Best Tank Build

[quietman1920]

Hi. I know this has been addressed in other threads (that I can't find) but what would be your ideal "Tank" character? Pure Paladin? Dwarven fighter? Monk?

[Stratos]

Barbarian/fighter is a good tank build. A paladin is good as well but requires some buffs to be really good.

[True_Moose]

Hmm. Tough to say. On EfU, I play as a paladin(6)/fighter(4)/blackguard(10), and he's powerful, but unless you're willing to powergame or roleplay (I did: he's a gradually fallen-from-grace paladin,) it's kind of cheap. I'd imagine a barbarian/fighter/blackguard would be powerful, or even a fighter/rogue/blackguard. In fact, the last option would probably be the best, because he could dish out boatloads of damage, and get sneak attacks too. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ScottG]

Well a Monk at level 20 is pretty much unbeatable Tank-wise because of the AWESOME 20 damage soaking they get at that level.

But on a more realistic note consider any character capable of wearing Silverbone armor +2 from NWN that soaks damage of 15 and adds AC. With that armor then I'd say....

For pure damage a str/cons. fighter weilding a scythe (particularly Death's Handmaiden) with the feat Improved Critical on scythe makes for a real killing machine - even better check out the weapon master prestige class that will be available with the next off. module. That class lowers the threat range of one weapon (scythe) by 2 and adds and additional x1 to the critical (topping out the critical on the scythe at X5). So lets see thats 20 for a critical on a scythe. Deaths Handmaiden drops it to 19-20 (with Keen). Improved Critical drops it to 18-20. The Weapons Master bonus drops it to 16-20 (I think). With a fair bit of Str. damage you could easily be looking at over 100 damage a critical hit, with reasonably often occuring criticals.

[Black Baron]

You will be surprised, but my tank was a cleric, with air and healing domains.
I gave him 19 wisdom, and everything else used for strength. With his boosting spells he was a little (dwarven) walking behemoth.
his stats: strength 26 (with non spell boosters)
char-6 dex-10, const-16,wisdom-19, int 10 or 9, do not remember. In the batle he used his 9 level spells if he realy had to, and killed every one. he had ac-38!! with boots of haste though. no one had been able to kill him. heh, no one even come close to getting him to half his life.
Used +3 hammer and shield. dragons, believe or not, were simply kicked a side. played at normal.

[Stratos]

Originally posted by Black Baron: You will be surprised, but my tank was a cleric, with air and healing domains. I gave him 19 wisdom, and everything else used for strength. With his boosting spells he was a little (dwarven) walking behemoth. his stats: strength 26 (with non spell boosters) char-6 dex-10, const-16,wisdom-19, int 10 or 9, do not remember. In the batle he used his 9 level spells if he realy had to, and killed every one. he had ac-38!! with boots of haste though. no one had been able to kill him. heh, no one even come close to getting him to half his life. Used +3 hammer and shield. dragons, believe or not, were simply kicked a side. played at normal.

I'm not suprised. Clerics and Druids got a major boost in 3rd edition. They can now actually fight as well. Both classes are very good and balanced and their melee and spellcasting abilities is second only to the pure warriors and spellcasters.

[Gabrielles blades]

defensively a cleric is most powerful.
i mentioned in a thread a long time ago (i forget where) about a super cleric i made.
she has 308 hps with 46 ac - this coupled with the ability to heal herself many many many times over shes practically unkillable.

Damage dealing wise shes not as fast dealing as a wizard, or a warrior but she is quite capable of hitting things - i think she had 3 attacks starting at +29. Most warriors i make only managed 6 attacks with the top rating being around +25, so the cleric while swinging less has a better chance to hit. the fighters almost always top off around 230-260 hp, a barbarion might make it to 300 like the cleric though.

the monks +20 protection is only against +1 and less weapons i think or something like that, so depending on the mod you play it may or may not be an advantage.