Jrandom's Ranger-Tank

[Jrandom]

So the concept is a heavy medium armor tank, who can self-heal, and still put out decent damage. But who only needs two good stats to function.

Basics: 1st Level Ranger, 2nd Level Cleric (Nature Domain), rest of the levels are all Ranger, dump stats are STR, INT, and CHA.

Feat Progression: Polearm Mastery, War Caster, +2 WIS, Resilient (CON,) then any of the following: Sentinel, Shield Master, +2 CON.

Defense: Half-Plate+Shield (with either Fighting Style: Defense and/or Armor of Faith). Later on he gets an additional +4 AC against monsters who multi-attack him. Proficient Saves are STR & DEX, high stats are CON and WIS, so his saves will be solid.

Offense: By 6th level he will get up to 5 attacks a round. His weapon is a 1H quarterstaff, buffed by Shillelagh (so he can use WIS for hit and dmg, and weapon dmg goes up to 1d8). He is Variant Human, to get Polearm Mastery, which can be used with a 1H quarterstaff, giving him Bonus and Reaction attacks.

Ranger gives him an additional attack at R3 with Horde Breaker, Attack Action x2 at R5, and at R7 he gets Multi-Attack Defensive (+4 AC to all attacks after the first by the same creature).

The 1 level of Cleric (Nature Domain) gives him Shillelagh, the healing spells (which he can use higher level Ranger Spell slots on,) and Divine Favor. He can also cast Command as reaction via War Caster/Polearm Mastery to have the incoming critter "grovel," knocking them prone and ending their turn.

So the questions I put forth are as follows:

1) Fighting Style: Do you focus on the Tank theme or increase dmg output?

a) "Defense," it is only +1 AC, but every bit counts

b) "Dueling," for +2 dmg per hit, to raise up the over all dmg per round

2) Concentration: What do you use your concentration on? I believe there are 3 contenders.

a)"Shield of Faith," fits the tank theme, +2 AC

b)"Divine Favor," +d4 radiant dmg to each hit

c)"Hunter's Mark," +d6 dmg to 1 target, but at higher levels can be maintained for 8 hours+

This is my first submission here, so I am eager to hear your feedback. I think there is quiet a bit of synergy that the build leverages.

Thank you in advance!

[djreynolds]

I love it. This is crazy advice. I have a beast master, but basically the beast uses me. I have polearm master and sentinel, and I use my reaction to attack people while the beast attacks, wolves get advantage. Its not terrible. But I like your build, the war cleric may serve you better, in that he gets a bonus attack and it can be with a great weapon. Its awesome, especially when coupled with the bless spell and either GWM or sharpshooter.

But great build. Do not forget the bless spell.

[Jrandom]

I love it. This is crazy advice. I have a beast master, but basically the beast uses me. I have polearm master and sentinel, and I use my reaction to attack people while the beast attacks, wolves get advantage. Its not terrible. But I like your build, the war cleric may serve you better, in that he gets a bonus attack and it can be with a great weapon. Its awesome, especially when coupled with the bless spell and either GWM or sharpshooter.

But great build. Do not forget the bless spell.

Thank you for your comments. I did think about War Cleric, but it ends up breaking the synergy.

Shillelagh lets him dump STR, similar to platemail letting him dump DEX.

I really like your beastmaster. This is my first attempt at a ranger, which mainly grew out of my desire to leverage Shillelagh.

P.S. I am hoping that the party healer would be using Bless on him (and the other frontliners).

[bid]

Shillelagh lets him dump STR, similar to platemail letting him dump DEX.
Str15 is far from dump.

Did you think of dumping to Str8 and using mobile feat or dwarf to compensate?

Did you think of medium armor? You can get 10 14 16 8 16 10 as a hill dwarf or half-elf. Variant human needs observant/resilient or another half-feat.

[Jrandom]

Depending on your STR, you can downgrade to Chainmail or Ringmail, which I would do over giving up Variant Human.


Variant human needs observant/resilient or another half-feat.

Not sure what you mean here?

[bid]

Depending on your STR, you can downgrade to Chainmail or Ringmail, which I would do over giving up Variant Human.
If you downgrade to chainmail, you might as well go for medium armor.

I meant variant human can only get 10 13+1 15+1 8 15+1 10 if you grab a feat that gives you the 3rd +1. You can start nature cleric with resilient(Con) for instance.

[Jrandom]

To be honest, I wasn't that familiar with the point buy system I think you are referencing. So I read up on it. You can do the following:

STR 8 15 DEX 15 8 CON 15 INT 8 WIS 15 CHA 8

So put your two +1s into CON and WIS and your good to go. You need Polearm Mastery + Quarterstaff + Shillelagh for the build to work, closely followed by War Caster. Plate armor + shield is important for the tank aspect.

[djreynolds]

This is crazy as well, how about 5 ranger and the rest cleric. Yes a bonus hit from a polearm is nice, but spiritual weapon is a better use. As is the divine strike you are missing out on.

[Foxhound438]

Str15 is far from dump.

Did you think of dumping to Str8 and using mobile feat or dwarf to compensate?

Did you think of medium armor? You can get 10 14 16 8 16 10 as a hill dwarf or half-elf. Variant human needs observant/resilient or another half-feat.

you also need 13 dex to get out of ranger...

[Arkhios]

you also need 13 dex to get out of ranger...

This. You must meet the multi-classing minimum stats both in and out of class.
e.g. a ranger/paladin would need str, dex, wis, and cha all at least 13 to be able to multi-class between the two.
For a ranger/cleric you only need to have both dex and wis 13, which is rather easy to accomplish.

To be honest, you don't need heavy armor to make a viable tank. You can instead forget strength altogether and get dex to 16, grab Medium Armor Master at some point, and you'll get AC 18 with Half-Plate and Dex +3 (equal to Plate!). Plus, you'll be quite stealthy too, as you won't get disadvantage with any medium armor ever again.

[Jrandom]

Wow... I totally missed that. Thank you. I will have to be medium armor then. It will also increase the DEX save, which is always good.

In response to DJ, going cleric would put him at a disadvantage with Hit Dice. Not good for a tank. Also, Spiritual Weapon takes up concentration.

So does anyone have an opinion on the concentration or fighting styles?

[Arkhios]

As long as you have a solid way to mitigate occasional (and eventual) damage enduced concentration checks (=constitution saving throws), you shouldn't have to worry about whether your spells had concentration or not. Having such a buff up is never bad, and really, HD 8 for a tank is not a big issue, especially if you have good defenses and constitution score.

[Jrandom]

I was referring to the questions in the original post about offense vs defense with the fighting styles and spells. :smallbiggrin:

Forgive me for not being clear.

[Arkhios]

I was referring to the questions in the original post about offense vs defense with the fighting styles and spells. :smallbiggrin:

Durr... sorry, I somehow lost trail on that thought. Then again, it's almost 10 pm here, and had a tediuous day with relatives including two screaming toddlers... It gets tiresome x_X

Anyway, judging by the modifications to the previous posts, you're not keen about taking MAM. Then I'd strongly suggest picking the Defense Fighting Style for AC 20 with half-plate, shield, and dex +2. (Even if you did take MAM, Defense Style would get my vote, since as a ranger you won't be getting Protection Style anyway.)

For the spells you were pondering on, I'd say Shield of Faith if your target is heavy hitter, but easy target. Bless if it's tough to hit, but has plenty of hit points to peel off, and you need the efforts of the whole group.
Or Divine Favor / Hunter's Mark, whichever lasts longer, if it's easy target with lots of HP.

[Jrandom]

The problem with taking another feat is..... taking another feat. I am already choking on the number of feats currently. So, I would have to put it in the "maybe" category.

Your spell advice is excellent.

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Thank you to everyone, so far, for your feedback!

[djreynolds]

My wizard tanks all the time. Clerics can tank better than most, spirit guardians and spiritual weapon and healing and radiant damaging cantrips is where it is at.

Ranger 5/ war cleric 15... very, very nasty. Two attacks and use your bonus attack/action to shift around spiritual weapon.

[Jrandom]

Just looked up that Guardian Spirits spell. Wow. Brutal. Definitely something to consider.

[djreynolds]

Just looked up that Guardian Spirits spell. Wow. Brutal. Definitely something to consider.

I think you have to ask yourself

How many levels will the campaign really go
Do you really want whirlwind attack, and why not it is cool
And you are not stealth

Grab at least 5 of ranger, and then decide if you want to go to 11th and grab volley, that's your goal, this class feature defines my character.

When dirty Halflings surround you and you want to beat them all of them senseless with a stick, then you go for at least 11 levels of ranger.

And then grab enough cleric to take advantage of that high wisdom score.