Regardless of how much experience you have, it's nothing more than anecdotal. We don't always want to hear that, but it's true. And what you described, I still wouldn't tanking. They're not actively doing anything. Heck, I could duplicate maybe 90% of that with an Oath of Vengeance Paladin or any old Cleric. If your idea is they should just cast something and stand there to be attacked that's...boring and lazy. There's no nicer way for me to put it.
They might want proficiency with Constitution saving throws, but they're not saving themselves a feat. They just traded proficiency with Dexterity saves for it. And while they don't need Dexterity for AC with that heavy armor, you are handicapping Jack of all Trades. Second Wind might never see any use, between their Bardic Inspiration and Spellcasting, so that's a dead feature..
Let's talk about Feats for a second. One, they're optional. Technically, a DM doesn't have to allow them. Second, if your goal is to create a Bard tank with ridiculously high Constitution saving throws with Advantage and absolutely pitiful Dexterity saving throws, any DM worth their salt is going to exploit the heck out of that. If their Constitution saving throw is +6 and they have War Caster, that's a 97.75% chance of rolling a 10 or higher. I'd have to deal 34 damage, requiring a DC 17 saving throw, to bring that down to only 75%. So if that spell is going to drop, I'm going to ensure they take insane amounts of damage. And that bard won't last long at those numbers. The choice for the DM is to either accept that the spell, requiring concentration, will always stay up or to escalate the game to what some affectionately call rocket tag.
And that can make for a very unfun experience for everyone at the table. This is the problem I have with optimizers, and that looks to be what you're advocating. Unless everyone is on board with it, it breaks the game.
[..]This is the problem I have with optimizers, and that looks to be what you're advocating. [..]
Yes.
For one, I never boasted about my experience as a matter of saying "Oh and btw, this is definitely what'll happen." The point I wanted to make is that my chances of finding a DM that won't allow multiclassing, or feats for that matter, to be a non-issue. Whether or not you interpret that as me saying my anecdotal evidence for the flow of combat is absolute, that's another thing! You might be able to duplicate some of the build with a vengeance paladin, but only for so long until bard spellcasting progression outpaces paladin's halfcaster nature. Better go with cleric if you're going for 90%.
Lazy? Boring? Unfun for everyone else at the table? I have no qualms with that, but it is only your opinion nonetheless. Did I just prove my point that my bard tank would be successful in drawing attention? I think I did.
Oh, I see.
Regardless of how much experience you have, it's nothing more than anecdotal. We don't always want to hear that, but it's true. And what you described, I still wouldn't tanking. They're not actively doing anything. Heck, I could duplicate maybe 90% of that with an Oath of Vengeance Paladin or any old Cleric. If your idea is they should just cast something and stand there to be attacked that's...boring and lazy. There's no nicer way for me to put it.
They might want proficiency with Constitution saving throws, but they're not saving themselves a feat. They just traded proficiency with Dexterity saves for it. And while they don't need Dexterity for AC with that heavy armor, you are handicapping Jack of all Trades. Second Wind might never see any use, between their Bardic Inspiration and Spellcasting, so that's a dead feature..
Let's talk about Feats for a second. One, they're optional. Technically, a DM doesn't have to allow them. Second, if your goal is to create a Bard tank with ridiculously high Constitution saving throws with Advantage and absolutely pitiful Dexterity saving throws, any DM worth their salt is going to exploit the heck out of that. If their Constitution saving throw is +6 and they have War Caster, that's a 97.75% chance of rolling a 10 or higher. I'd have to deal 34 damage, requiring a DC 17 saving throw, to bring that down to only 75%. So if that spell is going to drop, I'm going to ensure they take insane amounts of damage. And that bard won't last long at those numbers. The choice for the DM is to either accept that the spell, requiring concentration, will always stay up or to escalate the game to what some affectionately call rocket tag.
And that can make for a very unfun experience for everyone at the table. This is the problem I have with optimizers, and that looks to be what you're advocating. Unless everyone is on board with it, it breaks the game.
Yes.
For one, I never boasted about my experience as a matter of saying "Oh and btw, this is definitely what'll happen." The point I wanted to make is that my chances of finding a DM that won't allow multiclassing, or feats for that matter, to be a non-issue. Whether or not you interpret that as me saying my anecdotal evidence for the flow of combat is absolute, that's another thing! You might be able to duplicate some of the build with a vengeance paladin, but only for so long until bard spellcasting progression outpaces paladin's halfcaster nature. Better go with cleric if you're going for 90%.
Lazy? Boring? Unfun for everyone else at the table? I have no qualms with that, but it is only your opinion nonetheless. Did I just prove my point that my bard tank would be successful in drawing attention? I think I did.
Why war caster if you take 1lvl hexblade