You left out the best tanking move for the battle master: menacing attack. You can, in a single attack, push an enemy away from you (via mastery) and cause them to be frightened (so they cannot move closer to you); many purely melee opponents are entirely incapacitated by that combination if you place yourself well so they can't run around you.
Btw for a point of reference on that sorcerer at level 20 with a 20 con they'd have an average hp of 302 with 220 of that amount just being from the flat number bonuses of your race subclass con and origin feat
Wouldn’t maxing charisma be better though? Having an additional 1 AC surely is more important than having extra 20 hp right, not to mention all the good stuff that comes with increasing the core casting modifier
@@sir_wffles this is why I want warforged in the new ruleset. I’d much rather have that +1AC. Cause this build is how I’m gonna make Starkiller but with Fire. His Vader is a Red Dragon.
I’m a big fan of the new Abjuration Wizard, if you give them the Background from the old Bigby’s Book that gives them Rune Carver as a feat. Then they can learn Armor of Agathys, which will increase their Survivability by a ton because now not only do they have a Bonus Action method (Armor Of Agathys got changed to a Bonus Action) to repair their Arcane Ward, but any time their Arcane Ward eats melee damage they are retaliating against their attacker. Projected Ward let’s them protect their other Allies with their Arcane award in a pinch, Arcane Ward got buffed so that it now takes Damage Resistances into mind. The rest of the subclass is already great, and the Spell List supplies plenty of Crowd control on its own. With buffed Crafting, if you can make yourself an item that lets you cast Stoneskin, then you become a reflection tank better than most Barbarians. At later levels the buffs you get to Counterspell and Dispel Magic are very noticeable, and the Resistance to Spell damage eventually just cements you as nigh unkillable.
Wow... you actually managed to turn a sorcerer into a very functional tank. Hats off to that xD I'd like to make two suggestions for future builds; Yuno from Black Clover and Madara from Naruto are both very cool characters with intrueing abilities to play with.
Thank you! And I would love to do some more Black clover characters, but that was the source of my biggest copyright strike, a Naruto was the only other copyright strike I got. So I'm very cautious when it comes to those two properties
Fun thing for draconic sorcerers: Dip 1 level into paladin. You get searing smite which is 2d6 without a save and scales exponentially. 4d6 at 2, 6d6 at 3rd ext. Then you add your cha if you go fire. Easy combat: Concentrate on bladeward and you can get... 10+dex+cha+shield (can get magical)+ shield spell+bladeward. Mine for a level 8 game has a 20 and with spells can get a 26-29
@@kyleray8504 There is a save, but it is non-concentration and you get the initial damage and the first damage before they get a save so even Legendary resistance wont stop the exponential damage. After that it is just gravy if they fail or use a LR
@@Razdasoldier one step closer to my perfect character then. Red Dragon sorcerer built to feel like Starkiller. Raised by a Red to be a walking magical WMD. If obsidians ever become official again I’ll have my perfect sith with fire instead of lightning.
And it makes that green flame blade hit harder sans smite if you get a fighting style. Plus the use of shields. I love it. Can’t wait to piss my DM off with it lol. 6 sorc, 2 Pal. Nearly no loss in spell progression.
Background Rune Carver for Armor of Agathys then pick up the feat Eldritch Adept and take Fiendish Vigor. Whatever class you place this on has a refilling force field.
The more I look into Abjuration Wizard/Warlock the better it starts looking. With at least two levels of Warlock you can get 3 eldritch invocations; Fiendish Vigor gives you the maximum roll on False Life, 12 temp hit points. Lessons of the First Ones gives you an Origin Feat, which can be Tough for higher max HP. The other invocation could be Eldritch Mind for advantage on concentration checks, Armor of Shadows to make maintaining mage armor negligible, or Pact of the Tome to snatch three cantrips and two ritual spells from any classes’ spell list. Since you can replace invocations when you level, you can start with Armor of Shadows and pick one of the others later. Wizard gets access to the second level spell Arcane Vigor, allowing you to restore health using hit die as a bonus action. This is also an Abjuration spell, restoring your Ward when cast by twice the level of the spell. You can restore your health and Ward with Arcane Vigor and still attack with a cantrip in the same turn, or refresh your False Life with the invocation. With the Ward, Temp HP, and actual HP, you quite literally have three health bars. Armor of Agathys is also an Abjuration spell and can be cast at a higher level using Wizard spell slots, though not on the same turn as Arcane Vigor due to the one spell slot per turn rule. As you noted the dwarf gets an extra hit point per level, but prioritizing Wizard leads me to look at either the Criminal or Artisan backgrounds. Both give increases to Dexterity and Intelligence, but the play style is informed by the origin feat attached to them: Artisan gives the Crafter feat, allowing you to make temporary equipment at the end of a rest and giving the tool proficiencies necessary to make equipment. Both Wizard and Warlock give Arcana proficiency, so crafting magic items and mundane equipment is going to be the name of the game for this background. Criminal gives the Alert feat. You add your proficiency to your initiative and can switch initiatives with another willing member of the party. Being able to decide who goes first is a big benefit.
I love the sorcerer part, because if then immediately go to Barbarian afterwards, you get even more average HP. I had a human barb named Grognar using '14 rules. It's even better if you get ahold of that tome that increases stats beyond the cap.
I have played a Paladin and love it. I’ve not played a Monk yet cos they just seemed weak but I’m looking forward to tanking with my Monk now. Thanks for the insights.
I think you missed talking about 2 aspects of the Monk for Tanking that imo would move it from HM into a Top 3 spot. The change to Grappling in general, now a creature you grapple has Disadvantage on attacks against everyone but you, and the Grappler feat gives you advantage on your attacks against someone you have grappled as well as being able to drag them at your full speed if they are your size or smaller. This means you can pull their focus to yourself or just drag them away from your allies. And the other really big change to their survivability is the new Deflect attack working on Melee attacks and eventually attacks of all damage types, at lvl 3 that about an average of about 11 damage you can reduce EVERY TURN, and by lvl 20 its about 33 damage mitigation each round
He missed Warrior of Elements monk entirely. Currently playing one and I can tell you I out tank the party's paladin have better control options and if I take Grappler I will be able to fully control enemies up to 15 feet away.
Tanking in DnD can be better. I think there should be an effect that forces a wisdom save if a creature targets someone else to your character. The effect should be a major change to the tide of battle. Like, if they fail they loose that action, if they save whatever it was continues as normal. That's a tanking effect.
Manoeuvring attack is SO underrated, even by me until I played it. A worg had tripped an ally and they were prone, well, my turn I triggered them with it and they got up for free. Sure, they are still in range of the creature but they are no longer having advantage attacks against them and on their turn they have full movement and can do what they need.
@@dndbuildsmaybe on their own, but through party synergy they go wild. I really am excited to try out a combo between a Martial PC with Mounted Combatant, combined with a Moon Druid that has the Sentinel Feat.
@SunLovinSolaire, that's interesting for sure, but if a build requires more than one player character, it's a party build rather than a single player build.
I disagree. There are plenty of animals that knock prone (automatic now). Others that grapple (crocodile/ scorpion) and some that restraint. The movement speed of many beast are 60 so moving into positions is easy enough. Some might not this druid tanks are the best but I found that when I play as a moon druid if I'm not careful I can destroy the DM fun by controlling the combat more then he does. (Which is bad so be careful)
I actually am playing a Warlock/Paladin tank that works really well. Celestial Warlock 3 levels and 2 paladin. I’ve got good armor and with healing light as a bonus action I’ve been straight up out healing damage from everything thrown at the party. Plus with the paladin dip I have compelled duel and command
Warrior of Elements Monk is a way better tank than most mentioned. Elemental Attunement allows you to push and pull enemies as part of your unarmed strikes and have a range of 15 feet. Currently playing one and I out tank the parties Paladin plus taking the grappler feat with this build just makes you a monster moving enemies wherever you want whenever you want deflect attacks is also an insane tanking feature.
Path of the Ancestral Guardian i find is a pretty decent tank. Hitting an enemy makes it so they are compelled to fight you or get disadvantage on everybody else, with your raging resistances... but at level 6 you can even use your reaction to shield allies (on top of the disadvantage)
It used to be the best tank for barbarians for sure, but imposing disadvantage isn't quite as good as teleporting a creature to you and reducing their speed to zero meaning they just can't get away
Giving an enemy disadvantage to attack a target other than you is OK. But if they get advantage on an attack against a target that is not you, they just have a straight attack roll and not real reason to attack just you. I feel a real Tank/Taunt would be on a hit or failed DC the target can only attack you. They lose the ability to attack other targets till end of your next turn or if they make a save after attacking you..
@@marcducorsky8736 That's generally why I think off of the crown is usually the best, because there's so much better crowd control than almost anywhere else
My world tree barbarian uses glaives, quarter staff, and habreds to chop things or graze with polearm mastery. Still whish barbarians got free fighting style based o their subclass.
Has anyone done a damage mitigation breakdown on interception vs protection? It feels like protection is significantly stronger for pure mitigation, and the trade off is that you HAVE to use a shield, while interception isn't quite as strong, but can be made while dual wielding or with a two handed weapon. So, the trade off is increased offensive damage from interception vs increased damage mitigation from protection. Reducing incoming damage by about half of a first level spell slot's worth of healing EVERY round seems pretty great to me. There's no chance of failure. It's just 1D10+prof (at level 2 when a paladin gets it the average is 7.5 vs roughly 8 avg for a healing word) damage reduction every single round. If it's used 3 times per combat, that's like 3 extra first level spell slots worth of healing per combat. Protection is only a chance to reduce damage as you're giving disadvantage to hit. But, a single reaction spent to give disadvantage works for EVERY attack until on that target until the start of your next turn (assuming you stay adjacent). If protection works on a single attack it'll likely prevent more damage than interception. And, it has the chance to work on many attacks in the same fight (especially with multiple enemies and targets with multiple attacks). This makes protection less consistent, but giving it much more potential.
Swords bards are amazing tanks, surprsed you did not mention them. Dip 1 fighter for masteries or 3 sorcerer or both. Defensive duelist and / or Shillelah also help.
I actually made them a long long time ago like one of the first builds on this channel, and managed to recreate a phalanx battle strategy. You can do so with a mix of totem barbarian and battle master fighter
@@troperhghar9898 Just throwing it out there, man .... lean in to the role play and let the mechanics follow. Just flavor the description ... mechanically .. sure you can wear heavy or medium armor ... account for the weight and cost and impacts on stealth or whatever) but you can describe yourself as wearing minimal armor and focusing on blocking and parrying with shield and weapon. Right? Be a fighter (or maybe ranger or paladin or bard) and wear the armor and use the shield and explain away the lack of visible body armor as your proficiency with a shield and your weapon. Is it easier to use flavor text to adjust for what's going on with your character? Or, use some tortured multi-class combination and try to explain how you're a raging barbarian ... and also a disciplined and formally trained fighter or whatever. Barbarian does allow you to boost your armor rating with your constitution (in addition to your dexterity) and also gives you a shield proficiency to work with. Functionally, that DOES sound like your character concept. Barbarian will have the weapon proficiencies, weapon masteries, and fighting style and also be extremely tanky. Backgrounds of farmer (toughness), guard (alert), and soldier (savage attacker) would all have benefits with farmer being the most directly benefiting the tank concept. For fighting style defense works fine. To keep up with the phalanx idea interception or protection would work. I think interception has the trade off of being less damage mitigation potential in exchange for not having to wear a shield so it works with two handed weapons and dual wielding. To me, that makes me think that if you're using a shield you're better off with protection because you're not gaining the damage benefit of interception (more damage from a larger or second weapon). I feel like weapon mastery matters here. A weapon with sap wouldn't mesh well with protection because you cannot possibly put disadvantage on a target twice (sap and protection). Topple weapons mesh with protection fighting style. Trident or battleaxe with trident may be more thematic. I really think you could build this out with almost any class and explain away the amor with description. It would be easy to say no to anything with magic, but there's really not much difference between combat maneuvers and some spells and you can make either sound like the other through description. Yeah? Hunter ranger at level three can use horde breaker once per turn. Defensive fighting style for +1 AC and now you're more tanky, and also you would be able to potentially use sap from a longsword on two targets every single turn to give them both disadvantage on their next attack which would feel like a version of the protection style (it's not unlimited attacks until your next turn, but it's two enemies and it can help you or an ally instead of just an ally). Plus, it's an extra attack. And, at level 5 now you can potentially give disadvantage to three targets per round every single round. Hunter's mark and now each of those attacks are doing extra damage and you can describe the effect as your rage taking over and allowing you to do more damage. Any class can be described to play like any other class.
The important component of a tank isn't crowd control, it's _stickiness_ (the ability to make enemies pile on you and unable to leave your zone of control because you can punish them for doing so). Like, that Barbarian build is just going to see foes staying out of range, forcing the barb to run around the battlefield, while the rest of the mobs run riot in the backlines. I'd also say that there's a strong case to be made that Weapon Mastery effects _don't_ stack with Brutal Strike effects. Push, for example, says _up to_ ten feet, while Forceful Blow is fully fifteen feet away from you, which would mean the 10 feet of a Push Mastery is consumed during the Forceful Blow effect. You could argue that, RAW, Hamstring stacks with Slow, but the wording of Hamstring including "can only be affected by one Hamstring" suggests RAI is that it doesn't stack with Slow.
@@jacobjensen7704 Nope. Went over the book and build multiple times just to be sure. You _can_ argue that Push and Forceful blow stack RAW, but that argument requires a munchkin's creative interpretation of wording and a GM who is fairly lax about these kinds of things. But, per _actual_ RAW and what is clearly RAI, the abilities don't stack.
@@dungeonsanddobbers2683 well I think that because you can follow them as part of Forceful Blow you could hit them and knock them back the 15 feet while following and then launch them the extra 10 feet, so in the end they are only 10 feet away from you but we're able to move them 25 total feet. Hamstring and Slow I have no question about working together just like how they also would stack with someone using Ray if Frost they are all abilities that are different and simply say that a creature can be affected by each of them only once.
Off-topic, anyone know which TV show / movie is the source of the clip playing at 22:26-22:34? Glowing blue-eyed woman wielding some sort of magic sword to fight... aliens? Looks very much like I'd picture a psi warrior.
@dndbuilds Cool, tyvm. That must be Ilyana / Magik then... I figured it was a Marvel or DC property, but New Mutants is one of the flicks I've never got around to watching.
bard has better crowd control and support options, dance specifically is hard to pin down, sorcerer is more of an in your face tank that can nuke shit better
Only certain classes get weapon masteries right now, and they do have an updated Artificer in the works, so we have to wait and see if weapon masteries will be part of it.
@ yeah, I've read over the new artificer but that was a while ago and genuinely could not remember if there was anything for them regarding weapon mastery. You'd think they'd at least have the pistol or rifle.
The way I understand Warlock patrons is that they don't directly grant you your powers. More that they grant you the ability to take levels in the class. Hence, why weaker things can be Warlock patrons. Also why Warlocks can kill their patrons.
@@krensharmoon I’m new to the game. I’m currently in my first campaign. Still learning how things work. The only real thing I know about warlocks is they serve a patron and Wyll’s patron on BG3 lol
@dreyfus37_65 that's good. BG3 was a great introduction to dnd for a lot of people. Warlocks can be complicated. Each table and each Warlock may run things uniquely. A big part of Will's story is that he signed an infernal contract, for example. Not everyone needs to do that. Patrons can be Angel's, Fey, magic items, or several other things.
"Clerics don't have enough battlefield control" Said no one ever lol You're a caster, you have way more control than any martial. Also, full casters have less hp than martials in general, they are FAR from squishy.
@@moonlight2870 clerics have some control, just not enough. They get Hold Person but they can't twin it like a sorcerer, they don't default get the shield spell, and they don't get hold monster, hypnotic pattern, or a lot of other great control spells. They just don't get enough in my book to make it out of an honorable mention
This is from 3.5 but I have to share. My best tank was a Human Transmuter Wizard, took the heavy armor feat so could cast in full plate mail. But with all my constant buffs I had the highest str, AC, CON and HP of the party (including over the paladin). Tensers tranformation and polymorph ment it was "Everyone, get behind the wizard" and it was the funniest thing ever!
Buddy, I say this sincerely, Please watch successful channels in the space and compare the way the speak. Cadence, intonation, conversational style, etc. You gotta step up your presentation quality, this is hard to not tune out due to the 'drone factor' and awkward cadence. You have decent material to present, you seem clever and articulate too, just the presentation that's quite rough.
The only way to get to that point on my end is with more time (writing scripts or more editing) or a bigger team, both of which I don't really have at my disposal
Dwarf Draconic Sorcerer(d6) is not a tank but a tough caster. Take everything you did with the Dwarf and go fighter/paladin (d10)or Barbarian(d12) you are just a better and actual tank. I love all Draconic Sorcerers just the idea that they are a tank does not work for me.
Bladesinger Kensei Monk is still the best in 2024. My build has Evasion and a 31 AC without magical gear. We can talk all we want about battlefield control, but by the end of the day, who is surviving an onslaught of +13 attacks while dodging fireballs with advantage? It ain't the Barbarian. That damage resistance only goes so far. 😂 I've seen too many hard hitting Barbarians have to resort to flanking while my Armored Sorlock is bashing Dragons in the skull with Quicken Booming Blade Warhammer strikes. Survivability is more important than aggro. Aggro naturally happens as frontliners charge forward and squishy casters fall back or cast spells like Fly/Blink.
Also...with 120 ft speed and 6 attacks, I can totally move my party members out of the way by grappling them and then dragging them out of threat range. 😊
@thomaswatson8301 if you roll stats, it's even better. I just used Point Buy. Starting stats Str 9 Dex 14 (16) Con 11 Wis 15 (16) Int 14 Chr 8 +2 to Dex/+1 to Wis Background with Lucky 1st ASI out into Resilience - Con All other ASIs go into Dex and Wis to get to AC 20 by level 20. Heres the break down of AC without magical gear: Monk AC 20 + 2 Haste + 2 Agile Parry Kensei Monk + 2 Bladesong + 5 Shield Spell = 31 AC A cheap uncommon item Headband of Intellect will bump it to 33. My preferred magical gear set up would be Amulent of Health, Headband of Intellect and then a Staff of the Magi. Ita built to be super functional even without magical gear and not using ability rolls. Yes, the 12 Con makes a lot of people laugh but when you're not getting hit, have the ability to Dodge using a Bonus Action and have great/descent Dex and Con saves due to Proficiencies in each and you get a bonus from Bladesong to concentration, it makes little difference if your Con is only 12. And I added Toughness to the build from the Human starting feat so HPs are not an issue either. And there's almost no way your GM isn't going to give you any magical items. Any item is just icing on this delicious melee cake. This is a pure melee build and thus will never be as powerful overall (in all areas) as a full caster. But, if you want to dominate melee, this is the character that's built to solo Balors and Dragons. 😀
@@thomaswatson8301 Build is 8 Bladesinger + 12 Monk. You could also go 12 Bladesinger and 8 Monk and have good results. I just prefer to keep it mostly Monk.
You left out the best tanking move for the battle master: menacing attack. You can, in a single attack, push an enemy away from you (via mastery) and cause them to be frightened (so they cannot move closer to you); many purely melee opponents are entirely incapacitated by that combination if you place yourself well so they can't run around you.
I included it on the character sheet on patreon but just didn't happen to mention it here. But definitely a good call, it's a great maneuver
Btw for a point of reference on that sorcerer at level 20 with a 20 con they'd have an average hp of 302 with 220 of that amount just being from the flat number bonuses of your race subclass con and origin feat
Wouldn’t maxing charisma be better though? Having an additional 1 AC surely is more important than having extra 20 hp right, not to mention all the good stuff that comes with increasing the core casting modifier
@@sir_wffles this is why I want warforged in the new ruleset. I’d much rather have that +1AC. Cause this build is how I’m gonna make Starkiller but with Fire. His Vader is a Red Dragon.
No one plays 20th level. I build to 16th level because going higher is just so rare
I’m a big fan of the new Abjuration Wizard, if you give them the Background from the old Bigby’s Book that gives them Rune Carver as a feat. Then they can learn Armor of Agathys, which will increase their Survivability by a ton because now not only do they have a Bonus Action method (Armor Of Agathys got changed to a Bonus Action) to repair their Arcane Ward, but any time their Arcane Ward eats melee damage they are retaliating against their attacker.
Projected Ward let’s them protect their other Allies with their Arcane award in a pinch, Arcane Ward got buffed so that it now takes Damage Resistances into mind.
The rest of the subclass is already great, and the Spell List supplies plenty of Crowd control on its own.
With buffed Crafting, if you can make yourself an item that lets you cast Stoneskin, then you become a reflection tank better than most Barbarians.
At later levels the buffs you get to Counterspell and Dispel Magic are very noticeable, and the Resistance to Spell damage eventually just cements you as nigh unkillable.
Wow... you actually managed to turn a sorcerer into a very functional tank. Hats off to that xD
I'd like to make two suggestions for future builds; Yuno from Black Clover and Madara from Naruto are both very cool characters with intrueing abilities to play with.
Thank you! And I would love to do some more Black clover characters, but that was the source of my biggest copyright strike, a Naruto was the only other copyright strike I got. So I'm very cautious when it comes to those two properties
@dndbuilds oke, yeah... that very much makes sense. Shame, but reasonable position 👍
Damn, that sucks. I would love to see more Black Clover. The characters aren't as crazy OP as other animes. Maybe some Fairytail characters instead?
@@dndbuildsdude that’s insanely lame of them. Appreciate the work you do.
Fun thing for draconic sorcerers: Dip 1 level into paladin.
You get searing smite which is 2d6 without a save and scales exponentially. 4d6 at 2, 6d6 at 3rd ext. Then you add your cha if you go fire.
Easy combat: Concentrate on bladeward and you can get...
10+dex+cha+shield (can get magical)+ shield spell+bladeward.
Mine for a level 8 game has a 20 and with spells can get a 26-29
Wait what? There is no save? How did I miss that…..?
@@kyleray8504 There is a save, but it is non-concentration and you get the initial damage and the first damage before they get a save so even Legendary resistance wont stop the exponential damage. After that it is just gravy if they fail or use a LR
@@Razdasoldier one step closer to my perfect character then. Red Dragon sorcerer built to feel like Starkiller. Raised by a Red to be a walking magical WMD. If obsidians ever become official again I’ll have my perfect sith with fire instead of lightning.
Dwarf, draconic sorcerer with the tough feat and a pally dip is God tier tanky.
And it makes that green flame blade hit harder sans smite if you get a fighting style. Plus the use of shields. I love it. Can’t wait to piss my DM off with it lol. 6 sorc, 2 Pal. Nearly no loss in spell progression.
Great video! Tanking is always my go too, and the new stuff has made that a loot easier!
Background Rune Carver for Armor of Agathys then pick up the feat Eldritch Adept and take Fiendish Vigor.
Whatever class you place this on has a refilling force field.
The more I look into Abjuration Wizard/Warlock the better it starts looking. With at least two levels of Warlock you can get 3 eldritch invocations;
Fiendish Vigor gives you the maximum roll on False Life, 12 temp hit points. Lessons of the First Ones gives you an Origin Feat, which can be Tough for higher max HP.
The other invocation could be Eldritch Mind for advantage on concentration checks, Armor of Shadows to make maintaining mage armor negligible, or Pact of the Tome to snatch three cantrips and two ritual spells from any classes’ spell list. Since you can replace invocations when you level, you can start with Armor of Shadows and pick one of the others later.
Wizard gets access to the second level spell Arcane Vigor, allowing you to restore health using hit die as a bonus action. This is also an Abjuration spell, restoring your Ward when cast by twice the level of the spell.
You can restore your health and Ward with Arcane Vigor and still attack with a cantrip in the same turn, or refresh your False Life with the invocation. With the Ward, Temp HP, and actual HP, you quite literally have three health bars. Armor of Agathys is also an Abjuration spell and can be cast at a higher level using Wizard spell slots, though not on the same turn as Arcane Vigor due to the one spell slot per turn rule.
As you noted the dwarf gets an extra hit point per level, but prioritizing Wizard leads me to look at either the Criminal or Artisan backgrounds. Both give increases to Dexterity and Intelligence, but the play style is informed by the origin feat attached to them:
Artisan gives the Crafter feat, allowing you to make temporary equipment at the end of a rest and giving the tool proficiencies necessary to make equipment. Both Wizard and Warlock give Arcana proficiency, so crafting magic items and mundane equipment is going to be the name of the game for this background.
Criminal gives the Alert feat. You add your proficiency to your initiative and can switch initiatives with another willing member of the party. Being able to decide who goes first is a big benefit.
I love the sorcerer part, because if then immediately go to Barbarian afterwards, you get even more average HP. I had a human barb named Grognar using '14 rules. It's even better if you get ahold of that tome that increases stats beyond the cap.
I’m definitely playing a buff dwarf sorcerer as my next character.
Explaining how I’m the tank and not the blaster is going to be like half the fun.
I have played a Paladin and love it.
I’ve not played a Monk yet cos they just seemed weak but I’m looking forward to tanking with my Monk now.
Thanks for the insights.
Hope you enjoy it!
I'm making my archfey warlock a tank, and it's doing really good so far
I was going to mention the same thing except go fiend patron and do 1 level fighter dip. Then eventually pick up heavy armor master.
@TheSpinoza43221 fair, but at level 3 I have an effective 90 hp
@indigova All right I'll bite how do you have 90 effective hp at level 3
I think you missed talking about 2 aspects of the Monk for Tanking that imo would move it from HM into a Top 3 spot. The change to Grappling in general, now a creature you grapple has Disadvantage on attacks against everyone but you, and the Grappler feat gives you advantage on your attacks against someone you have grappled as well as being able to drag them at your full speed if they are your size or smaller. This means you can pull their focus to yourself or just drag them away from your allies. And the other really big change to their survivability is the new Deflect attack working on Melee attacks and eventually attacks of all damage types, at lvl 3 that about an average of about 11 damage you can reduce EVERY TURN, and by lvl 20 its about 33 damage mitigation each round
He missed Warrior of Elements monk entirely. Currently playing one and I can tell you I out tank the party's paladin have better control options and if I take Grappler I will be able to fully control enemies up to 15 feet away.
Tanking in DnD can be better. I think there should be an effect that forces a wisdom save if a creature targets someone else to your character. The effect should be a major change to the tide of battle. Like, if they fail they loose that action, if they save whatever it was continues as normal.
That's a tanking effect.
Manoeuvring attack is SO underrated, even by me until I played it. A worg had tripped an ally and they were prone, well, my turn I triggered them with it and they got up for free. Sure, they are still in range of the creature but they are no longer having advantage attacks against them and on their turn they have full movement and can do what they need.
Circle of the Moon needs a mention!
That's honestly great for survivability, but when it comes to crowd control they are super lacking once they're in their wild shape form
@@dndbuildsmaybe on their own, but through party synergy they go wild. I really am excited to try out a combo between a Martial PC with Mounted Combatant, combined with a Moon Druid that has the Sentinel Feat.
@SunLovinSolaire, that's interesting for sure, but if a build requires more than one player character, it's a party build rather than a single player build.
Druids still get great crowd control spells like spike growth and entangle.
I disagree. There are plenty of animals that knock prone (automatic now). Others that grapple (crocodile/ scorpion) and some that restraint.
The movement speed of many beast are 60 so moving into positions is easy enough.
Some might not this druid tanks are the best but I found that when I play as a moon druid if I'm not careful I can destroy the DM fun by controlling the combat more then he does. (Which is bad so be careful)
I actually am playing a Warlock/Paladin tank that works really well. Celestial Warlock 3 levels and 2 paladin. I’ve got good armor and with healing light as a bonus action I’ve been straight up out healing damage from everything thrown at the party. Plus with the paladin dip I have compelled duel and command
There should be a “People’s Eyebrow” taunt.
Protection actually applies to ALL attacks against your protected friend!
I'm glad that got buffed
Warrior of Elements Monk is a way better tank than most mentioned. Elemental Attunement allows you to push and pull enemies as part of your unarmed strikes and have a range of 15 feet. Currently playing one and I out tank the parties Paladin plus taking the grappler feat with this build just makes you a monster moving enemies wherever you want whenever you want deflect attacks is also an insane tanking feature.
I hope world tree barbarian is on the list, I love that subclass
Huzzah, I was right! Wotc make more subclasses like this plz
It really is an absolutely amazing addition
The best tank is :
Paladin 6, whatever 14
Tough, mage slayer, heavy armor master
Find a way to fit the shield spell somewhere
There, fixed it for you
Path of the Ancestral Guardian i find is a pretty decent tank. Hitting an enemy makes it so they are compelled to fight you or get disadvantage on everybody else, with your raging resistances... but at level 6 you can even use your reaction to shield allies (on top of the disadvantage)
It used to be the best tank for barbarians for sure, but imposing disadvantage isn't quite as good as teleporting a creature to you and reducing their speed to zero meaning they just can't get away
@dndbuilds sounds like power creep somehow
Giving an enemy disadvantage to attack a target other than you is OK. But if they get advantage on an attack against a target that is not you, they just have a straight attack roll and not real reason to attack just you.
I feel a real Tank/Taunt would be on a hit or failed DC the target can only attack you. They lose the ability to attack other targets till end of your next turn or if they make a save after attacking you..
@@marcducorsky8736 That's generally why I think off of the crown is usually the best, because there's so much better crowd control than almost anywhere else
My world tree barbarian uses glaives, quarter staff, and habreds to chop things or graze with polearm mastery. Still whish barbarians got free fighting style based o their subclass.
Dang, so maybe like a Demon Hunter from Warcraft?
Has anyone done a damage mitigation breakdown on interception vs protection?
It feels like protection is significantly stronger for pure mitigation, and the trade off is that you HAVE to use a shield, while interception isn't quite as strong, but can be made while dual wielding or with a two handed weapon.
So, the trade off is increased offensive damage from interception vs increased damage mitigation from protection.
Reducing incoming damage by about half of a first level spell slot's worth of healing EVERY round seems pretty great to me. There's no chance of failure. It's just 1D10+prof (at level 2 when a paladin gets it the average is 7.5 vs roughly 8 avg for a healing word) damage reduction every single round. If it's used 3 times per combat, that's like 3 extra first level spell slots worth of healing per combat.
Protection is only a chance to reduce damage as you're giving disadvantage to hit. But, a single reaction spent to give disadvantage works for EVERY attack until on that target until the start of your next turn (assuming you stay adjacent). If protection works on a single attack it'll likely prevent more damage than interception. And, it has the chance to work on many attacks in the same fight (especially with multiple enemies and targets with multiple attacks).
This makes protection less consistent, but giving it much more potential.
Swords bards are amazing tanks, surprsed you did not mention them. Dip 1 fighter for masteries or 3 sorcerer or both. Defensive duelist and / or Shillelah also help.
Question: How mechanically would i build a spartan hoplite since most of the spartans armor is his sheild
I actually made them a long long time ago like one of the first builds on this channel, and managed to recreate a phalanx battle strategy. You can do so with a mix of totem barbarian and battle master fighter
@dndbuilds hmm I guess I need to rewatch all your videos
@troperhghar9898 just search for 300 DnDBuilds then try not to judge too harshly because I was still learning how to make videos at the time lol
@@troperhghar9898 Just throwing it out there, man .... lean in to the role play and let the mechanics follow. Just flavor the description ... mechanically .. sure you can wear heavy or medium armor ... account for the weight and cost and impacts on stealth or whatever) but you can describe yourself as wearing minimal armor and focusing on blocking and parrying with shield and weapon.
Right? Be a fighter (or maybe ranger or paladin or bard) and wear the armor and use the shield and explain away the lack of visible body armor as your proficiency with a shield and your weapon.
Is it easier to use flavor text to adjust for what's going on with your character? Or, use some tortured multi-class combination and try to explain how you're a raging barbarian ... and also a disciplined and formally trained fighter or whatever.
Barbarian does allow you to boost your armor rating with your constitution (in addition to your dexterity) and also gives you a shield proficiency to work with. Functionally, that DOES sound like your character concept. Barbarian will have the weapon proficiencies, weapon masteries, and fighting style and also be extremely tanky.
Backgrounds of farmer (toughness), guard (alert), and soldier (savage attacker) would all have benefits with farmer being the most directly benefiting the tank concept.
For fighting style defense works fine. To keep up with the phalanx idea interception or protection would work. I think interception has the trade off of being less damage mitigation potential in exchange for not having to wear a shield so it works with two handed weapons and dual wielding. To me, that makes me think that if you're using a shield you're better off with protection because you're not gaining the damage benefit of interception (more damage from a larger or second weapon).
I feel like weapon mastery matters here. A weapon with sap wouldn't mesh well with protection because you cannot possibly put disadvantage on a target twice (sap and protection). Topple weapons mesh with protection fighting style. Trident or battleaxe with trident may be more thematic.
I really think you could build this out with almost any class and explain away the amor with description. It would be easy to say no to anything with magic, but there's really not much difference between combat maneuvers and some spells and you can make either sound like the other through description.
Yeah? Hunter ranger at level three can use horde breaker once per turn. Defensive fighting style for +1 AC and now you're more tanky, and also you would be able to potentially use sap from a longsword on two targets every single turn to give them both disadvantage on their next attack which would feel like a version of the protection style (it's not unlimited attacks until your next turn, but it's two enemies and it can help you or an ally instead of just an ally). Plus, it's an extra attack. And, at level 5 now you can potentially give disadvantage to three targets per round every single round. Hunter's mark and now each of those attacks are doing extra damage and you can describe the effect as your rage taking over and allowing you to do more damage.
Any class can be described to play like any other class.
Topple + Hamstring blow makes most creatures unable to get up
Can you do kekkaishi?
The important component of a tank isn't crowd control, it's _stickiness_ (the ability to make enemies pile on you and unable to leave your zone of control because you can punish them for doing so).
Like, that Barbarian build is just going to see foes staying out of range, forcing the barb to run around the battlefield, while the rest of the mobs run riot in the backlines. I'd also say that there's a strong case to be made that Weapon Mastery effects _don't_ stack with Brutal Strike effects. Push, for example, says _up to_ ten feet, while Forceful Blow is fully fifteen feet away from you, which would mean the 10 feet of a Push Mastery is consumed during the Forceful Blow effect. You could argue that, RAW, Hamstring stacks with Slow, but the wording of Hamstring including "can only be affected by one Hamstring" suggests RAI is that it doesn't stack with Slow.
I believe you’re understanding these rules wrong.
@@jacobjensen7704 Nope. Went over the book and build multiple times just to be sure.
You _can_ argue that Push and Forceful blow stack RAW, but that argument requires a munchkin's creative interpretation of wording and a GM who is fairly lax about these kinds of things. But, per _actual_ RAW and what is clearly RAI, the abilities don't stack.
@@dungeonsanddobbers2683 well I think that because you can follow them as part of Forceful Blow you could hit them and knock them back the 15 feet while following and then launch them the extra 10 feet, so in the end they are only 10 feet away from you but we're able to move them 25 total feet. Hamstring and Slow I have no question about working together just like how they also would stack with someone using Ray if Frost they are all abilities that are different and simply say that a creature can be affected by each of them only once.
Off-topic, anyone know which TV show / movie is the source of the clip playing at 22:26-22:34? Glowing blue-eyed woman wielding some sort of magic sword to fight... aliens? Looks very much like I'd picture a psi warrior.
Pretty sure that's from New Mutants
@dndbuilds Cool, tyvm. That must be Ilyana / Magik then... I figured it was a Marvel or DC property, but New Mutants is one of the flicks I've never got around to watching.
@@ryk-mp5lz yeah honestly I heard it was pretty terrible
How do you feel Bard (Dance) compares to Sorcerer (Dragon). They also get Charisma for AC.
bard has better crowd control and support options, dance specifically is hard to pin down, sorcerer is more of an in your face tank that can nuke shit better
I am going to attempt to make a Tank-bard using the College of dance. XD
Do artificers even have weapon mastery or have they not made the features backwards compatible?
Only certain classes get weapon masteries right now, and they do have an updated Artificer in the works, so we have to wait and see if weapon masteries will be part of it.
@ yeah, I've read over the new artificer but that was a while ago and genuinely could not remember if there was anything for them regarding weapon mastery. You'd think they'd at least have the pistol or rifle.
Can we get Lu Bu from Dynasty Warrior?
Where are the new rules for oath of the crown? I can’t find them anywhere?
@@Soursnowball5 they updated the paladin core features but oath of the crown didn't change from the older version
@ thank you!
So how does a paladin//warlock multi class work? Couldn’t the warlock patron theoretically make the paladin do something that breaks their oath?
The way I understand Warlock patrons is that they don't directly grant you your powers. More that they grant you the ability to take levels in the class. Hence, why weaker things can be Warlock patrons. Also why Warlocks can kill their patrons.
All that being said. Why would a patron force a paladin against their oath? Many align very well. Take Fey to go with World Tree, for example.
@@krensharmoon I’m new to the game. I’m currently in my first campaign. Still learning how things work. The only real thing I know about warlocks is they serve a patron and Wyll’s patron on BG3 lol
@dreyfus37_65 that's good. BG3 was a great introduction to dnd for a lot of people. Warlocks can be complicated. Each table and each Warlock may run things uniquely. A big part of Will's story is that he signed an infernal contract, for example. Not everyone needs to do that. Patrons can be Angel's, Fey, magic items, or several other things.
Who would think of a dragonic dwarf sorcerer
I actually played build 1 up to level 7 now dwarf farmer with quarterstaff and shield take polearmmaster to get a 3. Attack
Artillerist/ancestral Guardian for party wide damage reduction
Don't you mean Bladesinger Wizard?
That's what I intended for the honorable mention, did I unknowingly say the wrong thing?
STILL waiting for a DC comic penguin build
Saying a full caster cleric lacks battlefield control is just a wild take
@@zhornlegacy7936 they definitely have it, just not as much as some other classes comparatively
@@dndbuilds which would be a fair point if the qualifiers for other classes on the list weren't so narrow as to be countable on one hand.
"Clerics don't have enough battlefield control" Said no one ever lol You're a caster, you have way more control than any martial. Also, full casters have less hp than martials in general, they are FAR from squishy.
@@moonlight2870 clerics have some control, just not enough. They get Hold Person but they can't twin it like a sorcerer, they don't default get the shield spell, and they don't get hold monster, hypnotic pattern, or a lot of other great control spells. They just don't get enough in my book to make it out of an honorable mention
Damn…Dwarves with the Tough Feat kinda thicc.
~_~
Not thicc, swole
This is from 3.5 but I have to share. My best tank was a Human Transmuter Wizard, took the heavy armor feat so could cast in full plate mail. But with all my constant buffs I had the highest str, AC, CON and HP of the party (including over the paladin). Tensers tranformation and polymorph ment it was "Everyone, get behind the wizard" and it was the funniest thing ever!
never been this early
You got here before I did lol
@dndbuilds thats early
Buddy, I say this sincerely, Please watch successful channels in the space and compare the way the speak. Cadence, intonation, conversational style, etc. You gotta step up your presentation quality, this is hard to not tune out due to the 'drone factor' and awkward cadence.
You have decent material to present, you seem clever and articulate too, just the presentation that's quite rough.
The only way to get to that point on my end is with more time (writing scripts or more editing) or a bigger team, both of which I don't really have at my disposal
Sup
Always so early!
@dndbuilds This is probably one of my favorite channels. The only days I dont reply as soon as I get the notification are when I am working
5th time asking for Dnd builds for the other 3 Horsemen from Darksiders
True, Tabletop Nephilim already has 2/4 horsemen, so mr builds may soon find himself outnumbered.
I have death already recorded, just working on the editing portion
@ wooo!
Dwarf Draconic Sorcerer(d6) is not a tank but a tough caster. Take everything you did with the Dwarf and go fighter/paladin (d10)or Barbarian(d12) you are just a better and actual tank. I love all Draconic Sorcerers just the idea that they are a tank does not work for me.
What if you haven't upgraded to the new Dungeons and Dragqueens, and still just play 5E?
@@gustaafargoan then I would stick with my old ultimate tank build, because otherwise there's not enough battlefield control to be as effective
Bladesinger Kensei Monk is still the best in 2024. My build has Evasion and a 31 AC without magical gear. We can talk all we want about battlefield control, but by the end of the day, who is surviving an onslaught of +13 attacks while dodging fireballs with advantage? It ain't the Barbarian. That damage resistance only goes so far. 😂
I've seen too many hard hitting Barbarians have to resort to flanking while my Armored Sorlock is bashing Dragons in the skull with Quicken Booming Blade Warhammer strikes.
Survivability is more important than aggro. Aggro naturally happens as frontliners charge forward and squishy casters fall back or cast spells like Fly/Blink.
Also...with 120 ft speed and 6 attacks, I can totally move my party members out of the way by grappling them and then dragging them out of threat range. 😊
Honestly I'm glad the usual baldur's gate 1 build of multiclass kensei with mage still holds strong in the most modern edition of dnd
You must have rolled absurdly high for stats for that build to work. Cool idea, though. I may try it sometime.
@thomaswatson8301 if you roll stats, it's even better. I just used Point Buy.
Starting stats
Str 9
Dex 14 (16)
Con 11
Wis 15 (16)
Int 14
Chr 8
+2 to Dex/+1 to Wis Background with Lucky
1st ASI out into Resilience - Con
All other ASIs go into Dex and Wis to get to AC 20 by level 20.
Heres the break down of AC without magical gear:
Monk AC 20 + 2 Haste + 2 Agile Parry Kensei Monk + 2 Bladesong + 5 Shield Spell = 31 AC
A cheap uncommon item Headband of Intellect will bump it to 33. My preferred magical gear set up would be Amulent of Health, Headband of Intellect and then a Staff of the Magi.
Ita built to be super functional even without magical gear and not using ability rolls. Yes, the 12 Con makes a lot of people laugh but when you're not getting hit, have the ability to Dodge using a Bonus Action and have great/descent Dex and Con saves due to Proficiencies in each and you get a bonus from Bladesong to concentration, it makes little difference if your Con is only 12. And I added Toughness to the build from the Human starting feat so HPs are not an issue either.
And there's almost no way your GM isn't going to give you any magical items. Any item is just icing on this delicious melee cake. This is a pure melee build and thus will never be as powerful overall (in all areas) as a full caster. But, if you want to dominate melee, this is the character that's built to solo Balors and Dragons. 😀
@@thomaswatson8301 Build is 8 Bladesinger + 12 Monk. You could also go 12 Bladesinger and 8 Monk and have good results. I just prefer to keep it mostly Monk.
Day 2 of asking for Godzilla
Talking about 20lv builds is so useless
K
2024?
Nm