd say go with a Trox.
Take power attack at level one.

with a 20 point build

Str 24
Dex 10
Con 13
Int 8
Wis 8
Cha 8

You do min 12 damage on a hit and have a +7 (+6 when and min 14 when you have power attack active, which you should have at all times)
You have a 3d6 damage pool so you can destroy things quite well.
Work with cleaving, since you can just wreck multipule foes that way.

Shadow Lodge

It looks like you could use a tank
Barbarian (drunken brute) 3 alchemist (rage chemist vivisectionist) 7 master chemist 10
Priorotize str followed by int, followed by con, you don't need dex wis or cha
Take a race like half giant and you'll be swinging around a large greatsword sneezing attacking with a 30+ str drinking your potions (aka casting your spells) is a move action that can be used to heal you
Drink your mutagen, rage and drink a potion of enlarge self "hulk smash"
Voila hulk, you will be only 2d6 sneak attack behind the rogue,
If the other character choose bard, try to convince her to take arcane duelist or sandman and have her target enemy casters


I would advise against your friend playing a sword and board fighter. Sure, they have good AC, but they tend to fall behind on damage unless you go with a little bit of cheese and dual-wield shields. You still have to worry about the bad Will saves (and to some extent, Reflex saves). So while he'll be neigh-invulnerable in melee combat do to his AC, he won't be doing tons of damage, and still be very vulnerable to saving throws.

Arguably the best damage soaker in the game is going to be a Paladin. Good AC, arguably the best saves, and swift action lay on hands lets him self-heal while still dealing damage. To help with more Smites, consider using an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, trade Lay on Hands for Smites.

Invulnerable Rager can be a good damage soak as well, with the huge HP, respectable AC, and DR. Combined with the fact that you're a Barbarian with tremendous damage out put... things will probably go well for you. Keep your Dex up, take Combat Reflexes and the Come And Get Me rage power when you can and you'll essentially double your attacks in a round.

When it comes to Archery, most of the damage doesn't really come from Strength, it comes from the sheer number of attacks being put down range, and the static bonuses from other places. Look at a Martial of 11th level. They have a BAB off 11/6/1, with a Bow, they can have Rapid Shot for an attack of 9/9/4/-1, then use Many-Shot so the first attack fires two arrows (effectively grants an additional attack). Then you toss on Haste, now you're looking at an attack of 10(x2)/10/10/5/0 plus all the static modifiers (weapon enhancement, strength, deadly aim, smite/weapon training, bardic performance, spells etc).

A tip for the archer, buy an Adaptive longbow and use spells that increase your strength. For instance, Bull's Strength (+4 enhancement bonus nets a +2 to hit +2 to damage) in conjunction with Blood Rage nets you between a +2 and +10 Morale bonus to strength (+1 to hit and damage - +5 to hit and damage along with a -1 to -5 penalty to AC).

For more cheese, at higher levels enchant a Spiked Gauntlet as a +4 weapon with the Courageous property to add another +2 to the bonus from Blood Rage (netting a +4 - +12 morale bonus). It also functions as a back up weapon in case someone gets close enough for melee.

Sovereign Court

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I think the Invulnerable Rager is perfect. In fact, here's what I would do: grab a reach weapon and Combat Reflexes. The sword & board fighter will probably take Shield Slam, so you should convince him to take Greater Bull Rush. Then whenever he slams someone, you get a free attack of opportunity!

In fact... if you convince the Sorcerer to buff you with Enlarge Person (maybe buy him a wand of it), and then grab the Toppling Spell metamagic, things could get almost comedically awesome. Just wear some armor spikes or something and you can get free attacks on anyone within 20 feet of you that stands up. (Any poor guy that gets knocked down in front of the Rogue or Fighter will probably take two attacks of opportunity at +4 each. Ouch.)

The fighter goes a long way to help out your front line, but he can really only affect the enemies right next to him. I think having a Barbarian that can take center stage and make a giant Ring of Pain for any mooks that try to approach the casters would help a lot more than having another ranged DPR character. Plus, with your sky-high Strength mod and 2-handed power attacking, you can expect to easily put out 1.5x the damage of the fighter, and be much better at making non-full round attacks.

PS: Later, you can grab Come and Get Me, which incidentally goes great with Invulnerable Rager.
PPS: Hella ninja'd. Oh, and I wouldn't do vivisectionist - your Rogue might get jealous. :p

Silver Crusade

yes, go with the Trox race, it is awesome.


He did mention a 15 Point buy, so factor that into your suggestions before you propose stats.

Liberty's Edge

Mystic_Snowfang wrote:
yes, go with the Trox race, it is awesome.

Isn't a Trox a 28 RP race vs about 10 RP for most "normal" PC races?

Shadow Lodge

Better than the invulnerable rager is hulk, build I mentioned above, he's one of the best builds at being a tank and he has some impressive utility on top of it, and has good action economy you have a use for your standard and move action every round if you have a spell like ability or can convince your DM to allow your infusions to count as arcane you can take arcane strike and have a use for your swift too
Even tanks should have some utility


Something to consider- If you ask the boards and do enough research in the DPR threads, you WILL find several incredibly high damage builds. You'll walk into the game with an absolute beast build that will kill everything in 1 or 2 rounds.

But before you do so, consider whether that's what you really want. Because given that the rest of the party is new to the system, you're likely to be the only heavily optimized character in your group. Which means that in a few months, your DM will be posting here on the boards asking for help on how to handle you. If you check the advice forums, you'll see quite a few posts from GM's who have one particular character in the group they're running for who breaks all the encounters. Challenging that character is really difficult, because monsters big enough to not get pasted by your high damage dealer are also scary enough to paste the rest of the party with barely a blink. The GM will come here to ask how to handle your character, receive advice, and suddenly your group will be having fights specifically designed to hit your character at its weakest points. Then your play experience is put at risk because you're feeling targeted, because you are being at least a little targeted because you need to be so the game doesn't become a snoozefest of "monster appears, I squash it."

Rather than building a fully optimized damage dealer - which these boards will give you if you ask for it - I'd recommend a build that does a high amount of damage without being the tweaked out monsters that can be built with full optimization. That way you can be the solid damage dealer within the group but everyone still gets to participate and have fun, and the GM doesn't kill everyone else while trying to challenge your character specifically.

So taking all of that in mind- my recommendation is a non-archetyped Barbarian holding (insert your favorite weapon here) in two hands. I say this for a few reasons:

1. This build is dangerous from level 1 onwards. Some of the other recommendations (like the gunslinger and the archer paladin) have to wait 3 to 5 levels before they're doing heavy amounts of damage. Barbarians rock damage from the beginning.

2. This build doesn't take a lot of experience with Pathfinder to build and play properly. At level 1, you take the Power Attack feat. Two handing + rage + power attack gives you the majority of your damage. All the other feats and rage powers you'll take after that are gravy. It also doesn't require you to minmax your stats. Starting with 16 strength is all you need. My level 6 Dwarven Barbarian averages 20 to 25 damage per hit with only a +1 belt of giant strength. The BBEG is usually down by round 2 or 3 (which is about right in Pathfinder). EDIT: Barbarian is also a very cheap class to play. You need exactly 2 books: Core Rule Book and Ultimate Combat.

3. This build sounds like the best fit for what you actually want. If you want to be the star of the show - the guy out there shrugging off hard hits and dealing out harder hits - this is your class. It also sounds like the best fit in terms of role-play. Nobody will question a Barbarian hitting first and asking questions later- though they might not always like it.

Liberty's Edge

If you wanna be a combat brute, then you dont want to be impeeded by anything! So you'll need 5 skill ranks/level (Perception, Acrobatics, Climb, Swim, Survival* (*free choice))
Str >15 (should be 18 or 20 with racial bonus)
Dex should be 14 or 16 if you want combat reflexes. (16 if you expect to be enlarged since you'll get -2 Dex while being enlarged)
Con >11
int <11
Wis <13
Cha = 7
Since every extra modifier in Dex reduces the need of heavier armor to reduce acrobatics etc, make sure it's higher than your int.

15pt buy
Str16 dex14 con12 int10 wis12 cha7 - no weakness (+7bonus modifiers (excluding Cha))
Str18 dex14 con14 int7 wis7 cha7 - all offense! (+8in combat but -4 in defense (excluding Cha)
Str16 dex16 con14 int7 wi8 cha7 - all offense (combat reflexes while enlarged) (+8pm combat but -3 in defense (excluding Cha))
Str16 dex12 con14 int10 wi12 cha7 - what your GM want you to pick (+6 combat, +1defense) - Req quick reflexes instead of combat reflexes.

Half-Ogres are nice if you replace some racial features and use the adopted trait to gain the Real Ogres "Ferocity".


Thank you very much for your suggestions. I'll read them tomorrow (have to sleep for work), but probably I'm going for a 2-handed weapon barbarian.

See ya.

Silver Crusade

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Mystically Inclined said it perfectly. You want to fit in with your mostly new group. Keep your build simple and mostly Core Rules. Help your GM, keep things simple. Simple is elegant.

One way to help your friends improve their game would be to do some of the things Reynard suggests:

1. Use a reach weapon so you and your group learn reach tactics. This approach can roughly double your damage output, but does not always work. Carry a one-handed weapon or two, and maybe even a shield. You're a Barbarian, so you are totally free to switch around your gear.

2. Encourage teamwork, such as one PC bumping a foe such that another PC gets an AoO, or the sorcerer buffing the right allies, or you providing flanks for the rogue via skilled use of reach & positioning.

3. Even though you'll be playing a hulk with a big weapon, consider how your actions mesh with your team. For example, know when to rush the foe, and when to wait for the foe to come to you. The latter is often better tactics. At low levels choosing the action, "I move here, where I threaten the choke point, and ready an action to strike the first enemy that comes within reach" can often get you several extra attacks.

**************************

Regarding your ally who wants to play the Sword and Board fighter: consider options to give that PC a sting, otherwise foes will just ignore him. Pathfinder strongly favors Offense over Defense. A strength-based fighter wielding a glaive will inflict roughly double (perhaps more ... anyone care to speak from experience?) the damage output as that same fighter wielding a longsword in one hand. Is the extra AC worth inflicting only half as much martial damage? Now, if he's using that Shield to Bull Rush foes into your chop-O-matic AoOs, that's another matter!


You could look at a paladin/fighter combo where the fighter is a Weapon Master archetype concentrating on composite longbow.

I am also partial to Zen Archer monk archetype but that requires careful building to be effective.


Hello everyone.

Regarding Mystically and Magda worries, we got a really nice group when we think about character power, let me explain.

First of all almost everyone tries to optimize a little even if its not for combat, except our Rogue. He is our friend and most of our fun come with him doing something so stupid like that one time we got a quest to retrieve something from a town full of orcs and goblins. He didn't sleep well and started falling asleep in the middle of DM's narrative, then we got an easy problem: a locked door; we couldn't kick it because of the sound it would make and were trying to figure out what to do when our rogue wake up and yells, "lets kick this door and see what happens!" then he just roll his dices letting everyone scared. So he said: "oh s%~* i'm a rogue i could open this door with my lockpicking skills." 5 minutes later started to sleep again.

The Fighter got an awesome record of dying 8 times in 5 adventures, yes he loves to do stupid things just because they are cool, I can't even express how funny it was when he got killed trying to open a chest in a guarded bank even after everyone saying "don't try it dude, we can't rob the bank".

Our Bard (now our Oracle because she is very nice and heard your advices) and our Sorcerer always try to do something useful on combats but they prefer the roleplay side of the adventure and don't mind if someone else handle the fights. But for some unknown reason our group tend to take combat very seriously and don't like to make the DM turn the combats down because we couldn't handle it. That's why I started make characters optimized for combat and full of damage and until now its works.

I'm really thankful for all the advices everyone have been incredible helpful. I decided to go for a Barbarian with a Bardiche and the Fighter will do an ofensive build he found somewhere that uses shield spikes i guess.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

First, welcome to Pathfinder, hope you enjoy your stay! :)

Raoni Castro wrote:

Hello everyone.

Regarding Mystically and Magda worries, we got a really nice group when we think about character power, let me explain.

First of all almost everyone tries to optimize a little...
I'm really thankful for all the advices everyone have been incredible helpful. I decided to go for a Barbarian with a Bardiche and the Fighter will do an offensive build he found somewhere that uses shield spikes I guess.

Well I came to this thread late, but I entirely agree with the go basic and go strong.

Core 2-hander wielding Barbarian is strong out of the gate and only gets better.

Other recommendations:
Reach weapons cannot attack or threaten adjacent targets. Spend a 5 gold pieces (or 10 for the cold iron version) and pick up a spiked gauntlet to wear while wielding your reach weapon. Also buy a few cheap thrown weapons (or carry a few clubs, they are free).

Rogues are very problematical from 3.x. Pathfinder fixed a few issues, but they still lag behind. Unless you DM modifies the campaign, regretfully I believe he's going to be marginalized. Rogues are absolutely not the death machines that they are in 4e (especially the Essentials+non-Essentials Rogue option charge combos) but in a customized campaign they can shine.

Fighters are better now since 3 and 3.5...but I strongly advise your friend to consult the guides. There's a quite a bit of variance on fighters.

Consider using an elite array as a basis for your stats. Reduces the min-max. I'm assuming point-buy of course.

As a rule, martials tend to do better against single targets, casters tend to favor area/multiple targets if built for damage.

Oracles are awesome. Sometimes amazingly so. Like GM will throw dice at you. (Heaven's, Time, dual-cursed especially).


Hey guys, long time no see.

First of all the Barbarian BIG BOSS KILLER NAMED MAX POWER was amazing. We started playing with 4 players now we got 7!!! (Barbarian, Fighter, Druid, Monk Zen Archer, Paladin, Sorcerer and Oracle) I did everything you guys said and i'm just killing everything i can.

But our Sorcerer will leave the group and i got the chance to finally be a wizard. A really old love of mine but i never got the chance to play. Always someone else took the Wizard role before.

I started looking and i think i'm going to do something like this:

http://zenithgames.blogspot.com/2014/02/admixture-blaster-wizard-build.html

I know this build got some mistakes like Prefered Spell without Heighten Spell and i can't understand why prefered spell and greater spell specialization but before anything what you think about this build overall? And what about a Tiefling Wizard? And could a Witch Scarred Doctor be a good match to the group or only Wizard can fullfil our lack of AoE Damage?

Thanks for everything again! I hope i can make our DM crazy again, but this time debuffing the entire room (even my teammates... pshhh). :)

The Exchange

Well you've had a year to play with Pathfinder.

Should try a Magus. Traits that reduce Metamagic costs for 1 Spell: Magical Lineage (Magic Trait), Wayang Spellhunter (Regional trait) and Metamagic Master (Regional Trait). You can select a spell for each of these traits but you cannot have the two regional traits together.

Excellent choices are Magic Missile with Toppling Spell. Trip and deal damage. Your caster level + your main casting stat to trip.

Heighten Spell with Shocking grasp . Add this onto your melee attacks through your weapon. If you miss, no problem! You retain the charge!

Rime Spell with Frostbite. A Rimed frostbite with the Enforcer Feat. There is also the optional single level dip into rogue with the thug archetype gives the ability to turn that shaken to frightened as well. So that means with your Rimed Frostbite you can Fatigue, Entangle, and Shaken/Frighten an opponent with a level 1 spell and deal damage at the same time.

1000 GP pearls of power if you have too much fun and need to recharge your level 1 spells.

Your GM will throw his dice at you tracking all the debuffs. If he wants to get picky get the Merciful ability on your weapon to make it deal nonlethal.

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