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Kayoden Usoden
2009-04-15, 11:41 AM
I have had the idea for this class for a long time but never got around to full making it, now it is REALLY close.

Tanker
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+2|Improved Toughness

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Damage Resistance 1/-

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+3|Uncanny Dodge, Endurance

4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+4|Die Hard, DR 2/-

5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+x4|Defender, Bonus Feat

6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+5|Evasion, DR 3/-

7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+5|Stand Firm, Living Shield

8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+6|Greater Toughness, DR 4/-

9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+6|Mettle

10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+7|True Defender, Bonus Feat, DR 5/-

11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+7| Improved Evasion

12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+8|DR 6/-

13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+8|
+8|Improved Uncanny Dodge

14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+9|
+9|DR 7/-

15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+9|Supreme Toughness, Bonus Feat

16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+10|
+10|
+10|DR 8/-

17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|-

18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+11|DR 9/-

19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+11|Blockade

20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+12| Bonus Feat, DR 10/-[/table]

(I will fill in the descriptions for the rest of them when I have time)

Hit Dice: d12 (or d10 still working on it)

Skills: (4+int mod)x4 at fist level, see barbarian skill list

Bonus Feat (duh)

Uncanny Dodge (Ex) See Player's Handbook page 26

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex) See Player's Handbook page 26

Damage Reduction (Ex) See Player's Handbook page 26

Evasion (Ex) See Player's Handbook page 50

Improved Evasion (Ex) See Player's Handbook page 51

Endurance (As the Feat, if a tanker already has this feat he may chose another)

Die Hard (As the Feat, if a tanker already has this feat he may chose another

Improved Toughness (+1HP per Hit Dice)

Greater Toughness (+2HP per Hit Dice)

Supreme Toughness (+3HP per Hit Dice)

Mettle (Ex) See Complete Warrior page 7

Stand Firm (Ex) The Tanker adds 1/2 level to checks to avoid being bulrushed or knocked down

Defender (Ex) +2 to deflection AC, saves, and checks when fighting defensively, +4 at level 10

True Defender (Ex) Immunity to Daze, Stun, Fear and any negative moral effects

Blockade (Ex) a tanker gets an attack of opportunity when ever he is charged grappled or bulrushed by an enemy

Living Shield (Ex) When a Tanker is between an enemy and an adjacent ally, the ally is treated as having full cover when attacked by that enemy. If the ally is 1 size category larger than the Tanker, this becomes partial cover; if the ally is more than 1 size category larger than the Tanker, this ability will not work.

Faulty
2009-04-15, 12:21 PM
This sort of makes most other melee classes ireelavent.

Zerg Cookie
2009-04-15, 01:10 PM
A tanker should have that as a class feature at level 1:
Taunt: Target creature must succeed a will save (DC = Tanker's class level + Cha modifier) or be forced to attack nobody but the tanker (Attack the tanker or not at all) for 1d3 rounds.
The number of rounds increases to 1d4 at level 5, 1d6 at level 10, 1d8 at level 15 and 1d10 at level 20


I mean, that's what tanking is all about, protecting your friends by taking damage for them

tyckspoon
2009-04-15, 07:57 PM
This sort of makes most other melee classes ireelavent.

Not really. It's just highly defensive. It largely replaces the Fighter with the bonus feats (I'd actually think of it as an attempt at a Fighter fix, if that bothers you) and the Monk, whose primary schtick is actually being hard to kill. I don't see those as very large losses at all. It doesn't have maneuvers, so it can't touch the Tome of Battle classes. It won't compare to the damage output of a Barbarian's Rage. Skill points aren't listed, but assuming they're low, it doesn't really touch on the domain of skilled melee classes like Ranger and Scout. No magic, so it won't impinge on gishly classes like Psychic Warrior and Duskblade.

Mostly what it does is get closer to succeeding at the design goal of the Fighter: Skilled front-line combatant who can trade blows with a monster on even terms. Actual Fighters tend to get killed when they try that; this guy can probably pull it off, thanks to enough DR to be meaningful and getting extra HP as a class feature.

Kylarra
2009-04-15, 08:41 PM
My bad :smallredface:

Statistikx
2009-04-15, 08:58 PM
What are the skills for it?
What is the hit die for it?

TSED
2009-04-15, 09:39 PM
Instead of improved toughness, he should get the NWN variant of toughness. :smallcool: (ie +1 hp/class level).


... That's what Improved Toughness is.

Regular Toughness is just +3 hp. That's it.



My opinion on it: It needs a capstone. It's pretty boring to hit level 20 in this.

I would also give it a bonus to AC. Maybe a dodge bonus = 1/2 level (just like DR)? Then you might actually get a build that can get AC high enough to make monsters stop power attacking...

Kylarra
2009-04-15, 10:19 PM
... That's what Improved Toughness is.

Regular Toughness is just +3 hp. That's it.



My opinion on it: It needs a capstone. It's pretty boring to hit level 20 in this.

I would also give it a bonus to AC. Maybe a dodge bonus = 1/2 level (just like DR)? Then you might actually get a build that can get AC high enough to make monsters stop power attacking...
...huh. I wonder why I was misremembering it as something else. Ah well. My bad. :smallfrown:

Draken
2009-04-15, 10:25 PM
Must say I am iffy about the Improved Mettle thing. It basically means the only viable tactic to kill this guy is hp damage or no-save just die.

I should probably not be iffy about it, however.

Anyway.

Endurance and Improved Toughness as bonus feats at first level.

You should probably remove the "may select another feat" part. I would, in fact, suggest a secondary feat for these cases (Diehard for Endurance and... More Improved Toughness for Improved Toughness?)

In fact. I suggest pulling Improved Toughness as a Bonus feat to the second level. It is so bland in there.

Kylarra
2009-04-15, 10:30 PM
More improved toughness would be cool.

As is though, it's one of the best martial dip classes ever. Granting +1 HP/lvl, good saves all around, and a bonus feat for 1 level*.


*The above assumes full weapon proficiencies and armor/shield proficiencies as well as a base D10 HD.

Chronos
2009-04-15, 11:30 PM
Are you familiar with the Knight class, from PHB II? It does pretty much the same thing you're going for here.

TSED
2009-04-16, 12:54 AM
Actually, this would make a great prestige class.

If you condensed it into 10 levels, dropped some of the slack off (ie: improved toughness) and made them prereqs... Yeah.

It'd be pretty cool.

Let's see, improved mettle as your level 10 capstone, 1 DR / level...

Yeah. This could be a great prestige class. Just make the prereqs a bit tricky to get in (endurance, diehard, improved toughness, BAB of +something, Any save at +6?

Kayoden Usoden
2009-04-21, 02:28 PM
You should probably remove the "may select another feat" part. I would, in fact, suggest a secondary feat for these cases (Diehard for Endurance and... More Improved Toughness for Improved Toughness?)



I put that in to remove questions about playing an undead tanker.

The improving improved toughness is a good idea.

Kayoden Usoden
2009-04-21, 02:29 PM
Are you familiar with the Knight class, from PHB II? It does pretty much the same thing you're going for here.

I know, but I can't play anything with a code of conduct, other than if it moves kill it, to save my life.

Crel
2009-04-24, 05:42 PM
This looks pretty sweet. Maybe if you increased the focus to be on other defensive abilities (maybe some spell resistance?), making up some, and giving as bonus feats other defense-inhancing ones (like maybe improved shield bash?) then cut BAB to 3/4 or (dare I say it?) 1/2, so its more of a "you cannot ever EVER! kill me! than a trade blows for the squishies. At least, thats what the name "Tanker" makes me think of.

AgentPaper
2009-04-24, 06:12 PM
As-is, I just can't see the point of this class. Even in a non-optimized game, he's just a stone block. Unless the party is fighting in a 10-foot hallway against monsters with little or no ranged attack, the enemy is just going to walk around him. He needs a way to make the enemy want to attack him. You could look to 4E defenders for ideas, even if you don't want to try and implement a "marking" system.