Fighter or barb

[SliceandDiceKid]

Starting a new campaign. I'm rolling a warlock/sorcerer, friends are rolling illusionist wizard/sorcerer and life domain cleric. Our final party member wants to tank. Idk whether he wants sword and board or two hand. Any advice for one class over the other? We're going to run HotDQ.

[hymer]

Starting a new campaign. I'm rolling a warlock/sorcerer, friends are rolling illusionist wizard/sorcerer and life domain cleric. Our final party member wants to tank. Idk whether he wants sword and board or two hand. Any advice for one class over the other? We're going to run HotDQ.

The barbarian has the better hit die, and gets resistance to weapon attacks while raging. I'd definitely call him the more durable tank out of the box, and if he builds for it (high AC, bear totem), he becomes very hard to destroy.

[Daishain]

If I recall correctly, the way the numbers play out the barbarian is the stronger tank and DPS while rage is active. However, the fighter pulls ahead in both categories as soon as the Barb runs out of anger juice.

I haven't had the chance to play HotDQ myself yet, but my understanding is that you won't get much in the way of chances to rest. With that in mind, fighter is likely to serve better in the long haul, especially if you can get a heavy armor master feat in there.

[hymer]

If I recall correctly, the way the numbers play out the barbarian is the stronger tank and DPS while rage is active. However, the fighter pulls ahead in both categories as soon as the Barb runs out of anger juice.

This is pretty accurate from levels 1-10. From level 11, the fighter just deals more damage, whether the barbarian is raging or not. There is the possible or partial exception of a frenzied barbarian, who is ahead or keeps up while raging until level 20, when the fighter gets his last attack. But the fighter can find ways to attack with his bonus action too.
Comparing a resource spending barbarian with a fighter not spending resources isn't entirely easy. And the fighter's choices in resources to spend will mean a great deal (he can go for something offensive or something defensive, e.g.), as will the relative fickleness of rage - it drops if you don't attack every round.

[Aramis Rhett]

Fighter hands down. Not all encounters are going to allow a bear totem tank to shine his/her brightest. Fighters don't have as much burst awesomeness, but they are very consistent. Granted you could make a BEAST barb tank by stacking dex and con and going without armor. Have a rapier or other finesse weapon with a shield until you get your strength up there.

[SliceandDiceKid]

I saw that with high ability rolls, barb could start with crazy AC. Which of the three fighter archetypes is strongest suited to tank? Is the battle master an obvious choice, or can he go crit fishing without losing much defensively?

[D1ng]

EK fighter can be an amazing tank with shield at lvl 3 and blur at lvl 7, but HotDQ is supposed to be pretty deadly at early levels, so the extra health and durability of the barbarian might be superior.

That said, you have a life cleric so healing will be plentiful and he might then be more concerned with making the enemy attack him than with dealing with the hits. You could always take the sentinel feat, but a fighter gets the protection feature, which is amazing, and edges out the Barbarian...

If he's torn he can always mix and match, grabbing fighter for the protection and barbarian for the rage/resistance

[Rilak]

If you don't have players giving you advantage on attack rolls, the Barbarian is really good at dealing damage compared to fighters. 2+1 attacks with advantage at Barbarian 11 vs. 3+1 attacks at Fighter 11 (Polearm Master).
If you hit at 11+, Barbarian has 0.8*3=2.4 hits. The Fighter has 2.2 hits. Granted, the Barbarian gives his opponents advantage on attack rolls (but he also takes half damage). And the Fighter crits more often. But whatever, they are pretty similar in damage.

Barbarian/Fighter multi-class is pretty strong, too.

[Person_Man]

Moon Druid is probably the best tank because of how Wildshape works.

Bear Totem Barbarian is probably the best Tank in a few encounters per day because Rage grants Resistance to almost everything.

Cleric (and to a lesser extent, Bard and Paladin) is a back door tank due to healing ability. Also, if your party does not have a dedicated healer, you will only get through one or two combat encounters before needing a Short or Long Rest.

Warlock 2+ is surprisingly amazingly tanky due to the Armor of Agathys spell, which can be recast after a Short Rest.

Rogue 7 and Paladin 7 are even more amazingly tanky once their defensive class abilities kick in.

[SliceandDiceKid]

If I circumvent the lack of rest with tiny hut for rest, would barbarian be more sustainable?

[SliceandDiceKid]

Moon Druid is probably the best tank because of how Wildshape works.

Bear Totem Barbarian is probably the best Tank in a few encounters per day because Rage grants Resistance to almost everything.

Cleric (and to a lesser extent, Bard and Paladin) is a back door tank due to healing ability. Also, if your party does not have a dedicated healer, you will only get through one or two combat encounters before needing a Short or Long Rest.

Warlock 2+ is surprisingly amazingly tanky due to the Armor of Agathys spell, which can be recast after a Short Rest.

Rogue 7 and Paladin 7 are even more amazingly tanky once their defensive class abilities kick in.

Thanks. I'll check out moon Druid.

[TheCrowing1432]

Sentinal Fighter is pretty tanky too

[SliceandDiceKid]

So 5 fighter, 3/4 barb, then fighter to finish out. (4th barb for another feat)

Human or half-Orc depending on stats
Sword and board champion
Take bear totem

[MustacheFart]

So 5 fighter, 3/4 barb, then fighter to finish out. (4th barb for another feat)

Human or half-Orc depending on stats
Sword and board champion
Take bear totem

If he wants to "tank" I wouldn't go champion with the fighter levels. I would go Battermaster and pick up the maneuver that goads an enemy to attack you.

[SliceandDiceKid]

He won't be able to resist the crit range increase.

[MustacheFart]

He won't be able to resist the crit range increase.

Then it sounds like he wants a straight forward beatstick. If that's the case, I would recommend a big great axe and the Great Weapon Master feat. He'll have great fun cleaving crap down while being hard to kill.

[SliceandDiceKid]

Nope. Defensive build

[MustacheFart]

Nope. Defensive build

Then he should go battlemaster. LOl Going in circles...ultimately he'll probably be fine. Have him pick up a two-hander as well in case he decides he wants to dish it out more than take it.

[SliceandDiceKid]

Then he should go battlemaster. LOl Going in circles...ultimately he'll probably be fine. Have him pick up a two-hander as well in case he decides he wants to dish it out more than take it.

I'm certain he'll have a TH and a bow. Thank you for the input!

[Theodoxus]

I'm certain he'll have a TH and a bow. Thank you for the input!

My human fighter (Sentinel) with HAM (4th) and Defensive combat style (because I didn't think about Protection when I rolled him) is probably going Paladin at 5th, to grab Protection at 6th (Paladin 2). This will make his already impressive tanking that much more, by adding healing and eventually more defense against spells.

I was lucky (we rolled stats) in that my CHA just happened to be 13 - otherwise I'd just stick fighter.

I'm less concerned about the extra attack at 5th fighter (though might opt to grab it after Pally 2 if it becomes an issue) as the rest of the party is very combat oriented - me adding a bit more dps is less important than being able to block passages - if only LoH was a Bonus action instead of an Action... OP probably, but very handy in keeping a tank up and viable...

[Soular]

I went sword and board as a Fighter-Champion with the Duelist fighting style. I easily do as much damage as my companions, and tank pretty darn well too. Time will tell if either function drops in relevance at higher levels.