You can be the ULTIMATE TANK in Dungeons & Dragons
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-- CHAPTERS --
00:00 Tank Classes
02:20 Problem with the Top Tanks
04:18 Best Tank Class, Race, Feat, and Skills
05:39 Starting Stats
06:11 Starting Gear
07:11 Diving into the Class
08:27 Ultimate Tank Subclass
10:10 Dealing with Saving Throws
11:11 The Best Tanking Spell
12:18 Multiclass
14:33 Battlefield Control
15:45 Another Feat and Double Damage Boost
17:30 You're Not Getting Away
18:30 One Last Spell
19:35 Patrons Made this Happen
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Clerics are my favorite tanks, nothing gets the DM to target you faster than being the healer.
That does seem to be a trend, I lived my cleric tank, went forge cleric, and they could never land a hit... Until it started raining dex saves and I had to immediately start making some death saves lol
@@dndbuilds I went life cleric to double down on survivability. Between temporary HP, channel divinity healing, the Tough feat, and the extra healing from spells he was able to tank an absurd amount of damage. In one fight with a hag at lvl 8 he tanked a Finger of Death, two Cloudkills, and a Lightning Bolt.
agreed, my best way to force enemies to attack me is to be a threat
@@dndbuilds I love the Arcane Cleric for a catch 22 tank. Either enemies stay next to you and get ground down by spirit guardians while they ping off your halfplate and shield, or they try to leave and get walloped by shillalegh, booming blade, and a stacking wisdom modifier from potent spellcasting.
If you have strixhaven backgrounds, then quandrix gives you the best 5th level spell in the game.
It reminds me of my first character. Crystal Dragonborn Sorlockadin. 7 levels of oath of conquest 3 levels of hexblade and 10 into divine soul sorcerer. I wanted some versatility for the party. Plus flame strike on a paladin makes total sense to me
I can't argue with any of that. When I saw this video title, I immediately though "Paladin" and you didn't disappoint.
Great minds think alike
One weird tank build to bring up, and I feel is worth discussion is playing with one level in fighter, 3 in bear totem barbarian, as a Githzerai. Due to the weird wording in the core rulebook, bear totem can wear heavy armor and STILL gain the benefits of raging, barring the damage buff, pair this with battle master (or superior technique) and you could essentially goad people into attacking what may or may not be basically a tarrasque level hit pool, with more maneuverability, and with some spell protection of some form, this becomes "f*** you wizard" the build.
Wait... I NEED TO KNOW HOW YOU CAN BE A HEAVY ARMOR BARBARIAN, WHAT IS THIS SPECIAL WORDING?!?!
@@dndbuilds basically, with how it's worded on the other totem choices(while raging without heavy armor, I think), bear totem breaks the mold by saying that these are buffs you get only while raging, not excluding heavy armor. While you don't get any normal buffs from the rage due to heavy armor, you can still rage, therefore providing resistance to all damage types barring psychic damage. So by taking up githzerai, you get psychic damage resist as a default, mixed with bear totem rage, you effectively double your hit pool and can still put heavy armor and a shield on, making you impossibly tanky without needing dexterity.
I chose the Path of the Zealot Barbarian. I really enjoy the Divine Fury. The Radiant and Necrotic damage option on each round is rad. Fanatical Focus is cool but Rage Beyond Death is the coolest feature but you have to wait until 14th level to get it
Oh yeah they become basically un-killable at higher levels, and once they never have to stop raging they just never have to worry about dying
@@dndbuilds it is also hilarious since Wisdom is a dump stat for me with my -1 penalty, I still end up rolling high on perception checks. Being as though Rohnk Bloodbreaker (my Half-Orc Barbarian) isn't the brightest crayon in the box and I have basically made him talk in broken common like cookie monster because why use lot word when few word do trick? It's also hilarious when I beat those saves.
And just 3 levels with Warrior of the Gods means that raise dead has no material cost.
So you can be suicidally gung ho _if necessary_ to save the Party.
Hey bud. Good video, I just found your channel and I've enjoyed the presentation.
My opinion on this build is, you acquired warlock later in the game, I think maybe pact of the chain may be more beneficial at this point because I imagine at lv 12 you may already have a magic weapon. So the benefit I would go for with pact of the chain is the Pact of the everliving ones, which allows you to regain more hit points.
Your build is like this kill box and everyone is trapped inside with you, so I imagine you may end up taking a bit of damage, especially as more and more foes are stuck in you 30ft trap. I think that extra healing could be nice.
If you used the other pact of chain invocation you can allow an imp familiar to poison enemies using your spell save DC. So if an enemy is attacking an ally outside your bubble, you can poison them and give them disadvantage on attacks to cover an ally.
That's my cup of tea. See ya on the next one.
I should probably mention that mark of sentinel gets these two racial features,
Guardian's Shield. You can cast the Shield spell with this trait. Once you cast this spell with this trait, you can't cast that spell again until you finish a Long Rest. Wisdom is your Spellcasting Ability for these spells.
Vigilant Guardian: Once a creature that you can see within 5ft of you is hit with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to swap places with the creature, and you are hit by the attack instead. Once you use this trait, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.
As long as the starting feat isn’t mandatory you can use these features once a day each.
I always forget about the marks, that is definitely a good option, mark the sentinel would work, although we would probably get a few redundancies inabilities. But it's definitely something I should have looked into more
@@dndbuildsthe shield is once per day free casting so no redundancy and the switching place ability is also once per day but you don’t take the damage like oath of the crown says, you take the attack so now it has to beat your AC. The two work individually but one is limited in use.
@@dndbuildsalso while at it, look into the marked Subraces or using the Aberrant dragon mark feat in builds, they each have niche uses that make them oh so satisfying to play.
Enjoyed ya video. Just subscribed. Also enjoyed that rock version of Blue Bird in the background.
Thanks, you should check out MattyyyM he's got tons of great covers, I can only add it to the background of videos because of TH-cams sharing policies, but he's been an awesome source of great anime covers
Having taunts is nice but I've found that damage works just as well. I'm currently playing a Forge Cleric and using both my spiritual weapon and Toll the Dead are usually enough to keep the attention of anything at range. I can either spread it out or focus down a single target, sometimes I even throw down a Guardian of Faith if I need to lock down an area. And of course Spirit Guardians to keep anything in melee from moving.
Another extremely good tank is barbarian and moondruid, you can wild shape then rage so you get a second health pool with resistances. Ancestral guardian if you want to protect allies or bear totem if you want to resist more damage. Also barbarian and battle smith because your steel defender can be another health pool to absorb damage
My favorite tank is a warforged Nature cleric. Through the use of plant growth and spirit guardians you can very easily stop melee enemies in their tracks, and if your DM is cool you can even redirect projectiles to your character with the proper cursed item. You even give yourself or a party member resistance to several damage types at 6th level as a reaction.
That's an intresting build. For my tank build I went forge cleric, redemption paladin and battle master with the magic initiate for sorcerer to get shield and blade ward. I had about 36 potential AC with all attacks (even magical) coming with disadvantage. My DM stopped attacking me after some point and was just throwing all kinds of saves, e.x. feeblemind and it was hilarious
Aberrant Dragonmark gets you 1 cantrip and 1 1st level spell from the sorcerer spell list and +1 Con.
Yeah I had something similar in one of my last characters I had (as a player) was also a Forge Cleric, which was so great and tanky, and even made use of taking the "Dodge Action" while using my bonus action to attack with Spiritual Weapon... which worked well, until I got hit with a swarm of Dex saves, and went down FAST lol. It was great
@@dndbuilds if you’re mounted you can dodge at the cost of 0 actions or bonus actions of your main character but the action of your mount which shares your initiative.
I didn't actually know about that rule, that's good to know for the future. Although that campaign, we were usually deep in dungeons, or winding up in crazy flying cities, that were not so mount friendly (despite the fact there was a centaur in the party that liked to try and break everything lol)
@@AtelierGod Actually... That's very interesting
One of my favorite tank builds is guardian armor artificer, you get the disadvantage attacking allies/area control spellcasting/and free +1 and +2 shields and armor for dealing with stingy dm’s 😂
Combo it with Warforged for a gooood time.
Artificers can seriously break the game so bad lol, every time I do a build focusing on the artificer, I'm always surprised at how darn good they are.
Mix this with Fighter/Battlemaster, and have Warforged as race, and you are incredibly tanky. 10/10 is the way I'd go.
@@markvaughan7530 Funny that you mentioned that. I'm planning on picking up Martial Adept for my build.
Aura of Vitality with fifth level spell slots and Armor of Agathys at fifth level are icing on the cake. Though I think you missed going Chain Warlock for the double healing to you invocation That’s super good on the tank that takes most of the party damage.
Great video, I recently discovered this channel and I'm loving your videos.
Is it possible to make a build for the character Golden Darkness from To Love-ru?
cool tank build! i play an oath of the crown paladin. there is no escape!
My favorite tank I ever built was a fallen Aasimar Oath of Ancients Paladin with the Heavy Armor Master. Misty Step into the middle of a group of enemies and smite the biggest thing on the field to announce yourself as a problem, then cast an AOE spell centered on self due to the spell damage resistance aura. Made for an absolute blast of clearing out swathes of enemies and even going toe to toe one even ground with the big boys. Fallen Aasimar even gave me a great fear aura effect for scattering enemies if the heat got to be too much
Love this video!!! Is it possible to make a Trevor/Richter Castlevania build?
Best tank build in 5e is a Mark of Warding Dwarf Armorer Artificer 4/Abjuration Wizard with the Durable and Dwarven Fortitude feats. All you need stat wise are Int and Con. Wear full plate, go Guardian, take a shield and infuse the shield with Defense. And that’s it. Mark of Warding Dwarves gain Armor of Agathys as a racial spell. You cast Agathys with your highest level spell slot which charges up your Arcane Ward, and you use Booming Blade on your Thunder Gauntlet. If you get hit, the Ward takes damage first (which triggers Agathys), then your temp HP from Agathys, with whatever’s left dealing damage to your HP. Casting Shield recharges your Ward. Recasting Agathys recharges your Ward (which only do after all temp HP is spent). Booming Blade encourages your opponent to stay put while your Gauntlet is a soft taunt granting disadvantage if they attack anyone else. Once you have Dwarven Fortitude, you can spend Hit Dice to heal during combat by simply dodging for a turn. Once you have Durable, the minimum you heal when spending Hit Dice is 3x your Con mod. For example, with a 20 Con, you would dodge and heal for 15 HP on a d6 hit die. Take Shield Master, and you can negate damage on a save with a +3 due to your infused shield. This build broke my DM. I was doing more damage from Agathys than with the Gauntlet, and I almost never took actual damage. And since the build is a full on Wizard after level 4, you have full access to Wizard spells. Also, if your DM lets you, take Wildspacer as your background for the free Tough feat.
DM: That moon druid is just a bear I can avoid it it’s not doing much at 6th level.
Moon druid just unlocked CR2 wild shapes, goes Allosaurus on their asses, they either pay attention to the dinosaur rushing them or croak fast.
Yeah another good option for shape changing is amphithespiana, even though I didn't spell that right, it's a massive snake that you can restrain enemies with. I still think the bill that I made is a little better, but it is a great option
I probably go oath of redemption 9 + pact of chain warlock 3 for mines of phandelver/shattered obelisk, variant human 16 str 15 con 16 cha dueling style, polearm master, sentinel, resilient +1 con. Gift of Everliving + Eldritch Mind invocations. RP wise he removes the spear tip when fighting humanoids, turning it into a quarterstaff for non-lethal damage, holstering it in his shield hand using his movement or bonus action/reaction while casting somatic or material spells.
My second character was a palalock tank but instead of hexblade i went the healing path and then used my summons as one time use meat shields. Also had a habit of casting darkness at my feet and telling my party to just fire into the void when i needed a little more time
nice, since Halloween is coming soon, how about a dracula castlevania build (main series + the lords of shadow reboot mostly)
Not “the best” tank, but a remarkably great one, is the swords bard with a hex blade dip. Plenty of spell slots for casting shield, defensive maneuvers, medium armor and shield proficiency, heavy armor depending on race/feats, while being a full caster with healing options and good mental saves. Easily breaking 25-30 AC every turn if you need to, doing great damage with your charisma scaling and maneuver damage. And since you’re a bard, you also have insane utility and can be face of the party.
I believe that the artificer Battlesmith or Armorer makes the best tank. Use enhance defense on a shield, and your armor. At later levels you can get a cloak of protection and a ring of protection. At level 5 the artificer gets the blur spell.
I've built a fairly good Cleric-Monk Tank (AC of 21 from unarmoured fecne+20 dex+18 Wisdom) and the one dnd revisiont to deflect attacks. sure people can attack others but i soak up so much damage and hits and I'm one level off of my 5th cleric level for spirit guardians and Aura of vitality
I think I may have created one of the most potent Tank builds achievable in 5e. Loxodon + Totem Warrior Barbarian + Armorer Artificer. Loxodon because you can use your Natural Armor to calculate your AC as 12 + your Con modifier, AND you can use that Natural Armor calculation even if you're wearing other armor. Thanks to this we can dump Dex to focus on Con as our primary, Str as our secondary, and Int as our tertiary (we won't be casting many damaging spells since we'll be Raging anyway).
The main concept of combining Armorer Artificer with Totem Warrior Barbarian is to combine Reckless Attack with your Thunder Gauntlets for the ultimate aggro tactic, giving the enemy disadvantage against anyone but you AND giving them advantage on attacks against you. With a shield and Infusions like Enhanced Defense we can get our AC decently high to help combat the fact our enemies will often always have advantage on us, but even when they hit we'll have resistance to all damage thanks to Bear Totem and our eventual Resistant Armor (Psychic) infusion, and a boatload of health thanks to our focus on Con.
Mathmatically it may not be the best Tank build, but flavor-wise and from it's ability to draw enemy fire more effectively than any other build I've seen, it's definitely one of the most interesting tank build I've seen. Especially given it's combining two VERY different classes that most people would think are nearly incompatible. And hey, if you aren't too thrilled about having such a low Int as a partial-artificer, if you make it to the higher levels you can grab the Replicate Magic Item infusion once you're an Artificer lvl.10 and grab yourself a Headband of Intellect (If your DM doesn't just give you one earlier on cuz they're cool like that).
Also just as a sidenote for anyone who may say "Why not just go Ancestral Guardian Barbarian?", Ancestral Protectors only affects the first target you hit on each turn, whereas the Thunder Gauntlets work on every attack you make with them, meaning you can potentially aggro two, or even three enemies if you pick up the Dual Wielder feat. Get the Mobile feat on top of that and you'll be able to "pull aggro" on multiple enemies even more consistently.
Defender Armorer Artificer, Warforged, have plate armor and a shield. Take booming blade, sentinel and charger feat. You run in and hit someone for +5 damage from thunder guantlets. This causes them to take disadvantage against anyone but you, furthermore, if they try to hit anyone else, you get an oppurtunity attack. If they try to move, oppurtunity attack. And if you hit that oppurtunity attack, they can't move. Every attack after that, booming blade, so if they move you get another attack and they automatically take damage. Its the ultimate lockdown build.
Im playing a cavalier fighter rn and it is in my opinion the best tank subclass. It imposes disadvantage on attacking anybody else. Other than yourself, it increases armor class and gives. You or an ally resistance to damage taken. You get extra attacks based on an ability you get at level 3. Overall in a short summary this subclass makes it to where if the enemy ignores you, they will die really quickly.
My favorite tank I've made
Shadar-Kai
Samurai Fighter 12, Totem Barbarian 4, Armorer Artificer 4
Elven Accuracy + Reckless Attack = Damage
Thunder Gauntlets + Reckless Attack + Extra Attack ×2 = disadvantage against your allies and advantage against you for 3 enemies every turn
Resilient (Dexterity) + Elegant Courtier = proficiency in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom saves (all the important ones) plus we're using intelligence for our attacks which only leaves charisma
Bear Totem = Resist all* damage even with heavy armor
Arcane Armor = dump strength and still use heavy armor for a SAD character who only needs int and con
I have a few tweaks to this build. Granted, these tweaks kind of depend on your DM and rolls. But instead of custom lineage. I'd suggest either Dragonborn and the 1st feat you pick up is Dragon Hide. Gives a +1 to Con, and gives an unarmored defense AC of 13 + Dex instead of 10 + Dex. Could also just pick the Lizardfolk race. They get the AC boost, but not the +1 to Con. This way with the 1 "free level" Pick up Barbarian. That way, hypothetically if you were able to max Dex and Con, you could have and AC of 25. Also would change Booming Blade to Lightning Leash. This way you still have a way of pulling enemies to you without having to use a spell slot up. Could also change the Evocation to pull instead of push. Thanks to Tosha's book, basicly any race can be a custom lineage as far as ability points go.
You can’t stack unarmored defence from your race and your class.
Luv your vids keep’em coming. Thoughts on a Deadpool build???
Got one on my channel 😊 went mostly Bard but it's been a while, so I do recommend checking it out th-cam.com/video/wSvAkNMt59I/w-d-xo.html
I knew hexblade watlock was going to be in the build somewhere, but this sounds like fun.
Yeah it allows us to ignore other ability scores, which is just too damn good.
@@dndbuilds it’s not a negative and I’m aware it makes sense. It’s just I saw it coming.
Bard of whispers is best bard for a murder mystery and if u pair it with a level in ranger for a better understanding of humans then focus on your charisma and stealth
I tried the most appalling multiclass combo for a crazy oneshot. A barbarian/sorcerer with extremely high charisma, who could be the most calm headed spellcaster you've ever seen or just become an absolute monster with rage because of his sheer strength. It was a duality of sorts, the campaign was still hard tho lol
I really want to do a Gem Dragonborn (one of only a couple races that allow a raging barbarian to fly) Ancestral G Barbarian. Taking the dragon fear half feat. That way, 1 really strong enemy, hit them with the taunt. Mobs? hit them with the dragon fear, which is imo the best fear effect PCs can get access to. And i think pairing 3 levels of AG barbarian with 5 levels of oath of the crown is just *chef's kiss*. Also, don't sleep on a Guardian Armorer Artificer. Absolutely AC fiends with arguable the best taunt feature in game. And Flash of Genius is great for making those critical saves. Basically, they just need Int and Con and you're golden, only build/class that can legit dump both Str and Dex and not lose much, and that allows some unique multiclassing.
One of my D&D parties doesn't have a tank, we are A DPS heavy party. Thank you.
Hopefully this does the trick, and the additional healing you might be able to get from this build might help substitute a bit on the healing side as well
@@dndbuilds we don't have a healer either.
@@devonhappe ooh that's a little rough
@@dndbuilds I was wrong, we do have a barbarian, but he's less tanky than he should be.
6:57 Hammer Time!
so my DM has some homebrew stuff like full plate armor (flat AC of 19 and requires 18Str) as well as tower shields (3AC isntead of 2 but you cannot make opportunity attacks while wielding one) and I'm a warforged forge cleric. We hit lvl 6 not too long ago and my AC is currently 25 before any spell buffs
Id say the best tanks are ones that disable enemies and support allies.
The survivability of a tank is normally a means to making them better at being a problem.
A good tank distracts a enemy by forcing them to attack them. A great tank is enough of a roadblock that they don't NEED to force them to.
Ok, the films available for streaming now, please do a DnD build for Korpi form the film SISU!
Cool. How are you casting spells with a melee and shield without Warcaster?
It's a free action to draw or stow a weapon. You can grab war caster, or you can stow your weapon, cast, then draw at the beginning of the following turn. You never waste an action, while still being able to cast.
Better tank builds than current Overwatch. Speaking of Overwatch, could we get some character builds from that game? They have some interesting potentials especially if we consider the lore and not just the gameplay.
Armorer artificer Warforged are ludicrous
Day 5 of asking for goblin slayer.
Did you see the vote at the end of this video? He's coming soon :D
@@dndbuildsThat's awesome. I haven't seen one yet. A lot of ppl won't do the build because of source material!
Is there overlap between the protection fighting style and the sentinel feat both using your reaction?
Unfortunately both would require you to use your reaction so you would have to pick one or the other. However it's very notable as to how they function, because protection would allow you to impose disadvantage even if the enemy isn't within 5 feet of you, as long as the person you're protecting is within 5 ft. However the sentinel ability would require your enemy to be within five feet of you, so it's just depending on the situation.
For me the best tank, specially against big threats, is an ancestral guardian barbarian, it has the closest thing to a reliable "taunt" in the game
They are the best tanking barbarian in my opinion, but it's hard to beat that oath of the crown paladin for that battlefield control.
I really want to do a Gem Dragonborn, Ancestral G Barbarian. Taking the dragon fear feat. That way, 1 really strong enemy, hit them with the taunt. Mobs? hit them with the dragon fear, which is imo the best fear effect PCs get access to.
Bear totem barb with caviler fighter. Pretty much the perfect tank.
I think I would take a single level of warlock *MUCH* earlier, maybe as early as level 2, before continuing with paladin for however many levels I'm going to take. This avoids the problem of a 15 attack attribute (STR) actually making you a fairly ineffective combatant, even early on.
can some one suggest a way of making a character sheet for this? i only know how to use dndbeyond and it has too many paywalls for me to. any help?
Is the song/music at around 9:00-10:00 from Sword Art Online?
It sounds pretty similar and familiar.
Yeah I found a guitar cover for one of the sword art online themes
@@dndbuilds Cool. Thank you for confirming.
Celestial warlock, multi class with barbarian, maybe paladin, heal yourself constantly while raging.
The Kender Long Death Monk with a three level dip into Zelot Barbarian.
A Kender 11th+ level Long Death Monk, with _Mastery of Death_ using *Taunt.*
Yeah the Red Dragon gets you, but you can walk it off.
And being a Monk you could potentially lead an enraged foe on a epic chase as they focus only on you and your superior speed. You could lead them past the Party so everyone else gets advantage attacking from behind.
The other part is to be a Kender Zelot Barbarian with Warrior of the Gods.
The BBEG squishes you, giving the Parties spellcasters a chance to get off that spell combo.
And then it's just "Ok, hey Cleric cast Raise Dead on our trash talker again."
Cue argument about gaining XP while dead......
Okay I will be playing this build in a new campaign but the dm just granted everyone and extra feat to start off with...
I'm considering:
Polearm master and using a spear instead of warhammer. 1d6 instead of a d8 but possible alot of extra attacks and combined with sentinel it'll stop monsters from moving very effectively.
Lucky... because it's just good
Or Alert... the high roll on my initiative allows for positioning at the start of combat.
What would you recommend?
I find that polararm master winds up being amazing especially for paladins, because that's one more chance to crit and you can add the smite on that extra little mini attack, so that would probably be my vote
@dndbuilds hmm I was a bit focused on the loss of my 1d8 damage when using a spear to make this work, but I hadn't considered the extra potential crits to add smites too...
Might be worth it after all...
One hand spear range is also 5feet in 5e right? So it will trigger when I'm also in melee range?
I would think that a dm would be tempted to try to avoid your char if the melee enemies can't even reach you when attacking...
Tough was my second option now. But I think polearm master is too good to pass on.
@dndbuilds I have been thinking about it and I will probably take the defense fighting style instead of the recommended here.
This way I can switch to a 2 hand weapon when I dip into the warlock multiclass… my char starts as a oat of the crown wanting to protect the group, but can switch to a more agressive 2 hand style after being effected as a hexblade RP wise…
Otherwise protection would become useless at that point.
Ps. Just found out that you can't use a 2hander as hexblade... dangit...
I did a Barb/Monk 100% unarmed build. Was not built to be optimal at all, just a fun build. Damage was awful at the start, and although I never came close to being the mvp of dps, around half way through the campaign I was holding my own with damage. But the sheer survivability and movement of that build was kind of insane and accidently made me the party tank. My character was also a warforged (flavored as more of a human/warforged cyborg) who'd overdrive his systems when raging, and his metal parts had steam vents that blow steam like a steam train after completing big movements. Between his flavoring and him just being an unstoppable unit once he got going, he earned the nick name "The Angry Steam Train". Lol. I loved that build, but he was completely an unintentional tank.
I did this with a Hill Dwarf. I took Tough and Dwarven Fortitude. My attuned items were a Flame Tongue longsword (there was no fighter in the party, so I got it), a Periapt of Wound Closure, and a magical belt called the Gird of Hanseath (the Dwarven God of drinking, carousing, and brawling). The character was named Kegs and his rage was reflavored as drunken fighting. The belt allowed him to ignore physical penalties from inebriation, gain a small amount of healing from alcohol several times a day, and it gave him the Tavern Brawler feat, +2 armor class, and an 18 Charisma when he was drunk or in a bar. He was Bear Totem and Open Hand. Between Rage, dodging as a bonus action (which also allowed him to spend hit dice for healing from Dwarven Fortitude, gaining double hit points because of the Periapt), and a crap ton of hit points, he made the best tank I have ever played. He was a helluva lot of fun too. The party also had no Rogue, so I would just run down a hallway and trigger the traps, open every door, etc. 🙂
Best Tank in D&D?
Alucard build from hellsing ultimate would be cool
I am slightly worried about ranged enemies from your build How do I get the say 3 enemy spellcasters or archers to want to target me instead of the less tanky ranged characters of my party with this build? Like, let's keep it simple, 3 enemies with a multiattack that does 2 ranged weapon attack each. You can threaten 1 by being within 5 feet of it, but not all 3. Are the wizard and sorcerer expected to join you in melee so you can take damage for them once, or are they far behind while you use Champion Challenge normally? The 3 enemies decide to use their combined 6 attacks on the wizard. What can you do?
Taking sentinel nullifies a little taking protection fightstyle 🤔 and later with the substitute trick is even worst
Protection grants disadvantage while sentinel grants an attack. Just have decide what's best for the situation, if they haven't been missing attacks very often, then might as well do some damage to try to shift the focus to you, but if there's a likely chance to make your allies not get hit, that's preferable.
Could i request Wall-E? i was thinking something along side of a warforged nature paladin, but it would be interessting what you can do with it
I recently played in a 20th level One-Shot where every player had to have multiple levels in at least 3 classes, basically removing 9th level spells. I made a tank build that was fantastic.
Ancestral Guardian Barbarian 8
Peace Cleric 8
Echo Knight 4
How do you get the option oath of the crown?
Oath of the Crown is a subclass in the book Sword Coast Adventurers Guide, which was one of the first expansion books after the Core Players Handbook. If you use DnD Beyond you can just buy the subclass instead of the whole book though.
Can i have some suggesstion on other multiclass coause my master don t accept hexadin...
The main reason for the hexadin is so that you can use your charisma for the weapon attacks, if your master will allow some alternative I would recommend that, there is an added benefit of being able to smite twice, once from warlock and once from paladin and they stack. But you can do that with any warlock that is a pact of the blade. So you could either adjust the scores slightly so that way you don't ignore strength quite as much, or talk to your dungeon master about finding another way to use charisma for your weapon attacks.
Would you be able to go to hex blade while being a paladin? I feel like that would clash with your god.
Thematically it could be an issue, but if you try to communicate with your god, and tell them you must sacrifice your future as a paladin to better protect those around you, truly living up to the ideals of that god, then I think it could work story-wise
@@dndbuilds i suppose that would be a decent work around. I think our main DM would probably strip us of our powers any other way.
But if you give someone disadvantage on attacking an ally its still protecting them so it still works somewhat.
I'd definitely substitute at least level 2 for 1 warlock dip
For survivability only, I can't find anything better than Shadar Kai, Life Cleric 1, Hexblade (maybe Genie) Warlock 1, Abjuration Wizard the rest of the way. Grab heavy armor, the Armor of Agathys and Shield spells. Then, concentrate on Vampiric Touch. Add Fire Shield when we get it, and Elven Accuracy. Use your familiar to get advantage. You wade in and the enemy hits you and takes Fire Shield damage. Once you're down a bit, cast Armor of Agathys. Now they are taking much more damage per hit, and you have you Abjuration shield up, and can use Blessings of the Raven Queen to get resistance to all damage to keep Armor of Agathys up longer. When it goes down, you're likely healed to full health. As long as you have spells, your enemies won't be able to damage you fast enough to take you out.
This works until you realise one thing. Familiars can't give you advantage on attacks. They count as you, not an ally, for the sake of calculating advantage.
@@kiritotheabridgedgod4178 They can take the help action.
@@Wouldyoukindly4545 Perhaps, but that's only the first attack roll in a turn, and it doesn't work unless they are perpetually holding their action. Which I guess doesn't really effect them. Although you still can't use the help action to give advantage on spell attacks, as those are a different thing.
Survivability wise, I think you're better off with Ranger/Cleric/Sorcerer. Specifically Gloomstalker Ranger 3/Twilight Cleric 15/Shadow Sorcerer 2. Heavy Armour proficiency, a "Survive 0HP ability" that doesn't lock your race, near permanent disadvantage to your enemies to hit you in the first place, temp hp as a free action, the ability to use a shield, and the shield spell from the Sorcerer, that you can refill off of your Cleric spellslots via font of magic. This, whilst still having a better health pool to start with than a wizard. If you wanted, you could probably swap it to 14 Cleric, 3 Sorcerer, for quickened spell and extended spell, so you can chuck out bonus action healing spells that aren't healing word, or double the duration of Aura of Vitality.
I myself find sentinel while usefull quickly looses potency because of midlevel spell vulnerabilities on single monsters...
If it doesnt have legendery resistance one of my 2 allied spellcasters simply guts it with a spell similar to hypnotic patern or fear. If it does it gets walled or drowned in summons. While the cool abilities all are save or suck on the crown pally.
Its why i when i make tank value that less then lets say
A gem dragonborn with the fearbreath feat. A single +1 char while hurtfull to loose will be so much more awsome as flight and aoe fears for single attacks.
What do you think of a paladin artificer
Very powerful, but managing the Intelligence score on top of everything else can be a little extra challenge. However, they have some pretty powerful abilities and items they can create
a paladin sorcerer hexblade warlock can do everything.
paladin have hight AC with a heavy armor and shield you can heal himself
and sorcerer divine soul allow you to get slot heal and have Spirit guardian
be a hexblade allow you to attack with CHA get shield spell and armor of agatys
Going to be honest. Don't sleep on the Bladesinger Wizard as a tank. Casting Blur and then Mirror Image during a Bladesong is INSANE. Blur gives attackers against you disadvantage and mirror image give you 3 illusionary copies which ALSO get the blur effect. Plus the damage you can put out with Spirit Shroud and Booming Blade is nearly what a Paladin can do, to say nothing of of the fact that they can ALSO get Spirit Guardians.
Illusion Wizard takes this and runs with it as well, though it take a little longer to come online the level 14 feature says one aspect can become real...surprise! now all my duplicates are REAL and fool things like scent and truesight.
I think wizards can make great frontline fighters and are very versatile, but they're a bit dependent I'm concentration, so having a controlling effect on the battlefield might be a little harder in certain situations. But they make great tanks to an extent, I just think that they get outshined for tankiness by other classes. Although I'm curious how they would get spirit guardians? That's usually just a cleric -based spell.
Tanks really aren't a thing though because of the human element. The tank role is an MMO thing, because it relies on aggro for an AI opponent. Can you be tough and punch hard? Sure, but you can't force the DM to waste attacks on you over that wizard over there.
Spirit Guardians doesn't create difficult terrain, it halves an enemies speed only while within the effect, which means it can stack with difficult terrain and other effects like Spike Growth and Plant Growth respectively.
My current 'tank style' Wizard is:
Mark of warding Dwarf, 1x Free Mage Armor/day Access to Armor of Agathys.
College of Lorehold Background, Spirit Guardians, Take Healing Word, Sacred Flame.
Full Abjuration wizard for Arcane Ward, Booming Blade, Shocking grasp, Fire Bolt.
Take Mobile at Lv4 to more reliably trigger booming blade.
Next one will likely be Life Cleric 1 Necro Wizard X for Spirit Guardian shenanigans.
Can you please build either Goblin Slayer from “Goblin Slayer” or Albedo from “Overlord”? I want to see what you come up with.
Goblin slayers coming up really soon
this build is why
1. campaigns never go to 20
2. dm's dont let us multiclass
Yeah I think the build starts working pretty effectively pretty early, but I never agree with the multi-classing objections, unless it full-on doesn't make sense for a character
Immediately sending this to a friend who loves the Hexadin for pure DPS reasons. Now he can be a tank Hexadin as well. Lol. Thanks, my guy.
As a side note: More of this style of video please. It's awesome and helpful info as well as a nice break from "play this character in D&D" content. Which is also good stuff but ya'know.
Extra side note (and more to point):
For a theory-crafted tank I did, I used Crown Paladin Bear Totem Barbarian Githyanki. Misty Step into combat and lock foes down. Next turn rage and begin Divine Rage Smiting everything in sight with resistance to all damage types. They cannot flee from you and you dole out ridiculous damage while taking very little.
Glad you like the new style, I'll try and mix in more of these in the future. And happy to hear you'll have someone able to use this build
Also I like the paladin barb but I couldn't get past the no spells in rage part, it hurts my soul
@@dndbuilds that's fair.
Spore druid/barbarian multiclass is super busted for tanking
You sound like Jocat or Tulok the Barbarian.
Also, why didn’t you return to paladin? Was there anything worth it?
Definitely gotten the Tulok comparison before, especially with so many of my other builds, but that's the first Jocat comparison I've gotten (which I'm flattered)
I didn't go back to Paladin because you get more from the extra Warlock levels than you would from going back to Paladin. Improved Divine Smite could be nice, but not at the cost of the 6th level spell.
Did you know that armor of agathys and fire shield aren't concentration and stack?
I knew that about armor mag at this but I did not know that about fire field especially since they can stack... That is going to be very useful for a very niche build I have coming up
@@dndbuilds I hope it's a abjuration wizard because I love that combo on them. I was using it even before Baldur's Gate gave the abjuration wizard's arcane Ward a buff. Mark of Warding dwarf gets to add Armor of Agathys to its spell list if it has the spellcasting or pact magic features. It also gets hilarious when you actually don't want a high AC because you want them to hit you and take damage.
i would go 14 zealot barbarian / 6 crown paladin
That is a pretty solid mix, I just couldn't bring myself to give up any spell casting while in rage
@@dndbuilds its true that you wont be able to have that many spells on, but you can precast things like aid, and lay on hand, divine smite and the aura still work in rage
Hexblade is taken way to late in this build to keep STR at 15. The game's basically over before you can attack with CHA.
If you are going to exploit sentinel, then fighter would be a better choice as more attacks per turn.
Sentinel mostly revolves around opportunity attacks, and you only get one attack with an attack of opportunity
Duh, you are correct. BTW, forge cleric is more powerful than most would think.
They are resistant to fire damage and later, immune to it. So imagine this scenario where they get swallowed by a beast and they cast Heat Metal on themselves.
@@Supremax67 One of my favorite characters I've ever played was a forge clerk, but I never once thought about casting heat metal on myself, that is an amazing idea, just heat metal and grapple
Please make highlander there can be only one! Connor Macleod of the clan Macleod.
I feel like johnny cage would be a great fit for dnd.
Do black beard please
Zato 1 build, am I right?
Let's pretend Armorer Artificer doesn't exist. Sure, why not.
They can make good tanks, and are great on survivability. However, not as good on battlefield control, and not every table allows them so, with that in mind and the endless list of magic items, that would have just made the video too long lol, so I held off on them
@@dndbuilds they have built in taunt mechanics (thunder gauntlets), access to the hypnotic pattern which is one of the best save or suck spells in the game, and best AC amongst any class. In addition to this, they're not incentivised to use their spell slots to smite like paladin.
Lets not forgot about free familiar for everyone with the spell wrought tattoo. Level 11 spell storing item which you can store in for exemple web or vortex warp and cast it without an action because you got yourself a familiar. Shure 10 free vortex warp isn’t a good battlefield control XD. For the AC that krzysiekk mention it’s true unless you have magic item like +3 shield or +3 plate armor which are better then enhanced defence, but until that you have one of the highest AC in the game. Oh and you have easy acces to ring of protection and cloak of protection and because you can at level 18 attune to 6 items it’s just free +2 AC and +2 on every saving throw. Talking about saving throw you have flash of genius which is a worst version of paladin aura but you can use it for skill checks. At level 20 you can have +8 to every saving throw if you are attune to 6 magic items and that two of them are ring and cloak of protection. You also have access to booming blade and the thunder gauntlet, so you can make someone attack at disadvantage at everyone else and they are soft lock because if they move they take extra damage. Combine that with mobile feat to make any martial character usless. But yeah artificer suck in the early game and really are not that good because the game doesn’t have a great crafting system which pretty much makes all your proficiency in tools usless and is probably why the artificer feels like they lack of power because a part of there power budget has been spent on a incomplete aspect of the game.
Armorer artificer- full plate and shield. Combined with Wizard Spell shield sets up nicely with a standing AC of 20+enhanced def brings you to 26 ac when you use shield as a reaction.
All that at level 4.... Untouchable
@@kpic9054 didn't forget artificers have access to Sanctuary
Artificer?
I think it's better to have 14 in strength for 10 dexterity. It's not very usefull anyway to go in a dongeon in full plate armor.
it's simply a pure paladin for perhaps half a years worth of a campaign if not more. by the time you reach level 11 guide as well might be in the realm of mysticism, because most people never get there. the entire video could have been 4 minutes instead of 20 and still conveyed as much.
if you want to be optimal why not go 20 con asap? its just a little bit more health later on
The primary goal is keeping the attention on you, and having the higher charisma will help that more than anything due to it improving the chance enemies will fail the save
@@dndbuilds yea thats true but if you want the best build later on going con first is just free hp not that its a big difference tho
That’s……… that’s a blender sir
"Best to avoid Wizards altogether." Wrong. Abjurer Wizard with 1-2 levels of fighter is the best tank in the game. Hell, it's the best wizard in the game, too.
I prefer them with a dip in warlock for armor of agathys (it stacks with the ward so they pretty much have 3 health bars - their normal one, the temp hp from aa and the ward on top) AND they deal damage to anything that attacks them just becouse aa is op. Oh and they can get the invocation at lvl 2 to cast mage armor at will = they can always heal their ward to full between combats in a matter of like a minute. Oh and medium armor and shields from hexblade :)
Zealous barbarian level 10 that’s it you don’t die ever
Please do Blackbeard from one piece
I really need to dig into one piece more, to do him justice
This is dumb. Obviously it's a warforged, forge cleric using defensive duelist feat or fighting style defense feat. With plate and shield that's 23-26 plus 2 for shield of faith. Usually a good positioning will allow Allies to attack from behind you. If a friend drops low, heal them with healing word, or sanctuary them. You'll already have aggro since you're the healer. Lol
I did build a hardcore armor class build without even needing war forged even though that would have helped with my shield hero build, but I wanted to make sure I focused not just on armor class, but definitely a significant amount on focusing the attention on you. But I like the idea that the healer gets targeted
Day 4 of asking for Nami from One Piece
This is armorer artificer erasure…
🥑
Dm gonna hate me for this ome
Many problems with this build but Im gonna fcous on one made super early that just really indicates how this "Best tank" build isnt rly gonna live up to its name.
3 15s, 3 8s for stats... What? This is such a barebones novice idea for "min-maxing". Why are we taking 15 str? At least we got the other two to 16 with racial bonuses. But 15 str is juat a waste of points. You could take 14 str and then you have 2 points you can use to turn one of your 8s (-1 modifier) to a 10. Having a -1 dex save on a tank isnt kinda bad (Think about dragon breath weapons. Massive dmg often dependent on a dex save). +1 to wisdom saves isnt great either bc wisdom is a fairly common save, especially for fear affects. You're not a great tank if you're too busy cowering in a corner. "But AoP!" Yeah, at level 6. Still 5 levels running around with garbage saves in important stats and after thag they just become okay, when they could be great.
But you can go even farther. If you didnt wait until double digit levels to take the hexblade dip and took it lvl 2 or maybe even lvl 1 you can have you're attack and dmg scaling off charisma super early and could even straight up dump str and put those points elsewhere. Saves arent the only reasons to want to reduce ur negative modifers as well. Dex affect stealth checks. Wisdom is Perception, a super valuable skill. You dont want 8s in three different stats. Your hamstring your character capabilty is so many areas to become slighty more effective at stuff you couldve still be rly good at anyway. Min-maxing was first explained to me to mean: Minimize weaknesses, maximize strengths. Be good at your main niche yeah, but find ways to shore up the stats the fall short. Whether through spells, features, or feats, and do it fast. Does no good to an adventurer that they "planned" to become better at shaking off magical effects after its already gotten them or their friends maimed or killed.
This isn't a terrible build. Its a "tank build" but certainly not the "best tank build"