Here making a campaign and our party needs a tanky person. I'm the GM and this will be an NPC, so I would like for him/her to be more meat shield and flavor than doing things such s killing the enemies.
I have figured that a Paladin would be best for this, but I wanted to throw some cool flavor in and I was thinking of making him.her a Sphynx. The stats that I have are from the Bestiary for the Gynosphinx.
What other tips or stats could I use?
needs moar details
While I can't advise on a good meat-shield character, I did want to say that a campaign should fit the party, not the other way around. If the party is "very squishy", then the campaign should have less combat, more intrigue/politics, and be similarly "very squishy".
Synthesist Summoners, in my opinion, make the best tanks, for the most part. 10 Evolution points equals immunity to fire, cold, electric, acid, and sonic. They get d8 hit dice (plus the eidolon's CON bonus), and then another bunch of hit dice (the actual eidolon's d10's). They can self heal. They can buff. At level 7, they can cast Dimension Door, which allows for the beginning of the Dimensional Agility feat tree. They get massive bonuses to AC. With a 20 point buy, they can start with 20 Charisma (+2 racial bonus), 14 Wisdom, and 16 Intelligence, whilst using the Eidolon's physical scores (which, if it were bipedal, would start at 16 strength, 12 dexterity, and 13 constitution, but raise considerably as you level). With that 16 intelligence, you can get a decent skill list going. Spell Resistance. Damage Reduction. A two level dip into Paladin (or Antipaladin, as my Synthesist will do) grants you a MASSIVE boost to all your saving throws. What more do you need from a tank?
While I can't advise on a good meat-shield character, I did want to say that a campaign should fit the party, not the other way around. If the party is "very squishy", then the campaign should have less combat, more intrigue/politics, and be similarly "very squishy".You have to go to game with the AP you bought, not the niche noncombat AP that nobody actually ever published because the market's too small.
o.O I thought AP's were only for people that didn't have time to setup a game. Never used an AP in the 20+ years I've played RPGs.
Also the op stipulated making a campaign in the first sentence.
I'd just make a foul-mouthed dwarven fighter, slap him in some full plate, and give him the antagonize feat.
He's got the AC, he's got the HP, and he's got the moxie!
EDIT: Maybe also Skill focus Intimidate for good measure... It's not like he'll be feat hungry. :)
EXTRA EDIT: Your party might also appreciate it more. Would you rather deal with a holy-roller stick in the mud, an enigmatic lion-gal, or Gimli?
So here are all of my responses for you guys:
Pupsocket: Hope I get to what you need by the end of this post. More so I have a 20 point buy and need to figure our what feats I should give the charcter. The Party is starting at level 5 so I will need to fix up some special gear for her as well.
Sphynx: I do intend to make the fights in a way that my party will not have to much trouble, when you get a Wizard, a Thief, an Alchemist, and a Ranger you can't really throw anything big at them. I plan on using a fair bit of monsters so I want them to have a response for them when something, anything gets in their face. Also having a Sphinx would fit my story.
Mechanical Pear: I have a friend who has been playing Pathfinder for a long time. He brought this up but quickly said, "Don't do this though. it will take FOREVER." Also, while I like the idea a lot, it seems to effective. I want my party to feel in danger of this person getting hurt, and that my tank will be in the same danger, just a bit better prepared.
+5 Toaster: Thought that was implied by the first sentence as well
Lipto The Shiv: Call me crazy, but I hate dwarves. Gimli is alright, but I can't stand dwarves. They annoy me and I wake up to the days that I don't have to deal with them with joy. I do understand that dwarves are good at tanking, but it seems really easy and boring. I'm kinda looking forward to this Sphinx character, and more so need stats and builds.
If I missed anything just tell e. I'm new to this so I know I missed stuff. Just tell me.
Take Fae Foundling at level 1 for your feat, maximize your lay on hands go sword and board focusing on AC. You may want to consider the Bodyguard/In Harm's Way feats as they have a nice tanky effect.
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Make a Grippli Monk of the Sacred Mountain. You can begin play with AC and TOUCH AC 20, and, since you don't want to hit things anyway, you will have 1d4-1 as your primary attack. Fight defensively with 18 Dex/Wis and your first feats dodge and combat expertise (dump cha for points) and factor in the penalties. Nothing will hit you and you won't hit anything.
Make a Grippli Monk of the Sacred Mountain. You can begin play with AC and TOUCH AC 20, and, since you don't want to hit things anyway, you will have 1d4-1 as your primary attack. Fight defensively with 18 Dex/Wis and your first feats dodge and combat expertise (dump cha for points) and factor in the penalties. Nothing will hit you and you won't hit anything.
swap grippli with garuda blooded aasimar, and swap dodge for weapon finesse. 2 less ac but you actually might hit something.
Also forgot to mention, I am very new to Pathfinder. First time DM and my friend is helping me along. Bringing things down to a simpler level would be... appreciated.
Consider making your NPC more or less flavorless. Let the PCs provide the flavor; the NPC provides the beef. A cool interesting NPC can detract from the players' characters.
If you want a little more interaction between the NPC and the PCs, try giving the NPC a quirky characteristic such as a mannerism, a catch phrase, a magic item that only they can use, or a pet hamster.
To make it even easier for yourself, you might try using one of the iconic characters; for example, Imri the barbarian or Valeros the fighter. Stats are available in the NPC Codex for levels 1, 7, 12.
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swap grippli with garuda blooded aasimar, and swap dodge for weapon finesse. 2 less ac but you actually might hit something.Why do you need to hit things?
I'm the GM and this will be an NPC, so I would like for him/her to be more meat shield and flavor than doing things such s killing the enemies.
It seems the purpose of the tank is meat shield.
swap grippli with garuda blooded aasimar, and swap dodge for weapon finesse. 2 less ac but you actually might hit something.Why do you need to hit things?It seems the purpose of the tank is meat shield.
ah right, missed that.
I'd suggest the Unbreakable archetype for Fighter since it is designed to take a beating. Possibly the Armor Master to be the decoy or Shielded Fighter to help boost allies AC. Any of these Prestiging into a Stalwart Defender would be nice as well.
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My advice is not to tie yourself down to one NPC. Mix it up a bit!
A few more points to make:
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Why does your party need a tanky type of character, especially if no one wants to play one? Your players aren't build towards that so perhaps you should reconsider the focus of the campaign away from that style of combat.
Puzzles, Riddles, Intrigue, negotiations, etc. Foes can be looking for prisoners or information rather then just savage fanatics.
A GM tank-PC just seems like a huge conflict of interest. If that's what your doing don't even waste time stating it out. Just have it draw off some mooks and let the PC's fight the real fight. It gets hurt when you want it to, etc.
I second Twig's advice, greatly.
I kinda of like the idea of not having a tanky person, but then again I don't want to put my players in a situation where they have an extremely hard time because they don't have someone to watch their back. The group was not communicating when the class choices were made.
I like the idea of them earning or befriending someone, I'm just worried that things will take a turn for the worse beforehand. As GM I know I have supreme power of everything, accidentally having someone get hurt sits in the back of my head. I should probably just let the PCs worry about that themselves.
Make a Grippli Monk of the Sacred Mountain. You can begin play with AC and TOUCH AC 20, and, since you don't want to hit things anyway, you will have 1d4-1 as your primary attack. Fight defensively with 18 Dex/Wis and your first feats dodge and combat expertise (dump cha for points) and factor in the penalties. Nothing will hit you and you won't hit anything.
Swap all these suggested feats and go crane stance. By the end of the line the monk/tank will have over 30 AC, automatically block the first attack and punch back every round. Plus when feats allowed get deflect arrows and you can stop two attacks, without a counter roll each turn...
Crane monk = tank beyond compare.
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Here making a campaign and our party needs a tanky person. I'm the GM and this will be an NPC, so I would like for him/her to be more meat shield and flavor than doing things such s killing the enemies.
I have figured that a Paladin would be best for this, but I wanted to throw some cool flavor in and I was thinking of making him.her a Sphynx. The stats that I have are from the Bestiary for the Gynosphinx.
What other tips or stats could I use?
I like a Dwarf Fighter with the Relentless racial trait and appropriate maneuver feats. He starts knocking enemies prone, pushing them around, and generally making it difficult to get off full attacks. You could swap in a level of barbarian at lvl 1 to make him a bit faster. The barbarian variant needs to stick with lower class armor until mithral fullplate, but gets a bit more distance on those bullrushing, overrunning charges.
Lore Warden is a great fighter archetype for this concept, and Threatening Defender(combat trait) matches well if you want a defender type.
You will need to make sure he has enough to damage potential to get the enemies attention or agile/maneuverable enemies will roll around this guy and take out the real threat. Power Attack, Weapon Focus line, and Weapon Training are typically enough. As a bonus the Weapon Focus Line and Weapon Training makes landing trips much easier if you want to throw that into the mix.
You might want to use the sacred sheild archetype from ultimate combat if you end up adding in a paladin. His abilities are very defensive, and he wont really be able to overshadow anyone in the party as he doesnt have the typical smite and will be useing a shield. If you want to put in a dmpc tank, go with a sacred shield paladin.
Just make a simple human fighter with a sword and shield. Take power attack, toughness, and iron will at 1st level. When using him just move him into a blocking position and focus on defensive fighting.
If you go with a paladin go easy on the paladin code stuff otherwise the character will start to feel like a nanny.
The other option is you could ask the players what they would want as a tank and maybe even the party as a whole could create and control the character.
Have the party hire a few warriors, and keep them lower leveled. It will give you control over their wealth at low levels and make treasures move valua, allow you to kill the npcs to make the point the death happens, and build a level of iteraction based on want your party wants. If they ignore the npcs, no worse for ware. If they get invested into the characters you can fully flesh them out over the course of the game. If you make them simple and allow them to level behind the party you can still tailor them to protect the party w/o overshadowing them. Heck, the rogue and ranger may end up taking teamwork feats to promote this cooperation.
I second WarColnel Idea and expand it a little
Use Human Warrior 3 or 4. 15 point build
Feats Iron will, Dodge, Toughness (Lighting Reflex at 5th) or teamwork idea
Gear MoringStar Cold Iron, LongSword, Towershield, Chain Shirt. Might Short Bow Set for STR
If 3rd level it has 780 total GP to work with.
If 4th level it has 1650 total GP to work with.
Or let fight with torches becase that there job as torch bear.
Do not build them to do damage!!!! but to take damage.... give flanks and aid other that about it.
This way they do not steal the show but are just suporting cast not the hero.
My advice is not to tie yourself down to one NPC. Mix it up a bit!
In the great tombs of the mummy-lords, have a sphynx guardian join forces with the PCs.
Have the baron entrust the PCs with a few mounted hirelings as they try to rout the forces of the bandit-king.
Have a big, angry neutral monster (such as a Purple Worm) attack both the PCs and their enemies as it burrows through the dungeon complex. Let the PCs use it to their advantage or otherwise.
Have the wizard discover a cache of earth elemental gems A few more points to make:
First, regarding monsters with PC class levels, I'm really not a fan. They're messy and tend to disenfranchise the players a bit when NPCs get cooler options than they do (in this case, getting to be a freakin' sphinx). I'd stick with warrior levels or additional HD or just using the monster as written if that's a little overcomplicated. There are online tools for advancing monsters, so perhaps you could search for one of them) Second, what a party 'needs' is really flexible. I'd hold off and see how they fare for a game or two before introducing an NPC to fill that gap. Let the game be about the players for a while, and suggest ways they can fill the gap with say, summon monster spells and AoO magic. If the party are wounded and low on juice, allowing them to befriend, charm or enlist the aid of a meatshield might be all they need to keep going, but your players mightn't like it if they're fighting behind an ally every encounter and begin to feel like "the help
This is great idea as well but be carefull that they do not steal the show.
Also with your Party make up of Wizard, a Thief, an Alchemist, and a Ranger Try to include the following treasure
Pear of power 1 that is useable by all 1K gp.
(And do not tell be that alchemist can not use... that he has to use some dum bead instead) Pathfinders rule fail #37
A Wand cure Light 750gp
A Wand of Summon Monster II 4.5K gp it dose not need to be full.