A mediocre hit die tank

[Levistej]

So, I'll be finishing up my campaign soon and one of the players is gonna be following up with his setting which we still dont know much about.
We're starting from level 3 with one feat of the bat and I've rolled some great stats: 18, 16, 13, 13, 12, 8

There's 4 of us, and UA as well as homebrew from the Sterling Vermin site is allowed. One guy will almost certainly play a Scholar from sterling vermin, it's something like a 4e warlord with lots of skills added to the mix.

The main problem with this group is that mostly no one but myself wants to play a tank. I enjoy playing melee characters but decided to try something different to benifit from my good rolls.

I need you to help me decide between 3 concepts that I've narrowed my options to.

1. Hill dwarf or Yuan ti mystic - str 18, dex 8, con 18, int 13, wis 14, cha 12 - with the shield master feat and the psionic weapon, iron durability and third eye disciplines.
Psi weapon gives me smites and magic damage on demand, Iron durability boosts my defenses when needed and Third eye offers great utility with blindsight basically at will.

2. Hill dwarf remastered Monk of the 4 elements - str 8, dex 18, con 15, int 12, wis 17, cha 13 - the feat of choice would be snake style martial artist from sterling vermin( + 2 ac when unarmed and unarmored + a sssituational reaction attack).
Seems like a well rounded atempt at making the monk a glorified tank given that I intend to invest my fourth level ability score bonus in con and wis. With the battlefield control and mobility the monk provides and a more then passable AC of 19, I think this build could hold the frontlines quite well

3. Hill dwarf(yeah, I love them) cleric of the forge - str 13, dex 8, con 18, int 13, wis 19, cha 12 - warcaster as the feat of choice.
This builds brings a tear of joy to my eye cause I would basically play as a stoic dward trying to perfect his mech suit, otherwise it would be standard a cleric buff bot with the added bonus of Seek and destroy playing when the defense system known as spirit guardians activates.

The race of choice is dwarf or yuan-ti, for the rest, I'd greatly apreciate any input.

[Gwendol]

So, I'll be finishing up my campaign soon and one of the players is gonna be following up with his setting which we still dont know much about.
We're starting from level 3 with one feat of the bat and I've rolled some great stats: 18, 16, 13, 13, 12, 8

There's 4 of us, and UA as well as homebrew from the Sterling Vermin site is allowed. One guy will almost certainly play a Scholar from sterling vermin, it's something like a 4e warlord with lots of skills added to the mix.

The main problem with this group is that mostly no one but myself wants to play a tank. I enjoy playing melee characters but decided to try something different to benifit from my good rolls.

3. Hill dwarf(yeah, I love them) cleric of the forge - str 13, dex 8, con 18, int 13, wis 19, cha 12 - warcaster as the feat of choice.
This builds brings a tear of joy to my eye cause I would basically play as a stoic dward trying to perfect his mech suit, otherwise it would be standard a cleric buff bot with the added bonus of Seek and destroy playing when the defense system known as spirit guardians activates.

The race of choice is dwarf or yuan-ti, for the rest, I'd greatly apreciate any input.

Cleric of the Forge is your choice! With WIS already close to maxing out you will be an absolute beast already hitting your second ASI.

[Citan]

So, I'll be finishing up my campaign soon and one of the players is gonna be following up with his setting which we still dont know much about.
We're starting from level 3 with one feat of the bat and I've rolled some great stats: 18, 16, 13, 13, 12, 8

There's 4 of us, and UA as well as homebrew from the Sterling Vermin site is allowed. One guy will almost certainly play a Scholar from sterling vermin, it's something like a 4e warlord with lots of skills added to the mix.

The main problem with this group is that mostly no one but myself wants to play a tank. I enjoy playing melee characters but decided to try something different to benifit from my good rolls.

I need you to help me decide between 3 concepts that I've narrowed my options to.

1. Hill dwarf or Yuan ti mystic - str 18, dex 8, con 18, int 13, wis 14, cha 12 - with the shield master feat and the psionic weapon, iron durability and third eye disciplines.
Psi weapon gives me smites and magic damage on demand, Iron durability boosts my defenses when needed and Third eye offers great utility with blindsight basically at will.

2. Hill dwarf remastered Monk of the 4 elements - str 8, dex 18, con 15, int 12, wis 17, cha 13 - the feat of choice would be snake style martial artist from sterling vermin( + 2 ac when unarmed and unarmored + a sssituational reaction attack).
Seems like a well rounded atempt at making the monk a glorified tank given that I intend to invest my fourth level ability score bonus in con and wis. With the battlefield control and mobility the monk provides and a more then passable AC of 19, I think this build could hold the frontlines quite well

3. Hill dwarf(yeah, I love them) cleric of the forge - str 13, dex 8, con 18, int 13, wis 19, cha 12 - warcaster as the feat of choice.
This builds brings a tear of joy to my eye cause I would basically play as a stoic dward trying to perfect his mech suit, otherwise it would be standard a cleric buff bot with the added bonus of Seek and destroy playing when the defense system known as spirit guardians activates.

The race of choice is dwarf or yuan-ti, for the rest, I'd greatly apreciate any input.
If by "tanking" you are talking about purely "surviving hits", then 2. and 3. are equally good imo (note that I don't where your "snake style" come from at all).
Monk will have AC 20 at level 4 unarmored, arrows deflect, Evasion, Dodge for a Ki, and many useful abilities from 4 Elements (including extra reach when needed).
Forge has +1 armor ability, 20 AC from heavy armor + shield, and can blow slots on Shield. So "pike" AC is better than Monk, but once out of slots it's lesser than the Monk (much lesser while Monk has ki, somewhat lesser when the Monk is also out of resources).

If by tanking you mean "aggro", then Cleric is no doubt better, thanks to Command spell.

As for control, both are good but in different ways. With Monk your main control will be "soft control" aka "position control", using push/prone/pull abilities from Monk, then later dividing the battlefield thanks to the Wall spells.
Cleric will get a much more versatile array to influence thanks to Heat Metal, Blindness, Silence, Bestow Curse, Magic Circle, etc...

So if you are more interested in direct control, Forge Cleric is by far the way to go. Monk is fun, and will catch up in global efficiency in the end because he can cast several 4th or 5th level spells each short rest, but you have only a few abilities to play with during a good part of your career so you may find it a bit repetitive in the long run (common trait or martials compared to any fullcaster truly ;)).

[Grod_The_Giant]

Immortal Mystic. Immortal Mystics are insanely sticky. Forget the d8; you get temporary hit points every round, to say nothing of real healing when your health is low. You like Shield? How 'bout imposing Disadvantage on attack rolls, and a penalty if they do hit you, for a tiny fraction of your magic/day. Prefer AC? You can do that too; up to +6 AC after seeing the result of the attack, easy, and +1 AC all day long. Self healing? You can self-heal. Energy Resistance? Also on the table.

[Vaz]

Dwarf Fiend Blade Warlock, maybe Dip Fighter first for some HD and a Fighting Style (although it granting HA might make Yuan Ti better). Heavy Armour, Armour of Agathys for Temp HP, making them hit damage, Arms of Hadar, Darkness and Devil's Sight for BFC from Warlock 2.

Magic Initiate can pick up Shillelagh for Wis to damage, but that gives up Charisma from ECL14 (if dipping fighter 2), but unless you are going that far you don't need Cha unless you are doing DC spells. Goodberry gives you a 10 free HP when out of combat, and you can stack them on your days off, while Guidance combined with Beguiling Presence is like an average +5 to Persuade/Bluff, which could be useful early game (swap away later unless you are pushing Cha).

Armour of Agathys gets you 25 Temp HP maxed out, False Life gets you like 10 when that is down. Pick up Invesiture of Stone for Arcanum at 6th to get 1/day resistance vs Non magic and you to deal twice as much AoA damage.

Hex, plus Q'Staff and Shillelagh means you are dealing like 1d8+5+1d6 each turn. I mean, a Tome Lock can do it better, but Tome Locks aren't melee, they are Eldritch Blasters, mainly because they only have 1 melee attack/turn, and don't get Haste; and if they did, would probably spend it on Eldritch Blast.

[Levistej]

Yeah, the party is mostly formed with a Scholar and a Shadow monk as the two choices so we are only waiting for the third player which is 99% gonna play a caster.
With that party composition and the Scholars ability to grant other players weapon attacks at will I think that the mystic would most likely be the best choice due to psionic weapon.

I now just face a choice between the feat that will effect my playstyle. If I go hill dwarf, my stats at level 3 will be:

Str:18
Dex: 8
Con: 18
Int: 13
Wis: 14
Cha: 12

I was previously thinking about going with sheld master but the high HP - 33 at level 3; fairly good AC - 17 or 18, depending on which power I focus on; and a way to constantly grant myself THP, I think that I should reevaluate my choices.
The mystic has one downside - the lack of extra attack, which due to the built in ability to smite, reduces my chances to proc a psionic weapon burst when needed. To counter that, the only 2 real choices are:

1. Polearm master - self explanatory, easily one of the best feats in the PHB

2. Dual weilding - I know it's suboptimal, but I don't wanna be overshadowing the others in my party

If dual weilding, I would be equiped with a warhammer and a handaxe while the feat of choice would be heavy armor master. That would give me some damage reduction whilst at the same time putting my STR to 19 and thereby giving me the option to boost both my strength and my inteligence to an even number come level 4.

Also, there's something about the image of a dual weilding dwarf in heavy armor that makes me smile. I'm just worried that Heavy armor master might be a slight trap of a feat. Damage reduction /3 seems uninspiring, but I guess that opens me to the possibility of picking up any magical weapon we might encounter and has the bonus of synergizing nicely with the mystics barrage of inflowing THP.

[Grod_The_Giant]

How 'bout Dual Wielder? Gets you another +1 AC and marginally more respectable off-hand damage, though you'll still want to dip Fighter if you're serious about it. Heavy Armor Master starts out good and goes downhill reasonably quickly...

There's also always the option of just grabbing Keen Mind, Linguist, or Observant to round off that 13 Intelligence. I miiiight actually go that route, because you'll definitely want that Int score pretty decent. Take a Fighter level next for the two-weapon fighting style, then go back to Mystic for the ASI.

[Socratov]

If by tanking you mean: taking the hits on the front line so others don't have to, here's tanking:


Tanking by HP
Tanking by AC
Tanking by temp HP/healing
Tanking by Resistances
tanking by crowd control (CC)


1. This method of tanking is simple: take barbarian, pump con into the stratosphere, be a hill dwarf, take Tough for a feat.
pros: straightforward, and works every time, as it also grants decent protection from finger of Death and Power Word Kill.
cons: you can run out of HP quickly vs spells and/or focusfire.
corollary: HP will be necessary to sufficiently tank as it governs the hits you can take, which will be your primary function as a tank.

2. This spot goes to either the bladesinger or the EK who can reach sublime AC upwards of 25. Quite effective at the front line, as the harder you are to hit, the longer your HP will last you.
pros: due to lots of effects are hit to AC, so this defence is pretty solid, even versus a lot of spells.
cons: due to bounded accuracy it's quite hard to really make it stick: While most, If not all, classes can reach AC 18 with little ease, getting past 22 requires a bit more effort, and going past 25 is really hard to do unless you invest heavily.

3. The warlock or a healer class will give you this method easily, but nobody can deny that the druid truly is a master of this. The best way of tanking is making sure that it isn't your HP that is being whittled down by the enemy. Or on the other hand, why be sad for lost HP when you can replenish them at your leisure
pros: the methods come on-line early and cost little resources and often recharge on a short rest (warlock and moondruid in particular)
cons: Temp Hp often don't last long. 1 or 2 hits and it's gone. For better temp HP you will often need to spend resources that are rather limited (Warlock spellslots, Druid wildshape uses) for the time being.
Corollary, once the druid achieves infinite wildshapes he can temp HP tank until pigs fly. but that is at lvl 20 so it takes a long tim eto set up.

4. Resistances make your HP last twice as long! Now all you need is become a Bearbarian and you've got all of 'em covered at lvl 3 except for psychic.
pro: easy to get, straightforward to use.
con: well, your Hp can still run out and some effects like Finger of Death and Power Word Kill will go right past those precious resistances

5. Now this is where the world opens up: it's not necessarily tanking as you aren't intending to take hits. However, making sure that the enemy can't (or won't) attack is the most surefire way of not suffering loss of HP and eventually death. Making sure an encounter goes of without a fight is in the realm of Bards (and sorcerers) due to high CHA and a decent spell list. Once a fight does break out the martials can knock people prone and grapple them, but the casters reign supreme: form a safe distance they are able to Hold Person/Monster, Entangle, and have you and between them are able to target any method of defence, be they AC, saves, skills, you name it.
pros: really, really effective if done right (raising main attribute, inflicting disadvantage on the save, cutting words and portent)
cons: it will invariably use up resources, in some cases precious resources even. Besides, not every class has access to every spell for every method of targeting.
Corollary: special mention for classes that can go 'Nova': they can swiftly deal the best form of crowd control by killing the other person. The problem with this tactic, however is that if the target in question does not go down you will have spent considerable resources without reaching your objective that means you are up **** creek without a paddle as you are standing next to someone who has reason to be extremely and viciously prejudiced against you. If it works, however, you will have made a great contribution to the party not!dieing.

Now others above me have contributed greatly to the various ways, I just wanted to complete the picture. If you nave any questions about other ways please ask.