Advice for a tank build

[Fyermind]

I want a character that can soak up damage well. Gestalt. LA counts on both sides, but buyoff is allowed. PRCs are also allowed on both sides.

The thing is, I need to also be responsible for healing this damage, and large numbers get thrown around a lot, so ways of minimizing the damage I actually take are good. No tier 1s or 2s. So no sorcerer (with things like blur, greater mirror image, wings of cover, and greater blink, sorcerer knight would be pretty much ideal)

My thoughts were to go Knight//Crusader, but there is no good reason not to grab a +1 or +2 LA template/race. If I go undead I can get crafted in ideal circumstances (+8 hp/level, +4 enhancement to str and dex, +4 initiative, and other minor bonuses), so that might be a good idea.

[Story]

Trollblooded Warforged Juggernaut. Use the rituals in Savage Species to gain the Fire and Earth subtypes (+1 LA each plus it costs a lot of exp, but at least you can buy it off).

Once you have that out of the way, go Warblade for Diamond Mind and Witch Slayer for Mettle (not sure if there's an easier way to get this).


This gives you Regeneration 1/fire or acid, Fire Immunity, Acid Immunity, and immunity to nonlethal damage. You still have weaknesses (like Searing Spell), but you can tank pretty much anything you'll normally face.

[Rubik]

Hmm. A build for Tank? A dire tortoise with a belt of Overland Flight should work. (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111121053053/mlp/images/4/4d/Tank_flying_around_S2E7.png)

On a serious note, you could go psychic warrior, and use their Hostile Empathic Transfer and Claws of the Vampire powers to vamp your way to healing (with Vigor, Share Pain, and a psicrystal for massive amounts of temp hp).

[ksbsnowowl]

Crusader is a good choice for soaking lots of damage, and is arguably the best tank in the game.

Pairing it with Knight, however, is going to make a fairly poor gestalt option. Way too much overlap in abilities (BAB, skills; though getting a good Will save helps). I'll admit I don't know the Knight very well; just never appealed to me.

But choosing a pairing class with Crusader that synergizes well with standard action strikes would help a lot. Something like Scout would be a really good option. You move and then use a strike, having activated skirmish in the meantime.

Oh wait... crud, skirmish only works in light armor. Not exactly tankish...

Drat! It otherwise would have worked so well; use the bonus feats from scout to get Endurance, to lead into Steadfast Determination to help cover your Will save.

It's still possible, if you plan to wear something like a Mithril Breastplate, and thus still be in Light Armor.

You could do something similar with Rogue on the other side; sneak attack isn't armor dependent... you'd only lose out on Evasion for wearing heavy armor.

Another great option would be Bard. Take Battlecaster and you can cast in Mithril Full Plate. You have Charisma synergy with Crusader, all good saves, decent skills, and some minor casting... (Bard is Tier 3, right?). Straight Bard is feasible, but if you wanted to go nuts, Sublime Chord would get you higher level spells, but would start to fall into the realm of Tier 1 & 2.

Prestige classes really depends upon what you end up taking opposite Crusader. The crusader side benefits from a one-level dip sometime before level 14, IIRC (pushes a stance choice up one maneuver level); dipping a level in Warblade at level 13 would get you some mid level Iron Heart maneuvers and expand your repertoire.

For the two LA that would be bought off? Mineral Warrior Goliath, though probably not if you want to go Bard.
I can't tell you how long I've wanted to play a Mineral Warrior Goliath Crusader. DR 8/Adamantine, then what gets through goes into your delayed damage pool. You then heal it up with a healing strike, or the use of Stone Power (the temp hp's from Stone Power can "soak" the damage coming out of your DDP).

[Siltharon]

As mentioned before Psywar and Crusader are probably the way to go
Psywar is just amazing when it comes to pp-> surviveability transformation .... use empatihic transfer, hostil (SRD version) to heal yourself while damaging enemies, share pain + vigor on psicrystal
add that to the crusader which itself is probably the tankiest class ingame and here you go ... the rest you have to do with gear but with the right powers and maneuvers picked you will be nigh unkillable

Maybe pick a race like Goliath and use Expansion ... It's fairly easy to make Psywar a good tripper anyways and adding that on top of the build will be the icing on the cake

edit: when it comes to prcs the Slayer is obviously the way to go on the Psywar side ... maybe you can dip a few levels into another class on the Crusader side to get mettle
Racewise:
(if you already take Psywar) probably Elan ... itself very strong and tanky race (has no la though and there are very good options for that)

[Artillery]

Crusader is a good choice for soaking lots of damage, and is arguably the best tank in the game.

Pairing it with Knight, however, is going to make a fairly poor gestalt option. Way too much overlap in abilities (BAB, skills; though getting a good Will save helps). I'll admit I don't know the Knight very well; just never appealed to me.

But choosing a pairing class with Crusader that synergizes well with standard action strikes would help a lot. Something like Scout would be a really good option. You move and then use a strike, having activated skirmish in the meantime.

Oh wait... crud, skirmish only works in light armor. Not exactly tankish...

Drat! It otherwise would have worked so well; use the bonus feats from scout to get Endurance, to lead into Steadfast Determination to help cover your Will save.

It's still possible, if you plan to wear something like a Mithril Breastplate, and thus still be in Light Armor.

You could do something similar with Rogue on the other side; sneak attack isn't armor dependent... you'd only lose out on Evasion for wearing heavy armor.

Another great option would be Bard. Take Battlecaster and you can cast in Mithril Full Plate. You have Charisma synergy with Crusader, all good saves, decent skills, and some minor casting... (Bard is Tier 3, right?). Straight Bard is feasible, but if you wanted to go nuts, Sublime Chord would get you higher level spells, but would start to fall into the realm of Tier 1 & 2.

Prestige classes really depends upon what you end up taking opposite Crusader. The crusader side benefits from a one-level dip sometime before level 14, IIRC (pushes a stance choice up one maneuver level); dipping a level in Warblade at level 13 would get you some mid level Iron Heart maneuvers and expand your repertoire.

For the two LA that would be bought off? Mineral Warrior Goliath, though probably not if you want to go Bard.
I can't tell you how long I've wanted to play a Mineral Warrior Goliath Crusader. DR 8/Adamantine, then what gets through goes into your delayed damage pool. You then heal it up with a healing strike, or the use of Stone Power (the temp hp's from Stone Power can "soak" the damage coming out of your DDP).
Are you doing gestalt where you can pick 2 tier 3 classes, tier 2 and tier 4, or tier 1 and tier 5? Or a different version?

Heck Crusader/Swordsage gestalts well if you plan on Mithral Breastplate.
Full BAB, all good saves, wisdom to AC in light armor.

Since it is gestalt and likely high OP see if you can do Crusader/Swordsage with a race/template with small size and bonuses to dex and wisdom. If you can use the Savage Species progression for Pixies do it.

The 1 racial HD that goes to a class HD, LA+2 version has:
-4 str, +6 dex, +2 wis +4 int, +4 cha;
Size small ( +1 AC, +1 to hit)
+1 Natural Armor
Dodge feat
fly 40 feet (good)
DR 10/Cold Iron

Lesser pixie powers (dancing lights, detect chaos, detect good, detect evil, detect law, entangle, and invisibility self only) 1/day each, caster level is class level + 3, save is DC + spell level + pixie's cha modifier.

Pixie powers (detect thoughts, dispel magic) 1/day each

If you can stomach LA+3 they have natural Greater Invisibility, +2 int, +2 cha, fly speed up to 60ft.

Though this would reduce you average dmg by 3, you gain a fly speed, spell like abilities, and +6 AC on a Swordsage. If you go with LA+3 you also get free Greater Invisibility as an extraordinary ability. If you will be tanking gestalt you will want things to hit as infrequent as possible.

[thethird]

I personally would go Knight // Scout

There is a lesser overlap, you get more skill points, and saves, and you also have Riposte (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)

I would consider to sprinke it with a couple of levels of fighter, feat rogue, crusader, and psy warr for feats, stances and powers.

Also there is a Knight Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109429).

[Man on Fire]

How about classic:
barbaria/Frenzied Berserker/Cleric
Specialise in healing and you're now capable of healing yourself.

[ksbsnowowl]

How about classic:
barbaria/Frenzied Berserker/Cleric.

The OP said he didn't want tier 1, which cleric most definitely is.

[Darrin]

I want a character that can soak up damage well. Gestalt. LA counts on both sides, but buyoff is allowed. PRCs are also allowed on both sides.


I'd try:

Crusader 5/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10//Paladin 5/Hellreaver 10

Both Crusader and Hellreaver give you the ability to heal yourself in combat. Finish off with more Crusader and/or Combat Medic.

[gorfnab]

Crusader 20 // Bard 8/ Virtuoso 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso 8 - Dragonfire Inspiration + spells + buffs = can lead to some serious amounts of damage

Crusader 20 // Dragon Shaman 20 - can heal and tank fairly reasonably.

[Person_Man]

You may wish to consider Incarnate//Crusader. That would give you an insane array of defensive abilities (massive bonus hit points, AC, spell resistance, damage reduction, energy resistance, deflect arrows, miss chance, Evasion, Saving Throw bonuses, Mettle), plus infinite passive healing via Divine Spirit + Theraputic Mantle soulmeld. Or if you want to go really crazy, some kind of Totemist/Incarnate/Ironsoul Forgemaster//Cleric/Crusader/Ruby Knight Vindicator.

You'd have to learn the Incarnum rules. But I think it's worth it for gestalt.