Darwin
2011-02-04, 04:03 PM
Every now and then another thread pops up on these boards asking how you succesfully build a "tank" in D&D. Let us for a brief moment assume these threads have a high hp, high armor, fighter type character in mind, and not a 60 ton belted warmachine of steel. The problem with this isn't building a character to fit that concept, but rather to have that character fulfill his expected role in combat. Namely, keeping the nasty wasties away from the squishy spellcasters raining fiery death on them.
I've played D&D for 4 years both very frequently, and very casually and I've seen this problem rise time and time again. My intention with this thread is to brainstorm ideas for how to make tanking a viable role in 3.5 by exploring the options the characters have available to them, and the options the monsters have to circumvent these.
I am on no accounts an expert in this area, so I'm counting on you to present tanking strategies, and the tactics that makes them obsolete. If we're successful in drawing a sizeable amount of wisdom and knowledge out in this thread we might even start a handbook of some sorts.
I know there will be a lot of people telling me that the only way to have a viable tank in 3.5 is to nerf the Wizards into oblivion, and they're probaly right. But let's assume that most people are playing with sensible DMs that knows when a gamebreaking spell needs to be banned. The guys over at Test of Spite seems to have had a lot of success tracking down some of the worst offenders of the game and have made up a neat little banlist/rules update (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8399975&postcount=2) that we could probaly consider the norm for most playgroups.
Alright, I think I got the basics down now. I'll probaly have to update this post every now and then when I recall things I should've mentioned, but we'll take it as it comes.
To start off I've got some basic ideas about tanking:
Feat: Improved Trip
What it does: Improved Trip lets you trip a character who provokes an attack of opportunity from you and nets you a free melee attack against him if it succeeds. The infamous Spiked Chain trippers take this technique to perfection.
Why it doesn't work: Limited area of influence. This strategy requires the enemy to prove an attack of opportunity from you, and the area from within he'll do just that is limited by your reach. In addition you are also limited by your number of attacks of opportunity each round, although that is easily solved by picked up Combat Reflexes and having a decent Dex score.
Feat: Goad
What is does: As a move action you can force an enemy to make a will save or be forced to make it's melee attacks against you this round.
Why it doesn't work: Goad only affects melee attacks, not ranged attacks or magic.
Feat: Stand Still
What is does: Instead of making an attack of opportunity you force an enemy to make a reflex save or immediately end his move action.
Why it doesn't work: See Improved Trip.
I've played D&D for 4 years both very frequently, and very casually and I've seen this problem rise time and time again. My intention with this thread is to brainstorm ideas for how to make tanking a viable role in 3.5 by exploring the options the characters have available to them, and the options the monsters have to circumvent these.
I am on no accounts an expert in this area, so I'm counting on you to present tanking strategies, and the tactics that makes them obsolete. If we're successful in drawing a sizeable amount of wisdom and knowledge out in this thread we might even start a handbook of some sorts.
I know there will be a lot of people telling me that the only way to have a viable tank in 3.5 is to nerf the Wizards into oblivion, and they're probaly right. But let's assume that most people are playing with sensible DMs that knows when a gamebreaking spell needs to be banned. The guys over at Test of Spite seems to have had a lot of success tracking down some of the worst offenders of the game and have made up a neat little banlist/rules update (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8399975&postcount=2) that we could probaly consider the norm for most playgroups.
Alright, I think I got the basics down now. I'll probaly have to update this post every now and then when I recall things I should've mentioned, but we'll take it as it comes.
To start off I've got some basic ideas about tanking:
Feat: Improved Trip
What it does: Improved Trip lets you trip a character who provokes an attack of opportunity from you and nets you a free melee attack against him if it succeeds. The infamous Spiked Chain trippers take this technique to perfection.
Why it doesn't work: Limited area of influence. This strategy requires the enemy to prove an attack of opportunity from you, and the area from within he'll do just that is limited by your reach. In addition you are also limited by your number of attacks of opportunity each round, although that is easily solved by picked up Combat Reflexes and having a decent Dex score.
Feat: Goad
What is does: As a move action you can force an enemy to make a will save or be forced to make it's melee attacks against you this round.
Why it doesn't work: Goad only affects melee attacks, not ranged attacks or magic.
Feat: Stand Still
What is does: Instead of making an attack of opportunity you force an enemy to make a reflex save or immediately end his move action.
Why it doesn't work: See Improved Trip.