My friend wants a tank

[Marthinwurer]

I am doing a campaign with some of my friends via maptool. One of my friends who plays World of Warcraft, wants to be a tank. In WoW, tanks generally work by having everything attack them. We start at level one, and will probably only go to level 5-6. Any suggestions? I was going to suggest a Knight with the feat Goad.

[Dusk Eclipse]

A Crusader can work incredibly well at those levels, Iron Guard Glare might work... in fact a combination of Knight/Crusader probably is the best option

[hivedragon]

I would highly recomend you purchase tome of battle for the crusader. If you don't want to purchase any new books a self-healing/buffing cleric is vastly superior to the knight.

[SuperFerret]

That seems to me (in my limited knowledge) to be the best way to go about it, but I hope your friend knows that tanking the way you can in MMOs is impossible in D&D. Thinking opponents will realize that the guy in the back of the group with the robe and hand-waving is the one who can hurt them the most, and take him out first, and no amount of taunts and challenges will dissuade them.

[Seerow]

I would highly recomend you purchase tome of battle for the crusader. If you don't want to purchase any new books a self-healing/buffing cleric is vastly superior to the knight.

At levels 1-5? I have to disagree. Level 7 onward, sure, but at low levels I'd stick with either Knight or Crusader, depending on the op level of the group.

[Marthinwurer]

Thanks for the info. I do have ToB, and I'm playing the most optimized caracter in the group, a warblade. I don't know exactly which books my friends have, due to the fact that they currently live in another state, but I will recommend this to him. Any other ideas?

[subject42]

A cleric with Shield Other and a large pool of hitpoints can work pretty well, if it's a low-op group.

[complains]

Level one? This is if you use psionics.

Psychic warrior with combat reflexes, stand still, and expansion.
get a reach weapon and never let your enemies attack you or your party.

[myancey]

Check out the Troll-blooded feat from a dragon magazine. You need toughness, and I'd go with Tireless to ignore the sun penalties.
This combination will give Regeneration 1, meaning that all physical damage except fire and acid turn in to nonlethal (subdual) damage, working on a separate pool than actual HP.

The benefit is that he can afford to take a beating without normally having to worry about dying. It may take him a while to wake up though.

I had an enjoyable (probably not crazy optimized) tank design using the Changeling from Eberron Campaign Setting. Hopefully get 2 extra feats from flaws for the Troll-blooded combo, and then build into Warshaper, having started as a fighter. You'll end up with Fast Healing 2, Regeneration 1, Immunity to Crits and Stunning, etc. It's a pretty cool build. Fun to play.

[Greenish]

Check out the Troll-blooded feat from a dragon magazine. You need toughness, and I'd go with Tireless to ignore the sun penalties.Instead of Tireless, take Adamantine Plating, be the terminator.

[myancey]

Instead of Tireless, take Adamantine Plating, be the terminator.

That sound awesome. What's Adamantine Plating in? Is it a warforged thing?

[Greenish]

That sound awesome. What's Adamantine Plating in? Is it a warforged thing?Adamantine Body (my bad), from ECS. Yeah, it's warforged only, but who doesn't want to be the unstoppable robot? :smalltongue:

[Flame of Anor]

Well, I want a tank too, but they're very expensive and don't get good gas mileage...

:smalltongue:

[Seerow]

Well, I want a tank too, but they're very expensive and don't get good gas mileage...

:smalltongue:

They're actually not too bad if you know who to talk to about buying old demilitarized tanks...

but if you want one with a working cannon, yeah that gets expensive quick. The permits alone, geeze.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

As a suggestion:

A 'tank' keeps people from threatening the rest of the raid group. With this in mind, I suggest the following:

Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian1/Fighter2/Crusader to taste

Feats:
EWP: Spiked Chain
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Power Attack
Improved Bull Rush
Leap Attack
Shock Trooper

Stances of note: Thicket of Blades

You can get all this by 9th level, if you're playing Human. Alternately, play something Large (Half Ogre comes to mind), if you don't want to get Expansion or Enlarge Person

Basically, you have the following combo:

* Anything within 20' of you falls down and gets killed.
* If they hang back, you pounce/charge/full power attack/exterminate everything with extreme prejudice.

As another option:

Warhulk (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20030914a). Scroll down a bit to find it.

Basically, you eventually get to the point where you are hitting *everything* within melee reach as an attack action. With full power attack damage output. AND tripping to boot. The build here is Fighter2/Crusader3/Warhulk10/Crusader5

Note the lack of base attack bonus associated with Warhulk. To fix this, you either get the weapon enhancement that gives you an effective 3/4 BAB, or you simply find a way to get Divine Power cast on him. Do keep in mind that the Strength bonuses piled on gives about the same attack bonus (+2 str per level translates into +1 mod which adds on your to-hit modifier), but if you want iterative attacks, you'll need to boost it somehow.

Also, if you have a bard in the party, simply have him go Warchanter, and Song of Legion. Done.

[Flame of Anor]

They're actually not too bad if you know who to talk to about buying old demilitarized tanks...

but if you want one with a working cannon, yeah that gets expensive quick. The permits alone, geeze.

Also, I imagine the authorities would be less than enthused about the treads tearing up their roads.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Also, I imagine the authorities would be less than enthused about the treads tearing up their roads.

You'd be surprised. The Interstate system was designed primarily as a way of moving tanks from one coast to the other, and do not have any appreciable damage done to them by having tanks roll over them.

[Flame of Anor]

You'd be surprised. The Interstate system was designed primarily as a way of moving tanks from one coast to the other, and do not have any appreciable damage done to them by having tanks roll over them.

Yes, but what about the little roads with weight limits that you have to go on to get to the Interstate?

[Greenish]

Yes, but what about the little roads with weight limits that you have to go on to get to the Interstate?Don't drive on them?

[Flame of Anor]

Don't drive on them?

I'll just leave my tank parked by the side of the Interstate, then, shall I?

[Seerow]

I'll just leave my tank parked by the side of the Interstate, then, shall I?

Offroading man. You're in a ****ing tank.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Crusader is indeed a spectacular choice. Pick a race with decent ability score bonuses and few desirable racial traits, such as Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater), and make it a Dragonborn of Bahamut (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060105b) with the Heart aspect. Get the feat Entangling Exhalation from Races of the Dragon, and use that as often as possible to keep every opponent entangled. Opponents will view him as a greater threat, and they'll have a lot of difficulty moving past him to attack other characters. Between breaths use Crusader Strike and other maneuvers or just make attacks, and stay in the Martial Spirit stance to heal yourself.

[Flame of Anor]

Offroading man. You're in a ****ing tank.

Hmm...do you suppose the neighbors will sue when I drive through their houses?

[h2doh]

Hmm...do you suppose the neighbors will sue when I drive through their houses?

The intimidation factor of driving a freaking tank might suffice.

[DragonOfUndeath]

Hmm...do you suppose the neighbors will sue when I drive through their houses?

Off-roading, not on-housing.
And why would you need to go through houses to get to the interstate?

[Marthinwurer]

No psionics, no dragon magazine, and none of my group like to multiclass. It is generally a low-optimization group, with me being the only one to really optimize. I think that for my friend, the knight would be the best option, because I think they have the PHB II. For the race, we were thinking human dragonborn, mainly because the DM considers dragonborn core due to 4e.

Edit: forgot to add, stats are 25pt buy, races are core only (see comment about dragonborn).

[Eldariel]

Crusader would be by far the best option. Knight isn't very tanky until level 3; Crusader can do it from level 1. Whatever you do, pick up a Guisarme/Spiked Chain, go for Improved Trip and Combat Expertise and work from there.

Crusader 1/Fighter 2/Crusader -> would be a very simple option for people who don't like too much multiclassing, in a game going to level 5-6. You get good stuff every level and you're as competent in the tanking niché as you can be within 3.5 from level 1, picking up the key feats levels 1-3.


Single-classed Crusader is also fine but you'll only pick up Combat Reflexes or EWP: Spiked Chain on level 1 (Human could get Improved Trip, but the stats are kinda hard on 25pb) and have to wait for rest of the good stuff until level 3, hence why I think he'd have more fun with the multiclass version.

Dragonborn Orc would probably be pretty good (Orc is in Monster Manual as a playable race). Dragonborn in general is fine though you do get penalties to key stats if you do want to utilize Attacks of Opportunity to protect your teammates. 14 bought Str, 16 bought Dex, 14 bought Con, 15 bought Int is already 27pb and leaves you with 6 Wis and Cha. Could have 15 bought Dex instead and barely qualify for everything for 18 Str, 13 Dex, 16 Con, 13 Int, 6 Wis, 6 Cha but that's some epic Will-save dumping right there. Going for Stand Still would release the points off Int and allow spreading 'em around the mental stats or in Dex.

Human with 16 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 14 Int would be 28pb too. Heh. Could go lower Strength, but that kinda hurts if trying to trip people. Overall, low point buys aren't kind for tanking (Knight is even worse off since you need massive Charisma to make use of their abilities and the Str/Dex/Con to work with it). Crusader going for Stand Still or just plain beat'em up style would work tho (Crusader class features do a decent bit of tanking without actually needing feats all that much).


EDIT: Oh. Druid is an epic tank. War-Trained Riding Dog trips like a boss on low levels, and Druid gets one as a class feature. Then you're a controller as Druid to boot and can have all sorts of fun that way.

[druid91]

Your friend want's a tank? Tell him to make a character built around craft: Mechanical and knowledge architecture and engineering.

Convince the DM to set you a DC.

Have fun with your new tank.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2302/2127912571_a74613af3b.jpg

[Hiro Protagonest]

-snip-

A 20th level build for a game that will stop at level 6. Real helpful.

To answer the OP: Be a crusader, get iron guard's glare and a reach weapon (preferably spiked chain, but there's a reason they invented spiked gauntlets).

[DragonOfUndeath]

Your friend want's a tank? Tell him to make a character buil around craft: Mechanical and knowledge architecture and engineering.

Convince the DM to set you a DC.

Have fun with your new tank.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2302/2127912571_a74613af3b.jpg

While AWESOME. I think you will get this:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/684/plotderailed.jpg/

[Flame of Anor]

Have fun with your new tank.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2302/2127912571_a74613af3b.jpg

http://diy2.despair.com/share/62670040.jpg