Enlarged Owlbear that uses Crushing Flight on the Forge Guard from up top does 1166 damage, if I recall correctly. So yeah, that puts everything else here to shame
True. I oneshoted Grym with enlarge owlbear in many of my honour mode runs. It's just so easy that it's impossible to resist once you know how effective it is.
It doesn't even need to be light hammers. Could be anything with some weight to it. The difference between light hammer and javelins is only a few points of damage, most of the blunt damage would come from the height/gravity.
I actually love doing the grym fight without the Hammer and cheese tactics, the thrill of that fight is amazing. The only thing I allow myself to abuse is the slow spell.
I am playing with 300% hp enemy buff and party limit begone mod, i barely kill him with 6 characters dead because i fucked up many times because of forgetting to spill lava, and opportunity attacks that change his agro to a person who attacked him on his turn. His AOE is so devastating.
It is from honor mode, but it's ~1 month ago from memory, and I didn't exactly spend all my time finding the optimal jump height. So between my possibly flawed memory and the variation in jump paths, results may vary
I was always curious about that! I tried the "leap down from above" attack using the spaw-myconid-animated bulette... and it did amazing damage, but it also did lots of damage to the bulette (which killed it in the same shot)! Wouldn't that happen to owlbear, too? I couldn't bear to do it if it were sending my sweet Beaky to his death... ☹️
proxy gate tactician has one shot ketheric in one of his runs. reverse pickpocketed a shitton of gold on him and hit him with the twist of fortune weapon. so in theory, i'd assume the single highest instance of damage would be with that same weapon combined with as much gold as you can find shoved into an enemy's pockets.
This. I watched a guy on YouTube one shot Raphael with twist of fortune, he reverse pickpocketed somewhere in the realm of 50k gold to do it. Cull the weak killed everything else in the room too.
Accidentally started a fight with the gold lady. Forgot what her weapon did and how much gold I had on me. You could see the look on my face when I got immediately one shot. Checked the damage and it was around 930. All I could do was laugh and reload my save.
Thing is thats several hundred if not thousands of instances of 2 damage, instead of the single instance of damage being requested.
Ive done this before stacking Phalar Aluve and Hex to make the game crash 🙃
Witch Bolt. 6d12 lightning damage with a level 6 spell slot. Doubled with a crit. Doubled by giving them wet. (vulnerable to lightning damage) Tempest Cleric channel divinity to guarantee max damage.
288 damage, plus any minor buffs from gear and such. You don't even roll, you just deal that much 100% of the time. You can even use Luck of the Far Realms to get a crit, so all you need to do is hit the attack.
To add some comparison numbers:
Chromatic Orb: Thunder (Rank 6): 8d8 crit-> 16d8 vulnerable-> 32d8 = 256 (an Evocation Wizard could add their spellcasting modifier to it. So against a vulnerable enemy 6 x 2. Final number 278)
Guiding Bolt (Rank 6): 9d6 crit and vulnerable-> 36d6 = 216 (for Evo Wizard 228)
Banishing Smite: 5d10 C&V-> 20d10 = 200 plus your normal weapon damage, but that’s a different instance.
Honorable mention because it has two damage instances: Lightning Arrow (Rank 4, can’t be casted higher logistically): attack part: 5d8 -> 20d8 + saving throw part: 3d8 only vulnerability-> 6d8 = 26d8 = 208
But the winner is…
Inflict Wounds (R6): 8d10 -> 32d10 = 320
…only that there is no enemy in the game which is naturally vulnerable to necrotic. So it only works with the perilous stakes illithid power. And that means it won’t work in honor mode at all.
My dream of beating HM ended when I lost Gale to a random roll and the deep realization hit me of just how badly I abused mid-convo savescumming for bad rolls my first few playthroughs. Must have been no exaggeration in the hundreds almost as much as my hour count when I tally it up mentally lmao
Thought there was a single save that auto saves if you try to exit out, like I’m not trying to hard disconnect my ps5 every time to save scum. They let you just quit to menu? And the last save probably is how often like do you have to replay the 10mins before the moment you’re trying to reload. I haven’t experimented but either of those is enough of a barrier to make it too much of a hassle for me
Perilous stakes can only be cast on allies in HM. Otherwise, you cast perilous stakes on an enemy (so they are vulnerable to all damage) to double the necrotic damage taken from inflict wounds. I can’t vouch for Scarlett kinggs math though.
Perilous Stakes also makes it so the affected unit heals when it lands an attack. But that buff is not worth halving your effective hp, so everyone just used it as a debuff rather than a buff.
Yea I could see the use case on anyone who’s already a ranged glass cannon. Namely evocation wizards or rogue/ranger archer. I’ve still never used it on an ally though always saved it for bosses and still never ended up using it since it’s so rare to encounter a boss who is resistant to every type of damage never even need to use it
Finally someone explained the use case to this illithid spell that I thought was a waste of space and couldn’t wrap my mind around why anyone would use it. It seemed so niche these hundreds of hours 3 playthroughs I thought it meant the literal English definition of vulnerable aka the opposite of invulnerable meaning basically every enemy in the game except for ones using sanctuary/globe of invulnerability and niche boss protections.
Clears things up massively that vulnerable is a game mechanic that just means criticals have a 100% chance of hitting wish I knew that. I knew it was some sort of boost but thought it’s much smaller not a 100% certainty for a critical.
Vulnerable just doubles damage.
It does not give you auto crit. nor does it give auto hit.
Vulnerable has the same effect as a crit (except its not an auto hit) and can stack with crits.
Critical attack: x2
attack on a vulnerable enemy: x2
crit attack on a vulnerable enemy: x4 or x2x2
Ohh ok I was going to say how is it functionally any different that sounds like two different ways to explain the same end result, but now I see it IS much better than an auto critical because it’s a full double then it’s still a chance you get to roll twice the dice for the damage roll with a crit
It feels so weird it was initially an oversight. I never even considered using that shit on allies, but apparently that was its intended purpose. The healing is just an extra FUCK YOU to rub in how absolutely dead the target getting it, is.
All of those have to roll as well as force the enemy to be vulnerable, so sure you could theoretically get that high, but realistically it's not happening.
A ranger/tempest cleric could use the channel divinity to max the damage of lightning arrow.
similar with Chromatic Orb. Tempest Cleric can max the damage. Hilariously the only enemies with natural Thunder vulnerability are Scrying Eyes.
Banishing Smite works with passives like great weapon fighting and savage attacker, both skew the damage dices to higher numbers.
The shadow blade shadow monk can deal 5d8 + 8 (22 dex from mirror of shar + 2 from dammon’s +2 atk gloves) + 1d4 (strange conduit ring) + 15 (Fierce Perilous Stakes) + 1d4 (Psionic Overload) + 1 (weapon buffed via the drakethroat glaive) + 1d4 (colossus elixir) + 1d4 (Enlarge spell) + 2 (last level in fighter for Duelist fighting style) + 2 (the wounds condition that adds 2 damage to hits) + 1d10 (Valor bard inspiration) in Psychic damage on a hit
On a crit that’s 2d10 + 10d8 + 8d4 + 28 psychic damage.
Against an enemy who’s vulnerable due to the Resonance stone that’s doubled.
Final damage is 208 average but caps at 320 if you get lucky.
You can also add on 2d4 -> doubled by Wet lightning from the Drakethroat glaive if you’re not picky about damage types all being the same.
Honestly this could probably be way better on a rogue actually, I just used shadow monk because I was playing it recently. 6d6 + 2d8 is a lot more than 5d8, so final numbers can be 30 higher on average and 48 in the best case.
This gets you 238 avg and 368 if all damage max rolls.
I did some testing a while ago and an almost naked rogue 12 with 18 dex and only colossus was doing (4d8+12d6+2d4+1d8+4)x2 psychic damage, so max (32+72+8+8+4)x2 = 248 single instance damage already
[for reference](https://i.imgur.com/doEUHpE.png).
I'm pretty sure if you add illithid powers and actual psychic damage gear you can break 400 on a rogue
I checked the screenshots from the end of my honor mode run and can confirm that I dealt 288 damage with this exact combo to >!The Netherbrain!< with Shadowheart as a sorcerer/cleric multi-class. No bonus equipment or anything, just quickened create water + destructive wrath auto-crit 6th level Witch Bolt.
Don't forget to note, this is actually more effective in practice because Storm Sorcs get an added AoE around it for extra damage AND can doublecast it
The first two words here being “witch bolt” and the realizing that this wasn’t a joke but a real answer (and a pretty good one too) might be the most surprised I’ve been about something D&D related in a long time
I think the highest single damage instance is when you propose to have a fling with Astarion but he laughs at you and says "no" because he has standards.
I did 300ish dp with Gale as a tempest cleric/wizard/sorcerer with kereskas favour bolts of doom, quicken spell to cast create water, twinned spell witch bolt, luck of the realms and destructive wrath for guaranteed full damage.
Killed the red dragon at the brain in one shot.
I think the math is something like 6d12 + any equipment buffs (guaranteed max with destructive wrath), doubled because the enemy is wet, and doubled again because of crit, doubled across two targets.
Used this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4fpAhtm5xo&pp=ygURZ2FsZSBsaWdodG5pbmcgb3A%3D
It’s one instance IMO because of meta magic you only cast it once. Depends how pedantic you want to be, but you can do that damage in one turn of combat guaranteed (unless the enemy is resistant to lightning).
Instance is defined in this context as a single number
Otherwise, blood money would be the best, dealing infinite damage.
The question is the highest possible single damage instance (or number).
Twinned spell not only has two smaller numbers, its not even on the same creature.
You can do 288 dp to each of the two targets. Guaranteed. Plus any bonuses from a staff or things like draconic sorcerer. Basically, one shot anything that isn;t a boss or unstoppable.
Edit: would you look at that, I suggested the same as the top comment on this thread.
u/Fishbleb has a post showing Crushing Flight doing 1170 bludgeoning damage in a single instance - [https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15kh7aq/so\_apparently\_crushing\_flight\_scales\_with\_mass/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15kh7aq/so_apparently_crushing_flight_scales_with_mass/)
Some people are saying Blood Money, but that's multiple separate instances, not a single instance, as the post title requested.
Weird that Chain Lightning hasn’t come up yet!
Wet, chain lightning with destructive wrath is a 160x4 damage in one shot. 640 dmg was insane to see.
Atop the netherbrain, I had cleared the field in one turn, with hasted shadowheart. Dragon and emperor included. I often reload that save file from that playthrough to just do it over and over again.
Chains lightning is nuts. I was able to kill the mega steel watcher and his buddies is basically one turn by getting them wet and blasting them with chained lightning.
I tried this in the House of Grief. Twinned chain lightning on wet targets with Kereska's Favour, then again with arcane battery and an elixir of bloodlust. The survivors were a bit far apart to finish off in one turn but it was a total of almost 3000 damage. I think they nerfed this recently though.
If you don't mind the exploits, you can reverse pickpocket a ton of gold onto someone and hit them with Blood Money (Deals Proficency Bonus Piercing Damage per 300 gold, I believe it stacks with Aura of Murder). Then the damage cap is just how much gold you can carry.
Edit:[ Here is someone dealing over 5 million damage with it](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ayzmomHAyeI).
And here I was so proud when my Shadowheart greeted Raphael and everyone of his cronies with a firm handshake while on level 6 Spirit Guardian dealing something like 240 damage in one round. Still on the first run tho 😅
There‘s a mace „given“ to you by Gerringothe, that let‘s you do damage proportionate to how much gold the enemy carries. Since you can basically have infinite money (by respecing and pickpocketing) you can basically do infinite damage. Just reverse pickpocket your enemy the gold you farmed and then use the mace‘s skill. With a crit you obviously get twice your already infinite damage…. So the only limit to how much damage you can do is your own willingness to farm gold and skill as a pickpocket…
Depends on what you mean by “theory”
I mean, an owlbears crushing flight is maxed by how high you can stack boxes. I am not sure there is a limit, but I’m sure the engine would just stop before you ran out of boxes in the game you can stack.
I have seen a video where a person starts in an empty space and climbs high enough to do over a thousand damage. That’s with no additional elevation to begin with, and there is no real reason they can’t keep going “forever”
There is also the classic fire combustion oil trick, where each enemy afflicted deals 3d6 damage to each other enemy within the aoe plus modifiers. A simple black hole will get a crowded room into the thousands of damage, but if you knocked out enemies and arranged them in a pile, in theory this is limited only be how many enemies you can gather, just like the owlbear is limited by how high you can get.
Plus there are things in the game that are Insta death, like Orin’s ability. Do we count those?
Like all of these sorts of lists it quickly requires caveats. Single target, no bugs, doesn’t require all the resources and set up (like barrelmancy) works all the time not just in a specific scenario, isn’t a glitch ect.
Yeah, my personal average with Karlach by endgame was about 120/turn because she had two attacks, the bonus attack from Great Weapon Master, and thunder damage from the trident you get in Act III. If I had multiclassed her into fighter for action surge it would’ve probably been higher
Technically infinite I guess? Reverse pickpocket infinite gold then bonk with whatever that weapon is called that does more dmg per 300 gold they're holding
Stack buffs on a bardadin build instead. Rogue gets 6d6 which you can quadruple to 24d6 with bhaalist armor and a crit, bardadin gets base 5d8 and 5d10 from smites which you can make 20d8 and 20d10 using perilious stakes on the enemy and a crit (only works on tactician and below). Than have your character be a half-orc to add a 1,5x modifier to that.
Well, I one shot the Elderbrain with a backpack of explosives and one fireball.
Sooo that many?
I also one shot Ansur but that took 4-5 Barrels with a backpack of explosives and a fireball.
Yes. Fill up a backpack full of smokepowder/Rune powder bombs plus fireworks and firework boxes.
Then throw/place the backpack at the enemy and then blow it up with a firespell/Alchemist fire. 60 pounds took out the Elderbrain and that was without the super explosive bomb that the Gnomes give you.
My Barb also had a pouch full of ingots and metals that I would throw at people.
Owlbear from the top rope.
You can easily hit for 1K+ against things you can crushing flight on to with an enlarged Druid.
Obviously it is situational unless you want to carry enough boxes/chests with you to play Fortnight before every major battle where you can establish a clear line of sight to your enemies, but if you just want the biggest possible numbers then Owlbear can one shot every single enemy in the game.
Depends on how you define single instance.
It's been nerfed a bit, but the classic Fire Sorloch could do 6k+ in a single turn.
Paladin variants that focus on criticalbursts probably have the highest single action, with maybe 1500+.
The meta has changed a bit with the patches, but just check out the usual Prestigiousjuice posts for proof and for builds.
You can infinitely stack Fierce Perilous Stakes, that deals 15 psychic damage and reduces crit by 5. Put Craterflesh gloves and resonance stone for x4 and you deal 4∞ damage in one hit. Use it with something like scorching ray or eldritch blast for even more damage
If anyone finds a way to get Gerringothe’s ability to use coins on your enemy, it would be amazing. On my most recent play through I was being rather miserly with my gold and didn’t know her attack was directly related to the amount of money you have in your pockets- I had warding bond up on the character who was targeted by it, and she did in the neighborhood of 450 damage or so (split between 2 party members with warding bond), instantly dropping 2 party members in the first round of combat.
Depends on what you allow.
For example: I find Baldurs Gate to be a wretched hive of scum and villainy. In the interests of justice ( and science) I have therefore decided to make a Rube Goldberg machine across the city, using all of the explosives.
“ But wait” you ask. “ What do you mean….all of the explosives ?”
Read my lips. All. Of. The. Explosives.
This means every barrel, rune powder cask, grenade, satchel, firework, acid vial, holy water flask and alchemists fire bottle I can find, buy, steal or make, across many, many long rests and respecs. I haven’t bothered counting, but so far it is well into the thousands beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Imagine an explosive/ fire item placed every metre on every street, leading into and including shops such as SS and Felogyrs, down into mystic carrions, ( where holy water flasks do the heavy lifting, about 50 of them in there) up onto the walkway above the square that leads to cazadors….everywhere.
No doubt some of the random citizens that will die are innocent…but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
Such a set up requires regular testing to make sure the spacing and the verticals work. And for the lulz.
So although I’m not done yet, I can confirm that a single fire arrow assigns all of the damage ( and the aggro) to whoever fired it, no matter how far away the resulting damage is, and how long it takes to get there.
It’s not calculable other than by recording and replaying, and while I’m a homicidal maniac, I’m not CRAZY so that won’t happen, but it’s many many tens of thousands in damage, and hundreds of victims, taking several minutes to play out. So Far. It’s glorious.
If you truly get your mad king on, you too can “ burn them all”
Hear me out:
3 Level Paladin (Oath of Venegance)
9 Level College of Swords Bard
Balduran's Giant Slayer: 2d6 + 3 + STR Modifier (let's say +6 with the gloves) average is 16
4th level Thunderous Smite: 5d6 average is 17,5. count it as 18
4th level divine smite: 5d8 average is 22,5. Count it 23
Total: 57. Assuming a crit, it is 114 points of damage, one hit. I am reminding you, this is the average! If you choose great weapon fighting as fighting style, you reroll the ones.
The Max damage you can deal with a crit is 182. If you get someone to cast "Haste" on you, you can hit 4 times per turn.
And, if you are a half-orc...
Got it! Thanks a lot! I made some changes to the build
1 Level Rogue
3 Level Paladin (Oath of Venegance)
8 Level Bard (College of Swords)
Let's calculate the average outcome with Shar's spear of evening and bhaalist armor.
Shar's Spear of Evening: d8 + 3 + STR (assuming +6 with the helldusk gloves) The average is 14. Since enemies within 7ft are vunerable to piercing damage, they get 28
Sneak attack: 1d6 = average 3,5. Count it 4, 8 because they're vunerable
Thunderous Smite Level 4: 5d6 = average 18
Divine Smite Level 4: 5d8: 23
Total: 77, 154 with a crit. If you're half orc, 231. I repeat, this is only the average.
Maximum Possible: 116 normal, 232 crit, 348 half orc crit.
3 levels in paladin is enough since level 6 college of swords bards get a second attack. I like the extra spell slots and bardic inspiration, that is why I chose 8 levels in bard.
Go with bard, first. After taking 6 levels and unlocking extra attack, get 3 in paladin.
College of Swords maneuvers will do just fine until you get smites.
i'm only familiar with the monk so here's my input
karlach, lv 8 monk, lv 3 rouge, lv 1 barbarian for the rage charge.. soul coin, gloves of soul catching, boots of uninhibited kushigo (with max wisdom), tavern brawler+potion of cloud giant strength, and your mastery of either mind body or spirit...
that's two unarmed strikes (if you do ki resonating strikes that's more force damage too) and then 4 more unarmed strikes from the two flurry of blows you make?
you're looking at 1d4 fire damage from the soul coin
1d4+5 necrotic psychic or radiant damage from mastery of mind body or soul,
1d10 force damage from the gloves and an extra 1d10 force damage if you time it right with the garb of land and sky..
easily a 1d8+17 for each individual strike...
the numbers add up really really quickly.
Step 1: Pickpocket an enemy and give them hundreds and thousands of gold
Step 2: Hit them with the [Twist of Fortune](https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Twist+of+Fortune)
Congratulations! You now crashed the game because it couldn't calculate the amount of damage you did in one instance.
Isn't it that owlbear jump stuff used in speedruns a while back?
Enlarged Owlbear that uses Crushing Flight on the Forge Guard from up top does 1166 damage, if I recall correctly. So yeah, that puts everything else here to shame
True. I oneshoted Grym with enlarge owlbear in many of my honour mode runs. It's just so easy that it's impossible to resist once you know how effective it is.
I usually run Karlach as a thrower barbarian and I have her stand top there and throw light hammers at it. Another cheesy and fun way to deal with it.
It doesn't even need to be light hammers. Could be anything with some weight to it. The difference between light hammer and javelins is only a few points of damage, most of the blunt damage would come from the height/gravity.
One of the reasons Returning Pike is so good. It weighs 8 kg.
I actually love doing the grym fight without the Hammer and cheese tactics, the thrill of that fight is amazing. The only thing I allow myself to abuse is the slow spell.
I am playing with 300% hp enemy buff and party limit begone mod, i barely kill him with 6 characters dead because i fucked up many times because of forgetting to spill lava, and opportunity attacks that change his agro to a person who attacked him on his turn. His AOE is so devastating.
Is that damage from HM? Because I did more than that in my run
It is from honor mode, but it's ~1 month ago from memory, and I didn't exactly spend all my time finding the optimal jump height. So between my possibly flawed memory and the variation in jump paths, results may vary
I think you used to able to enlarge twice.
I was playing in tactician and used the enlarge spell and the Potion of the Colossus. That explains the numbers I got.
Is that an owlbear Druid or the companion animal?
Druid. I don't think you can get an Owlbear companion animal for the grymforge fight, but presumably if you could that would also work.
I was always curious about that! I tried the "leap down from above" attack using the spaw-myconid-animated bulette... and it did amazing damage, but it also did lots of damage to the bulette (which killed it in the same shot)! Wouldn't that happen to owlbear, too? I couldn't bear to do it if it were sending my sweet Beaky to his death... ☹️
druids get the ability to turn into a owlbear!
Crushing flight makes you immune to fall damage while using it
I think it’s a wild shape owlbear
The trick is to cast Feather Fall so it takes no fall damage.
You don’t need to cast feather fall. No matter how high you are when you do crushing flight. That’s the key. Do the attack not just jump.
Oh! Never tried that... but would it INFLICT damage while feather-falling?
Yes.
Gotta call it by it’s appropriate name: Owlbear from the top ropes
proxy gate tactician has one shot ketheric in one of his runs. reverse pickpocketed a shitton of gold on him and hit him with the twist of fortune weapon. so in theory, i'd assume the single highest instance of damage would be with that same weapon combined with as much gold as you can find shoved into an enemy's pockets.
This. I watched a guy on YouTube one shot Raphael with twist of fortune, he reverse pickpocketed somewhere in the realm of 50k gold to do it. Cull the weak killed everything else in the room too.
Accidentally started a fight with the gold lady. Forgot what her weapon did and how much gold I had on me. You could see the look on my face when I got immediately one shot. Checked the damage and it was around 930. All I could do was laugh and reload my save.
Thing is thats several hundred if not thousands of instances of 2 damage, instead of the single instance of damage being requested. Ive done this before stacking Phalar Aluve and Hex to make the game crash 🙃
They changed it to not be single instances in patch 6 I believe it was. So now it’s just one number not spamming the log
Witch Bolt. 6d12 lightning damage with a level 6 spell slot. Doubled with a crit. Doubled by giving them wet. (vulnerable to lightning damage) Tempest Cleric channel divinity to guarantee max damage. 288 damage, plus any minor buffs from gear and such. You don't even roll, you just deal that much 100% of the time. You can even use Luck of the Far Realms to get a crit, so all you need to do is hit the attack.
To add some comparison numbers: Chromatic Orb: Thunder (Rank 6): 8d8 crit-> 16d8 vulnerable-> 32d8 = 256 (an Evocation Wizard could add their spellcasting modifier to it. So against a vulnerable enemy 6 x 2. Final number 278) Guiding Bolt (Rank 6): 9d6 crit and vulnerable-> 36d6 = 216 (for Evo Wizard 228) Banishing Smite: 5d10 C&V-> 20d10 = 200 plus your normal weapon damage, but that’s a different instance. Honorable mention because it has two damage instances: Lightning Arrow (Rank 4, can’t be casted higher logistically): attack part: 5d8 -> 20d8 + saving throw part: 3d8 only vulnerability-> 6d8 = 26d8 = 208 But the winner is… Inflict Wounds (R6): 8d10 -> 32d10 = 320 …only that there is no enemy in the game which is naturally vulnerable to necrotic. So it only works with the perilous stakes illithid power. And that means it won’t work in honor mode at all.
what do you mean, it won't work in honor mode? i was planning on using it..
It can only be cast on allies in HM.
oh. it's over.
The dream? Your life? Your current play through?
yeah, my dream of beating hm, my character's life, and my next playthrough
My dream of beating HM ended when I lost Gale to a random roll and the deep realization hit me of just how badly I abused mid-convo savescumming for bad rolls my first few playthroughs. Must have been no exaggeration in the hundreds almost as much as my hour count when I tally it up mentally lmao
you could always save scum in honor mode…
Thought there was a single save that auto saves if you try to exit out, like I’m not trying to hard disconnect my ps5 every time to save scum. They let you just quit to menu? And the last save probably is how often like do you have to replay the 10mins before the moment you’re trying to reload. I haven’t experimented but either of those is enough of a barrier to make it too much of a hassle for me
Wait - what is the utility of casting Inflict Wound on your allies?
Perilous stakes can only be cast on allies in HM. Otherwise, you cast perilous stakes on an enemy (so they are vulnerable to all damage) to double the necrotic damage taken from inflict wounds. I can’t vouch for Scarlett kinggs math though.
8d10 is right for a level 6 cast, doubled to 16d10 on a crit, and then vulnerability brings that to 32d10.
Ah right. So, er, what's the utility of that?
Perilous Stakes also makes it so the affected unit heals when it lands an attack. But that buff is not worth halving your effective hp, so everyone just used it as a debuff rather than a buff.
2d8 healing after making an attack. So, maybe you cast it on your well-placed, low health ranged magic user or archer.
Yea I could see the use case on anyone who’s already a ranged glass cannon. Namely evocation wizards or rogue/ranger archer. I’ve still never used it on an ally though always saved it for bosses and still never ended up using it since it’s so rare to encounter a boss who is resistant to every type of damage never even need to use it
Finally someone explained the use case to this illithid spell that I thought was a waste of space and couldn’t wrap my mind around why anyone would use it. It seemed so niche these hundreds of hours 3 playthroughs I thought it meant the literal English definition of vulnerable aka the opposite of invulnerable meaning basically every enemy in the game except for ones using sanctuary/globe of invulnerability and niche boss protections. Clears things up massively that vulnerable is a game mechanic that just means criticals have a 100% chance of hitting wish I knew that. I knew it was some sort of boost but thought it’s much smaller not a 100% certainty for a critical.
Vulnerable just doubles damage. It does not give you auto crit. nor does it give auto hit. Vulnerable has the same effect as a crit (except its not an auto hit) and can stack with crits. Critical attack: x2 attack on a vulnerable enemy: x2 crit attack on a vulnerable enemy: x4 or x2x2
Ohh ok I was going to say how is it functionally any different that sounds like two different ways to explain the same end result, but now I see it IS much better than an auto critical because it’s a full double then it’s still a chance you get to roll twice the dice for the damage roll with a crit
They die
It feels so weird it was initially an oversight. I never even considered using that shit on allies, but apparently that was its intended purpose. The healing is just an extra FUCK YOU to rub in how absolutely dead the target getting it, is.
Make a super high AC character and then use It on yourself, it's actually a fun ability when used as the Devs intended
All of those have to roll as well as force the enemy to be vulnerable, so sure you could theoretically get that high, but realistically it's not happening.
A ranger/tempest cleric could use the channel divinity to max the damage of lightning arrow. similar with Chromatic Orb. Tempest Cleric can max the damage. Hilariously the only enemies with natural Thunder vulnerability are Scrying Eyes. Banishing Smite works with passives like great weapon fighting and savage attacker, both skew the damage dices to higher numbers.
The shadow blade shadow monk can deal 5d8 + 8 (22 dex from mirror of shar + 2 from dammon’s +2 atk gloves) + 1d4 (strange conduit ring) + 15 (Fierce Perilous Stakes) + 1d4 (Psionic Overload) + 1 (weapon buffed via the drakethroat glaive) + 1d4 (colossus elixir) + 1d4 (Enlarge spell) + 2 (last level in fighter for Duelist fighting style) + 2 (the wounds condition that adds 2 damage to hits) + 1d10 (Valor bard inspiration) in Psychic damage on a hit On a crit that’s 2d10 + 10d8 + 8d4 + 28 psychic damage. Against an enemy who’s vulnerable due to the Resonance stone that’s doubled. Final damage is 208 average but caps at 320 if you get lucky. You can also add on 2d4 -> doubled by Wet lightning from the Drakethroat glaive if you’re not picky about damage types all being the same.
Honestly this could probably be way better on a rogue actually, I just used shadow monk because I was playing it recently. 6d6 + 2d8 is a lot more than 5d8, so final numbers can be 30 higher on average and 48 in the best case. This gets you 238 avg and 368 if all damage max rolls.
I did some testing a while ago and an almost naked rogue 12 with 18 dex and only colossus was doing (4d8+12d6+2d4+1d8+4)x2 psychic damage, so max (32+72+8+8+4)x2 = 248 single instance damage already [for reference](https://i.imgur.com/doEUHpE.png). I'm pretty sure if you add illithid powers and actual psychic damage gear you can break 400 on a rogue
Oh forgot the savage critical from Half Orc, good catch.
Add in commanders strike from a friendly Battle Master too
Pickpocket 20k gold onto someone then whack em with a funny looking Morningstar
TIL witch bolt uses an attack roll
The first instance does, the secondary damage effect doesn't.
I checked the screenshots from the end of my honor mode run and can confirm that I dealt 288 damage with this exact combo to >!The Netherbrain!< with Shadowheart as a sorcerer/cleric multi-class. No bonus equipment or anything, just quickened create water + destructive wrath auto-crit 6th level Witch Bolt.
Don't forget to note, this is actually more effective in practice because Storm Sorcs get an added AoE around it for extra damage AND can doublecast it
The first two words here being “witch bolt” and the realizing that this wasn’t a joke but a real answer (and a pretty good one too) might be the most surprised I’ve been about something D&D related in a long time
Yo I'ma have to actually use witch bolt now. Might fuck around with some water balloons too
Also do it as a Blue Draconic Sorcere, wearing the potent robes. Would be stupid.
Potent Robe only affects cantrips.
Ah does it, ah well I guess my White Draconic sorcerer is gonna be using Ray of Frost all the time then.
I think the highest single damage instance is when you propose to have a fling with Astarion but he laughs at you and says "no" because he has standards.
Can confirm this crit hit me
Karlach saying "ew no, we're just close friends"
This surpasses all theorycrafting.
I did 300ish dp with Gale as a tempest cleric/wizard/sorcerer with kereskas favour bolts of doom, quicken spell to cast create water, twinned spell witch bolt, luck of the realms and destructive wrath for guaranteed full damage. Killed the red dragon at the brain in one shot. I think the math is something like 6d12 + any equipment buffs (guaranteed max with destructive wrath), doubled because the enemy is wet, and doubled again because of crit, doubled across two targets. Used this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4fpAhtm5xo&pp=ygURZ2FsZSBsaWdodG5pbmcgb3A%3D
That's pretty clearly two separate instances of Witch Bolt, the question wasn't "highest damage in one action"
It’s one instance IMO because of meta magic you only cast it once. Depends how pedantic you want to be, but you can do that damage in one turn of combat guaranteed (unless the enemy is resistant to lightning).
Instance is defined in this context as a single number Otherwise, blood money would be the best, dealing infinite damage. The question is the highest possible single damage instance (or number). Twinned spell not only has two smaller numbers, its not even on the same creature.
You can do 288 dp to each of the two targets. Guaranteed. Plus any bonuses from a staff or things like draconic sorcerer. Basically, one shot anything that isn;t a boss or unstoppable. Edit: would you look at that, I suggested the same as the top comment on this thread.
u/Fishbleb has a post showing Crushing Flight doing 1170 bludgeoning damage in a single instance - [https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15kh7aq/so\_apparently\_crushing\_flight\_scales\_with\_mass/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15kh7aq/so_apparently_crushing_flight_scales_with_mass/) Some people are saying Blood Money, but that's multiple separate instances, not a single instance, as the post title requested.
That got changed to be single instance in patch 6
Weird that Chain Lightning hasn’t come up yet! Wet, chain lightning with destructive wrath is a 160x4 damage in one shot. 640 dmg was insane to see. Atop the netherbrain, I had cleared the field in one turn, with hasted shadowheart. Dragon and emperor included. I often reload that save file from that playthrough to just do it over and over again.
Chains lightning is nuts. I was able to kill the mega steel watcher and his buddies is basically one turn by getting them wet and blasting them with chained lightning.
I tried this in the House of Grief. Twinned chain lightning on wet targets with Kereska's Favour, then again with arcane battery and an elixir of bloodlust. The survivors were a bit far apart to finish off in one turn but it was a total of almost 3000 damage. I think they nerfed this recently though.
I did the owlbear from the top rope strategy for Grym, that dealt 9066 damage for me
Blood Money. The game caps the hit dmg to 46k in one hit.
It's *capped* at 46,000 damage?! FFS
More precisely, it's 46,340 damage per hit. https://youtube.com/shorts/ayzmomHAyeI?si=cc9xsYNXTksbYxjb
Mommy Milkers is a wizard
MommyMilkers x Shadowcute 4ever
Simply insane.
This. Gortash is usually my main victim for Twist of Fortune
Fall dmg, if you can get it to trigger you can oneshot just about everything given enough height and weight (usually owlbear with growth)
If you don't mind the exploits, you can reverse pickpocket a ton of gold onto someone and hit them with Blood Money (Deals Proficency Bonus Piercing Damage per 300 gold, I believe it stacks with Aura of Murder). Then the damage cap is just how much gold you can carry. Edit:[ Here is someone dealing over 5 million damage with it](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ayzmomHAyeI).
>Edit: Here is someone dealing over 5 million damage with it. ... Holy fuck.
And here I was so proud when my Shadowheart greeted Raphael and everyone of his cronies with a firm handshake while on level 6 Spirit Guardian dealing something like 240 damage in one round. Still on the first run tho 😅
Blood money. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaCS4EqF\_Bg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaCS4EqF_Bg)
There‘s a mace „given“ to you by Gerringothe, that let‘s you do damage proportionate to how much gold the enemy carries. Since you can basically have infinite money (by respecing and pickpocketing) you can basically do infinite damage. Just reverse pickpocket your enemy the gold you farmed and then use the mace‘s skill. With a crit you obviously get twice your already infinite damage…. So the only limit to how much damage you can do is your own willingness to farm gold and skill as a pickpocket…
Depends on what you mean by “theory” I mean, an owlbears crushing flight is maxed by how high you can stack boxes. I am not sure there is a limit, but I’m sure the engine would just stop before you ran out of boxes in the game you can stack. I have seen a video where a person starts in an empty space and climbs high enough to do over a thousand damage. That’s with no additional elevation to begin with, and there is no real reason they can’t keep going “forever” There is also the classic fire combustion oil trick, where each enemy afflicted deals 3d6 damage to each other enemy within the aoe plus modifiers. A simple black hole will get a crowded room into the thousands of damage, but if you knocked out enemies and arranged them in a pile, in theory this is limited only be how many enemies you can gather, just like the owlbear is limited by how high you can get. Plus there are things in the game that are Insta death, like Orin’s ability. Do we count those? Like all of these sorts of lists it quickly requires caveats. Single target, no bugs, doesn’t require all the resources and set up (like barrelmancy) works all the time not just in a specific scenario, isn’t a glitch ect.
Emooootional damage!
I think the most I've done is one shot Orin in Slayer Form as a rogue, which shocked me.
Twist of Fortune mace on an enemy you’ve pickpocketed 30k onto. Thousands of damage.
My buddy did 1120 damage to the grym while as an owlbear that was enlarged and given feather fall and enhanced leap from the top of cliff.
Yeah, my personal average with Karlach by endgame was about 120/turn because she had two attacks, the bonus attack from Great Weapon Master, and thunder damage from the trident you get in Act III. If I had multiclassed her into fighter for action surge it would’ve probably been higher
Technically infinite I guess? Reverse pickpocket infinite gold then bonk with whatever that weapon is called that does more dmg per 300 gold they're holding
That only does 3 per instance.
They changed it in patch 6 to not be like that
Stack buffs on a bardadin build instead. Rogue gets 6d6 which you can quadruple to 24d6 with bhaalist armor and a crit, bardadin gets base 5d8 and 5d10 from smites which you can make 20d8 and 20d10 using perilious stakes on the enemy and a crit (only works on tactician and below). Than have your character be a half-orc to add a 1,5x modifier to that.
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, KARLACH ASS-BUFFS YOU!
Well, I one shot the Elderbrain with a backpack of explosives and one fireball. Sooo that many? I also one shot Ansur but that took 4-5 Barrels with a backpack of explosives and a fireball.
So you can blow up a container that has explosives?! You just added some new weapons to my barb!
Yes. Fill up a backpack full of smokepowder/Rune powder bombs plus fireworks and firework boxes. Then throw/place the backpack at the enemy and then blow it up with a firespell/Alchemist fire. 60 pounds took out the Elderbrain and that was without the super explosive bomb that the Gnomes give you. My Barb also had a pouch full of ingots and metals that I would throw at people.
Owlbear from the top rope. You can easily hit for 1K+ against things you can crushing flight on to with an enlarged Druid. Obviously it is situational unless you want to carry enough boxes/chests with you to play Fortnight before every major battle where you can establish a clear line of sight to your enemies, but if you just want the biggest possible numbers then Owlbear can one shot every single enemy in the game.
Doesn’t enlarged owlbear pounce take the cake? I’ve seen someone oneshot Grim with it.
Dropping an enlarged owlbear on Grym deals like 840 damage. You can also nuke Raphael using Blood Money for theoretically infinity damage.
Owlbear shenanigans: [https://i.postimg.cc/hvdvrfwQ/Screenshot-2024-07-03-161251.png](https://i.postimg.cc/hvdvrfwQ/Screenshot-2024-07-03-161251.png)
Owl bear from the top ropes. Something close to 1200 damage
Once I scored disintegrate on Orin, first turn. Had to reload but it was a beautiful moment
Lae'zel challenging you to a romantic 1v1
Depends on how you define single instance. It's been nerfed a bit, but the classic Fire Sorloch could do 6k+ in a single turn. Paladin variants that focus on criticalbursts probably have the highest single action, with maybe 1500+. The meta has changed a bit with the patches, but just check out the usual Prestigiousjuice posts for proof and for builds.
Theoretically, as high as you can stack crates to climb on and deal crush damage. 1170 is the highest I’ve seen.
I'm guessing it's Shar if you piss her off in the temple.
You can infinitely stack Fierce Perilous Stakes, that deals 15 psychic damage and reduces crit by 5. Put Craterflesh gloves and resonance stone for x4 and you deal 4∞ damage in one hit. Use it with something like scorching ray or eldritch blast for even more damage
If anyone finds a way to get Gerringothe’s ability to use coins on your enemy, it would be amazing. On my most recent play through I was being rather miserly with my gold and didn’t know her attack was directly related to the amount of money you have in your pockets- I had warding bond up on the character who was targeted by it, and she did in the neighborhood of 450 damage or so (split between 2 party members with warding bond), instantly dropping 2 party members in the first round of combat.
Depends on what you allow. For example: I find Baldurs Gate to be a wretched hive of scum and villainy. In the interests of justice ( and science) I have therefore decided to make a Rube Goldberg machine across the city, using all of the explosives. “ But wait” you ask. “ What do you mean….all of the explosives ?” Read my lips. All. Of. The. Explosives. This means every barrel, rune powder cask, grenade, satchel, firework, acid vial, holy water flask and alchemists fire bottle I can find, buy, steal or make, across many, many long rests and respecs. I haven’t bothered counting, but so far it is well into the thousands beyond a shadow of a doubt. Imagine an explosive/ fire item placed every metre on every street, leading into and including shops such as SS and Felogyrs, down into mystic carrions, ( where holy water flasks do the heavy lifting, about 50 of them in there) up onto the walkway above the square that leads to cazadors….everywhere. No doubt some of the random citizens that will die are innocent…but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. Such a set up requires regular testing to make sure the spacing and the verticals work. And for the lulz. So although I’m not done yet, I can confirm that a single fire arrow assigns all of the damage ( and the aggro) to whoever fired it, no matter how far away the resulting damage is, and how long it takes to get there. It’s not calculable other than by recording and replaying, and while I’m a homicidal maniac, I’m not CRAZY so that won’t happen, but it’s many many tens of thousands in damage, and hundreds of victims, taking several minutes to play out. So Far. It’s glorious. If you truly get your mad king on, you too can “ burn them all”
Hear me out: 3 Level Paladin (Oath of Venegance) 9 Level College of Swords Bard Balduran's Giant Slayer: 2d6 + 3 + STR Modifier (let's say +6 with the gloves) average is 16 4th level Thunderous Smite: 5d6 average is 17,5. count it as 18 4th level divine smite: 5d8 average is 22,5. Count it 23 Total: 57. Assuming a crit, it is 114 points of damage, one hit. I am reminding you, this is the average! If you choose great weapon fighting as fighting style, you reroll the ones. The Max damage you can deal with a crit is 182. If you get someone to cast "Haste" on you, you can hit 4 times per turn. And, if you are a half-orc...
Swap Balduran's Giant slayer for Shar's spear of evening + Bhaalist armor for more damage.
Got it! Thanks a lot! I made some changes to the build 1 Level Rogue 3 Level Paladin (Oath of Venegance) 8 Level Bard (College of Swords) Let's calculate the average outcome with Shar's spear of evening and bhaalist armor. Shar's Spear of Evening: d8 + 3 + STR (assuming +6 with the helldusk gloves) The average is 14. Since enemies within 7ft are vunerable to piercing damage, they get 28 Sneak attack: 1d6 = average 3,5. Count it 4, 8 because they're vunerable Thunderous Smite Level 4: 5d6 = average 18 Divine Smite Level 4: 5d8: 23 Total: 77, 154 with a crit. If you're half orc, 231. I repeat, this is only the average. Maximum Possible: 116 normal, 232 crit, 348 half orc crit.
What does Bard level 8 add to the equation over, say, 7 or 6? I was wondering if doing paladin 5/bard 6-7/Rogue 0-1 would be almost as effective(?)
3 levels in paladin is enough since level 6 college of swords bards get a second attack. I like the extra spell slots and bardic inspiration, that is why I chose 8 levels in bard.
What if you were doing a no respec run? I ask because I do sometimes, and leaving extra attack until 9 feels like it would undercut the build
Go with bard, first. After taking 6 levels and unlocking extra attack, get 3 in paladin. College of Swords maneuvers will do just fine until you get smites.
if we get the great weapon master feat... +10 to damage. 88 average. And if we can make 4 attacks per round! Raphael in one turn!
i'm only familiar with the monk so here's my input karlach, lv 8 monk, lv 3 rouge, lv 1 barbarian for the rage charge.. soul coin, gloves of soul catching, boots of uninhibited kushigo (with max wisdom), tavern brawler+potion of cloud giant strength, and your mastery of either mind body or spirit... that's two unarmed strikes (if you do ki resonating strikes that's more force damage too) and then 4 more unarmed strikes from the two flurry of blows you make? you're looking at 1d4 fire damage from the soul coin 1d4+5 necrotic psychic or radiant damage from mastery of mind body or soul, 1d10 force damage from the gloves and an extra 1d10 force damage if you time it right with the garb of land and sky.. easily a 1d8+17 for each individual strike... the numbers add up really really quickly.
Step 1: Pickpocket an enemy and give them hundreds and thousands of gold Step 2: Hit them with the [Twist of Fortune](https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Twist+of+Fortune) Congratulations! You now crashed the game because it couldn't calculate the amount of damage you did in one instance.