I want to play a literal tank (3.5)

[ObsidianRose]

My group has been planning to play a semi high level campaign (around 15ish?), and it's going to be open war on a tower ruled by an evil necromancer. Not much story, just an inverted dungeon.

So I wanted to play mobile artillery. I want a character at least able to carry 5 or 6 medium sized passengers, as well as a few crew served weapons. Basically like a war elephant, but hopefully something more exotic.

I've already got the idea of leadership for a crew to serve my ballista and stuff, but I need other state of the art back mounted weapons.

Any ideas? I think there was that wingless dragon in Draconomicon. LG or something like that.

All help is appreciated

[Skaven]

All I can think of is an awakened Construct for the 'feel' of a tank. You might need a DM to waive the 'must be humanoid' wording on the spell. (which seems a bit silly to me)

There are some pretty cool constructs in the monster manual 2 or 3? I forget..

I will go take a look and see if anything jumps out at me.

[edit] So far: Monster manual 2: The Hammerer and Pulveriser. Humanoid contructs so fit the spell by wording. Also a plus is the low hit dice. They look awesome too.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Made the character for a game that I never got to play in but: Warforged Mystic Swordsage with Alter Self. When it's go time, turn into an animated carriage. Transform and... you know the rest.

Bonus points for taking Optimus as your given name.

[overduegalaxy]

The Warforged Charger from MM3 might be up your alley. It's a warforged, so it can take any Warforged Components (including those nifty wand sheaths that can be hidden in a warforged's arms). The only drawback is it's only large, but get enlarged somehow and you're good to go.

[krossbow]

Make a druid and prestige class them into master of many forms.


Then train yourself to move while having a platform tied to your back, and pay some warmages to ride around on top of you.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Then train yourself to move while having a platform tied to your back, and pay some warmages to ride around on top of you.

Petal Warlocks, not Warmages. Warmages suck, but Petals are tiny and awesome.

Also, Warforged Druid with the ACF that lets you turn into man-made devices rather than animals. Turn into a Tank.

[Dixieboy]

Petal Warlocks, not Warmages. Warmages suck, but Petals are tiny and awesome.

Also, Warforged Druid with the ACF that lets you turn into man-made devices rather than animals. Turn into a Tank.

That must be the most OP of all abilities EVER, transform into nuke and roll out

[Mikeavelli]

There was a Psionics module ("If thoughts could kill", I think) - that featured one of the Villains as a Psionic Lich.

He animated a giant skeleton of some sort, and created an extradimensional space on the inside of it, so more people could fit inside. He used it as a mobile base of operations.

You could probably do something similar.

[Wafflecart]

That must be the most OP of all abilities EVER, transform into nuke and roll out

I think you mean fall out.

[Wafflecart]

Also, try and figure out how to play a Slaughterstone Behemoth (MM3) its a huge construct and it seems like a good fit for a tank.

Its a CR15 creature, so you might be able to pull it off depending on the campaign starting level.

[ShadowFighter15]

He animated a giant skeleton of some sort, and created an extradimensional space on the inside of it, so more people could fit inside. He used it as a mobile base of operations.

That could be re-worked into a way for a campaign to have giant mecha.

[Aindriahhn]

Made the character for a game that I never got to play in but: Warforged Mystic Swordsage with Alter Self.

Warforged sounds like about the best option to me. I'm pretty sure there's rules somewhere about increasing size, and there's definitely rules about different numbers on limbs, if that's an issue. I think increasing size ups strength and lowers dexterity (that seems to make sense to me) as well as lowering your AC when attacking smaller creatures. More legs might not be necessary, especially if you just alternate between using your arms as forelimbs, or something. Otherwise, I imagine being centaur like would definitely effect your ECL.

Well, that's just my thoughts on the subject, I'm sure with the right magic you could increase the size of a warforged, which is awesome until it's dispelled, or simply be bigger from the start. Cool idea though, but you're screwed if you ever need to dungeon crawl, or, you know, pretty much anything except cross a plain.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Aindriahhn: Not advocating a potentially broken variant class feature build huh? The ability to Alter Self into a carriage all day long isn't broken unto itself. Heck, take Leadership and get your cohort/followers to magic things from your interior! It's not so much powerful as it is amusing.

[Atsu333]

Well I made a left 4 dead tank this weekend, and it's surprisingly easy.

All you need is a lvl in cancer mage and being infected with Festering anger and Vile Rigidity(Book of Vile Darkness) then for every day you have these diseases, you gain +2 STR and +1 Natural Armor Bonus, without suffering the negative effects of the diseases.

Mix with whatever classes you want :D
(though actually, I'd probably go some warmage or sorc. so you can blast things as well)

[Eldariel]

Do the Mr. Roboto-trick with construct of your choice (thanks to Effigies, you can pretty much make a Construct-version of any creature in the books) and well, be a whatever you want.

[Triaxx]

No no, what you want is a huge or larger sized spider construct. With Magic missile wands, and a massive doo-dad on top that fires scorching ray. Then you call it the Primate Master.

Actually something along the lines of a construct with eight or ten legs and enough room on top for a couple of catapults, and a ballista or two. Don't forget that you don't necessarily have to mount the ballista on top either. Mounting it in the face of the construct protects the crew and means you're point and shoot. If it's big enough, you could theoretically fit a Trebuchet on top. Add a slam attack and you've got a built in battering ram.

[Dragonsdoom]

[edit] So far: Monster manual 2: The Hammerer and Pulveriser. Humanoid contructs so fit the spell by wording. Also a plus is the low hit dice. They look awesome too.

Only one problem with that.

Unreliable (Ex): The shadow consciousness of an automaton (Read; hammerer/pulveriser)is only quasi-real, like the consciousness of a creation such as a simulacrum. The creature is thus sometimes slow to react to the changing environment around it. At the beginning of each round in which a automaton attempts to act, roll 1d20. On a result of 11 or better, it acts normally; otherwise, it takes no action.

[Prime32]

MM2 or 3 (I can't remember which) has a creature called a siege crab which is basically a living tank (you can even fire spells out without losing LoE).

Just be sure to armour your weak points.

[Ascension]

No no, what you want is a huge or larger sized spider construct. With Magic missile wands, and a massive doo-dad on top that fires scorching ray. Then you call it the Primate Master.

Not a spider.

[Fortinbras]

Try an armored carrige pulled by a construct. Cut a hole in the top an put an armored barrel on top. stick a long pipe into the barrel. Have a wizard shoot spells down the pipe. You can add all kinds of crazy stuff to this basic idea.

[Triaxx]

While that is totally awesome, I was actually pointing at the Monkeylord from Supreme Commander.

[Aindriahhn]

Aindriahhn: Not advocating a potentially broken variant class feature build huh? The ability to Alter Self into a carriage all day long isn't broken unto itself. Heck, take Leadership and get your cohort/followers to magic things from your interior! It's not so much powerful as it is amusing.

Nah, I just thought my idea fit better.