How high can we get it?

[Extra Anchovies]

*snip snip snip* He's going to spend these on castings of Explosive Runes, 150gp per pop. He's also going to buy a single scroll of Dispel Magic, which is buyable without the DMG because Scribe Scroll lists the base price calculations. That's 375 gold.

After the scroll, he can buy 53,068 explosive runes castings, taking great care to not read any of them. He puts them in a pile, then area dispels the lot of them.

This is the point at which it stops being the 1st-level character dealing the damage. Explosive Runes does not create a magic item; it is a spell effect cast on an object, with a duration of permanent. Thus, even if the spell is purchased by the 1st-level elf, it is still a spell that has been cast by the person paid by our 1st-level character to cast the spell (I'll call the Explosive Runes caster the "supplier"). Thus, the supplier can read the runes without harm, can remove the runes whenever desired, and automatically succeeds on dispel checks to dispel the runes. The 1st-level character is doubtless the person whose actions led to the damage being dealt, but the damage is dealt not by them but by the supplier (with their Explosive Runes spells as a means of conveyance, much in the same way that Keledrath's initial barbarian deals their 80 damage with the scythe as a means of conveyance). The 1st-level character would share in the experience point gain(s) if any enemies are defeated by the runes' damage (a likely occurrence indeed ), but they did not deal the damage themselves.

In a similar vein, Biffoniacus_Furiou's rock-pushing commoner would gain experience for the resulting damage, but the damage is not dealt by the commoner but by the rock. If the commoner had thrown the boulder then the damage would have been dealt by the commoner (with the rock as a means of conveyance), but in his stated scenario the commoner does not strike the unnamed enemy with the rock; instead, he causes the rock to fall, and the 20d6 damage is dealt by the rock itself. Similarly, pushing someone off a cliff does not deal any damage in itself, but causes them to (very shortly after) take damage from the fall. In cases such as the Explosive Runes or rock-pushing, the cause of the damage is not the source of the damage, whereas in the barbarian's case, they are one and the same (the scythe is only a means of conveyance).

ETA: sorry if someone else already explained this, I'm bad at reading.

[Forrestfire]

I did point out that my way of doing it was thoroughly violating the spirit of the challenge. It's silly, really just abusing the D&D economy. (I think you could probably get more damage by dropping coins on them from high up, too, with that much gold).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Well I don't know about other options, but the spell Jump isn't available to Clerics...

I think it used movement speed bonuses, probably the Celerity domain for +10 ft. untyped and Expeditious Retreat, for a +16 to Jump checks, but that's not PHB-only. The original was on the old WotC charop board and is lost to the ages.

Regardless, Enlarge Person + jumping down onto as many as four opponents still deals 20d6x4 damage, possibly also damaging yourself depending on how far you fall. If you consider more than four creatures squeezing/grappling into a space, then the potential damage is almost unlimited.

[Tvtyrant]

Orc spirit lion totem whirling barbarian with medium Minotaur greathammer.sup Two hits a round, 2d6 + 9(raging two hander)+1. Multiply by 4 and max damage for 84. 168 for both hits.

[Flickerdart]

Orc spirit lion totem whirling barbarian with medium Minotaur greathammer.sup Two hits a round, 2d6 + 9(raging two hander)+1. Multiply by 4 and max damage for 84. 168 for both hits.

"Barbarian" is the only part of that entire sentence that's from the PHB.

[Tvtyrant]

"Barbarian" is the only part of that entire sentence that's from the PHB.

...

This will teach me.

[Jormengand]

I still prefer crafting infinite colossal quarterstaves and setting the world on fire.

[Vhaidara]

I still prefer crafting infinite colossal quarterstaves and setting the world on fire.

QUARTERSTAFF-DOKEN!letmeuseallcaps

[Zrak]

Do you really need better once damage can be expressed in scientific notation?

They make up arrow notation for a reason, damn it.

[troqdor1316]

If we're assuming weighted dice, my build is a halfling commoner with 18 Dex, a Small kitchen knife (statted as a small dagger) and improved initiative, for a total Initiative modifier of +8. Here's combat:

A Wild Terrasques Appears!

Player sends out Halfling Commoner!

Tarrasque rolls 27 for initiative!

Halfling Commoner rolls 28!

Halfling Commoner uses Stab in Shins!

Halfling Commoner rolls a natural 20!

Halfling Commoner rolls a natural 20 to confirm!

Halfling Commoner rolls a natural 20 to confirm the confirmation!

The Tarrasque EXPLODEZZZZZ!

PREEMPTIVE EDIT: Sadly, I just re-read the DMG and realized that this requires a variant rule to work. I thought the variant rule was a sidebar and therefore RAW

[Crazysaneman]

So, on a whim, I was calculating the most damage that can be done by a level 1 Player's Handbook only character.

So far, I have
Half Orc Barbarian 1 with a 20 Str (18 + 2 racial) wielding a scythe (crit is assumed) with Power Attack
Raging, you have a Strength of 24 (+7 mod).
So, on the x4 crit, you deal 8d4+48 (+40 Str +8 PA) = 80

Now, we obviously aren't a solo adventurer! We have 3 allies with us! Now, they each have time to buff you once (you dumped Dex to get your high Str score, so your initiative sucks).

What are the 3 best buffs for raw damage (remember, you use weighted dice, so you are guaranteed maximum damage and nat 20s

*edited out scythes and edited in large greataxes
So Half-orc barbarian
assume 15 dex and 18 str +2 half orc=20+4 rage 24 +7 mod
feat=two weapon fighting
hand1 LARGE GREATAXE hand2 LARGE GREATAXE (because we don't care about negatives to hit.)
weapon damage on crit 9d6
strength damage on crit 28
9d6+28=82*2weapons=164
or is my math wrong?

[Feint's End]

*scrubbed

look at next post for correct calculation

[Feint's End]

Two-weapon fighting with Dwarven Waraxes wins. Second and third place go to Scythe and Lance respectively.

Teammates:
Druid: For fast flanking buddy
Wizard: For magic weapon and enlarge person
Bard: Inspire Courage

Build:
Race: Half-Orc
Relevant Stats: Str 20 (24 while raging; 26 with enlarge person)
Feat: Power Attack (Two Weaponfighting or Proficiency would of course be better but we don't care for penalties)
Weapon: 2x Dwarven Waraxes

To-hit after applicance of all buffs:
8(str)-1(size)+1(bab)-1(pa)+1(magic weapon)+1(Inspire Courage)+2(flanking buddy)-4(non-proficient)-6/10 (twf) = +1/-3

crit maximum=147 mainhand (16+8+2+1)x3=81; offhand (16+4+2)x3=66

2nd place: Scythe with 112 maximum damage
3rd place: Lance with 104 maximum damage

[Chronos]

Despite the common misconception, the rules do not say that you can make quarterstaves from thin air. The rules say that you can make quarterstaves from 0 GP worth of raw materials. In other words, you find a worthless stick, say "Hey, that's a weapon!", and it's now a worthless quarterstaff. But you still need to start with the stick.

[torrasque666]

Well first you need to invent the universe.

[Jormengand]

Despite the common misconception, the rules do not say that you can make quarterstaves from thin air. The rules say that you can make quarterstaves from 0 GP worth of raw materials.

Thin air is 0 GP worth of raw materials. What you actually have to do when crafting is just:

Pay one-third of the item’s price for the cost of raw materials.

Okay, I pay 0 GP. Rules as written, I can also turn a handful of silver into a dagger, but it's just not quite as on-the-spot as making a quarterstaff.

[Flickerdart]

*edited out scythes and edited in large greataxes
So Half-orc barbarian
assume 15 dex and 18 str +2 half orc=20+4 rage 24 +7 mod
feat=two weapon fighting
hand1 LARGE GREATAXE hand2 LARGE GREATAXE (because we don't care about negatives to hit.)
weapon damage on crit 9d6
strength damage on crit 28
9d6+28=82*2weapons=164
or is my math wrong?

Can't wield a Large Greataxe as a medium character because it would be more handedness than two. Especially not one in each hand. The reason you can use a Large Lance when a Lance is a Two-Handed weapon is that a mounted character can wield a Lance (and only a Lance) one-handed, so when it goes up a handedness level from being a bigger size, he can still wield it with two.

[Forrestfire]

Doesn't that mean you could up the lance's size all the way to Colossal and dual-wield them, not caring about penalties because a 20 is an autohit?

[Flickerdart]

Doesn't that mean you could up the lance's size all the way to Colossal and dual-wield them, not caring about penalties because a 20 is an autohit?

I'd say that the rule interaction between special lance handedness and resizing doesn't work that way - if you size it up twice, a weapon that could be wielded in one hand would need three hands to wield, making it unusable.

[Allanimal]

After the scroll, he can buy 53,068 explosive runes castings, taking great care to not read any of them. He puts them in a pile, then area dispels the lot of them.

We're still using loaded dice, so that's 36 damage per rune, or 1,910,448 points of no-save force damage to whatever poor soul is standing next to them. Maybe the elf cleric is going out with a bang, since he's reached his maximum age.

I see this mentioned a lot around here, but I fail to see how the damage of multiple explosive runes stack.

[Forrestfire]

I see this mentioned a lot around here, but I fail to see how the damage of multiple explosive runes stack.

They stack the same way any other sources of multiple damage stack...? If you detonate two fireballs next to someone, they take the damage from both fireballs.

[Crazysaneman]

Can't wield a Large Greataxe as a medium character because it would be more handedness than two. Especially not one in each hand. The reason you can use a Large Lance when a Lance is a Two-Handed weapon is that a mounted character can wield a Lance (and only a Lance) one-handed, so when it goes up a handedness level from being a bigger size, he can still wield it with two.

Baloney, it's just a -2 to wield one size greater than you two handed, -2 for one handed, -2 for two weapon fighting.

*found the rule
"Inappropriately sized weapons A creature can't make optimum use of a weapon that isn't properly sized for it. A cumulative -2 penalty on attack rolls for each size category of difference between the size of the intended wielder and the size of it's actual wielder." PHB 3.5 ~pg113

[dascarletm]

"The runes detonate when read, dealing 6d6 points of force damage"

Read
->detonate
Read
->detonate
...

not

Read
-> detonate, detonate, detonate, detonate, detonate, detonate, detonate, detonate...

they do not explode when they are destroyed or when another rune goes off near it.

[Forrestfire]

... Which is why I specifically noted they'd be detonated with a Dispel Magic. A failed area dispel would trigger them all simultaneously.

[Vhaidara]

Baloney, it's just a -2 to wield one size greater than you two handed, -2 for one handed, -2 for two weapon fighting.

With the Monkey Grip feat, yes.

[Crazysaneman]

With the Monkey Grip feat, yes.

not so much

[dascarletm]

So you did....

So you did.

[Vhaidara]

not so much

and explain please? Given that the function of the feat Monkey Grip is that you can use a weapon one size category larger than you with a -2 penalty, I fail to see what point you are making.

[Crazysaneman]

and explain please? Given that the function of the feat Monkey Grip is that you can use a weapon one size category larger than you with a -2 penalty, I fail to see what point you are making.

It seems you cannot read. I clearly stated that there was a -2 for large weapon, -2 for one handed, -2 for twf. Monkey Grip removes the -2 for wielding a two handed weapon one handed, making a large 2 handed weapon in one hand a -2 instead of a -4. For this toon it would be -6 because of twf.

[Crazysaneman]

Theoretically this barbarian could wield colossal greataxes for maximum damage since we autohit and autocrit. I kept it to large for the sake of size argument and weight restrictions.