Make me a tank

[Foxydono]

After reading the revised Ancestral Guardian Path I decided to make a tank for a high-level campaign I'm starting in. We start at lvl 15 and can pick one very rare and one legendary item to start with. For the very rare item I was thinking of taking a +3 shield. As for stats I rolled 18, 16, 14, 11, 9, 7. The other partymembers are playing multiclass shadowmonk/rogue, warlock/sorcerer and a divener wizard. So, give me your best shot for a tank! Multiclassing, all official material and UA are available.

Was thinking myself to go part Lore bard, ranger monster slayer or maybe treachery paladin. Or just go pure barbarian, but open for anything so suprise me. Also, what race and feats should I pick?

[Kane0]

Goliath or Half Orc Spirit Barbarian 12 / Battlemaster Fighter 3 (alternatively scout or monster hunter)
You won't need many ASIs with those stats so take feats like Sentinel / PAM / GWM feats and rock the heavy armor with big weapon. Maybe Resilient (Wis) though.
Whatever fighting style you like.

Get in close, start up rage and reckless attack. Beat down your opposition if they take you on, beat them down more if they avoid you.

A good defensive and offensive pair of items seems good, something like Ring of Regeneration or Spell Turning and a Frostbrand, sword of sharpness or Vorpal sword. Belt of Super strength is also a good choice.

Edit: Wait, Sentinel and Spirit Barbarian compete for reactions. Maybe swap for something else. Skill/Race feat, mobility, lucky, whatever.

[JellyPooga]

Hill Dwarf Rogue 7/Wolf Totem Barbarian 8

- Hill Dwarf + 20 Con + Uncanny Dodge + Evasion + Rage = All the HP and can happily sit in the middle of friendly AoE fire.

- Athletics Expertise + Rage + Shield Master = Knock-down-shove-around and grapple shenanigans.

- Sneak Attack + Sentinel = Draw aggro by being a significant threat on other peoples turns.

- Wolf Totem = Be useful just standing next to your foes, let alone anything else.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Edit: Wait, Sentinel and Spirit Barbarian compete for reactions. Maybe swap for something else. Skill/Race feat, mobility, lucky, whatever.

They do, but it's not too bad if you're tanking. You use Sentinel to keep monsters from getting past you, you use Spirit Barbarian powers to defend your friends if the monsters are already past you.

[Angelmaker]

the heavy armor with big weapon. Maybe Resilient (Wis) though.
Whatever fighting style you like.

Get in close, start up rage and reckless attack.

Currently AFB, but can you rage while wearing heavy armor?

Otherwise I second any flavour of barbarian. The damage resistance from rage is rock solid.

[X3r4ph]

You can also do a fair bit of tanking with a Dwarven Immortal Mystic. Yummy ThP for free. The Celerity Discipline lets you use the Dodge Action as a Bonus Action, combined with Dwarven Resilience makes for a really tanky combo. Iron Durability gives you Rage like resistances to damage. Adaptive Body and Intellect Fortress lets you resist everything else as a Reaction.

Stickyness comes from the 5 levesl of Fighter (Knight). You need this anyways for the Extra Attack, and why not get all the other goodies from fighter AND a really strong marking ability and punishing strike that doesn't cost you a Reaction.

The Mystic gives you various smite like abilities if you want to deal more damage. Beastial Form is especially good since it can be used on your Reactions... it also gives you a cheap +2 AC.

Start with Fighter for the proficiency in Constitution. You want this to keep your concentration going.

[Citan]

After reading the revised Ancestral Guardian Path I decided to make a tank for a high-level campaign I'm starting in. We start at lvl 15 and can pick one very rare and one legendary item to start with. For the very rare item I was thinking of taking a +3 shield. As for stats I rolled 18, 16, 14, 11, 9, 7. The other partymembers are playing multiclass shadowmonk/rogue, warlock/sorcerer and a divener wizard. So, give me your best shot for a tank! Multiclassing, all official material and UA are available.

Was thinking myself to go part Lore bard, ranger monster slayer or maybe treachery paladin. Or just go pure barbarian, but open for anything so suprise me. Also, what race and feats should I pick?
Hi!
With these stats, it would be a bit hard but still doable to create a tank based on stats.

The basics of a tank
- high based AC
- ways to increase defense temporarily
- optionally, ways to aggro people.

Since you are opened to suggestions, I was thinking about the following builds (no UA).

Wood Elf Eldricht Knight 11 / Bladesinger Wizard 4.
Dex+INT based, dual-wielding, using Shield and Mirror Image as needed.
First ASI on INT (starting 16)
Base AC is Mage Armor (13 + 5) = 18. When bladesinging you get another nifty +4 or +5 depending on whether you want to max INT or not.

Variant: Eldricht Knight 10 / Bladesinger Wizard 5 if you care more about using Eldricht Strike to unleash powerful spells or plan on using Haste as your go-to concentration spell.

Options: Defensive Duelist feat (don't spend a slot on Shield for a single attack), Dual Wielder (AC bonus and ability to dual-wield non light weapons), Mobile (always great on multi attack, mobile warriors), Mage Slayer (especially good with mobility).

In both cases, you are a powerful warrior (4 attacks per turn dual-wielding) with a nice array of nifty options (weapon cantrips, ranged cantrips, 1st, 2nd and possibly 3rd level spells) and great nova capabilities (Action Surge).
You won't tiptoe on your Wizard friend as long as you focus on spells "for you", just keeping a few AOE/debuff spells in case another attempt at it is useful.

Bear Barbarian 8 / Fiend Tome Warlock 7, Sword and Board, aka "The Icy Hell Fury".

Idea here is to be basically a Barbarian with a few great tricks up his sleeve to surprise opponents.
- Eldricht Blast for when out of rage, or range...
- Fire Shield stacked onto Armor of Agathys to make those who attack you regret it dearly (which is a nice counterpoint to Reckless Attack which would give them reason to attack you).
- Plenty of good tricks to contribute otherwise thanks to Ritual Invocation (or others).

You can either go "pure Barbarian" half-elf, using the +2 CHA to reach just enough for multiclassing Warlock (then don't take Eldricht Blast obviously: rather utility cantrips or weapon cantrips), so you can start with 18 STR, 14 DEX, 16 CON to get the most of medium armor.

Or you can amp up the "charismatic Barb" idea by starting 18 STR, 12 (11+1 DEX), 15 (14+1) CON, 18(16+2) CHA and take Resilient: Constitution and +2 DEX.
Depends on whether you are interested in anything else than pre-buff spells or not. :)

Beware though that the "Ice & Fire" armor requires two spells, so won't be easy to enable if you don't know when the encounter starts.
If you like the idea and don't care about Barbarian's damage resistance, swap it with Eldricht Knight instead. :)

[Maxilian]

Hi!
Bear Barbarian 8 / Fiend Tome Warlock 7, Sword and Board, aka "The Icy Hell Fury".

Idea here is to be basically a Barbarian with a few great tricks up his sleeve to surprise opponents.
- Eldricht Blast for when out of rage, or range...
- Fire Shield stacked onto Armor of Agathys to make those who attack you regret it dearly (which is a nice counterpoint to Reckless Attack which would give them reason to attack you).
- Plenty of good tricks to contribute otherwise thanks to Ritual Invocation (or others).

You can either go "pure Barbarian" half-elf, using the +2 CHA to reach just enough for multiclassing Warlock (then don't take Eldricht Blast obviously: rather utility cantrips or weapon cantrips), so you can start with 18 STR, 14 DEX, 16 CON to get the most of medium armor.

Or you can amp up the "charismatic Barb" idea by starting 18 STR, 12 (11+1 DEX), 15 (14+1) CON, 18(16+2) CHA and take Resilient: Constitution and +2 DEX.
Depends on whether you are interested in anything else than pre-buff spells or not. :)

Beware though that the "Ice & Fire" armor requires two spells, so won't be easy to enable if you don't know when the encounter starts.
If you like the idea and don't care about Barbarian's damage resistance, swap it with Eldricht Knight instead. :)

What's the point of having it as a Fiend Tome Warlock?

Wouldn't it be less mad if he went Hexblade? (CHA as main stat, STR at minimum -That does waste the bonus damage and the adv on STR checks but not that needed-)

[Beastrolami]

This build is for Tanking only. You will not have dps at all. Go yuan ti oath of crown (scag), and multiclass 1 level in cleric (forge) You will want 20 charisma, and that's about it as far as stats go. Take heavily armored, and that +3 shield. (This build works best if the DM lets you stack magic items on top of each other (i.e. +3 shield, and +1 armor = +4 AC). Take armor fighting style with Full plate and shield for 21 AC base. With forge cleric you get the shield spell added to your spelllist for +5 AC for an entire round. And you can enchant your armor to be +1 bumping your base AC up to 22. Add the +3 shield, and you have 25 AC. use shield as a reaction for 30. Tanks can't rely on AC alone, they also need high saves to ignore aoe damage and magical effects. Good thing you are adding your +5 cha mod to ALL your saving throws. Not to mention as a yuan ti, you have advantage on ALL saves against magic. Other magic items to look at are robe of displacement so that enemies have disadvantage to hit you with your 30 AC. Another thing to look into is adamantine full plate so that even if they hit you with a nat 20, it doesn't do critical damage. Now you are impossible to hit, unless they do AOE, in which case you take half damage. Easy fix, the DM just ignores your character. That's where oath of crown comes in. You can use your channel divinity to lock all enemies within 30 ft. of you, keeping them within the 30ft radius. Now you can just turn on your spirit guardians and laugh as the sweet sweet tears of misery fall from your DM's face.

sorry for the rambling, but if you want to break the game that's a pretty nasty tank build.

[Khrysaes]

Combine Tunnel Fighter fighting style, The Giant Form Discipline in Mystic(gotten with 1 level), and PAM/Sentinal.

unless I misunderstand, you get to make unlimited Opportunity attacks at a 15ft reach, when things enter your reach, and stop their movement when you do. This makes you very sticky.

You could go Oath of Vengeance Paladin 7, and be able to move 1/2 your movement after you make said OA, allowing you to set up for the next one.

The other 7 levels.. IDK? Fighter maybe? I would suggest rogue, but you can't get sneak attacks with pole arms.
With fighter AND ranger, you could get 2 more fighting styles. taking Tunnel fighter, Defense, and GWF.
if you only take 2 ranger, and combine the spell-less and revised version, it stacks well with fighter, granting you 4 more superiority dice and 2 maneuvers. You could take scout fighter for some bonus skills, and the defensive maneuver that says, paraphrased, "add dice roll to ac, if you get hit, take half damage." It also comes with precision attack. Then with the ranger you could take Trip and Disarming, or some other maneuvers.

[Lord Ruby34]

I think your first idea was pretty close to the best. Take all 15 levels in Spirit barbarian and grab a greatsword or maul. Cap Strength, make sure you take GWM, and dump the rest into Constitution/tough. Pick up Resilient: Wisdom if you don't trust your casters to have your back with Counterspells and dispells. Your abilities mean that enemies have advantage against you and disadvantage against your team. You have a boatload of HP and resistance to B/S/P but crap AC. That's fine, you're a man who tanks with his face. If they hit anyone you can reduce the damage and hand it right back to them. Pick up items that grant you resistance to more damage types, increase your mobility, or boost damage/HP.

The benefit of this build is that you fit all the definitions of a tank. You keep enemies off your allies, have great surviveabilty, and you hit like a ton of Bricks. Also, your rage won't end just because something manages to avoid you for one turn.

[Maxilian]

This build is for Tanking only. You will not have dps at all. Go yuan ti oath of crown (scag), and multiclass 1 level in cleric (forge) You will want 20 charisma, and that's about it as far as stats go. Take heavily armored, and that +3 shield. (This build works best if the DM lets you stack magic items on top of each other (i.e. +3 shield, and +1 armor = +4 AC). Take armor fighting style with Full plate and shield for 21 AC base. With forge cleric you get the shield spell added to your spelllist for +5 AC for an entire round. And you can enchant your armor to be +1 bumping your base AC up to 22. Add the +3 shield, and you have 25 AC. use shield as a reaction for 30. Tanks can't rely on AC alone, they also need high saves to ignore aoe damage and magical effects. Good thing you are adding your +5 cha mod to ALL your saving throws. Not to mention as a yuan ti, you have advantage on ALL saves against magic. Other magic items to look at are robe of displacement so that enemies have disadvantage to hit you with your 30 AC. Another thing to look into is adamantine full plate so that even if they hit you with a nat 20, it doesn't do critical damage. Now you are impossible to hit, unless they do AOE, in which case you take half damage. Easy fix, the DM just ignores your character. That's where oath of crown comes in. You can use your channel divinity to lock all enemies within 30 ft. of you, keeping them within the 30ft radius. Now you can just turn on your spirit guardians and laugh as the sweet sweet tears of misery fall from your DM's face.

sorry for the rambling, but if you want to break the game that's a pretty nasty tank build.

Well for a "tanky" build, that is more make your party really hard to kill...

Go with Monk 11 (Death), and Paladin 7 Crown, go with Half-Orc, now anytime someone gets damaged, you can take it instead, and if you have like 1 HP, and your party members take a lot of damage, you can just transfer the damage to you, use 1 KI point to fall to 1 instead of 0 and that's basically a way to "negate damage" -Then go a couple of lvl Druid, so you can use it while transformed (Became a pals mount, and it will do the trick) -That way you don't stay in a 1 HP all the time (excluding the beast form).

Note: You can do that 12 times (1 per ki point -so 11- and 1 cause Half-Orc)

[Gryndle]

**POOF** you area a tank!

sorry couldn't resist

[ruy343]

Were I in your shoes, I would make a heavy-armor-wearing fighter 9 (EK)/wizard 6 (Abjurer), allowing you to dump dex. Your other dump should probably be charisma.

The idea of this build is to be able to counterspell any sort of spell that makes you take a Dex save, while allowing you to tank with the arcane ward and your high AC. Your choice of a +3 shield is a good one, which I would follow up with the dueling or defense fighting style (depending on whether you want to hit hard as well as tank).

By that level as an eldritch knight, I think (AFB) that you'll be able to sling a cantrip and swing with the sword simultaneously, which is what I'd expect this build to do. In coordination with a friendly spellcaster, you could land a shocking grasp on an enemy mage, preventing them from using a reaction to counterspell an attack back at you. I think that overall, it could work pretty well, and give you access to the spells that an EK really wants in the first place (like Blur or Haste).

[Rhynear]

I would most likely go with a Yuan-Ti Redemption Paladin 11/Bear Totem Barbarian 4 build. Start with a 7/14/16/9/11/18 (7/14/16/10/11/20 post racials) and your 'first level' in Paladin to get Wisdom Saving Throw Proficiency.

Offensively take a Belt of Storm Giant Strength as your legendary magic item to increase your Strength to 29 giving you a +9 modifier, also take the Tunnel Fighter Fighting Style and the PAM and Sentinel Feats to stop any enemies from getting past you, with your +14 to hit it is unlikely that you will miss more than one. You are also a Paladin so have Divine Smite available to you whether you are Raging or not, which should increase your damage output.

Defensively take a +3 Shield to buff your AC, with Half Plate armour your looking at 136 HP and 22 AC, you can increase it with the Shield of Faith, for 24, and the Shield spell, for 29, when not raging, and while raging you get resistance to all damage except for Psychic. The Charisma bonus to saves means that your saves are +14/+7/+8/+5/+10/+15 and the Yuan-Ti race gives you advantage on saves vs magic and to top it all off you also give your allies +5 to saves if they are within 10ft of you.

Finally you still have one free ASI with this build, I would use it to buff either Dexterity or Constitution, or to take Resilient for one of them, you could also take the Medium Armour Master feat and increase your Dexterity next level if you wanted an even higher AC. I would probably continue levelling Paladin to finish the build as the level 15 Oath of Redemption ability heals you for 1d6 + half your Paladin Level each round you are in combat and below half health.

The only problem that I can see with this build is if you get stuck in an Antimagic Field, but even then you can just stand outside it and throw Javelins at them (as only full casters can get this since it's a level 8 spell you shouldn't have to worry too much about them trying to run past you to get at your friends), however most of this build is UA so YMMV and check it with your DM first.

[Citan]

What's the point of having it as a Fiend Tome Warlock?

Wouldn't it be less mad if he went Hexblade? (CHA as main stat, STR at minimum -That does waste the bonus damage and the adv on STR checks but not that needed-)
The point was that I didn't keep with UA essentially, but also because OP really doesn't need to get SAD really with his stat roll imo. However, apart from Bard or a multiclass Warlock/X, I see only Warlock being able to get both Armor of Agathys and Fire Shield.
And I suggested Warlock over the two alternatives because I envisioned this character as materializing his rage as hot & cold energy, so I thought that getting short rest slots was more fitted to go with the number of rages (you usually have at least 1 short rest). And it meant also a good potential fallback if you went out of rages before long rest but still could get a short one for any reason. ;)

Of course you are right, for other characters or without specific rolls, you would have to choose between SADness or Fire Shield, or just pick 1 level or warlock and 7 levels of Sorcerer instead. Different strengths, different build. ;)

[Zman]

Hill Dwarf Fighter2/Abjuror13

Take Warcaster, maybe resilient Con. Tough if you're feeling silly. Max Con and high Int isn't even that required. You can go Greenflame Blade for some offense too.

Take Defense for Fighter, wear plate, wield a shield, all for AC21. You have the shield spell for AC26. You have access to Mirror Image. You have access to Blur, etc. You have a good amount of HP(effectively same as a fighter) with your Arcane Ward.

Plus, you have 7th level spells.

[Foxydono]

First off all, I want to thank everyone for their ideas and imput. Although there were some great bladesinger/mystic/abjurer/dead monk builds I did decide to stick with the barbarian.


I would most likely go with a Yuan-Ti Redemption Paladin 11/Bear Totem Barbarian 4 build. Start with a 7/14/16/9/11/18 (7/14/16/10/11/20 post racials) and your 'first level' in Paladin to get Wisdom Saving Throw Proficiency.

Offensively take a Belt of Storm Giant Strength as your legendary magic item to increase your Strength to 29 giving you a +9 modifier, also take the Tunnel Fighter Fighting Style and the PAM and Sentinel Feats to stop any enemies from getting past you, with your +14 to hit it is unlikely that you will miss more than one. You are also a Paladin so have Divine Smite available to you whether you are Raging or not, which should increase your damage output.

Defensively take a +3 Shield to buff your AC, with Half Plate armour your looking at 136 HP and 22 AC, you can increase it with the Shield of Faith, for 24, and the Shield spell, for 29, when not raging, and while raging you get resistance to all damage except for Psychic. The Charisma bonus to saves means that your saves are +14/+7/+8/+5/+10/+15 and the Yuan-Ti race gives you advantage on saves vs magic and to top it all off you also give your allies +5 to saves if they are within 10ft of you.

I stole most of your ideas to some extend. I made a Yuan-Ti with 18 Constitution and 18 Charisma. I took a +3 shield and Belt of Storm Giant Strength to combine defense with offence. I also took an adamantite half-plate as this was not a big issues with out DM. This gave me an AC of 23 (which could be buffed to 26 if I ever find a +3 amor). Instead of the bear totem I stuck with the guardian as my main goal is to protect my comrades. We probably fight lots of big baddies and this will prevent them from attacking them. Also, instead of crown paladin I took treachery route.

My first thought was to go barb 14 / pally 6 for aura of protection and maximum damage reduction, but I instead chose a different route. Barb 6 (guardian), pally 6 (treachery), 3 ranger (monster slayer). This gave me a bit of everything.
- Slayer's eye to know all the weaknessess of the enemy
- Protection aura (+4 all saves)
- Advantage on all saving throws and magical effects
- Poison immunity
- 2d8 damage reduction as a reaction
- Resilience friends and disadvantage enemy if you are not attacked
- Immunity to crits

For feats I took shield master for pushing and the evasion ability which is awesome with such high saves and advantage and though for extra hit points. I could have taken resilient as well, but I hope I will succed most saves. With the belt and two attacks my avarage damage is around 40 a round with a +14 to hit (with advantage when I shove). I can even do over a 100 damage easy with smite and poison strike. To conclude, enemies will likely try to hit me or otherwise they have disadvantage, I have a good AC, good HP, good saves, decent damage, damage reduction, resilience against piercing, slashing and bludgeoning damage while raging and I know almost everything about my enemy. Not too bad I think. Would have liked a bit high AC still, but I'll probably manage somehow :)

[Khrysaes]

I stole most of your ideas to some extend. I made a Yuan-Ti with 18 Constitution and 18 Charisma.

My first thought was to go barb 14 / pally 6 for aura of protection and maximum damage reduction, but I instead chose a different route. Barb 6 (guardian), pally 6 (treachery), 3 rogue (monster slayer). This gave me a bit of everything.
- Slayer's eye to know all the weaknessess of the enemy
- Protection aura (+4 all saves)
- Advantage on all saving throws and magical effects
- Poison immunity
- 2d8 damage reduction as a reaction
- Resilience friends and disadvantage enemy if you are not attacked
- Immunity to crits

For feats I took shield master for pushing and the evasion ability which is awesome with such high saves and advantage and though for extra hit points. I could have taken resilient as well, but I hope I will succeed most saves.


I must be missing several things, and hope you will be able to explain.

1: I am assuming that the "starting stats" include ASI gained as you level? Otherwise, how are you starting with 18 in a stat? Edit: Nevermind here, Reread the initial post, and found the answer.

2: Monster Slayer is a Ranger archetype right? You said rogue, this may just me a mistake. But if there is a rogue monster slayer, where is it?

3: How/where is it that you can take evasion as a feat?

[Foxydono]

I must be missing several things, and hope you will be able to explain.

1: I am assuming that the "starting stats" include ASI gained as you level? Otherwise, how are you starting with 18 in a stat? Edit: Nevermind here, Reread the initial post, and found the answer.

2: Monster Slayer is a Ranger archetype right? You said rogue, this may just me a mistake. But if there is a rogue monster slayer, where is it?

3: How/where is it that you can take evasion as a feat?
For the second question, you are right I meant ranger. Was up late last night so made a mistake. I'll go edit it.

For the third question I meant the ability from the shield master feat. Although it takes a reaction to activate it basically does the same and since the character has high saves with advantage, chances of you taking 0 damage when making a Dexterity saving throw are pretty good. Or he can choose to reduce the damage if its an aoe attack.

[Khrysaes]

For the second question, you are right I meant ranger. Was up late last night so made a mistake. I'll go edit it.

For the third question I meant the ability from the shield master feat. Although it takes a reaction to activate it basically does the same and since the character has high saves with advantage, chances of you taking 0 damage when making a Dexterity saving throw are pretty good. Or he can choose to reduce the damage if its an aoe attack.

Ahh, okay, thank you for clarifying.

[Misterwhisper]

Mountain Dwarf
Level 15 Ancestral Guardian Barbarian
Very Rare Item: Dwarves Thrower: In my opinion the best weapon in the game and should be legendary with the abilities it gives.
Legendary Item: Belt of Storm Giant's Strength: Welcome to having a 29 Strength.
I am sure you will be able start with an Uncommon Item: Get a periapt of wound closure.
You can start with maxed out con and strength is handled with he belt so put the 14 in str and the 16 in Dex
Level 4: Alert
Level 8: Fell Handed (from UA)
Level 12: Dwarven Resilience

When you are standing in melee you can use a Dodge action to give them all disadvantage on attacks against you, the dodge action gives you the chance to spend 1 class HD to get back an average of 23HP due to Dwarven Resilience and Periapt of Wound Closure, you can use fell handed with advantage from being a barbarian to knock people prone pretty often when not dodging and the extra +1 to hit is never bad, and if for some reason you miss with disadvantage you will still cause some decent damage, not that any barbarian will ever swing an attack with disadvantage unless they choose to. With a combination of Alert and advantage on initiative, and the fact you can act in a surprise round normally at level 7, you can easily get jumped by surprise, win initiative, and beat the person who surprised you to death before they ever even get to make their surprise attack

You have more HP, than anyone can reasonably deal with, massive self healing thanks to Dwarven Resilience and the Periapt, even more lasting power thanks to the broken reaction ability to both reduce any hit once a turn by 4D8 and also reflect the blocked damage back, and can even attack at range with strength and a higher damage than anyone else in the party can even hope for.

[GlenSmash!]

The great thing about a Barbarian tank is that you don't need a High AC since you have loads of HP and resistance to the most common forms of damage.

Really, you want foes attacking you instead of your party mates. Ancestor Guardian Barbarian has great stuff to make this work, but plain old barbarian has one of the best ways to do this by level two in Reckless Attack. Use it all the time. And the best thing I've ever seen to capitalize on reckless attack is GWM.