D&D 5e Tank Build
TL;DR Fighter/Rogue = Awesome Combo-Tank Written by Logan Whitmore Overview: This is a build for 5e that's based on creating a very tanky character, while also using some feats/abilities that combo together. Starting Choices: Variant Human with Shield Master Feat Soldier Background Dex of at least 13 (for multiclassing) High Strength and Constitution Preferably 18s in everything, but nobody is that lucky. Class: 6 Levels of Figher then 7 Levels of Rogue then 7 more levels of Fighter End class= 13 Figher 7 Rogue Choice order: Defense Fighting Style - Ftr Lvl 1 Champion Martial Archetype - Ftr Lvl 3 Heavy Armor Master Feat - Ftr Lvl 4 Defensive Duelist Feat - Ftr Lvl 6 Expertise in Athletics - Rg Lvl 1 Swashbuckler - Rg Lvl 3 Sentinel Feat - Rg Lvl 4 Polearm Master Feat - Ftr Lvl 8 Tunnel Fighter Fighting Style - Ftr Lvl 10 Tough Feat - Ftr Lvl 12 Weapons/Equipment: Plate Armour ASAP Shield at Lvl 1 Rapier at Lvl 6 Quarterstaff at Lvl 14 Detailed Analysis: Â Â You start off with choosing Variant Human as your race so that you can get that extra feat. The Shield Master feat, which adds a bonus action knock prone move will be your bread and butter at early levels. Plus, you can add your shield AC to dex saving throws. The third part of this feat states "If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect." This part will be very important for a combo later. Â Â The reason you go with the soldier background is for the proficiency in Athletics, which is used when contesting the shove bonus action created by the shield master feat. This is the first sort of combo. Â Â The defense fighting style is pretty obvious, but your end goal is to have a shield, plate armour, and that +1 from defense. If your DM is nice, they might give you plate armour right away since you have the soldier background. If not, save your money: you can end up with a total of 21 AC just from those. You go with the Champion Martial Archetype at level 3, that way you can get the additional fighting style later for another combo. At level 4, pick up the Heavy Armour Master Feat in place of your ability score improvement: this will increase your strength anyways, plus some damage mitigation, which will be helpful when being target by lots of little things that don't do much damage. Â Â The Defensive Duelist is a nice feat to pick up at this point, just because you are about to dip into Rogue, so you'll be using a finesse weapon for that sneak attack damage anyways (A rapier is a great choice! Plus, you can still choose to use your strength modifier when using a finesse weapon). Once you do dip into rogue, you will want to pick up expertise in Athletics to get an even better shield bash knock prone bonus action! Once you get level three in rogue, go with the Swashbuckler archetype from the Unearthed Arcana: Waterborne expansion. This gives you an ability similar to the Mobile feat, along with being able to do sneak attack damage on any attack. This is one of the big combos! Sneak attack can be applied "once per turn", but that includes once on your turn, once on Bob's turn, etc. The main point is that you can apply sneak attack on opportunity attacks, which will be your superpower late game! Â Â At level 4, you pick up the Sentinel feat. This begins your late game combo ability for opportunity attacks, because you can hit creatures who take Disengage, and if you do hit them, their speed is dropped to 0. This will allow you to interpose yourself between the angry bear who wants to snack on your squishy wizard friend, and actually be able to do something about. (My DM throws "smart" enemies at us all the time, and they know not to attack the tank and always target the wizard instead.) Â Â Uncanny dodge is one of those things meant to keep rogues alive, but when used by a tank who's AC is so high it rarely gets hit, it becomes pretty broken. This is one of the main reasons you get some rogue levels. That, and the next ability: Evasion. This is another one of the big combos! To explain it, let me set up a scenario: You are targeted by a spell that requires you to make a saving throw. The first thing that you do, is tried to evade it with Evasion. You fail your role, so this it what Evasion says: "When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail." But, as you are dodging, you interpose you shield between you and the spell. Shield Master states: "If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect." So you use your reaction to make another save, and you succeed, taking no damage! Here's how it works: 1. You fail a saving throw. 2. You would take half damage. (Evasion) 3. If you make a Dex saving throw to take only have damage (2), you can make a reaction save to take no damage. (Shield Master) You basically have two chances to save on a Dex saving throw. If you succeed at least one, you take no damage. On a double fail, you take half. Now that's OP! Â Â After that, you go back to leveling your fighter, where you pick up the Polearm Master feat. This is great because it allows you to use a quaterstaff as a one handed weapon, but you can still make opportunity attacks when someone enters your reach. Using this with sentinel, you can stop the enemies sooner! The downside is, you will not get sneak attack damage when doing opportunity attacks this way (a quarterstaff isn't finesse.) You might be able to get around this by claiming that the Toujours l'Audace from Swashbuckler says "you can use Sneak Attack with ANY melee attack", but I would argue that you still have to obey the rules of Sneak Attack. Â Â Now comes the final combo: Tunnel Fighter. The Tunnel Fighter Fighting Style is from the Unearthed Arcana Underdark expansion, and it states "As a bonus action, you can enter a defensive stance that lasts until the start of your next turn. While in your defensive stance, you can make opportunity attacks without using your reaction, and you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against a creature that moves more than 5 feet while within your reach." This combos with the Polearm Master feat, which combos with the Sentinel feat! This means that you can become an (almost) impenetrable barrier in which to protect your squishy wizard friends. You take the bonus action, which lets you make UNLIMITED opportunity attacks. Also, you make opportunity attacks every time someone enters your reach, along with leaving it. And on top of that, all you have to do is hit them once, and their speed drops to zero! This is such a good combo, that in some cases, you might drop your shield altogether to pick up a reach weapon, that way you can stop anyone from getting to you! (If you can hit them, that is) Â Â By this time, you are almost done. I went ahead and picked up the Tough feat, because it seems like the obvious thing for a tank to do. But you might find that Alert, or just an Ability Score Improvement my better suit your character. You will have 2 uses of Indomitable, along with 2 Extra Attacks. Since you have Fancy Footwork from Swashbuckler, you can potentially kite a melee enemy while using a reach weapon indefinitely. You have several options in combat: be more offensive, using a rapier and shield bashing people prone (for advantage and Sneak Attack), or you can be more defensive, using a quarterstaff or glaive and stopping anyone who gets close to you (or your mage). Optimal Magical Items: Animated Shield - very rare, requires attunement Ring of Regeneration - very rare, requires attunement Dwarven Plate - very rare Defender - legendary, requires attunement Other Good Magical Items (If you can obtain them): Adamantine Armour - uncommon Brooch of Shielding - uncommon, requires attunement Gauntlets of Ogre Power - uncommon, requires attunement Mariner's Armour - uncommon Mithral Armour - uncommon Sentinel Shield - uncommon Luckstone - uncommon, requires attunement Amulet of Health - rare, requires attunement Arrow-Catching Shield - rare, requires attunement Belt of Dwarvenkind - rare, requires attunement Ring of Protection - rare, requires attunement Ring of Resistance, rare, requires attunement Shield of Missile Attraction - rare, requires attunement Belt of Giant Strength - rare to legendary, requires attunement Manual of Bodily Health - very rare Manual of Gainful Exercise - very rare Spellguard Shield - very rare, requires attunement Armour of Invulnerability - legendary, requires attunement Plate Armour of Etherealness - legendary, requires attunementÂ
