best class for a literal 'walking tank'

[rorek55]

So I want an up coming NPC to be a literal walking tank. (Cr11 sub boss) classes I've thought of so far-

Fighter plain old sword and board fighter. In adamantine armor.

Armored hulk, in adamantine full plate.

Cavalier in full plate with Mount in full barding.

Am I missing any? What's some of your opinions.

Note it doesn't have to be fully 'optimal' going for the look first, stats second.

[Chess Pwn]

Stonelord paladin or the sacred shield paladin are good tanks, High AC, good saving throws and can heal themselves for more tanking

[Eltacolibre]

Steelblood (Bloodrager) Who can wear full plate, cast spells, also they get +5 movement speed while wearing full plate, meaning that they aren't as slow as most tanks out there, have a lot of hp from raging and hit very hard.

[Corwin Illum]

sacred shield paladin gets my vote off the top of my head.

[Aelryinth]

Good guy or bad guy?

Tank melee or tank, spells?

How important are saves?

The unarmored barbarian with decent AC, massive DR and superstitious for incredible saves will be the very definition of a tank. Stack on Stalwart and it becomes hard to hurt this guy at all.

A Paladin with great saves, good AC and ability to swift heal himself can keep going and going.

==Aelryinth

[Kazaan]

A "literal tank" has a big honking cannon mounted on top. Therefore, I conclude you must incorporate the Gun Tank gunslinger arch in some manner.

[Just a Guess]

If 3pp is allowed the aegis might be an option. He can summon an ectoplasmic armor that gives him some abilities including DR/-.

[Raisse]

Bulette armored hulk in adamantine full plate, with fireball as a spell like ability 3/day.

Seems pretty tankish to me.

[rorek55]

Not good or bad,

Stonelord may work, but paladin/anti-paladin are out.

I had forgotten the gunslinger tank,

Tank melee- keep it simple, perhaps a necklace of fireball for thematic purposes.

No 3pp, as I'd rather stick with something I'm at least a bit familiar with for my NPCs.

Hard to hit/hurt, good saves. Probably energy resist armor on top of it all.

Armored hulk is honestly looking better and better, but I wonder if CAGM would be worth it for the armored hulk :/.

Any other archetypes mesh with that one?

The only thing I dislike about the pure fighter is low will. :(

[Serum]

An archer ranger on a horse is a fairly close fantasy analogue to a modern tank.

I imagine you're looking for more of a walking bulwark, or somesuch.

/pendantry

[TimD]

rorek55 wrote:

So I want an up coming NPC to be a literal walking tank.

I guess you could apply the "young" template, but the use of the "drunk" template might be even more confusing...

... or perhaps reconsider your use of the word "literal" :)

-TimD

[rorek55]

TimD wrote:

rorek55 wrote:

So I want an up coming NPC to be a literal walking tank.

I guess you could apply the "young" template, but the use of the "drunk" template might be even more confusing...

... or perhaps reconsider your use of the word "literal" :)

-TimD

Drop everything. We have a winner.

[justaworm]

*literal*

Quote:

I don't think that word means what you think it means ... ~I.M.

[zrandrews]

rorek55 wrote:

TimD wrote:

rorek55 wrote:

So I want an up coming NPC to be a literal walking tank.

I guess you could apply the "young" template, but the use of the "drunk" template might be even more confusing...

... or perhaps reconsider your use of the word "literal" :)

-TimD

Drop everything. We have a winner.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally

Naw, he's literally good :D

[Melkiador]

I'm surprised no one has listed the synthesist summoner. It's the tankiest. And can be as literal of a tank as you want.

[mousmous]

A fellow player just got done rolling up a F7/Stalwart Defender1 that has an unbuffed AC of 29 in Full Plate +1

[StabbittyDoom]

Melkiador wrote:

I'm surprised no one has listed the synthesist summoner. It's the tankiest. And can be as literal of a tank as you want.

Often banned, though if the table allows Ultimate Psionics from Dreamscarred Press then the Aegis class fits a similar niche. And in their case they are simply summoning armor rather than an outsider.. thing.

If you really want a literal tank, make a caster that is permanently enlarged (or otherwise large size) then have them make a construct tank with the Construct Armor mod from Ultimate Magic. Then they can wear the tank-suit as armor and be a literal walking tank.

[Just a Mort]

Synthesist, make your eidolon suit look like a tank. Dip 1 lv in oracle to qualify for divine protection and take tongues curse, tweaking it so you speak only androffan when stressed. Now you sound like one too!

[Renegadeshepherd]

Synthesist for huge AC, oracles with mysteries that take advantage of elven FCB, paladin for armor and self heals, a dragon disciple based on natural armor bonuses a d heavy armor.

[Rycaut]

A Paladin/<spell caster>/Dragon Disciple build can be a formidable "tank" (including the blasting abilities). You can make the build in many many ways.

My PFS character is a Nagaji Oath Bound Paladin (4) / Arcane Duelist Bard 1 / Dragon Disciple 5 currently - he has a wide variety of spells (mostly w/o somatic components to cast while in heavy armor), insane saves, and ridiculous self-healing abilities from feat selection (greater mercy, extra lay on hands) and magic items (bracers of the merciful knight so his lay on hands ability is that of an 8th level Paladin). He has a lot of HP and can stay standing in combat for a very very long time indeed (and if he's fighting evil foes he will make good use of his high STR from Dragon Disciple + smite evil to also dish out the hurt - frequently including his bite attack as well if he pops claws...

For a more blaster focused build but still pretty tank like you can substitute a different qualifying spell casting class for the Bard and/or take fewer levels of Paladin (for this type of build I like Paladin for the self-healing but a Dragon Disciple is already pretty tank like w/natural armor. A summoner might make for an interesting alternative though the eidolon would be fairly weak it might be flavorful. I have a gnome Dragon Disciple who is a mix of fighter and sorcerer - so a far more caster focused DD while still being more combat focused than most caster types (he's also really really fun - died once while solo taking out an entire castle's worth of enemies - he took down some 6-7 serious foes almost entirely by himself - a really effective and fun build.

(and yes a gnome is a suboptimal Dragon Disciple - but a gnome with a high STR and a usually active Ant Haul means a gnome who can single handedly pick up and move large dead creatures - which is just a fun and funny image... I don't have his stat block in front of me at the moment but I think he is a gnome with an 18 possibly a 20 STR at his current level)