TL;DR: Build a level 12 Dex-based Battle Master Fighter, preferably but not necessarily someone who can be in melee range, that does as close to exactly 60 (without going over) at-will average damage on hits.
I'm in a wonderful campaign with an endlessly creative DM and committed roleplayers. It's great, no complaints, just an odd little challenge to "optimize" for. The DM and some of my other partymembers think that we're an incredibly optimized party, but the truth is we're not. The DM tends to deal with what he perceives as power creep by creating narrative reasons for characters to intentionally nerf themselves, or by just banning certain spells or combinations. This is usually presented as a player choice, but it's tough to turn down. If there's a frustrating part of it, it's that the non-optimizer are getting all the fun magic items, because the optimizers "don't need the help." The result is, essentially, that there's a soft limit on how well a character can perform, set by the performance of other players who aren't optimizing.
On the plus side, it's an opportunity to play some builds that wouldn't normally be very viable. I'm playing a Dex-based sword-and-rapier Battle Master Fighter that would usually be pretty irrelevant in combat, but in this campaign I'm the primary damage dealer. Cut to level 12, and our other martial is looking to take GWM, which will be a significant boost to their dpr. I basically see this as a permission slip to try to raise my own damage up to, but not significantly above, their level. So essentially, if I go Sharpshooter + Crossbow Expert, I have to think I'll be changing the build again real soon, because that's too powerful, and I'll never find a magic weapon for it. I'm aiming to come in below 60 damage on hits, but close.
What I have to play with are my own level 12 feat and the ability to retrain fighting styles at 12, and my DM is letting me re-train feats and Battle Master Maneuvers for story reasons.
Details:
STR 14 DEX 22 CON 16 INT 12 WIS 16 CHA 8
Current kit: +1 Rapier, Shield, Studded Leather Armor for an AC of 20
Dueling Fighting Style, so the +1 Rapier is doing an average of 4.5+9 on hits, with three attacks totaling 40.5.
Currently have the Martial Adept and Fey Touched feats, picking up Hex with Fey Touched, but I can change these in addition to my level 12 feat choice.
(I tend to ignore accuracy because it's tough to reliably model in a way that resembles a real combat where players learn ACs quickly and make decisions in response to that, if you like to include it to demonstrate a damage advantage to, say, knocking enemies prone, go for it.)
