How to deal damage (be a "Glass Cannon") in D&D.

[darqueseid]

Please pick as many qualities you wish, but the goal being that the MOST important quality is highlighted.  If you feel that more than one quality is equally important, choose all, but try to limit it to what is the most important.

If you pick other, please post the quality you have in mind.

If you feel a quality is totally irrellevant post your opinion.

The idea is to establish what a "glass cannon" should be doing in combat (assuming that straight damage is not the only thing). 

Also, opinions and builds of classes that do it best are welcome.

[Risada]

I think a DD should be able to pierce the enemy's defense, while dealing the greatest amount of damage possible. It doesn't need to be at range (archer, blaster caster) or melee (rogue, ubercharger) specifically, but it should bring the pain to the enemy.

[veekie]

^^
Range makes it easier to distribute excessive damage onto alternative targets and also avoid being affected in turn and having to deal with reach(imagine for example, your ubercharger crosses reach, provokes and gets grappled, interrupting his charge). Granted, the default dungeon assumption rather limits its benefits.

[Tiltowait]

Kill everything with fire. If it didn't die you didn't use enough fire. Throw that fire quickly or you'll be burned instead.

[Wrex]

The most important thing is to feasibly one shot anything they hit. Uberchargers can do this, as can a properly optimised wings of flurry sorcerror.

[Unbeliever]

Is the question how to deal damage or how to be a glass cannon?  In the latter case, then Wrex is assuredly right, sort of by definition:  a glass cannon is just that kind of character who can't take hits very well.

Personally, I prefer to balance my characters a bit more than that.  In part, it's b/c I don't enjoy being splattered.  In part, it's b/c if I throw all my resources into dealing damage the numbers will get kind of absurd.  They are close to that even when I don't do that. 

I ranked ability to circumvent defenses (which become more common as you level up) and ability to survive hits above raw damage numbers.  I think it's not too hard to get sufficient raw numbers.  Stock enemies in D&D just don't have that many hit points. 

Having said all that, I have really enjoyed some parties I've been in where there is a glass cannon (or thereabouts) and the rest of the party tries to defend them so they can nuke the baddies. 

[TSS]

Almost all characters are glass cannons, whether they intend it or not. Being successful at it is a matter of killing everything before it kills you. You will not survive otherwise.

[Wiggins]

"The ability to pierce through enemy defenses" is surely the only vital one, because beyond that, you could be doing lots of different types of damage, at various ranges. You're the glass cannon, so you'll be able to deal enough damage to be effective if you can make sure the hits land and affect the enemy.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Piercing defenses and doing lots of damage are the most important 2.  If you can pierce defenses, doing different kinds of damage is far less important.  I almost picked ranged as well, but someone on a Phantom Stag (300 ft perfect fly speed) build to charge for tons of damage w/ feats to charge past or around obstacles?  It's technically melee but is functionally just as good as ranged DPS.  Other than the long ranged uber chargers as the exception, ranged destruction definitely tops melee.  Not just for your safety, but to go along with the whole "kill them before they kill you" thing.  Annihilating foes before they can get close enough to actually have a chance to hurt the party is very helpful.

I also chose "other" because I think winning initiative is very important, for the same reason that long ranged devastation is.

[veekie]

^^
As with the other poll, its basically that some of the options are really just subsets of the true factors.

[Prime32]

^^
As with the other poll, its basically that some of the options are really just subsets of the true factors.

I would have thought you'd want multiple types of damage because that helps you pierce defences. Sure it lets you take advantage of elemental vulnerabilities too, but that doesn't come up much (and something like a red dragon is likely to have wards against cold anyway).

[weenog]

You got more options in there than you need.  "Many varied types of damage," "damage at range," and "pierce through enemy defenses" are all ways of saying "Deals damage consistently, even when the enemies aren't playing along."

[Kajhera]

Ideally, be able to target one of multiple possible things to damage, and target it to a point the foe is quickly overwhelmed, dead unconscious helpless or catatonic. Combination of Highest Possible Damage / Varied Types / Pierce Defenses - you strike their weak point for massive damage - this is going to be ability damage more often than elemental, elemental lets you strike their Not-Strong point more often.

Being made of glass will, as mentioned, take care of itself. If you want to survive being made of glass, mobility is helpful, whether that's ranged or rideby flying charge at 300'. Mostly you want to get as far out of the strike-back zone as you can afford, even if you oneshot monsters have friends.

[veekie]

For glass-cannoning, my favorite is simply not be caught cannoning. If they have no idea where that ridiculously painful attack came from they can't do anything back to you. Durability doesn't matter if they can't target you, though its liable to cause frustration in the DM and the party when used in excess.

[darqueseid]

and how do you accomplish this? sneak attack from hiding? greater invis? 

[veekie]

Spell attacks from hiding mostly. Or greater invis with a ranged weapon and sneak attack. But the method does tend to irritate the other players, and leave you out of roleplay situations if you push it too far.

I had a thing for sneak-gishes for a good while.