A Shield Hero???

[maximumride36]

A friend of mine is going to be starting a new game once her time clears up and obviously characters must be made. But I really want to make a shield wielder. Like the shield is my main weapon. I just want to be a wall that protects the party. I'm not that interested in doing crazy damage. I want to be protection oriented. I was thinking fighter could be a good way to do this, but I'm not sure if I should try multi classing into other things and just what would help make my shield better any what not. So if there's anyone who'd know how to attempt this I'd love some advice.

[Beastrolami]

Eldritch knight with shield spell... maybe go magic initiate and grab an extra shield, or shield of faith.

Wield a shield in one hand and magic in the other. (magic to cast shield, lolz)

because neither shield nor shield of faith require an action, use your action to dodge. Or, go human and take shield mastery as your feat, and block AOEs with your shield.

If you commit to tanking, and forego the damage dealing abilities, you can be pretty hard to take down.

[Addaran]

A friend of mine is going to be starting a new game once her time clears up and obviously characters must be made. But I really want to make a shield wielder. Like the shield is my main weapon. I just want to be a wall that protects the party. I'm not that interested in doing crazy damage. I want to be protection oriented. I was thinking fighter could be a good way to do this, but I'm not sure if I should try multi classing into other things and just what would help make my shield better any what not. So if there's anyone who'd know how to attempt this I'd love some advice.

Normal RAW way would probably be to get tavern brawler and use it to hit people for 1d4+str (maybe more if the DM is nice). I'd highly suggest Shield Master as well, so you can put the enemies on the ground first with a bonus action (or push them away from a squishy so they can retreat). If you want to multiclass, maybe eventually grab expertise in athletic.

[Prince Zahn]

I'm not an optimizer by any means, but I'll see what I can pitch in:
-What level will this character be? do you need to be variant human if you want to take a feat?

You don't have to be a fighter if you don't want to (but it would help to get some feats like shield master). really any class with that offers the Protection Fighting Style will do quite nicely. Paladin might be a good alternative for a defense-based warrior in particular, as you get (some) healing options, spells like Compelled Duel can keep the attention of enemies on you, and away from your comrades. and you can find some pretty cool defensive options from oaths.

You will probably want to invest in the Athletics skill so you can shove people well with your shield.

Some feats you might want to consider for your build include: shield master (for obvious reasons), Sentinel (aka "if you want to kill my friends you have to kill me first!"), Mobile(get to allies who need you faster), Defensive Duelist(for additional defense), Resilient(another save), Durable(more health), tough(see:durable), or Mage Slayer(shut down enemy spellcasters); depedinding on your personal tastes.

I hope this helps you!

[JellyPooga]

Paladin/Rogue does the "Guardian Protector" very well. Between Paladin Auras and Rogue mobility and Expertise, this multiclass does a bang-up job of being a protector. I'd advise V.Human for Sentinel at 1st level, take Paladin to 6th for Fighting Style and Aura of Protection (taking Shield Master at 4th), then dip Rogue 2 for Expertise and Cunning Action. After that, you can advance either Rogue or Paladin, depending on what your preferred style is.

[Specter]

"Hey man, heard you like shields, so I gave you some Eldritch Knight levels so you can cast Shield while using a shield!"

You will need Tavern Brawler to attack decently with the shield, because it will be an improvised weapon. Then Protection style, and go to town. As a variant human fighter, you can get a starting feat and 7 ASI's, which will be good for what you want (Tavern Brawler, Resilient WIS, Tough, Sentinel... that's all protection stuff.)

[Galadhrim]

I am currently playing a character with a similar outlook on battle.

He is an Oath of the Crown Paladin in a party with a wild sorcerer and an illusionist wizard. So far he has done a good job of being big and scary enough to attract attention and resilient enough to withstand that attention. The channel divinity champion's challenge really helps keep enemies on me and off of the casters. I did not take protection style because between the channel divinity and compelled duel, hopefully not too many things will be smacking my friends so I took defense instead. If I do find that I need something to protect them when they are getting hit, I will go to level 7 for the Divine Allegiance (damage redirection). I plan to multiclass in to Lore Bard for cutting words and athletics expertise. I will take shield master at Bard 4. I'm not sure if it's the most optimized but it seems fun and it think will be effective and is based in large part around using the shield (although not for actual damage as you were talking about, I will still use a sword for that).

If shield is your primary aim you could do shield master at 4 (or even 1 if V. Human).

[PeteNutButter]

The easiest way to "tank" in 5e is actually grapple+shove prone.

If you don't want to use a weapon you could grab people and beat them with your shield.

I'd suggest Tavern Brawler and/or Shield Master feats, taking fighter or barbarian while dipping a level in rogue for expertise in athletics. (Or the new UA feat if it's allowed.)

You can hit people with your shield, and bonus action shove or grapple. Tavern Brawler is really all you need, unless you want to hold off on the shoving until round 2, due to bonus action competition.

While it only works against a single foe, an enemy that is grappled can't stand up, giving your melee allies advantage to hit them, and your foe disadvantage on all his attacks.

Bottom line is if you want to hit people with a shield, you probably want tavern brawler. If you have tavern brawler you might as well grab people, as a bonus action.

[Galadhrim]

The easiest way to "tank" in 5e is actually grapple+shove prone.

If you don't want to use a weapon you could grab people and beat them with your shield.

I'd suggest Tavern Brawler and/or Shield Master feats, taking fighter or barbarian while dipping a level in rogue for expertise in athletics. (Or the new UA feat if it's allowed.)

You can hit people with your shield, and bonus action shove or grapple. Tavern Brawler is really all you need, unless you want to hold off on the shoving until round 2, due to bonus action competition.

While it only works against a single foe, an enemy that is grappled can't stand up, giving your melee allies advantage to hit them, and your foe disadvantage on all his attacks.

Bottom line is if you want to hit people with a shield, you probably want tavern brawler. If you have tavern brawler you might as well grab people, as a bonus action.

I have only tried the shove+grapple technique in an actual game once. My DM ruled that since they were prone, I would also need to be prone to grapple them, which left me taking attacks at advantage from other creatures. Is this RAW?

I like to shove them down then walk away. They get an opportunity attack at disadvantage but it takes half their movement to get up so I can typically get outside of their movement range. You can't repeat it infinitely but that gives at least some rounds where no one takes an attack and still controls the enemy enough that they cannot get to backline casters.

[PeteNutButter]

I have only tried the shove+grapple technique in an actual game once. My DM ruled that since they were prone, I would also need to be prone to grapple them, which left me taking attacks at advantage from other creatures. Is this RAW?

No RAW. RAW you can totally hold someone down without being prone yourself.

A big thing to consider as far as grapple in 5e goes is that it doesn't function like full blown wrestling holding. It's more like holding in football (American), just grabbing a bit of their clothing or some such. It doesn't ever specify this in the rules, but the rules make a whole lot more sense when pictured this way.

As for the holding while prone, the big thing to think of that might help your DM reconsider is that humans are not binary in positioning, either prone or not prone. I've used a character doing this and I'd describe it more like holding them at their knees, whilst you pummel them, something frequently seen in action movies etc. Someone on their knees would logically be suffering from the prone condition mechanically. They don't have the ability to use their legs for leverage for attacking (so disadvantage) and can't feasible avoid attacks (so advantage to hit them). They are still technically a smaller target, so ranged attacks have disadvantage. It all makes sense mechanically and is in line with RAW.



I like to shove them down then walk away. They get an opportunity attack at disadvantage but it takes half their movement to get up so I can typically get outside of their movement range. You can't repeat it infinitely but that gives at least some rounds where no one takes an attack and still controls the enemy enough that they cannot get to backline casters.

Not horrible, but definitely subpar if you can convince your DM of what I said above. Could work nicely if teammates use Booming Blade.