"Tank" Character


Advice


OK, was thinking about a druid tank character, but Im thinking that may be alot of things to keep track of with all the different wild shapes etc.

What would be a solid and relatively easy to run tank character to build.

Level 4
Everything in PRD Available
Starting Stats prior to racial: 16, 16, 14, 14, 12, 12

Looking for Class/Archetype suggestions, feats, armor and weapons, and anything else that may be useful.

Liberty's Edge

Why is your wisdom only a 12? I'd atleast put it at a 14 or 15 even if you don't plan on casting a lot of spells. It's more important than chr and int that is for sure


Invulnerable Rager Barbarian.

Half-Orc with the Shaman's Apprentice alternate racial for Endurance as a bonus feat

Feats:
- Power Attack
- Furious Focus
- Combat Expertise
- Diehard
- Stalwart
- Improved Stalwart
- Combat Expertise (optional) with the Threatening Defender trait (or skip this)

Liberty's Edge

I would say take wild spell allowing you to cast in wild shap form and summon with natures ally to add monsters to help corral the enemies and then you turn into the largest animal you can so it is harder to get past you and start bashing them in the face. Take combat reflexes and work to get combat patrol for the best crowd control. Use spells for buffs also in addition to your wild shape.


My apologies, the stats I listed can be assigned in any order, prior to racial increases. Also, I am looking for suggestions other than druid so pretty sure wisdom is not a huge deal other than for saves.


3 ways of being a tank... be unhittable, heal everything you get hit with, and huge amounts of DR or other forms of just absorbing the damage. the build to fit a tank build depends on which method you want.

in my experience a paladin or an invulnerable barb are the best at this because they blend 2 of those 3 methods pretty well while having great saves. Very few druids are tanks as they are meant to do damage. The best druid tank ive seen is one based on the favored class bonuses that add to natural armor but honestly its not enough.


A natural reach bloodrager using abberant bloodline and long arm can threaten 15 feet drawing all kinds of AoO.


Renegadeshepherd wrote:

3 ways of being a tank... be unhittable, heal everything you get hit with, and huge amounts of DR or other forms of just absorbing the damage. the build to fit a tank build depends on which method you want.

in my experience a paladin or an invulnerable barb are the best at this because they blend 2 of those 3 methods pretty well while having great saves. Very few druids are tanks as they are meant to do damage. The best druid tank ive seen is one based on the favored class bonuses that add to natural armor but honestly its not enough.

That, that is just because you are focused on a pounce monster with terrible armor options (usually that would end up with wild armor...which spends +4 armor bonus to just get the thing working). There are plenty of more tanky options that still do decent damage.

The most obvious choice would be an elemental shape. Particularly earth elemental (good natural armor, good strength, some extra con, earth glide if things get hairy). At level 12, elemental body gives DR 5/-, as well as immunity to sneak attacks, critical hits, and bleed. So that is fairly good defensively.

Elementals also present an interesting advantage- they can have humanoid like shapes, use weapons in those shapes, and they have a language. Basically, you can fight and cast spells like you were in a humanoid body. Sure, you would perhaps have to buy a large weapon (scimitars are a rather nice option; spears also hit like great swords when large), but since this form has few downsides...there is little reason not to go around like that all day. Make it your default form. With the advantages of large sized reach and a large sized 2 handed weapon... you can compete.

Another option would be to go with the goliath druid archetype. It trades away plant and elemental forms...and in return it gets to turn into giants. At level 12, it works like the giant body spell...which has an option for regeneration if you turn into a troll. Throw on a resist energy spell (you can get up to 30 resist at that level), and it is hard for you to die. Throw in die hard, and it is even harder to keep you down (you won't pass out, even at -100 hp)

Obviously, turning into giants also has the same melee advantages as humanoid shaped elementals- you can use normal weapons and armor, and cast spells. Heck, it is even easier for goliath druids- the spell they rely on for wildshape allows your regular equipment to size up with you.

So yes, it is more than possible to get '2 out of 3' with druids.

Grand Lodge

I suggest Invulnerable Rager as well, or Armored Hulk.

Steelblood Bloodrager with the Aberrant Bloodline is good too.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

There's another important thing to remember about tanking... You need to be able to get things to focus on you instead of moving around you to attack softer targets. There are three ways to accomplish this too- be able to funnel them (most often through battlefield control spells), do enough damage that they need to deal with you, or be able to stop them from moving past you (usually with reach and either maneuvers or abilities like the stalwart defender's halting blow).

i like the Goliath druid... They could pretty easily do 2 if not all 3 of these...


If you want to be a "tank" character, you need two things; armor plating and a large caliber gun.


Dwarf with Goliath Druid archetype could make a pretty impressive tank, especially if he has one preferred wild shape form and has Stone Plate made for it.


Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:
Dwarf with Goliath Druid archetype could make a pretty impressive tank, especially if he has one preferred wild shape form and has Stone Plate made for it.

Again, polymorph rules make it so that anyone turning into things like giants (which are humanoids) can just use their regular equipment without any extra muss or fuss. it is practically the same as enlarge person with extra benefits. Unless you keep a set or two around for the somewhat restricted animal selections (allosaurus for pouncing, pterosaur for flying).

I like half orcs personally though. Besides the mechanical advantages (die hard, weapon proficiencies that give just a slight edge over the base one, and maybe the bonus to saves?), it is easy to write off the thematic elements. It is not hard to play a half orc raised in an orc tribe that decided he wanted to be the biggest, meanest, greenest mofo in the room.

Heck, the combo is practically built into that giant slaying AP.


Talk_softly_and_carry_a_big_stick

Since you started by asking about the Druid here is a link to a large Druid build focused on using Shillelagh.

I started with the Nature Fang archetype and Growth Domain.
The Goliath Druid was suggested there as well.

With Barkskin, Stoneskin, Restist Energy and good Fort & Will saves Druids can build up some good defenses to offset their lack of armor. Once you can afford it, you can upgrade to Dragon Hide.

Of course there are many "Tanks" that can be built in Pathfinder. I would suggest narrowing down what type of character you would like to be.
Conan, King Arthur, Hulk, etc.
Then, if needed, ask for assistance with that build.


I have a theory using shield slam with the bloodrager 15 foot reach to create a dead zone with your AoO where no enemy may tread.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

Tanks need the ability to either take a hit or not be hit and a reason to be targeted.

I have a monk 1/Druid X in PFS that is a tank. He has a very high AC (high Wis/Dex, natural armor, barkskin, mage armor, feats/trait/items that boost AC) and great saves. He uses a spell or two plus wands for most of those (plus the cracked vibrant purple ioun stone).

He primarily is a summoner druid, so he buffs and moves up, then starts casting a summon spell, everyone just turns and tries to interrupt it. This is great if they don't have spell craft and just tried to disrupt that SNA 1.

At higher levels he gained the Powerful Shape feat and went air elemental for the whirlwind ability. To his credit he has tanked or juggled at one time, 3 hill giants, another time 2 stone golems and one time a cloudkill spell (thank you extended delay poison). (Party didn't want to fight the golems so being a good druid I released them back into the wild).

Great part of whirlwind, you grab a few of the encounter, tank it off to the side and once the party is ready you release a few of them as free actions to meet the rest of the party.

Being a very high wisdom character he has lots of bonus spells, so he can throw out an extra summon or have fun with a couple of ball lightnings running around the board. At low levels dropping call lightning then flaming sphere can be fun as you can do both during a full round action and still 5' step.

Just to give you another build, go Dwarf Druid in PFS. At level 1 in core you can start with a 17 Str 14 Dex/Con/Wis. By level 6 you can be turning into a Small Earth Elemental for most of the day. Grab a dragonhide breastplate built for it and a Small Heavy Wooden Shield. Drop barkskin on yourself for 1 hour of +3 natural armor and grab the dodge feat along with power attack and natural spell. You will have an AC 30, and a slam attack +10, 1d6+16 damage. You can even increase your damage with produce flame, cast once and move up for the touch attack then slam away for the next 5 round for 2d6+21. And this is just in core and doesn't include and animal companion or domain for extra spells

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / "Tank" Character All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Advice