[3.5] Sword and Board as Characters

[A.A.King]

A tank needs to do two things, be able to take a lot of hits and be able to dish-out a lot of damage. Now I was wondering how you would go about, if you were to divide this role over two characters. Two brothers, one "The Sword" and the other "The Board", who fight together. One can "go Nova" because he knows the other has his back.

Now, I'm not looking for just an Ubercharger build and a Lockdown Crusader. I'm looking for builds/feats/stuff which truly compliments each other. Two build which work better because they are both there. For "The Board" brother I think of feats like "Shield Wall", something which only works because both brothers have a shield, or stuff like "Dutiful Guardian" and "Constant Guardian", which allow "The Board" to truly look out for "The Sword".

I'm looking for the non-magical/psionic/incarnum stuff, just the fighting stuff which they can have thought themselves (this includes ToB but do mention the maneuvers you think would work mainly because of their teamwork instead of just saying "Warblade 20" or something similiar, I've not yet really looked into the maneuvers)


So, how to best split the Tank in 2 parts in such a way that both parts together are greater then the sum of the individuals

[Jormengand]

A tank needs to do two things, be able to take a lot of hits and be able to dish-out a lot of damage.

Real tanks do neither of these. They stubbornly refuse to take any hits, dodging away from anything that could harm them, and leave this "Damage dealing" nonsense to the others - hence the board, which increases AC but not health or DR, and reduces damage.

With that in mind, what you're looking to build is a pretty no-standard tank, and a pretty non-standard damage dealer. I don't really know how I'd do that, but bear it in mind.

[eggynack]

Real tanks do neither of these. They stubbornly refuse to take any hits, dodging away from anything that could harm them, and leave this "Damage dealing" nonsense to the others - hence the board, which increases AC but not health or DR, and reduces damage.

Well, that's true most of the time, but crusaders can manage standard tanking pretty decently. Given that that's what he's doing, things should be fine.

[A.A.King]

I guess I got my definitions a bit mixed up. I do know they don't only take hits, I'm not looking for a punching bag, but surely when you try to draw all attacks in you will also get hit.

But to clarify, I'm looking for builds/feats/combos for two characters, one who focuses on a dealing a lot of damage and another which focuses on making sure that the first one doesn't get hit (and that he hopefully doesn't get hit either). With the main thing being that they should work best when together, I'm not against the standard stuff perse but surely there is stuff out there that is mainly considered "bad" or "sub-optimal" because it is situational, too much dependant on an other character. Stuff which would work perfectly fine when two builds are tailored around it.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Just make a Dvati Crusader, both with sword and board. Buy off the level adjustment, then gain Mineral Warrior and buy that off as well. One can use a full attack or a stone dragon strike with Stone Power, the other can full attack or use a high-damage Devoted Spirit strike. Either one can use a defensive boost like Shield Block to the other's benefit, though keep in mind that they use a shared pool of stances. If both of them have Iron Guard's Glare active everything takes a -4 to hit regardless.

[A.A.King]

I don't really like Dvati, it's also not two characters, it's just weird....

[Gwendol]

Have you looked at the devoted defender prc? It's in Sword and Fist.
I've toyed with the idea of pairing up two DD's as they will be constantly switching places and deflecting attacks directed at the other one.

[A.A.King]

That sounds very interesting, do you think that would work nicely with 2 Small Characters who have the "Swarmfighting" feat? So that both could be in the same square.

[Gwendol]

I would concentrate on getting spell reflection on one of them and also getting the shield slam feats.

[Diarmuid]

The problem with splitting up the "taking damage " and the "dealing damage" aspects is that if you aren't good at dealing damage, there's no reason for the enemy to waste any time trying to kill you before they deal with the actual threats.

There are very few mundane ways to " have someone's back" in d&d. Crusaders shield block or whatever it's called let's then boost another's AC. Similarly, iron guards glare provides a penalty for attacking others.

Edit - Phalanx Fighting is a feat that grants bonuses for fighting with others who have the same feat.

[PaucaTerrorem]

For "The Board" I would go with battlefield control melee. Making sure that no one can get a full attack on "The Sword" while also helping him get his full attacks.

[A.A.King]

For "The Board" I would go with battlefield control melee. Making sure that no one can get a full attack on "The Sword" while also helping him get his full attacks.

But how to create synergy?

[Captnq]

Check out my sig. Get the EVD. Check out the combat section. Look up shields and Armor Special Abilities. For the Sword, check out the weapons and the WSAs. Should help.