Tanks

[Greything]

My impression is that a balance is changing in Undermountain.

For a while it was OK for melee tanks to hack through and rely on damage reduction if, like me, they didn't want to use magic.

With levels 14 and 15 in play now I find I have to go for massive AC to survive at all. In other words shield, one handed wielding, big armour and long fights. Arcane Archers won't have his problem (I don't mind them standing behind me so long as they can hit the opposition from time to time) but I wonder if anyone else feels this way.

[robertthebard]

While I didn't get to 15 this morning, I did get far enough through 14 to grab my stone. I did this with the proverbial tank, and not much in the way of dmg reduction. Mostly I could dual wield my daggers, but ocassionally I had to switch up to dagger/shield. I do see a trend where different kinds of resistances are needed, such as the flame weapon properties on hit that we have encountered. Perhaps mages may come into their own, if MR isn't too high. In the mean time, mostly I'm happy to sit back and plunk away with arrows, I don't have much of a problem hitting.

[roddybug]

Big AB and big AC seem to be required these days. The only spells that seem to work are harm and IGMissiles. Clerics can buff themselves up to approximate a fighter for a short time but in my experience only weapon masters and arcane archers stand a chance of hitting things on anything but a 20 on level 14 and 15. To be fair I haven't explored level 15 that much, last time I was there I was attacked by a friendly critter (as in blue, not red and hostile), Torey, I think. He made short work of Jaeros the Xanther assassin (sp?) and then made me drink 8 heal potions before I retreated.

I like playing monks and rogues but I wouldn't take one down to level 14/15. Monks may survive the implosion spells but they'll never hit anything and as for the rogues most stuff seems to be immune to sneak attacks and has true seeing.

I have a cleric who forces a DC 44 saving throw vs implosion and everything in the dpg seems to need anything but a 1 to pass. I haven't taken him to level 14 yet but I'm guessing that he won't do that well. I may try him tonight, I think that his AC is big enough!