As I posted here I am looking for advice on some nice feats and ideas to help with a tank character.
Please, nothing about 'the best tank is a power attacking barbarian', we all know the adage that the best defense is a dead enemy, but I would just really like to play a general tank character.
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The 'here' is a hyperlink to another thread I made originally in the Path of War forum on here with all relevant information, I just posted on here cuz it wasn't getting much traction.
I just realized this in the rules section and not suggestions, I am so sorry.
If a mod sees this would they mind porting this over to the appropriate forum?
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It doesn't get fully complete till level 5, but the bloodrager with aberrant bloodline and an aberrant tumor with the protector archetype is very hard to kill while being able to cover large parts of the battlefield with big damaging hits.
A life tank does fairly well. That's where you build a tanky life oracle, who enemies will want to to kill to stop the healing. This almost requires the Fey Foundling and Selective Channeling feats, so doesn't really get going till level 3 unless you are human.
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Consider a Dwarven Geo/Telekineticist Kinetic Knight?
You get-
- DR that scales to level.
- Ablative regenerating HP pool
- Tons of Constitution
- Heavy Armor and a Shield
- The Samurai's resolve feature to shake off conditions and reroll saves.
- Spare feats to devote to things like Steel Soul and Iron Will so your saves are excellent.
You also deal very good damage and do not need to buy a weapon so you can invest more money in defensive items.
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Thank you kindly!
alchemist can work too, a DEX mutagen, going for the mummification discovery can build a decent tank.
The main problem is the will save, which will suck hard ;D
Are you keeping with the third party class and just looking for feats or just looking for a tank/ build advice? Without a taunt mechanic almost any class that can slap on heavy armor/ shield could be a tank... some don't even need that. A nice general chain is the halfling helpful trait with combat reflexes and bodyguard. Basically if you are next to a ally and they are about to get hit as a Aoo you can give them +4 to ac for a attack.
What special abilities does your character have, roughly? It's impossible to suggest what would synergise with what you have without knowing that.
in what way do you want to be more tanky? more AC, better saves, higher dmg to make them want to attack you, more reach to get em even when they're far away?
Everyone - His character is already created and level 2. Here is his Character Sheet. He's a Human Warder
After reading what a Warder is, I don't have a lot of suggestions. It already does most of what I would suggest. Shield Focus, and taking a look at some of the shield mastery feats.
My personal favorite is halfling defensive fighting inspired blade. Take feats like dodge, cautious fighter, osyluth's guile, etc. Cautious warrior trait. Perhaps a 1-2 level dip into monk or unarmed fighter for crane style.
I notice you're intending to get Stand Still. Read it closely. It only works against foes who provoke while adjacent to you. It doesn't work with all AoOs in your reach. It's a really bad feat.
Get Shield Focus + Shield Brace instead. It lets you use a polearm/spear and a heavy shield at the same time. That means a lot more damage and reach with no cost to defense. Use a lucerne hammer if you want a reach weapon, and a nodachi if you don't.
It doesn't look like you're using PoW:E. If you do, you get to add Eternal Guardian or Piercing Thunder to your available disciplines for free. Think about getting Bruising Intellect to use your intelligence in place of your charisma for intimidation, and use Fear the Reaper (Eternal Guardian 2).
Well, Opuk0 there is a lot of suggestions here, but I will give you another one, if you are allowed to use Path of War content. The best tank I have ever played is the Zealot. It has a decent hit dice (d10), can use heavy armor and can use aid another on itself (as a move action) allowing him to increase its own AC, or of an ally.
But, as Curghann and ekibus said (I'm not sure if someone else alse said this, so, sorry if I did not mention you), the biggest problem of a tanker is making others attacking him instead of his allies.
The Zealot has a cool ability for this, it can receive the damage, instead of allies (maximum of 5 HD damage per level per turn) and can also negate some of that damage using Power Points.
As a Path of War class, it has maneouvers, so, you may also consider having some 'counters' that helps avoiding your allies tack damage. Also, as it recover maneouvers activation its Zeal feature (by making a aid another as a move action) you possible may recover maneouvers every turn, always having avaiable counters to use.
The biggest problem with trying to build a "tank" is that the notion of threat/taunt/etc does not exist.
You can certainly make a PC that can sustain a lot of damage through a mixture of avoidance and mitigation, but unless you can actually present yourself as a threat to others, then intelligent enemies will simply go around you.
"The notion of"..."intelligent enemies simply go(ing) around you" (because the GM has metagame knowledge of your character's strengths and weakenesses) ...does not exist. Or at least it shouldn't.
The fighter's AC of whatever doesn't look, to your naked eye, better than the bouncy halfling's AC of whatever (that could actually be higher) for all you know. And neither dwarves nor halflings, nor anyone in plate, need be slow, because class abilities and magic exist.
A tank is doing his job if his AC intercepts a massive pile of damage in the first few rounds, and if some opponents begin considering other targets after that, the fight is already half over anyway.
Fighter all day.
Here's a build:
LV1. Power Attack
LV2. Combat Reflexes
LV3. Bodyguard
LV4. Stand Still
LV5. AWT: Weapon Sacrifice
LV6. Cut from the Air
LV7. AAT: Armored Juggernaut
LV8. In Harm's Way
LV9. AAT: Armor Sacrifice + (AWT: Fighter's Reflexes)
LV10. Smash from the Air (if playing PFS, Secured Armor)
LV11. Pin Down
LV12. AWT: Defensive Weapon Training
The goal of this build is to be able to stop attacks around you. With Bodyguard + In Harm's Way for melee attackers, Cut from the Air (and Smash from the Air?) to stop ranged attackers, Pin Down and Stand Still to stop runners, and finally a fat weapon to smash dudes, you are combining point control with solid offensive capabilities.
Yojimbo Samurai is similar, you just get Resolve instead of the Sacrifice kit.
When I make "tank" characters, I typically try to "tank" offensively with debuffs. Power Attack/Cornugon Smash + Cruel enchant = -4 att, saves, skills, abilchecks, & -2 dmg. It only costs a +1 enchantment, max Intimidate skill, and 1 feat to get this going, so it's super cheap and can fit in almost any build you do. Dirty Tricksters are also pretty nasty, and so are Trip builds.
No but seriously 2 years old.
I'm just amazed that in 2 years nobody's mentioned a Paladin yet 0_o