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Though 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role⭕playing game (TTRPG) quite unlike roleplaying games online gamers may be more familiar with, there's𒀰 still a tendency to think of characters in terms of tanks, healers, and damage dealers. Barbarians, Fighters, Paladins, and Druids are all thought of as "tanking" classes thanks to their combination of high AC (Armor Class), higher hit point maximums, and handful of defensive abilities.
While there's really no such thing as a true tank in Dungeons & Dragons, due to the lack of taunt mechanics for which tanks are generally known, a D&D party does benefit quite highly from having at least one character who can take a lot oꦿf hits and keep on trucking. We'll take a look at how to build such a c🅠haracter, as well as some of the best features and abilities you can harness in order to build the ultimate D&D tank.
What Is A Tank In D&D?
In a nutshell, tanks are meant to take a lot of damage on behalf of the party.
As mentioned above, the lack of a dedicated taunt mechanic for any class makes the typical tank classification used in other games not exactly fit here. Usually, a tank needs a way to ensure that the enemy is targeting them and only them, but due to the emphasis on roleplaying in Dungeons & Dragons, there is simply no feasible way for an ability like this to exist (let alone be available to multiple classes).
Consequently, the definition of a tank in D&D is bit different. There is no surefire way you can force enemies to attack you, so you have to be a little more creative with your actions, positioning, and abilities in order to fulfill the tanking role. As a tank, it's your duty to get up in melee combat with enemies and do whatever you can to convince them to attack you.
Your higher AC value and deeper hit point pool make it so that enemy attacks are less effective than if they had been made against your party members. Furthermore, as long as the enemies are attacking you, your party members don't have to worry about things like maintaining concentration on their spells or suffering from disadvantage on their ranged attacks.
At their best, a tank is both soaking up damage that would potentially kill their all🍸ies, an🧸d freeing up their party members to be as effective in combat as possible.
Ability Scores
It should come as no surprise that a tank's most important ability score is Constitution. This ability score directly increases your hit point pool as you get to add your Constitution modifier to your hit point total each time you level up. This bonus also applies retroactively, so if your Constitution score increases from 14 to 16 at later levels, you♑ gain an additional one hit point for every previous level you have.
While having a pool of deep hit points is important, it also commonly falls upon the tank to bring the most Strength to the table. Strength is overlooked by pretty much all ranged char𓆏acter builds, and many melee builds choose to focus on Dexterity instead. Additionally, spellcasters almost always choose Strength as their dump stat (their least useful), save for some very niche builds.
Although Strength is only responsible for modifying the single skill of Athletics, this is a very useful skill for a D&D party to have. As a result, your second-highest ability score should be Strength, and you're highly incentivized to take proficiency in Athletics.
Athletics is responsible for climbing chec🦩ks, breaking down doors, carrying heavy objects, breaking free of r🦩estraining effects, and more.
Feats
Some of the most powerful tanking options come from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:what feats you decide to take over the course of your character's career. Fighter tanks in particular can see a huge amount of ﷽customization from their feat choices as they have more ASIs (Ability Score Improvements) during their level progression than all other classes.
Below is a table featuring all the tanking feats you should consider split into three categories. These categories include defensive feats, pseudo-taunt feats, and half-feats. Pseudo-taunts in particular are feats that make your job of incentivizing enemies to attack you over your allies easier. Meanwhile, half-feats provide you a +1 bonus to an ability score on top of other benefits.
|
Defensive feats |
Alert |
Defensive Duelist |
Tough |
Dual Wielder |
Gift of the Metallic Dragon |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pseudo-taunt feats |
Charger |
Grappler |
Mage Slayer |
Martial Adept |
Mobile |
Polearm Master |
Sentinel |
Shield Master |
|
Half-feats |
Athlete |
Crusher |
Heavy Armor Master |
Resilient |
Each of these feats is useful in its own way, however, it's worth mentioning that the combination of Polearm Master and Sentinel in particular is incredibly effective at both increasing your damage and forcing opponents to attack you. Additionally, the best single feat a tank can take is Sentinel as this feat makes it so that enemies have a very🌳 hard time getting away from you once you come into melee ranꦓge.
There a🐟re a handful of feats useful for tanks not mentioned on this table due to species requirements. These include Dragon Fear, Dwarven Fortitude, Infernal 🎃Constitution, and more.
Class Abilities
Every tanking class brings its own unique abilities which make it viable for tanking. The Fighter has Second Wind for added durability, Action Surge for a potential pseudo-taunt, and Interception and Protection Fighting Styles for shielding their allies from harm. Lots of ability score improvements (ASIs) for added feats is also incredible, as stated above.
Battlemaster Fig🍎hters also have access to useful maneuv🔴ers that can hinder their foes and help their allies escape harm.
The Druid brings multiple Wild Shapes for a huge pool of added hit points that actually gives this class more hit points than any other, fairly unique spellcasting including spells such as Entangle, Thorn Whip, and Barkskin, and healing in the form of Goodberry, Cure Wounds, and Healing Word.
Circle of the Moon Druids have so many hit points that it's difficult for most enemies to even threaten their lives. Howeve♌r, Druiꩲds can often be easily ignored by intelligent enemies due to their lack of pseudo-taunts.
The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Paladin is the go-to tank if you want to shore up your party against enemy spellcasters and spell-like abilities. This is thanks to their sixth level feature Aura of Protection which provides a bonus to saving throws equal to their Charisma modifier to all party members within 10 ft. of you. The Paladin's ability to nova (deal a ton of damage in a single turn) thanks to divine smite also makes for a great pse♏udo-taunt, and Lay on Hands can be a clജutch source of healing.
Lastly, the Barbarian is your bread and butter tank capable of soaking up tons of damage due to Rage reducing all piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing damage they receive by half. Reckless Attack is a powerful pseudo-taunt ability as attacking at advantage is an opportunity most enemies won't pass up, and Danger Sense makes fo🥂r a surprising amount of added resilienওce.
If you take the Totem Warrior subclass and choose the Bear totem perk, you gain resistance to all damage types except for♍ psychic. Without a doubt, this is the best Barbarian tank feature in the game.
Pseudo-Taunts
This term has been mentioned a lot already, so it's important to define exactly what it means. A "pseudo-taunt" is an ability or effect that incentivizes enemies to attack you over other characters. These include abilities that deal a ton of dama⭕ge, restrict enemy moveme🌸nt, or otherwise give opponents a roleplaying or mechanical reason to attack you over your party members.
Grapplin🍸g an opponent is one of the best ways to restrict enemy movement, and is also something any character♍ can do.
There are a nearly unknowable number of pseudo-taunts available, and a lot of it still depends on your DM's decisions, so we'll just briefly mention some of the best ones available. These include feats like Sentinel and Polearm Master, Battlemaster maneuvers such as Goading Attack and Bait and Switch, and warding spells similar to Sanctuary (cast on an ally), Shield of Faith (cast on an ally), and Compelled Duel.
It's important to remember that D&D is a roleplaying game. Consequently, sometimes the best pseudo-taunt available is simply talking smack to your opponent. Generous dungeon masters may even allow you to make ꦇa Charisma check entirely for free to see if your taunt works!
Knowing Your Enemy
Speaking once again to the roleplaying nature of Dungeons & Dragons, the best tanks know what to say or do to their enemy in order to incur their wrath. For example, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a maniacal and power-hungry wizard who believes they are the best spellcaster in the w🔥orld probably wouldn't t♊ake kindly to someone comparing their spellcasting to mere card tricks.
Alternatively, a self-righteous warlord who thinks they're making the world a better place by ridding it of nomadic civilizations is really going to dislike anyone wh🔯o calls thei🎉r worldview into question and accuses them of being no better than a murderer.
Knowing your enemy means you know how to incentivize them to attack you over your party members, and this is the number one responsibility of a tank. When all else failsꦐ, don't forget you've always got the ace up your sleeve of simply pissing the opponent off so badly that they want no☂thing more than to see your character dead.
