The making of a shield wall...?

[MercCpt]

Hi there I would like some help with a character idea I had recently.

I would like to be harder to hit than a Halfling divination wizard with the lucky feat whist they have: Blur, Mirror Image and hell blink if need be but you get the point I want to be ridiculously hard to hit.

I would like to be naturally hard to hit using: Feats, skills ect ect no magic at first and NO tortle on and all 5e official no homebrew

So the idea behind the character is to obviously have shield master feat, sentinel the whole works but i'm struggling to pick Race, class, background.

I know I could pick the new warforged or lizard folk but.. I like the idea of wearing full plate(or whatever) with a shield maybe go around bashing them in the face or perhaps just making a hyrda pop out of my sword (this is a joke)

[Crucius]

AC isn't everything of course. Consider playing a paladin. Their level 6 aura significantly boosts your saving throws which in combination with shield master should increase your defenses greatly.

Edit: This gives you plate armor, the shield of faith spell and potentially high hp. Yuan-Ti Pureblood further increases your saving throws while also complimenting paladin stats by boosting charisma. This can get very, very nutty hehe
Multiclass into divine soul sorcerer for shield spell, mirror image and favored by the gods which boosts both offence and defense even further. Absorb elements gives another reaction that increases defenses.

Edit, edit: I just saw you said no magic. Ehhhh... whoops

[MercCpt]

AC isn't everything of course. Consider playing a paladin. Their level 6 aura significantly boosts your saving throws which in combination with shield master should increase your defenses greatly.

Edit: This gives you plate armor, the shield of faith spell and potentially high hp. Yuan-Ti Pureblood further increases your saving throws while also complimenting paladin stats by boosting charisma. This can get very, very nutty hehe
Multiclass into divine soul sorcerer for shield spell, mirror image and favored by the gods which boosts both offence and defense even further. Absorb elements gives another reaction that increases defenses.

Edit, edit: I just saw you said no magic. Ehhhh... whoops

I like the idea but what oath would you suggest also feels a tad spell heavy maybe just my opinion

Edit: i said no magic at first i'd like to just be naturally hard to hit then prehaps add magic

[stoutstien]

Warforged Kensei monk with the twf feat. Heavy armor levels of AC, dodge as a bonus action, good saves, evasion, deflect missiles, magic free, and completely autonomous from Items and party support.

[MercCpt]

Warforged Kensei monk with the twf feat. Heavy armor levels of AC, dodge as a bonus action, good saves, evasion, deflect missiles, magic free, and completely autonomous from Items and party support.

I had a similar idea ....But without sounding like an idiot what is the TWF feat??

[ShadowSandbag]

I had a similar idea ....But without sounding like an idiot what is the TWF feat??

Two Weapon Fighting, the feat is Dual Wielder and gives you a +1 to AC when using two melee weapons.

[stoutstien]

I had a similar idea ....But without sounding like an idiot what is the TWF feat??

The duel wielder feat.

[HappyDaze]

If you want a shield wall, hire some mercenaries (the basic NPC Guard works just fine for this) to stand between you and the enemies. With the right boosts, they can be rather effective well into Tier 2. For later adventuring, look for more exotic hirelings if available and appropriate.

[Crucius]

I like the idea but what oath would you suggest also feels a tad spell heavy maybe just my opinion

Edit: i said no magic at first i'd like to just be naturally hard to hit then prehaps add magic

There is an excellent thread on the Conquest Paladin floating around the first two pages of this forum that explains why it is the best subclass in terms of defense and pure fun. Highly recommend it, even for the purpose of 'shielding'.

[MrStabby]

Hi there I would like some help with a character idea I had recently.

I would like to be harder to hit than a Halfling divination wizard with the lucky feat whist they have: Blur, Mirror Image and hell blink if need be but you get the point I want to be ridiculously hard to hit.

I would like to be naturally hard to hit using: Feats, skills ect ect no magic at first and NO tortle on and all 5e official no homebrew

So the idea behind the character is to obviously have shield master feat, sentinel the whole works but i'm struggling to pick Race, class, background.

I know I could pick the new warforged or lizard folk but.. I like the idea of wearing full plate(or whatever) with a shield maybe go around bashing them in the face or perhaps just making a hyrda pop out of my sword (this is a joke)

So I might be slightly nitpicky here on the response... you want to be hard to hit without using magic. I would suggest forge cleric 1 into rogue X, where whilst you might have spells you are not using them to be hard to hit.

The forge cleric gives you access to heavy armour and importantly shields as well as letting you upgrade your armour. If later you want to use spells for defence you can pick up shield of faith and protection from evil/good. Rogue lets you get the most out of shield master, toughens you up with uncanny dodge, evasion but most of all cunning action. If you don't want to be hit the best way is to be outside of reach.

More generally you make an epic tank. You can run up to people to pin them down. They cant hit you. If they try to run past you to reach the rest of your team then your opportunity attacks can really hurt.

[MercCpt]

So I might be slightly nitpicky here on the response... you want to be hard to hit without using magic. I would suggest forge cleric 1 into rogue X, where whilst you might have spells you are not using them to be hard to hit.

The forge cleric gives you access to heavy armour and importantly shields as well as letting you upgrade your armour. If later you want to use spells for defence you can pick up shield of faith and protection from evil/good. Rogue lets you get the most out of shield master, toughens you up with uncanny dodge, evasion but most of all cunning action. If you don't want to be hit the best way is to be outside of reach.

More generally you make an epic tank. You can run up to people to pin them down. They cant hit you. If they try to run past you to reach the rest of your team then your opportunity attacks can really hurt.

This I love this! ooo which rouge to take hmmm...

[Addaran]

This I love this! ooo which rouge to take hmmm...

Red Dragonborn and Tiefling are the only rouge character you can make i think. Maybe a lucky wild surge too.

[MercCpt]

Red Dragonborn and Tiefling are the only rouge character you can make i think. Maybe a lucky wild surge too.

Why would I be limited to those two?

[JNAProductions]

Why would I be limited to those two?

Because you said rouge, not Rogue. Is just a joke.

[ZorroGames]

Why would I be limited to those two?

Rogue versus Rouge. 😅

[MrStabby]

This I love this! ooo which rouge to take hmmm...

So I would suggest swashbuckler.

I get that with needing a modicum of dex to multiclass, Str for your attacks, shoves and armour and wisdom to multiclass cleric you wont have high Cha unless you rolled and did awesomely. So lets rule out high cha...

At level 3 fancy footwork gives you a good part of mobility. You can hit someone, back off and shove someone else. Useful? A bit - not vital but nice to have.

At 3 also rakish audacity... Cha bonus to intiative probably won't come up at all... but the big thing is more flexibility on sneak attacks. Given you should be showing exceptional skill as a tank, getting the most out of this will require those you have pinned down to not simply be able to hit someone else - removing the need for someone to be nearby is pretty good in case your shoving should fail.

At 9 you get Panache. Now a cha check would normally be a tough sell, but you get expertise. At this level you should be level 10 and have +4 proficiency bonus for a +8 on a contested skill check - probably +7 after modifiers. Still a pretty high percentage attempt for a resource-free control ability that lasts a minute. This really plays into your role as a tank. You can pull in as many enemies as you want with this.

At 13 you get advantage on your athletics and acrobatics checks as a bonus action. On top of reliable talent you picked up at 11... with expertise... you should be able to grapple and/or shove anyone. Ok, you were probably close to that anyway so maybe it isn't such a huge step - but sometimes you just really, really need to push that bad guy into the lava.

And at 17... turn a miss into a reroll with advantage once per rest. I guess you get sneak attack on that,but if you get this far others are pulling out level 9 spells so you might want to just roll up a wizard at this point.

[MercCpt]

So I would suggest swashbuckler.

I get that with needing a modicum of dex to multiclass, Str for your attacks, shoves and armour and wisdom to multiclass cleric you wont have high Cha unless you rolled and did awesomely. So lets rule out high cha...

At level 3 fancy footwork gives you a good part of mobility. You can hit someone, back off and shove someone else. Useful? A bit - not vital but nice to have.

At 3 also rakish audacity... Cha bonus to intiative probably won't come up at all... but the big thing is more flexibility on sneak attacks. Given you should be showing exceptional skill as a tank, getting the most out of this will require those you have pinned down to not simply be able to hit someone else - removing the need for someone to be nearby is pretty good in case your shoving should fail.

At 9 you get Panache. Now a cha check would normally be a tough sell, but you get expertise. At this level you should be level 10 and have +4 proficiency bonus for a +8 on a contested skill check - probably +7 after modifiers. Still a pretty high percentage attempt for a resource-free control ability that lasts a minute. This really plays into your role as a tank. You can pull in as many enemies as you want with this.

At 13 you get advantage on your athletics and acrobatics checks as a bonus action. On top of reliable talent you picked up at 11... with expertise... you should be able to grapple and/or shove anyone. Ok, you were probably close to that anyway so maybe it isn't such a huge step - but sometimes you just really, really need to push that bad guy into the lava.

And at 17... turn a miss into a reroll with advantage once per rest. I guess you get sneak attack on that,but if you get this far others are pulling out level 9 spells so you might want to just roll up a wizard at this point.

I was gonna take Inquisitive rogue, even might go monk for diamond soul

[Sigreid]

Our current party has a warforged, fighter 1 with the armor fighting style, forge cleric. In chain male with a shield his AC could hit 21. In full plate and shield 23. Shield of faith can get him 25 AC. And it's worth noting that in one fight a zombie got 3 crits on him in a row.