Adjusting to the Party

[Drad1713]

I’m in a campaign where our party is pretty squishy all around (Bard, Sorc, Chainlock, Tomelock). The dm already told me he would most likely provide more frontline-ish NPCs to help us survive some encounters. I’m tempted to metagame my character(Tomelock w/16 Con) into a pseudo tank to remove this dependency on NPCs. Any advice? Or should I just stick to my original role and let the campaign play out with the DMs adjustments?

[DevilMcam]

My advice would be to play like you normally would.

A frontline character does not help the party survive more if every one else has tool to avoid damage.
A tank is only good when you can apply the MMORPG standard of Tank-Heal-DamageDealer. This doesn't work that way in DnD having more defence and beeing in melee doesn't make you the primary target, and even if it does, you will most likely not live very long if your party doesn't protect you while you do so

[Griswold]

Are the characters in your party being dropped during combat? If not, then you don't need someone to absorb the damage (especially since you're already a 16 Con character with a d8 hit die).

I can see wanting to avoid having NPCs added to your party because the DM thinks you're too "weak", but are they really necessary?

[Unoriginal]

A Tomelock is unlikely to be a tank, even with 16 in CON.

I'd argue you'd have a better, or at least easier time gathering goons and minions to serve as tanks.

[Wildarm]

I’m in a campaign where our party is pretty squishy all around (Bard, Sorc, Chainlock, Tomelock). The dm already told me he would most likely provide more frontline-ish NPCs to help us survive some encounters. I’m tempted to metagame my character(Tomelock w/16 Con) into a pseudo tank to remove this dependency on NPCs. Any advice? Or should I just stick to my original role and let the campaign play out with the DMs adjustments?

You can do without a front line tank but you'll need to approach combat differently with the group. Couple Options:

Stealth/Range Group: Work to get the drop on the enemy and/or engage from far range. Chainlock will help a lot for this to freely scout with an invisible imp.

Control: Have the group prioritize disabling the enemy brutes first. Entire group has spells like this at their disposal. Having each warlock lay down a hypnotic pattern to start a fight is a great thing and can do done every fight with short rests. Then focus fire or lock down anyone who made both saves.

Buff: Have someone(you all use CHA) take inspiring leader feat to buff the HP of the whole group. If sorcerer is celestial, have him cast aid at max level(preferrably extended the night before). If bard can poach spells, have him poach Aid and cast at max level. These two combined will give you all marshal level HP totals and should let you survive without a dedicated tank.

[Man_Over_Game]

I’m in a campaign where our party is pretty squishy all around (Bard, Sorc, Chainlock, Tomelock). The dm already told me he would most likely provide more frontline-ish NPCs to help us survive some encounters. I’m tempted to metagame my character(Tomelock w/16 Con) into a pseudo tank to remove this dependency on NPCs. Any advice? Or should I just stick to my original role and let the campaign play out with the DMs adjustments?


A Tomelock is unlikely to be a tank, even with 16 in CON.

I'd argue you'd have a better, or at least easier time gathering goons and minions to serve as tanks.

I agree with Unoriginal. Although, with a x4 Charisma based, melee-less party, I don't understand why you guys aren't conning/convincing your way out of your problems. To be honest, you're all the same character, with varying ratios of Lies:Lasers, so I'd use that to your advantage.

[MrStabby]

I am guessing this is a high charisma party...

How much should you adjust? Probably very little. You identified the character that you wanted to play. Playing a less fun character due to party choices, is still playing a character that is less fun to you.

If you DM is on-board though, they can tailor your rewards to your needs. Maybe adding some spells to spell lists (bard can cover some of this anyway at the right levels) - conjure animals, wall of force, fear, entangle. Things to keep enemies away from you. If your party thinks it needs some of these things, go questing for them. Seek out libraries and tales of where these secrets can be found.

Principal responsibility is always to make sure the table is having fun though.