My brain is way too devoted to making everything in every game I play a melee and/or tank. Now I am going for the wizard. A tortle bladesinger that spams shield and mirror image in melee combat (also stronger buffs at higher levels) might just fit the bill of “wizard tank”. Do you think this is amazing, stupid, or both?

Tortle and Bladesinger is interesting in the regard that they let you explore being a STR/INT wizard as opposed to being the more traditional DEX/INT Bladesinger which in turn opens up interesting combinations such as combining the Crusher feat with Booming Blade.

My thoughts exactly. If you are not using customizing your origin then it not only works but is better than dex, because tortle gets racial strength. Tortle in general seems to be designed to make players ignore dex. This particular setup can go more Str than int if only defensive spells and booming blade are used. The least intentional build option for wizard.

I would still max INT before STR because it adds AC.  Defensive spells are great and all but not needing to use them in the first place is even better.

True, kind of forgot about that. The fact that that was an option regardless was probably not intentional from wizards of the coast. On second thought, 20 ac at level 2 or 22 at any level without going out of your way to get it is utterly ridiculous. And then the shields and mirror images. Tortle bladesingers are serious business. This setup is way better than I thought it would be when I came up with it. I guess just try to make everything a melee tank and you create good melee tanks.

Don't forget Bracers of Defense if your DM is brave enough to let you have them lol.

If I cast shield and mirror image then 27 ac with shield is enough that they will barely make a difference anymore.  What we need is bonuses to saves, so the bravest and most foolish dm is the one that allows a ring of protection, for saves and ac. Tortle are totally balanced

This thread simultaneously insults fighter, Paladin, and wizard, yet praises tortle a lot simply by existing

I'd lean towards a Githyanki War Wizard, you get light and medium armour proficiencies and some weapon skills and can use your reaction with War Wizard to give yourself a little buff to AC or a Saving Throw without having to burn your spell slots into Shield and Githyanki gives you a free Misty Step for when that melee combat gets a tad too uncomfortable.

Otherwise if you could get into some Half Plate Armour and have Dex14 you can rock around in AC17 which should be enough for most things and buff it up as needed with various spells etc.

Edit...you'll still likely need to burn a feat into Tough for the extra HP.

Maybe we do not have barbarian durability, but this is still more durable than wizard should get. Also, booming blade makes it dangerous to move, making you the least painful target to attack. And hill dwarf is a nice idea, but at what cost to our ac? We can still take tough as an infinite-ac tortle. 1 hp per level is not worth the cost to ac.

Quote from sfPanzer >>

I mean you have nothing that would force an enemy to hit you instead of someone else like the Ancestral Guard, Battle Master, Cavalier or Armorer have so at best you could play a rather durable Wizard but not an actual tank. The next problem is that it's pretty much impossible to avoid getting hit no matter how much AC and defensive layers you stack ... that means your 1d6 hit dice are going to hurt your idea a LOT. Instead of Tortle that only has AC for it going which you can fix with Bladesinging, Mage Armor, Shield etc, maybe consider a Hill Dwarf and the Tough feat for +3HP per level (that equals turning your hit dice from 1d6 to 1d12 on average but with a better worst case result and worse best case result).

 I  disagree with the nothing to force a enemy hit you part.  Simply concentrating on a combat changing spell like Hypnotic Pattern is usually enough to get the DM to give you all the attention you want lol.

And Bladesingers are NOT durable, they do NOT want to get hit, that is kinda why they have such high AC.  Tanking does not mean you need to be getting hit, it is simply encouraging enemies to attack you over other members of your party.  Also of course it is impossible to avoid getting hit because NAT 20s exist but if the DM is only able to hit you with a NAT 20 then imo its mission accomplished.  5% chance to get hit is at good as it gets for any character.

Now if you wanted a durable wizard then you should be knocking on the Abjuration school's door.  They are the durable wizards, they like to get hit while laughing at their enemies face as the attack gets harmlessly absorbed by their ward.  The focus of the Bladesinging school is about avoiding the hit.

We all know what a traditional DEX/INT based Bladesinger can do and how powerful they can be, but its fun to explore the path less trodden with the Tortle Bladesinger and what the possibilities are with that combination.

Someone said Githyanki for medium armor. Valid for most wizards, but bladesingers were designed to not want medium armor, and tortle base 17 ac is equal to the maximum that gives anyway. I did not expect this much conversation, I guess a title of “most fragile class tank build” draws attention. 

If you take Silvery Barbs from Strixhaven you can make that 5% of 5% which is pretty good odds.

Good idea. We will be upcasting some level 1 spells for nothing extra.

Also might make us annoying enough to attack

I'd take Blur before mirror image, especially if you are planning on either the war caster or resilient con feat at a later level. Blur means that every hit coming in at disadvantage where mirror image three missed attempts at most.

Mirror image works great till about level 6 when enemies all start gaining multi-attack and can chew threw images in a round or two. Where Blur, especially when combined with a high AC, means more misses overall and even after getting hit you can make a con save to keep it going.

Take both, cast the better one for the fight. Blur for groups and multiattacks, mirror image for big single strikes with high attack bonuses or combining with other concentration spells. Mirror image came to mind first because another player absorbed 6 attacks in one fight with the spell, tipping it so that we barely won. The boss had over 20 ac and 100 hp for level 4 players. 1 minute durations had to be reactivated mid-fight.

Mountain dwarf abjuration wizard. 

As a mountain dwarf you get medium armor proficiency and a sweet Constitution buff. As an abjuration wizard you got your Arcane Ward (and at level 6, Projected Ward) to absorb incoming damage. And you can still cast Shield if you really need it. 

Here’s the thing. I am not saying you made a bad build, abjuration is one of the big three durable wizards with bladesinger and war wizard, but tortles get 17 ac, the maximum from medium armor, with no armor or dex, so more int and con. Customizing your origin from Tasha’s helps with the con. And yes shield. Look at bigger defense buffs later, like blur or mirror image.

I think you only have player’s handbook though based on what you showed so that is close to the max you can get on that

My favorite wizard so far (and is probably far from optimal) was a mountain dwarf war wizard with warcaster so he could hold a shield & also cast shield. At 10, they pick up the extra 2 AC while concentrating - so between blur, mirror image, the shield, AC boost from subclass & shield spell they can be decently hard to hit directly. Then depending on how you feel about multiclassing - either pick up one level of Forge Cleric for the heavy armor prof or the feat for heavy armor prof at 4 - and your base AC is 20 without any shielding (21 as forge cleric if you put blessing of the forge on your armor). With shield of faith, that puts you at max 30 (21+2+2+5) for straight AC, or 28 if you use blur for the DA.

Still has a decent initiative without any dex as well from war wizard.