Cantrips scale automatically with character level. Weapon attacks only scale with ability score and any extra attack features you might get.
How could the damage of weapon attacks keep up?
[RPG] Weapon attacks compared with damaging cantrips
cantripsdamagednd-5eoptimizationweapons
Related Solutions
Yes, this build works, and it is strong.
I ran the numbers, and the average damage using your build and the -5/+10 feature gives you an average at level 5 of 22.8 damage per round (dpr). By comparison, a Great Weapon Fighter build with either the Great Weapon Master or Polearm Master feat deals an average of 18.7 damage at the same level. This build maintains a significant lead over those builds all the way up to level 20, for a total of 42.5 dpr at level 20 compared to GWM's 34.3 dpr.
However, the real difference between the builds is how the weapons work. Your crossbow build has the benefit of range, but the other builds get their own benefits. A Polearm Master has incredible control over the battlefield with their increased reach and many possible opportunity attacks, and a Great Weapon Master can deal much more damage if they get the chance to cleave through enemies and/or use opportunity attacks.
Compared to a caster, you'll probably beat them in raw damage, but casters can do a lot more than deal damage, so that's not saying much.
Since you have a number of criteria, I had to go through each one by importance to find the best build (or builds in this case). You can find a TL;DR below with a description of my methods after.
TL;DR
The best build optimizing:
- DPR using shillelagh
- Effective HP
- Uses for Wisdom
Race: Envoy Warforged (secondarily: Simic Hybrid or Hill Dwarf)
Class: Ranger
Ability Scores: 8/16/16/8/16/8 (or 10/14/16/10/16/8 for 2 less EHP, non-Warforged also use this latter array)
Level 1: Magic Initiate (Druid): shillelagh spell
Level 2: Dueling Fighting Style, hunter's mark spell
Level 3: technically Gloom Stalker for uses of Wisdom, but Hunter and Monster Slayer are otherwise equal
Level 4: Polearm Master feat
Starting Equipment: (with just starting equipment, Hill Dwarf is a slightly better secondary race)
Scale Mail (not needed if Warforged)
Quarterstaff
Equipment Wishlist: (with this equipment, Simic Hybrid is a better secondary race)
Half Plate (not needed if Warforged)
Shield
First, the DPR without using major resources, here are the best builds for each class:
I allowed for a margin of 20%, so any build that got within 20% of the best build is eligible since it may have other criteria that make up for its slightly less resource-less DPR. I skipped Monk and Sorcerer because they offer strictly less than Fighter and Wizard respectively no matter what build you choose.
You can check out the class name sheets of this spreadsheet for some other builds which were elimintated as well as how these builds were decided
Bard
- College of Swords with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat.
- Highest resource-less DPR
- College of Swords with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Elven Accuracy feat
- Within 20% if Armor Class (AC) is 23 or higher and you have advantage
- College of Swords with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 to Wisdom
- Within 20% if AC is 24 or higher and you have advantage
Cleric
The clerics include either magic weapon or elemental weapon
- War or Forge Domain with Polearm Master
- Highest resource-less DPR
- War Domain with Elven Accuracy
- Within 20% if AC is 24 or higher and you have advantage
- Forge Domain with Elven Accuracy (with Elemental Weapon active)
- Within 20% if AC is 20 or higher and you have advantage
- Forge Domain with +2 to Wisdom (with Elemental Weapon active)
- Within 20% if AC is 23 or higher, but only if AC is 24 or higher if you have advantage
Druid
- Circle of Spores with Polearm Master and +2 to Wisdom
- Highest resource-less DPR unless you have advantage and AC is 16 or higher; then it is within 20%
- Circle of Spores with Polearm Master and Elven Accuracy
- Highest resource-less DPR if you have advantage and ACs is 16 or higher; within 20% otherwise
- Circle of Spores with Elven Accuracy and +2 to Wisdom
- Within 20% if AC is 24 or higher and you have advantage
Fighter
- Champion with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master Feat
- Highest resource-less DPR
- Champion with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 to Wisdom
- Within 20%
- Battle Master with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master Feat
- Within 20% if AC is 21 or less
Paladin
- Oath of Vengeance with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat (using Hunter's Mark)
- Highest resource-less DPR unless you have advantage and AC is 23 or higher; then it is within 20%
- Oath of Vengeance with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 Wisdom (using Hunter's Mark)
- Within 20% when AC is 11 or higher, but only when AC is 17 or higher if you have advantage
- Oath of Vengeance with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Elven Accuracy feat (using Hunter's Mark)
- Highest resource-less DPR if you have advantage and AC is 23 or higher; otherwise only within 20% if you have advantage and AC is 13 or higher
Ranger
Each build includes Hunter's Mark damage. I used Colossus Slayer as the Hunter's Prey choice for simplicity, other options are explored later
- Hunter with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat
- Highest resource-less DPR if AC is 14 or lower when you have advantage, and when AC is 19 or less without; within 20% otherwise
- Horizon Walker (HW) with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 Wisdom
- Highest resource-less DPR if AC is 20 or higher and you don't have advantage; within 20% otherwise
- Horizon Walker with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Elven Accuracy feat
- Highest resource-less DPR if you have advantage and the AC is 15 or higher; within 20% otherwise unless you don't have advantage and AC is 23 or higher
- Hunter with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 Wisdom
- Within 20%
- HW, Gloom Stalker, or Monster Slayer with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat
- Within 20% if AC is 23 or lower without
- Hunter with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Elven Accuracy feat
- Within 20% if you have advantage
Warlock, Pact of the Tome
Each build includes Hex damage. I assumed that you could get one-fourth of your attacks on the target of Hexblade's Curse within short rests for the calculation. I assumed you could hit a second target with Green-Flame Blade on one-third of your attacks
- Hexblade with the Elven Accuracy feat and +2 Charisma using Green-Flame Blade
- Highest resource-less DPR
- Hexblade with the Polearm Master and the Elven Accuracy feats
- Within 20% if you have advantage, but only if AC is 22 or lower without advantage
- Hexblade with the Polearm Master feat and +2 Charisma
- Within 20%, but only if AC is 17 or lower when you have advantage
Warlock, Pact of the Blade
Each build includes Hex damage. I assumed that you could get one-fourth of your attacks on the target of Hexblade's Curse within short rests for the calculation.
- Hexblade with Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, and Eldritch Smite for Invocations and the Polearm Master feat
- Highest resource-less DPR
- Hexblade with Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, and Eldritch Smite for Invocations and +2 Charisma
- Within 20% when AC is 12 or higher unless you have advantage; then it is only within 20% if AC is greater than 18
- Hexblade with Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, and Eldritch Smite for Invocations and the Elven Accuracy feat
- Within 20% if AC is 14 or higher and you have advantage
Wizard
I assumed you could hit a second target with Green-Flame Blade on one-third of your attacks
- Wizard with +2 Wisdom using Green-Flame Blade
- Highest resource-less DPR
- Wizard with Elven Accuracy using Green-Flame Blade
- Within 20% if AC is 23 or less when you have advantage, but only if AC is 21 or less without
Now let's eliminate any class whose best builds can't step to the better classes
You can check out the "Classes" sheet of this spreadsheet for which builds were considered
Going down the list...
- The best bard, cleric, and druid builds do not meet the 20% threshold of the best fighter builds
- The best fighter builds stay within the 20% threshold of the best paladin builds when AC is 14 or higher (during advantage) or when AC is 17 or higher (without advantage)
- The best fighter and paladin builds do not meet the 20% threshold of the best ranger builds
- The best Pact of the Tome warlock builds do not meet the 20% threshold of the best ranger builds
- The best Pact of the Blade warlock builds challenge the best ranger builds on approximately the same level (the ranger builds are better at some ACs or advantage-statuses, and the warlock builds are better at others)
- The best wizard builds do not meet the 20% threshold for the best builds among either Pact of the Blade warlocks or rangers
Our final builds (weeding out the weak Ranger and Warlock builds)
You can check out the "Warlock vs Ranger" sheet of this spreadsheet for which builds were considered, as well as which builds are better with which combinations of AC and advantage
After placing the Ranger and Warlock builds into the same pool, and only accepting builds that satisfy the 20% threshold of at least half of the Armor Classes and advantage-statuses between AC 14 and AC 20 (where most enemies will be at level 5), these builds remain:
These builds are in order of the number of AC/advantage-statuses they satisfy the threshold for, with more weight placed if they have the highest value and slightly less value placed on advantage
- Hunter Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat
- Hexblade Warlock with Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, and Eldritch Smite for Invocations and the Polearm Master feat
- Horizon Walker (HW) Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Elven Accuracy feat
- Horizon Walker Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 Wisdom
- HW, Gloom Stalker, or Monster Slayer with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat
Second, the additional damage per day gained using other resources
Each of the five builds we arrived at have passable resource-less DPR, but they each have features that allow for other damage-increasing effects usually one or a few times before a short or long rest. It is all but impossible to evaluate which is best, so I will just give my thoughts:
- The Hunter Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat has no extra damage throughout the day, but is the best overall damage (especially if you are in a campaign where you can take advantage of Giant Killer or Horde Breaker frequently, which can have more DPR than Colossus Slayer in the right situations)
- The Hexblade Warlock with Eldritch Invocations and the Polearm Master feat can use Eldritch Smite about 6-8 times per adventuring day and if you save them primarily for critical hits can deal about 70 extra damage throughout the day
- The Horizon Walker Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Elven Accuracy feat is only better than the Hunter Ranger above if you expect to get advantage more often than not; It also lacks additional DPR from other resources.
- The Horizon Walker Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 Wisdom is only better than the Hunter Ranger and Horizon Walker Ranger above if you expect to have monsters of very high AC (22 and above) and don't expect to have advantage that frequently.
- If you are going to use a non-Hunter Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat, you should either choose the Gloom Stalker or Monster Slayer. The Gloom Stalker gets an extra attack during the first turn of every combat, and the Monster Slayer gets to deal 1d6 damage per attack against one creature per short rest. Each of these bonuses will usually about catch them up with the builds above in most games, but in the right style of game they can even take the lead.
Now, let's talk effective HP
Since all of these five builds are approximately equal when it comes to damage output, let's evaluate them based on your second criteria. The following table shows the effective HP (EHP) for an optimized version of each of our builds:
HW = Horizon Walker; GS = Gloom Stalker; MS = Monster Slayer
\begin{array}{c|r|r} \text{Build} & \text{EHP with best starting gear} & \text{EHP with best mundane gear} \\ \hline \text{Polearm Hunter} & 141 & 184 \\ \text{Polearm Hexblade} & 122 & 161 \\ \text{Elven HW} & 116 & 160 \\ \text{Wise HW} & 141 & 184 \\ \text{Polearm GS/MS} & 141 & 184 \\ \end{array}
I used this spreadsheet to calculate EHP, which assumes, among other things (source)...
- 75% of damage is physical, divided evenly between bludgeoning, slashing and piercing
- 25% of damage is elemental, divided evenly between all ten elements
- Characters are being attacked by creatures with attack bonuses and spell DCs that follow the DMG guidelines for a creature with a CR equal to character level – 2
- 80% of attacks are made against AC
- 10% of attacks require a Dexterity Save
- 5% of attacks require a Wisdom Save
- 5% of attacks require a Constitution Save
- A negligible amount of attacks require a Charisma, Strength or Intelligence Save
As you can see, the Warlock build falls behind the Rangers when it comes to EHP. Furthermore, the Elven Horizon Walker can't keep up because of the race restrictions of Elven Accuracy.
- The best race to be for Effective HP is an Envoy Warforged. You assign point buy and racial modifiers so that your ability scores are 8/16/16/8/16/8. This gives you an AC of 18 (20 with a shield), Maximum HP of 49, and resistance to poison.
- note: you only lose 2 EHP if you go for 14 Dexterity and you can have two of your lesser stats at 10 instead of 8
- The Elven Horizon Walker's best alternate is a Sea Elf. You assign point buy so that your ability scores are 10/16/16/8/15/8 and then increase Wisdom with Elven Accuracy. This gives you an AC of 16 with scale mail (19 with half plate and a shield).
- The Warlock still uses the Warforged, but simply has less HP from his class, and worse starting equipment.
If Warforged are not an option for your table, there are two races to substitute depending on what equipment you get:
Simic Hybrid (10/14/16/10/16/8) gets +1 AC from Carapace and results in this table:
\begin{array}{c|r|r} \text{Build} & \text{EHP with best starting gear} & \text{EHP with best mundane gear} \\ \hline \text{Polearm Hunter} & 123 & 182 \\ \text{Polearm Hexblade} & 84 & 159 \\ \text{Elven HW} & 116 & 160 \\ \text{Wise HW} & 123 & 182 \\ \text{Polearm GS/MS} & 123 & 182 \\ \end{array}
Hill Dwarf (10/14/16/10/16/8) gets +5 HP from Dwarven Toughness and results in this table:
\begin{array}{c|r|r} \text{Build} & \text{EHP with best starting gear} & \text{EHP with best mundane gear} \\ \hline \text{Polearm Hunter} & 125 & 174 \\ \text{Polearm Hexblade} & 89 & 154 \\ \text{Elven HW} & 116 & 160 \\ \text{Wise HW} & 125 & 174 \\ \text{Polearm GS/MS} & 125 & 174 \\ \end{array}
The armors for these non-Warforged builds are Scale Mail for starting equipment (Leather for the Warlock), and Half Plate for best mundane.
With the considerations of EHP, the optimal builds for your criteria are narrowed down to:
- Hunter Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat
- Horizon Walker Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 Wisdom
- Gloom Stalker or Monster Slayer with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat
Although, I'd recommend against the Horizon Walker Ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and +2 Wisdom since it is only as effective in damage output when Armor Class is 22 or higher.
Which Polearm Dueler to choose (Hunter, Gloom Stalker, or Monster Slayer)
We've addressed your two main criteria and come to the conclusion that a Warforged (or Simic Hybrid/Hill Dwarf) ranger with the Dueling Fighting Style and the Polearm Master feat is the most fitting. As we've shown, the three Ranger Archetypes Hunter, Gloom Stalker, and Monster Slayer all are relatively equal. First of all, you should choose the one that is more fitting of your campaign.
- If you expect to be able to gain great advantage from one of the Hunter’s Prey features then you should choose Hunter.
- If you expect to have many combats throughout the day, you should choose Gloom Stalker to benefit more from the extra attack of Dread Ambusher.
- If you expect to have many short rests to refresh your uses of Slayer’s Prey and expect mostly single enemies as combatants, you should choose Monster Slayer.
If you don't expect any of these to present itself more than any other, then we move to your bonus criterion:
Actually having a use for my Wisdom score besides whacking with Shillelagh
If this is the last criterion, then Gloom Stalker is best.
- Dread Ambusher gives a bonus to initiative based on Wisdom
- Gloom Stalkers get disguise self, and the investigation DC will be based on Wisdom
Best Answer
It is cantrips that can not keep up, if you get Extra Attack
Weapon attacks alone are not competitive, a 14th level Wizard does more damage with a cantrip than with a dagger1. Class features like Fighting Style and Extra Attack make weapon attacks superior.
First I will measure the Wizard against the Fighter, and later show how other classes compare. For simplicity assume every class has the same hit chance at the same level, and every class increases its attack stat at every possible chance.
The weapon used for the comparison is Rapier, Fighting Style is Duelling, if applicable.
Wizard vs Fighter
The best damaging Wizard cantrip2 (Firebolt) does 1d10 damage at the beginning. Compare this to 1d8+3 of a Rapier. This is a 36% advantage, with Duelist this goes up to 72%. On level 4 the gap is increased again, as the ASI provides a hit bonus to both, but a damage bonus to weapons only.
At level 5 both values double, so the relative difference does not change.
At level 11 both the Wizard and the Fighter get a 50% improvement, it is more complicated for Paladins and Rangers, but the ratio remains about the same.
From level 17, Firebolt does 4d10 damage, that is 22 on average, while a Rapier in the hands of a Duelist Fighter is 3x(1d8+5+2)=34.5 (46 from level 20) damage, almost double.
Valor Bard
They do not get Fighting Styles, and no other feature to support weapon attacks after Extra Attack on level 6. There the expected damage is 2 x (1d8 + 4) = 17, which increases to 19 when the attack stat reaches 20 (mostly level 8).
This is more than what a 16th level Wizard does (3d10 = 16.5).
Paladin
Fighing Style and Extra Attack mean that even on level 5 they do more damage than a top level Wizard with cantrips, and Improved Divine Smite increases this even further. 8th level is 2 x (1d8 + 5 + 2) = 23, 11th level 2 x (1d8 + 5 + 2 + 1d8) = 32.
Ranger
They are famous for using two weapons, so I will use it in the calculations. 5th level is 3 x (1d6 + 4) = 22.5, already better than a top level Wizard. Depending on Archetype, it increases a bit more, still the Ranger has lesser damage output than a Fighter or a Paladin.
Rogue
Getting Sneak Attack damage is quite easy, unless all party members are ranged. At level 5 they can expect 1d8 + 4 + 3d6 = 19, which is already better than 16th level Wizards, and it keeps increasing without any cap, unlike Rangers or Paladins.
Evoker
This specialist Wizard gets to add his Int modifier to damage rolls with Evocation cantrips from level 10. Firebolt now does 16 damage, still behind a 6th level Valor Bard. Next level it increases to 21.5, still behind a 5th level Fighter, Paladin or Ranger. At level 17, the damage is 27, less than a 11th level Fighter or Paladin, but better than a Ranger.
Dragon Sorcerer
Same as Evoker, just the bonus damage comes on level 6 instead of 10. Still, this is only enough to beat the Valor Bard from level 11.
Warlock
The big exception. They get to add their Charisma to each beam of Eldritch Blast, making it the most damaging cantrip in the game. It is only a bit behind a Fighter, gaining the same amount of attacks, but doing 1d10 + 5 per beam against 1d8 + 5 + 2 per strike. With Hex they even come out ahead, but a Fighter could similarly take a feat to compensate, so it would not be a fair comparison.
Ranged Weapons
A Longbow does the same base damage as a Rapier, but the Fighting Style adds +2 to attack instead of damage. In most cases, this means an even higher DPR.
Damage Resistance
Many monsters are resistant to damage from non-magical attacks, taking half damage. A Fighter still beats a Firebolt, but a Ranger cannot. Paladins should just cast Magic Weapon.
This is one of the reasons why Magic Items have such a big influence on game balance.
Conclusion
Even the Valor Bard, the weakest of the primary weapon users is better with a Rapier than most casters with cantrips until level 17.
After level 11 blaster casters like an Evoker or a Dragon Sorcerer can beat this, but are still far behind any class that gets a Fighting Style.
This is clearly visible in this damage(DPR)-level chart .
New cantrips
Firebolt is in the graph, so I will compare the new cantrips to that.
Toll the Dead: It is great, at least better than Firebolt, unless you are fighting necrotic resistent creatures, and those are usually easy to recognize. Most casters tend to open with the big guns, and change later to cantrips, so I consider it a simple 1d12 damage, wich is 18% more than Firebolt, still not enough to catch up with the Ranger, the least damaging martial class.
Evokers with Potent cantrip really like this one, along with Clerics, who just received their first decent combat related cantrip.
Sword Burst (also Word of Radiance): 1d6 damage is really small, and with diminishing returns, you need to stand next to a lot of enemies to be competitive. Which is generally a bad idea.
If we calculate with full damage to the first target, half to the second, and so on, you need 4 targets to get ahead of Toll the Dead, which can be used from a safe distance.
Celestial Warlocks add their Charisma to the damage with Word of Radiance at 6th level, but it is still not enough to catch up with Eldritch Blast, especially if they have Agonizing Blast.
Green-Flame Blade: You can rely on this one (as opposed to Booming Blade). The problem is that while it requires an attack roll, it is not an Attack action, so will not enable e. g. Two-Weapon Fighting. The extra damage is small, about 1.5-2 on levels 1-4. On level 5, you deal 1d8 additonal damage to the primary target, and 1d8 + SAM (Spellcasting Ability Modifier), about 8.25, while the Fighter deals 10.5 twice.
Green-Flame Blade is only a good idea if you do not get Extra Attack, but are likely to hit with a weapon, like a Cleric.
Booming Blade: It is a trap. DnD5 is one of the most static games tactically3, so the extra damage will rarely trigger. The base damage is identical to Green-Flame Blade.
1) Until level 5 even casters are better off with weapons.
A usual Wizard with Int 16 and Dex 14 does on average 3.3 damage against AC14 with Fire Bolt, but 3,575 with a Light Crossbow.
2) Poison Spray does more damage, but it has horrible range, and the most commonly resisted damage type. Even a 20th level Wizard knows only 5 cantrips, and Poison Spray is just not good enough to be in the first 5 out of 23.
3) Unless you use the Flanking optional rule (and I have never seen it used), there is no incentive to move once you are in melee reach, but a lot of incentive to stay put, because of Opportunity Attacks