Figure Out Your Pc's Average Damage Output And Their Optimal Damage Output. Why?

figure out your pc's average damage output and their optimal damage output. why?

a. you will always have a default strategy to turn to in a pinch and will know the range of what your pc can do under optimal conditions b. your dm knowing that your rogue could hypothetically do 50 damage in a turn under the best circumstances is good information for them to have to balance encounters.

here's how i do it:

first i want to figure out 'what is the most likely combination of action and bonus action to deal damage my character can take on a given turn without using an expendable resource that only effects them that turn', things like a barbarian rage or a bladesong are different because that's a lingering buff.

lets say we're a 5th level vengeance paladin, 20 strength with a longsword & shield

our sustainable turn would probably be presumably to bonus action vow of enmity (and if we already had who could say what we'd use our bonus action for) and then action attack twice.

2d8 + 10 = average of 19 points of damage.

then you want to figure out what's the most amount of damage i could do in my turn under optimal conditions. optimal conditions for our paladin. we already have vow of emnity going. we have branding smite as a bonus action, action attack twice, presuming both hit and we decide to expend our other 2nd level spell slot and one of our first level spell slots.

2d8 + 2d6 + 3d8 + 2d8 + 10 = average of 48.5 points of damage.

assuming you're fighting a fiend or undead you actually get to add an average of 9 more points of damage to that too.

so yeah one can see why this information is both useful to know as a player and as a dm. of course, this is assuming your attacks hit and doesn't take into account advantage/disadvantage or feats like gwm/sharpshooter. but the point is not always to be able to flex about how much damage your pc can deal. it is to KNOW what you can do if you needed to, what is a sustainable option for you damage-wise and helps you figure out whether it serves you / your party better to use your turn to attempt to attack or to use it to support another endeavor in an encounter.

cheers i use anydice.com to do my math for me.