Characters in Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition can fill all sorts of party roles. Some players may enjoy support characters and healers who can take an entire party alive. Others might prefer D&D 5e‘s wide array of tank subclasses or out-of-combat utility masters.

Sometimes, however, a D&D 5e player just wants to hit things and watch them die.

Any class in the game can hold its own in combat, but some subclasses of some D&D 5e classes take things further. They’re built from the ground up to deal damage. They may have other combat options, but they’re also an ideal choice for players who just want to inflict carnage and reduce hit points.

Now, these aren’t necessarily the highest-damage builds in D&D 5e. There are feats, spell choices, rules interpretations, and multiclasses that can push the ceiling further. For players who just want to deal damage, however, these D&D 5e subclasses are a good start.

Updated November 4th by Artificial Twenty: This article of the best ‘DPS’ in D&D 5e has had a good run. However, I published it a long time ago, and this blog has changed since then. As a result, I’ve updated it to match more recent content.

Oath of Vengeance Paladin Doubles Down

I often like to talk about D&D 5e Paladins’ sheer power on Artificial Twenty. The class manages to focus on damage while also being effective at healing, tanking, social interaction, and more. It’s a solid damage chassis, not least from full martial abilities and Divine Smite.

The Oath of Vengeance Paladin is a high-damage D&D 5e subclass for one of its best combat classes. Most of its features focus on combat to the exclusion of all else.

Vow of Enmity is one of the best Channel Divinity options in D&D 5e. Advantage on every attack against one enemy per short rest adds up.

An Oath of Vengeance Paladin in D&D 5e can identify the biggest threat in each encounter and attack until it dies. Advantage makes high-damage feats like Great Weapon Master far less likely while doubling the chance of a critical hit for a Divine Smite.

However, this isn’t all making the Vengeance Paladin one of D&D 5e‘s highest-damage subclasses. It also gets to make more attacks than many other Paladins.

For one thing, the D&D 5e Oath of Vengeance Paladin build has Haste on its spell list. Alongside its many other benefits, this allows an extra attack per turn. At 15th level, it also gets to attack its Vow of Emnity’d target with its reaction. Most Paladins would weep at the chance to hit four times in one round.

On the off-chance your game reaches 17th level, an Oath of Vengeance Paladin also gets Hold Monster. Automatic critical hits make Divine Smite ludicrous. As long as you have spell slots, little can compete with this as D&D 5e‘s highest-damage build.

Samurai Fighter Provides Reliable, Easy Damage

The Fighter is one of D&D 5e‘s most straightforward classes unless its subclass adds complexity. The Samurai Fighter does not. Instead, it adds a straightforward way for any player to boost their damage significantly.

Fighting Spirit gives advantage on every attack a D&D 5e Samurai Fighter makes that turn. This is already impressive, providing synergy with Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter. However, it also combos well with Action Surge, giving double the attacks with advantage for very little set-up.

Fighting Spirit also becomes less limited with the 10th-level feature Tireless Spirit, allowing a Fighter to spam the feature and make initial combats far easier.

This would already be an easy high-damage build in D&D 5e, but the Samurai Fighter has more. Rapid Strikes provides another attack per turn if the character has advantage for any reason.

Rapid Strikes lets a D&D 5e Samurai Fighter build make up to ten attacks in a single turn as long as they have advantage. Fighting Spirit provides this on-tap, whilst shoving prone, Mounted Combatant, and cooperation with party members provide it at other times.

The Samurai Fighter only reaches its true potential at high levels. Still, up to ten hits with Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter (reaching truly absurd numbers of attacks with Strength Before Death) is enough to shred the hit points of most D&D 5e enemies.

Hexblade Warlock Boosts Every Attack

The D&D 5e Hexblade Warlock is well-known for its attempts to fix Pact of the Blade. It’s also known as a potent multiclass enabler that unlocks some of D&D 5e‘s highest-damage builds.

On its own, without a melee weapon, it’s still the single best D&D 5e Warlock subclass for damage.

Ignoring Hex Warrior (aside from the medium armour), Hexblade’s Curse is one of the game’s best first-level features. Proficiency bonus to damage one very single attack is a vicious increase most other Warlocks wish they could get.

Even in its most straightforward iteration, a D&D 5e Hexblade Warlock build outdamages all other Warlock subclasses. Agonizing Blast, Hexblade’s Curse, and Hex give terrifying damage for a cantrip, able to rival martial classes for at-will damage.

Even better, this works for very minimal investment. The Hexblade Warlock can deal similar damage throughout a D&D 5e campaign with two levels or with twenty.

This is why D&D 5e Hexblade Warlock multiclasses are as infamous as they are. A frontloaded dip allows for high-damage builds with any sort of multiclass combo.

The Hexblade is a lethal D&D 5e damage subclass on its own merits. However, it gets even better with other classes.

School of Evocation Wizard Hits Hard with AOEs

Most of the best damage builds in D&D 5e focus on single-target damage. This makes sense for a few reasons. For one, it’s easy to calculate. If there’s only one target, only one set of damage needs to be worked out. The real world doesn’t interfere with the theorycrafting.

For another thing, the most dangerous D&D 5e foes are often one single enemy, rather than a mob of similarly-powerful targets.

Despite this, it’s always helpful to have a spellcaster who can damage twenty things at once if they need to.

The D&D 5e School of Evocation Wizard is the default, straightforward, “boring” Wizard subclass. It doesn’t rewrite the laws of reality or engage with unconventional spells. It throws Fireballs more effectively and more flexibly than anyone else.

Sometimes, this is all you need. An Evocation Wizard who knows how to pick their targets can be one of the highest-damage subclasses in D&D 5e.

Evocation Wizards add their Intelligence to one damage roll of their Wizard spells. Notably, this doesn’t just apply to one target. An area-of-effect spell passes on this added damage to every creature it hits.

Overchannel, the D&D 5e School of Evocation Wizard’s capstone ability, goes even further. Maximum damage rolls on spells is a game-changer. Cone of Cold can deal almost 70 points of damage to every target it catches. If you blast a group, this is well worth taking a bit of damage.

Interestingly, a safety feature also boosts damage. Many area-of-effect spellcasters in D&D 5e have to hit allies or target their blasts at fewer creatures. The School of Evocation Wizard has no such limitation thanks to Scult Spell. They can blast the centre of the horde and get as many enemies as possible without ever once touching the Barbarian.

If you’re looking for the highest-damage D&D 5e build that will make bosses crumble, the School of Evocation is a reasonable choice. However, it shines as one of the best choices for melting swarms of enemies.

Way of Mercy Monk Harms as Well as Heals

Despite its reassuring name, the D&D 5e Way of Mercy Monk feels crueler to its enemies than most others. Monks in D&D 5e tend to be more of a skirmisher and crowd-control class, despite their many attacks. They work better at ambushing fragile creatures than tearing through hordes.

The Way of Mercy Monk can do the default Monk role in D&D 5e while also dealing impressive damage. Oh, and healing, but you’re not here for that.

Hands of Harm lets a D&D 5e Way of Mercy Monk add damage to an Unarmed Strike for one Ki, once per turn, with no other requirements. No saving throw, no further roll. Just more damage that scales up to a potential 15 extra once per turn.

Hands of Harm gets even better throughout the game. The Poisoned condition doesn’t buff its damage, but it’s a nice extra. From 11th level, it loses the Ki cost. A Monk can just use it once per turn, stacking up significant damage throughout the day.

The Way of Mercy Monk is still more of a skirmisher than a hard-hitter. Nonetheless, it’s the best Monk subclass in D&D 5e for damage.

Path of the Zealot Barbarian Keeps Scaling

The Barbarian should be one of D&D 5e‘s best combat classes, inkeeping with its theme and lack of other abilities. However, it begins to significantly fall off later in the game. A lack of extra attacks or damage riders holds it back compared to Fighters, Paladins, or even Rangers.

The D&D 5e Path of the Zealot Barbarian is one of the few subclasses to provide even a slight bit of scaling beyond minor Rage damage increases and Brutal Critical.

Divine Fury lets a Zealot Barbarian add a d6 and half of their level in Radiant damage to one attack per turn while Raging. This is invaluable throughout the game, particularly as the Zealot becomes able to use Rage in every single combat.

Even so, the Path of the Zealot Barbarian does need other build choices to keep it an effective D&D 5e damage build.

Without heavy weapons, Great Weapon Master, and ideally some sort of bonus action attack, it will begin to fall behind. However, Reckless Attack all but guarantees that at least one strike will land for Divine Fury’s bonus damage.

On its own, the Path of the Zealot is the best D&D 5e damage subclass for the Barbarian. When you build around it with feats and race choice, that’s when it becomes a true combat monster.

Gloom Stalker Ranger Is the Ideal Alpha Striker

For all the Ranger’s faults in D&D 5e, it doesn’t lag behind on damage. Spells like Hunter’s Mark provide a reasonable baseline, while every subclass provides some sort of damage buff from a low-level.

The Gloom Stalker Ranger’s starting abilities are some of the best in the game. Dread Ambusher provides a bonus that remains top-tier at any level of play.

An extra attack in the first round of combat is excellent in its own right. The fact that this extra attack deals bonus damage is the cherry on top.

A Gloom Stalker Ranger in D&D 5e already holds its own without any special build choices. However, players can double down by maximising the damage they deal (Hunter’s Mark or the D&D 5e Bugbear race are both good choices).

Fun fact, Action Surge also works to maximise this. Because you take two Attack actions in the first turn of combat, you make two extra, buffed attacks.

Stalker’s Flurry takes this even further. On a miss, the D&D 5e Gloom Stalker can simply make another attack.

This allows for up to four with no particular build choices on the first turn of combat. It also encourages feats like Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter that give more damage at increased chance of a miss.

The Gloom Stalker is one of D&D 5e‘s highest-damage subclasses at base thanks to Dread Ambusher. However, it also unlocks some of D&D 5e‘s best combat builds full stop, with the ceiling basically being the player’s imagination.

These have been seven of D&D 5e‘s best subclasses for raw damage-dealing. If you’ve got any you’re particularly fond of for how hard they hit, please comment below!

For other ways to improve your character’s damage, check out ‘The Ten Best Feats in D&D 5e‘.

To go even further into this area, check out this guide on how to make the best combat build for each D&D 5e class.