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5:03pm March 17, 2016

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:
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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!
    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.)
    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!
    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.
    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)
    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 attunement 

11:28pm January 12, 2016

the-spirit-of-the-avatar:

But I believe that Squirrel can save the world

9:23pm January 6, 2016

lordranandbeyond:

Here’s the latest Lordran and Beyond comic for early January, animated to life for the first time ever by a brand new artist, @nick-fooYou can read the rest of the L&B comics so far on the website, and help to keep them coming by supporting the comic artists on Patreon; every dollar pitched in goes directly to them!

11:36pm January 3, 2016

geekpicturez:

Who let John Cena fly the helicopter?

11:31pm January 3, 2016
vatvyr:
“ FN-2187
”
Spot the traitor

vatvyr:

FN-2187

Spot the traitor

1:16am December 18, 2015

grimphantom2:

leseanthomas:

Not sure who’s the SJ fan who put this together, but it’s hysterical and awesome. Times do change. :-) from https://mobile.twitter.com/ceonchairman

This is great XD

3:20pm November 20, 2015

ihate4kids:

marukaitechifkyou:

nevermore117:

cerastes:

starexorcist:

0w0b:

When someone challenges you to a game you’re secretly a boss at and you’re like

image

When someone challenges you to a game you’re accidentally a boss at and you’re like

image

When someone challenges you to a game they are boss at and you win by sheer button mashing anyways.

image

when someone beats you at a game you’re boss at 

image

not knowing how to play a game so your friend explains

image

When you don’t know how to play a game, but your friend is a boss at it and they carry the entire team

image

Originally posted by fxmous

12:40pm November 5, 2015

Should a hot dog be considered a sandwich?

Answer at this poll! 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wj77iur7ANIdWGjPL3qbUNcxUoSlRbGARwDeo6gX_v8/viewform?usp=send_form

3:03pm October 17, 2015

sixpenceee:

Tritium Jewelry

Tritium tubes are simply gas-filled, thin glass vials with inner surfaces coated with a phosphor. The gaseous tritium in these light sources undergoes beta decay, releasing electrons that cause the phosphor layer to fluoresce. Tritium presents no external radiation threat via beta radiation when encapsulated in non-hydrogen-permeable containers due to its low penetration depth, which is insufficient to penetrate intact human skin.

 These light sources can glow up to ten years without needing any kind of charging. Tritium presents no external radiation threat via beta radiation when encapsulated in non-hydrogen-permeable containers due to its low penetration depth, which is insufficient to penetrate intact human skin. However, these devices do emit low levels of X-rays.

9:27pm October 11, 2015

haansjob:

REST IN FUCKING PIECES VADER 

What button do you hold to block ships with your lightsaber?