Walling the World - Human Bastion 2017 [Build Advice]

[Gabuman]

Let's talk about making a character that is the living fortress for his party. Soaking damage and keeping his party out of harms way.

Before anyone spins off on this tangent, I know that, historically, full defense builds don't generally work in Pathfinder because of the lack of Taunt-like CC. Still, I'd like to explore the options available to see if a wall is achievable.

Stacking AC / DR / Hp is obviously important, but only goes so far. We will also need to have resistance / immunities to elements. Strong saves are also vital.

I would like him to weild a Tower Shield to use as his main defensive tool. Other than that, it's pretty free game. Defense away.

Some stuff I also know about but haven't been able to piece a build together.

Stawart:

Stalwart / Improved Stalwart can net you DR 10/-. You could get Bolstered Resilience to double it to DR 20/- if you could find a way to deal with Fatigue (Oracle maybe)

Fighter all Good Saves:

Fighter Advanced Weapon Training + Sash of the War Champion can give you a +6 to Reflex and Will by level 20. Putting the Fighter at all Good Saves by 20.

Mobile Bulwark Style:

Mobile Bulwark Style can be pretty dope, the highest feat in the chain, if I understand the rules properly, grants you invincibility to one attack per round.

Phlanax Fighter:

Phlanax Fighters can provide their cover to allies (like Mobile Bulwark Style) but can also gain Evasion against some AoE spells

Bodyguard Feat, Shield Wall...I'm at work so these are kinda spitfire. I always think of these posts when I'm at work.

Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance ^__^

[Ierox]

The lower your AC, the better 'negate one hit' abilities becomes.

Therefore, Missile Shield and friends is fairly worthless if they need 18+ to hit you anyway, as is likely the case for a tower shield user.

[Cellion]

I don't think this is a great idea, but here are some of my thoughts:

Stalwart is not that great because any build toting around a tower shield should fairly easily reach high enough AC to only be hit on a 20. You're not getting a lot of mileage out of that DR and its costing you 4 feats (two of while are pretty terrible).

You need to consider how to get better saves at lower levels. "All good saves" on its own doesn't cut it. Many classes have good saves, scale off of stats that improve those saves, and have class features that further improve saves. If you're a dwarf, the old hardy racial trait, Glory of Old, Steel Soul combo provides a solid set of saves. If you want to use Armed Bravery and Fighters Reflexes (Advanced Weapon Trainings), and I recommend you do in order to send your saves into the stratosphere, you might want to consider Courage in a Bottle, and of course your Gloves of Dueling.

The final feat in Mobile Bulwark is great, but less so if your AC is really high.

After securing your saves, the strongest layered defense is probably Mirror Image. Think if you might benefit from fewer levels of fighter in order to get levels in a class that can use the spell. Fly, displacement, and other magic massively improves survivability as well.

Don't neglect your offenses too badly. Enemies staying alive longer leaves you with more chances of getting a nat 1. Just picking up a 2-hander and going power-attack will leave you fairly competent. An Alchemist or Mutation Warrior fighter can pick up a vestigial arm to carry the tower shield while you two-hand your way to victory.

Find out a way to help your allies' defense so that enemies don't just smash them instead. The Heroic Interposition + Abundant Tactics (Advanced Weapon Training) combo lets you zip around the battlefield covering your allies a few times per day. It also moves you with an immediate action, so it can act as pseudo-pounce.

[Ierox]

Consider the purpose of a wall or a fortress. You hide behind it, and the opponent is unable to attack you because the wall is in the way. They can attack the wall, but the wall can take it, so they'd be wasting their time.

The thing about the kind of build you outline above, is that it fundamentally fails to serve the purpose of a wall - to keep the enemy from attacking your allies.

An alternative: the Shield Brace feat.

Combine with a mithral heavy shield, and you're good to go.

[Gabuman]

Thanks so far for the opnions and tips.

I just want to reiterate that the goal is / has been to protect the party from damage. The options I put down in the original post were just some options to make the wall, himself, tanky.

The issue I am looking to overcome is how to eat attacks / reduce attacks towards allies. I'm assuming there aren't any feats that allow you to switch positions with an ally on the fly to take their hit / similar effect. Which makes walling hard.

[Haywire build generator]

Gabuman wrote:

Thanks so far for the opnions and tips.

I just want to reiterate that the goal is / has been to protect the party from damage. The options I put down in the original post were just some options to make the wall, himself, tanky.

The issue I am looking to overcome is how to eat attacks / reduce attacks towards allies. I'm assuming there aren't any feats that allow you to switch positions with an ally on the fly to take their hit / similar effect. Which makes walling hard.

You assume incorrectly. Any way of granting teamwork feats or an inquisitor level seems like the best way to use this.