Low Level Builds - Variant Human
The Variant Human is once of the most controversial races in the game today. Many believe that allowing a character to take a feat at 1st level is an unfair advantage compared to the rest of the race options. The counter-argument is that while certain feats are always going to be overpowered (looking at you Lucky feat) the human variant race itself isn’t bad, and if anything, it may underperform when compared to the racial bonuses the others get. The common refrain is that the DM can always use their discretion and rule that certain feats are not allowed at the 1st level, eliminating the opportunity to take advantage of the system. So is one side right and the other just blind to the consequences of the variant human race being taken?
Before I share my opinion on this matter, I want to state for the record that this post is about the optimum low-level build when taking the variant human race, not to spend too much time exploring the reason that both sides of the argument are correct. I know it may seem like a copout saying that both sides are right, but both make a compelling argument and each has pieces that make sense. Yes, at its core the variant human has the potential to be OP at 1st level, but it depends on the value you place on racial abilities and feats, along with how you use them. Saying the DM should remove some feats to ensure that the character won’t have the chance to take them and therefore throw off the party balance on the surface makes sense, but you can make a great case for so many of the feats having the potential to be abused that you could effectively eliminate almost half the available feats. No one would play the race at this point, because who the hell would give up the chance to get at least two points of ASI and the plethora of traits the other races have available to them. You can have the ability to fly if you want (don’t even get me started on that) so yeah, I want the chance to take the Great Weapon Master feat if I’m giving up those traits.
But enough of that. We are creating the most optimized build possible for our character, with the focus on lower levels so that we can be a superhero out of the gate. Once again, there is a great deal of debate, this time regarding what the most powerful variant human build is. Various builds provide you with the chance to do great things at the 1st level and then when combined with another feat at this 4th level can throw off game balance…well as much as you can throw it off in the 5th edition. The build I think is the most OP can be found below, but I’m sure there’s plenty of people that feel differently, and there is nothing wrong with that. All builds, not just variant human builds, are usually based on how you want to role play your newly minted hero. Maybe you only play primary spellcasters. Then this build won’t work for you but that doesn’t mean one of us is wrong. I may be looking to do an incredible amount of damage while you are building yours to be the primary support for the party. Different strokes for different folks.
Let’s take a look at one of the most OP builds you can create with the variant human race. No GWM feats, builds than ends in ‘lock, or Lucky feats here... Also, no multiclassing, since that is a topic for another time. The numbers below are based on point buy, with a Strength of 12, Dexterity of 16, and Constitution of 16.
Human Variant Build
Arcane Archer Variant Human Fighter
1st Level - Take the Archery fighting style and the Sharpshooter feat.
2nd Level - Gain Action Surge.
3rd Level - Take Arcane Archer feat with Bursting arrow and Grasping arrow.
4th Level - Take Martial Adept feat with Precision attack and Menacing attack.
5th Level - Gain Extra Attack.
The traditional archery fighter build with a variant human usually consists of a Battlemaster fighting style then taking Crossbow Expert at 1st level, followed by the Sharpshooter feat at 4th level. There is nothing wrong with that build and it is quite powerful, however, this Arcane Archer build delivers more bang for your buck when compared to it. It is also important to note that this build focuses on damage output. Damage is great, but in addition to a DPS character, a party needs a tank, support, and someone on crowd control. Just because you hit hard doesn’t mean you can do it all.
The Archery fighting style gives your newly minted character a +2 to attack rolls with ranged weapons. Equip your fighter with leather armor, a longbow, and 20 arrows. Sure, your AC isn’t great when you consider you’re a fighter, but you aren’t planning on being on the front lines, so it isn’t as important. Take the Sharpshooter feat and you’ve given yourself some great abilities. Hiding from you just got a lot harder as 1/2 and 3/4 cover mean nothing to you now. Ignoring disadvantage when attacking at long range lets you attack from 600 feet away, giving you the most range of any weapon in the game. I guess you could buy a trebuchet, but they are a bitch to carry around. So don’t sweat only having that leather armor, since there is no reason for you to be within 120 feet of any target.
The biggie is the potential to do some serious damage. Before you attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll so that when your attack hits that kobold 475 feet away, you add +10 to the attack's damage. If you are building a character for maximum damage at low levels, Crossbow Expert doesn’t even come close. Before we even start looking at the math, I’d like to point out a potential huge flaw in taking the Crossbow Expert feat first. A hand crossbow costs 75 gold and unlike the longbow, you do not have an option to take it as part of your starting inventory. Unless your DM is incredibly generous, allowing you to sell your starting items for the full price, or replace one of the starting items with a hand crossbow, you are probably looking at 2nd level before you can obtain one, rendering the feat useless till you obtain one.
Let’s say you can have a hand crossbow out of the gate. When talking damage, Sharpshooter blows away Crossbow Expert. First, the -5 to your attack roll isn’t as bad as it sounds. With a Dexterity of 16 (+3), your Proficiency bonus (+2), and the Archery fighting style (+2), you have a +7 to hit. Even with a -5 penalty, you’re still attacking with a +2 bonus to do an additional 10 points of damage. I don’t know about you, but I’m using this ability every single time I make a ranged attack. A longbow does 1d8 damage, so you are looking at an average of 4.5 (weapon dmg.) +3 (Dex.) +10 (Sharpshooter) = 17 points of damage per hit. With Crossbow Expert you get to make 2 attacks, which can be both from your shiny new hand crossbow and its 1d6 of damage. Let’s take it one step further and say your DM is the nicest guy in the world and money has no meaning in their game, so your character has a longsword and hand crossbow (you probably have plate mail too…bastard!). Your first attack with your longsword does an average of 4.5 (weapon dmg.) + 1 (Str.) = 5 points of damage. Your bonus attack with the hand crossbow and its 1d6 damage will do an average of 3.5 (weapon dmg.) + 3 (Dex.) = 6 points of damage. Between both attacks, we are looking at an average of 11 points of damage. So far our build is looking good.
At the 2nd level, you get the all-important Action Surge, allowing you to take that one additional attack when you just have to be the one to deliver the fatal blow. The damage discrepancy between the two builds triples as our longbow build has the chance to do an average of 34 points of damage, while the crossbow build can only muster 17 points of damage. We are now doing double the average damage and we haven’t even gotten to the fun part yet.
At the 3rd level, we have some choices to make. The traditional crossbow expert build takes the Batllemaster archetype, choosing menacing attack and precision strike as their two maneuvers. Both are great options. Menacing attack allows you to expend one superiority die to attempt to frighten the target. You add the superiority die to the attack’s damage roll, and if they failed their Wisdom saving throw, it is frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Precision strike lets you add a superiority die to your attack roll, which you can do before or after the attack roll, which is great since you auto-hit unless you roll extremely low. The reason we are talking about the archetype we aren’t choosing will become more apparent when we reach the 4th level.
We are going Arcane Archer and all the more happy to do so. Arcane lore is a nice bit of flavor, but we both know the reason we are taking this archetype is for the arcane shot, choosing bursting arrow and grasping arrow as our two arcane shot options. Bursting arrow gives us the AOE attack we have been missing as on a successful hit the target and all other creatures within 10 feet of it take 2d6 force damage each. Grasping arrow is an amazing damage option since a target hit by the arrow takes an extra 2d6 poison damage, has its speed is reduced by 10 feet, and it takes 2d6 slashing damage the first time on each turn it moves 1 foot or more without teleporting, and they can last up to 1 minute. You can use two arrows per rest, compared to 4 superiority dice.
Now you can truly mess up someone’s day. In one turn you could:
Use your action to attack with your longbow for an average of 17 points of damage / 21 points max damage.
Action surge for a 2nd action. You attack again, and now you use the grasping arrow shot. Your potential average damage is 4.5 (weapon dmg +3 (Dex.) +10 (Sharpshooter) + 7 (poison dmg) + 7 (slashing if movement is used), resulting in an average of 31 points of damage. Your maximum damage output for this attack is a painful 45 points of damage.
At the end of your turn, you have done an average of 48 points of damage to a target, with maximum damage topping out at 66.
That’s a very bad six seconds someone has to experience, and we didn’t even get into what would happen on a crit.
The reason we spent time talking about the Battlemaster archetype becomes clear at the 4th level when we forgo the ASI and take the Martial Adept feat. Since you now get two maneuvers, it should come as no surprise that we’ll be taking a menacing attack and precision strike. All I had to do was wait for one level and I get the benefits of the archetype and my two arcane shot arrows. I know I’ll have plenty of opportunities to use my newly acquired precision strike ability, as the AC of our foes is starting to creep higher. If I have the opportunity to increase my chances to hit, whether, through magic items or a feat, I’m going to take it. Sure, it doesn’t scale anywhere as well as the archetype does, but I’ll take my one superiority die and walk away happy since we are talking about low level builds!
At the 5th level, we get that 2nd attack we’ve been dreaming of. Just in case you were wondering how much damage you could inflict upon your enemies, here’s some math to look at
First Round
First Attack action with grasping arrow shot. Average damage: 4.5 (weapon dmg) +3 (Dex.) +10 (Sharpshooter) + 7 (poison dmg) + 7 (slashing if movement is used) = 31 points of damage. Your maximum damage output for this attack is 45 points of damage.
Second Attack Action. Average Damage: 4.5 + 3 + 10 = 17 points of damage, maximum 21.
Action Surge, third Attack: 17 / 21 points of damage.
Total 1st round damage: 65 avg. / 87 max.
Second Round
Attack action with bursting arrow. Average damage: 4.5 + 3 + 10 + 7 (force dmg) = 27 points of damage on the target. An average 7 points of damage for every creature within 10 feet of target so….
Maximum damage on the target: 32 points of damage.
Total maximum damage, assuming 8 additional creatures within 10 feet of the primary target: 32 + (12 x 8) = 128 points of damage.Second Attack action: Assuming superiority die has not been used, add menacing attack. Totals increase to 20 / 27 points of damage.
Total 2nd round damage: 52 avg. / 155 max. (spread across multiple targets)
Total Damage for 1st two rounds
Average: 117 points of damage.
Maximum for primary target: 87 + 32 + 20 = 139 points of damage.
Maximum total damage output: 87 + 155 = 242 points of damage.
On top of all that, if your target somehow survived, it’s trapped in a thicket of briars, is poisoned resulting in it attacking at disadvantage, has all its friends mad at him since they took damage just because they were standing next to him, can’t run away as fast as it wants since their speed is reduced by 10 feet, and has no idea where the arrows came from since you are 600 feet away.
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