Use a damage calculator to strategize and tweak builds
I reworked a character for a friend of mine, and here I explain how I got more damage output. Off to the damage calculator!
Using Dice Calculator we can evaluate the average damage for a particular attack. In this case we've got:
- a 5th level Ranger (5e D&D)
- with Horde Breaker
- Two Handed Fighting
- We'll assume Hunter's mark is active (+ 1d6 per attack)
- Dexterity of 17 => +3 modifier
- And using a basic short-sword (finesse weapon)
Let's assume we're attacking something with an AC of 14. We punch in:
(d20 + 3 AC 14) * (2d6 + 3) crit (4d6 + 3)
... And this spits out an average damage of 5.35 per attack. Note that has already factored in the chance to hit. In other words that's the average damage per attack!
For this character's round here's how things would play out:
1st attack: (d20 + 3 AC 14) * (2d6 + 3) crit (4d6 + 3) = 5.35
2nd attack: (d20 + 3 AC 14) * (2d6 + 3) crit (4d6 + 3) = 5.35
3rd attack: (d20 + 3 AC 14) * (1d6 + 3) crit (2d6 + 3) = 3.425
4th attack: (d20 + 3 AC 14) * (1d4 + 1d6 + 3) crit (2d4 + 2d6 +3) = 4.8
The 3rd attack was was from Horde-Breaker on an adjacent enemy, one that isn't marked with hunter's mark. And the 4th attack was a bonus attack from two weapon fighting, I assumed a dagger for fun.
Sum that up and you've got a hefty 18.9 damage per round! If you do the analysis with AC12 you'll get an output of about 22.5 per round. Note that already includes your chance to hit; this is the average damage per round!
Strategizing
Now, what if we had Colossus Slayer instead of Horde Breaker. Swap the 3rd attack for an extra 1d8 of damage once per round and you get about 18 damage. With an AC 12 you'd get 19.075 ... this seems to back our intuition that with a lower armor classes you're better off with Horde Breaker.
But there's one more wrinkle in that comparison. Horde-Breaker requires multiple enemies, if there's only one target the damage output drops down to 15.475 for AC 14 and about 18.4 for AC12 ... that would favor CS.
The moral of this story is that it's all situational, and that you can use a calculator to figure out which one is best -- Just don't do it while all your friends are waiting for you to act :)
Calculate the stuff in advance to get some general strategies in place.
Simplifying
One easy way to simplify things here would be to just assume a short-sword in both hands. And to assume that Hunter's Mark is on all enemies -- maybe there's another Ranger in the party :facemelt:.
Then you could just say calculate the value for one attack and multiply by four.
(d20 + 3 AC 14) * (2d6 + 3) crit (4d6 + 3) = 5.35
AC 15 => 4.85
AC 16 => 4.35
AC 17 => 3.85
...
So we're estimating about 3.85 * 4 ~= 15 damage per round against AC 17 ... not bad :)