I've been invited to join a Mad Mage campaign. They need a Dwarven Tank. Are there any interesting concepts out there for this? (That work well ) thanks!
Depending on what level you start at you could go with a Mountain Dwarf fighter, possible feats- Heavy Armor Master, Tough, Sentinel. Go axe and shield pump your Str and Con. Subclass of Cavalier might be a good fit.
Are you rolling stats or do you use standard/pointbuy? Warriors only need str and con to shine, while barbariens could use dex and paladins are better with decent cha.
Dwarf eldritch knight. CON your highest stat, STR second, INT third (EK's really don't need very high Int as few of your spells rely on it).
Defence Fighting Style
Take the heaviest armour you can get and a shield, your AC should be somewhere between 18 and 21. You'll be able to boost it to 23-26 using Shield. Take any versatile d8/d10 weapon - battleaxe, Warhammer or longsword are all good options. You will almost always want a shield equipped.
Cantrips: Pick 2 from: Ray of Frost (better than other damage cantrips as it lets you run things down), Booming Blade, Blade Ward (at level 5, both Booming Blade and Blade Ward aren't optimal as they eat your attacks, but you'll want both of them at level 7 so make sure to get at least one).
Essential Level 1 spells:
Shield*
Protection from Good and Evil
Absorb Elements
*Some DMs may get all rules-lawyery about Shield and other spellcasting as you're going to have a weapon and shield equipped. You can get around this easily by this action sequence:
Make gestures (free to do as much as you want on your turn), you wave to someone, this drops your weapon on the floor.
Cast a spell
Pick up the weapon as a free action or use a Bonus Action to summon it back to you with Weapon Bond.
Alternatively you can sheathe your weapon as a free action, cast a spell, then use a Bonus Action with Weapon Bond to summon it back to your hand. If your DM is being really annoying about Shield and saying you can't open your hand to drop your weapon as part of the reaction to cast it, then you can argue that the somatic component clearly does not involve opening your hand so why would you need to?
Generally this "but you're holding a - oops no you dropped it" nonsense is just a waste of time, and your DM will probably just let you cast with a weapon in hand.
Most players seem to not understand that the EK is best used as a tank. You won't be an offensive spellcaster, you get your spell slots way too late for that to be useful, but the versatility is really fun.
Feats: If you don't need stats, choose from Heavy Armour Master, Warcaster, Sentinel, Tough, Lucky (Lucky is actually kinda insane). I'd start with Heavy Armour Master for the stat boost.
Tactics: First round of combat you're likely to cast Protection from Good and Evil if it will help. Second round of combat, use an attack to Shove an enemy. If they go over, use Action Surge to make 3 attacks on them with advantage. Don't burn A.S. unless you hit with your Shove. Shield anything that shield would stop, but generally only after you've suffered 1/3 of your hit point total in damage. Second Wind resets on a Short Rest, so use it often. Save spell slots for attacks that would really hurt you. Absorb Elements everything you can.
The cavalier has some interesting features that I don't hear too much about. Would protection fighting style be redundant with Cavalier subclass? (I don't see how the dwarf uses the mount features but everything else is good.)
The dwarven tank in our party is a forge cleric. And he's a tank alright. At level 8 he has 22AC without magical armor, plenty of hit points, and he can heal himself. A lot.
And with heat metal and wall of fire, he packs a heck of an offense wallop in the right situations too.
Protection fighting style would also work great with the Cavalier since protection uses your reaction and cavalier uses your bonus action when using unwavering mark. Talk to your DM about a possibly mount but maybe a Giant Boar, Giant Goat.
Long Death monk is the absolute tankiest class you can possibly play from level 11 on, because once you get to that level, you can do 1 HP tanking for a number of attacks or damaging effects equal to your remaining ki pool (and ki points recharge on a short rest), even multiple times per round. It's basically the Orc's Relentless Endurance or Shadow Sorcerer's Strength of the Grave on steroids, because you can do it as many times as you have ki points, and it requires no save. Also, it's my understanding that Long Death monks got their start as a dwarven thing in 3.5 Forgotten Realms (Neverwinter Nights?), so it may fit your campaign thematically as well.
If you're below 11, Long Death monk is still decently tanky. Monks can have one of the higher AC calculations once they get some ASI's under their belt, and your level 3 Touch of Death will do a lot to give you a tanky HP buffer. Hill Dwarf will give you even more HP. Or if you don't have the stats for a high-AC monk calculation at low level, wearing armor doesn't hurt that much other than forcing you to use a weapon for regular strength-based melee attacks instead of dex-based unarmed strikes with scaling damage, losing your monk bonus attacks, and losing your monk speed. Totally viable to build a Mountain Dwarf strength monk that intends to wear armor from day 1, although you won't get the benefits of a shield unless your DM reads the armor section very literally to impose no penalty for wielding a non-proficient shield.
I'd recommend either:
Hill Dwarf, 8/15/17/8/16/8
put all your ASI into +1 Dex/Con, +2 Dex, +2 Dex, +2 Wis, +2 Wis.
Starts at 15 AC and 12 HP, ends at 20 AC and 203 HP, can completely negate up to 20 killing blows per short rest if you save your Ki, does the usual punch/punch/punch/[punch?] 1d10's of a pure monk)
Mountain Dwarf, 17/8/17/8/15/8,
start life wearing medium armor (11-14 AC depending on which armor) and put your first feat into Heavily Armored for +1 Strength and plate (AC to 18). Rest of your ASI go to +2 Str, +1 Con/Wis, (+2 Wis or Con), (+2 Wis or a feat).
Starts at 13-16 AC and 11 HP, ends at 18 AC and 183-203 HP, can completely negate up to 20 killing blows per short rest if you save your Ki, and you likely will since you are less likely to use it on Flurry of Blows, does a typical non-fighter martial class Weapon/Weapon attack action )
BONUS: This is actually easier if you start off as a Fighter and multiclass into Monk, since it gets you Heavy Armor and Shields. Monks in general lose very little by stopping at 14 other than a small amount of Unarmed Damage and lackluster level 17 subclass abilities, and 6 levels of Fighter picks you up quite a bit. The main drawback is needing to start with more Dexterity, to qualify for a monk multiclass, but that can be compensated for by dropping Wisdom a little bit.
Mountain Dwarf, 17/14/16/8/12/8
Start life wearing medium or heavy armor with a shield (16-20 AC depending on which armor), and put your first feat into +1 Str/+1 Wis to unlock Monk. From there, it's +2 Str, (+2 Con or Wis), (+2 Con or Wis), +2 Wis or a feat or something.
Starts at 16-20 AC and 13 HP, ends at 20 AC and 200-220 HP, can completely negate up to 14 killing blows per short rest if you save your Ki, benefits of 6 levels of EK or Battlemaster or Samurai or something, does a typical non-fighter martial class Weapon/Weapon attack action)
Or Hill Dwarf, 15/14/16/8/13/8
Start life wearing medium or heavy armor witha shield (16-20 AC depending), and put your first feat into +1 Str/+1 Wis or Heavy Armor Master. From there, +2 Str, +2 Str, (+2 Con or Wis), (+2 Con or Wis).
Starts at 16-20 AC and 14 HP, ends at 20 AC and 210-230 HP, can completely negate up to 14 killing blows per short rest if you save your Ki, benefits of 6 levels of EK or Battlemaster or Samurai or something, does a typical non-fighter martial class Weapon/Weapon attack action)
I've really been enjoying my Barbarian 6 / Warlock X. It can come online as early as level 5 (Barb 2 / Warlock 3). Rage and spellcasting don't play nicely together, but warlocks don't get that many spell slots anyways. I usually use an Armor of Agathys before combat and save the other one for healing after combat or for utility.
The main idea is to take the dwarven fortitude feat, use gift of the ever-living ones to maximize healing on yourself, and find a periapt of wound closure. That will let you heal ~30 damage on a turn when you take the dodge action. If you take damage the turn before you dodge, your rage doesn't drop. I went with ancestral guardians for my barbarian subclass for more party tankiness, but bear totem would work well too for more personal tankiness. I also went with the celestial warlock for the extra healing and possibility of getting your companions up if they fall. With my 14 Charisma I can heal another 12 hp as a bonus action. 42 healing per turn is awesome when combined with your rage damage reduction. Standing toe to toe with heavy hitters is generally no problem.
This character is played in AL, so it's generally easier to get desired magic items, but maybe your DM will let you start with an uncommon item.
I say hill dwarf forge cleric. Sentinel feat is great for protecting the party, but there are plenty of other feats that are good, or just take the ASI. I figured go STR and heavy armor build, keep CON and WIS roughly even (hopefully around 18 by level 20, but 16 is fine). Fighter might be a multiclass worth taking for fighting style, action surge, and either cavalier or battle master subclass.
Re the armored monk above... there is very likely an angle to build for medium instead of heavy armor, and splash barbarian as well to pick up resistance to damage while raging. It would probably take off about 10-20 HP at high levels by making your later ASI tighter, and it will delay getting the Long Death 11 feature which makes it worthwhile in the first place, but from the perspective of a level 20 character it's a little tougher overall.
Honestly my recommendation is the pure Hill Dwarf Monk though 11 at the very least, probably level 14 for saves, and then pause and think if you want more Ki points and monk unarmed damage/speed or if there's something to be gained from Cleric-Grave or Light or Tempest (buff spells and healing and defensive reactions?) or Fighter-EK or Samurai or Battlemaster (action surge and maneuvers or self buff spells?) or Rogue-Inquisitive or Assassain or Scout (no tankiness but more damage and utility?) or Druid-Moon (self buffs and a little bit of extra tankiness from some low level beast forms?) or Ranger-Gloomstalker or Hunter (some very limited damage buffs and some quite niche attack enhancements)
Forge cleric is a great option. But a moon druid dwarf turning into a cave bear... :)
Depends on whether you want to tank by boosting your AC or by having piles of extra HP laying around... Also, large creatures are good at bottling up narrow passageways.
I'd take a pretty hard look at the Zealot barbarian. They've got the biggest hit dice in the game and get medium armor plus shields if you want. Rage is going to make you resist physical damage. I never like to dump dex, so no heavy armor is not a big deal to me at all.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
The cavalier has some interesting features that I don't hear too much about. Would protection fighting style be redundant with Cavalier subclass? (I don't see how the dwarf uses the mount features but everything else is good.)
I LOVED playing my Goliath Cavalier, they are tanky as heck. A couple of suggestions if you go that route: 1) Max your Con score! I found that I was always wanting more uses of Warding Maneuver(their Lvl7 ability), which scales by your Con modifier. I rarely got to use the bonus attack from Unwavering Mark(scaled to Str mod), because once the enemy was engaged with me, they rarely tried to go after anyone else(YMMV depending on your DM of course). 2) Protection fighting style certainly fits thematically, but I think you'll find in the 7th-10th levels or so that it'll be competing with your Cavalier abilities for your reaction(Warding Maneuver, Hold The Line). No, you won't be using those abilities all the time, but Warding Maneuver can fulfill a similar role to Protection, and you can wait for the enemy attack to actually hit before using it. I would probably go with whichever offensive fighting style fits your preferred weapon setup. Plus, if you're marking your enemies they'll already have Disadvantage on attacks against the person next to you.
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I've been invited to join a Mad Mage campaign. They need a Dwarven Tank. Are there any interesting concepts out there for this? (That work well ) thanks!
Depending on what level you start at you could go with a Mountain Dwarf fighter, possible feats- Heavy Armor Master, Tough, Sentinel. Go axe and shield pump your Str and Con. Subclass of Cavalier might be a good fit.
Starts at 5. I think it's all under the mountain.
Could always go with an Ancestral Guardian barbarian.
Are you rolling stats or do you use standard/pointbuy? Warriors only need str and con to shine, while barbariens could use dex and paladins are better with decent cha.
Attack: [roll]3d20dl2+6[/roll] Damage: [roll](if([roll:-1:critical], =0, 1d8, 2{1d8}.expand()))+4[/roll] Sneakattack: [roll](if([roll:-2:critical], =0, 2d6, 2{2d6}.expand()))[/roll]Dwarf eldritch knight. CON your highest stat, STR second, INT third (EK's really don't need very high Int as few of your spells rely on it).
Defence Fighting Style
Take the heaviest armour you can get and a shield, your AC should be somewhere between 18 and 21. You'll be able to boost it to 23-26 using Shield. Take any versatile d8/d10 weapon - battleaxe, Warhammer or longsword are all good options. You will almost always want a shield equipped.
Cantrips:
Pick 2 from: Ray of Frost (better than other damage cantrips as it lets you run things down), Booming Blade, Blade Ward (at level 5, both Booming Blade and Blade Ward aren't optimal as they eat your attacks, but you'll want both of them at level 7 so make sure to get at least one).
Essential Level 1 spells:
*Some DMs may get all rules-lawyery about Shield and other spellcasting as you're going to have a weapon and shield equipped. You can get around this easily by this action sequence:
Alternatively you can sheathe your weapon as a free action, cast a spell, then use a Bonus Action with Weapon Bond to summon it back to your hand. If your DM is being really annoying about Shield and saying you can't open your hand to drop your weapon as part of the reaction to cast it, then you can argue that the somatic component clearly does not involve opening your hand so why would you need to?
Generally this "but you're holding a - oops no you dropped it" nonsense is just a waste of time, and your DM will probably just let you cast with a weapon in hand.
Most players seem to not understand that the EK is best used as a tank. You won't be an offensive spellcaster, you get your spell slots way too late for that to be useful, but the versatility is really fun.
Feats: If you don't need stats, choose from Heavy Armour Master, Warcaster, Sentinel, Tough, Lucky (Lucky is actually kinda insane). I'd start with Heavy Armour Master for the stat boost.
Tactics:
First round of combat you're likely to cast Protection from Good and Evil if it will help.
Second round of combat, use an attack to Shove an enemy. If they go over, use Action Surge to make 3 attacks on them with advantage. Don't burn A.S. unless you hit with your Shove.
Shield anything that shield would stop, but generally only after you've suffered 1/3 of your hit point total in damage. Second Wind resets on a Short Rest, so use it often. Save spell slots for attacks that would really hurt you.
Absorb Elements everything you can.
Point but or standard array
How about this guy?
ddb.ac/characters/22095706/yze0dH
The cavalier has some interesting features that I don't hear too much about. Would protection fighting style be redundant with Cavalier subclass? (I don't see how the dwarf uses the mount features but everything else is good.)
The dwarven tank in our party is a forge cleric. And he's a tank alright. At level 8 he has 22AC without magical armor, plenty of hit points, and he can heal himself. A lot.
And with heat metal and wall of fire, he packs a heck of an offense wallop in the right situations too.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Thanks Sanvael, seems like a good option.
Protection fighting style would also work great with the Cavalier since protection uses your reaction and cavalier uses your bonus action when using unwavering mark. Talk to your DM about a possibly mount but maybe a Giant Boar, Giant Goat.
Long Death monk is the absolute tankiest class you can possibly play from level 11 on, because once you get to that level, you can do 1 HP tanking for a number of attacks or damaging effects equal to your remaining ki pool (and ki points recharge on a short rest), even multiple times per round. It's basically the Orc's Relentless Endurance or Shadow Sorcerer's Strength of the Grave on steroids, because you can do it as many times as you have ki points, and it requires no save. Also, it's my understanding that Long Death monks got their start as a dwarven thing in 3.5 Forgotten Realms (Neverwinter Nights?), so it may fit your campaign thematically as well.
If you're below 11, Long Death monk is still decently tanky. Monks can have one of the higher AC calculations once they get some ASI's under their belt, and your level 3 Touch of Death will do a lot to give you a tanky HP buffer. Hill Dwarf will give you even more HP. Or if you don't have the stats for a high-AC monk calculation at low level, wearing armor doesn't hurt that much other than forcing you to use a weapon for regular strength-based melee attacks instead of dex-based unarmed strikes with scaling damage, losing your monk bonus attacks, and losing your monk speed. Totally viable to build a Mountain Dwarf strength monk that intends to wear armor from day 1, although you won't get the benefits of a shield unless your DM reads the armor section very literally to impose no penalty for wielding a non-proficient shield.
I'd recommend either:
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I've really been enjoying my Barbarian 6 / Warlock X. It can come online as early as level 5 (Barb 2 / Warlock 3). Rage and spellcasting don't play nicely together, but warlocks don't get that many spell slots anyways. I usually use an Armor of Agathys before combat and save the other one for healing after combat or for utility.
The main idea is to take the dwarven fortitude feat, use gift of the ever-living ones to maximize healing on yourself, and find a periapt of wound closure. That will let you heal ~30 damage on a turn when you take the dodge action. If you take damage the turn before you dodge, your rage doesn't drop. I went with ancestral guardians for my barbarian subclass for more party tankiness, but bear totem would work well too for more personal tankiness. I also went with the celestial warlock for the extra healing and possibility of getting your companions up if they fall. With my 14 Charisma I can heal another 12 hp as a bonus action. 42 healing per turn is awesome when combined with your rage damage reduction. Standing toe to toe with heavy hitters is generally no problem.
This character is played in AL, so it's generally easier to get desired magic items, but maybe your DM will let you start with an uncommon item.
I say hill dwarf forge cleric. Sentinel feat is great for protecting the party, but there are plenty of other feats that are good, or just take the ASI. I figured go STR and heavy armor build, keep CON and WIS roughly even (hopefully around 18 by level 20, but 16 is fine). Fighter might be a multiclass worth taking for fighting style, action surge, and either cavalier or battle master subclass.
Re the armored monk above... there is very likely an angle to build for medium instead of heavy armor, and splash barbarian as well to pick up resistance to damage while raging. It would probably take off about 10-20 HP at high levels by making your later ASI tighter, and it will delay getting the Long Death 11 feature which makes it worthwhile in the first place, but from the perspective of a level 20 character it's a little tougher overall.
Honestly my recommendation is the pure Hill Dwarf Monk though 11 at the very least, probably level 14 for saves, and then pause and think if you want more Ki points and monk unarmed damage/speed or if there's something to be gained from Cleric-Grave or Light or Tempest (buff spells and healing and defensive reactions?) or Fighter-EK or Samurai or Battlemaster (action surge and maneuvers or self buff spells?) or Rogue-Inquisitive or Assassain or Scout (no tankiness but more damage and utility?) or Druid-Moon (self buffs and a little bit of extra tankiness from some low level beast forms?) or Ranger-Gloomstalker or Hunter (some very limited damage buffs and some quite niche attack enhancements)
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
We already have a monk, but you put a cool concept together, thanks.
Forge cleric is a great option. But a moon druid dwarf turning into a cave bear... :)
Depends on whether you want to tank by boosting your AC or by having piles of extra HP laying around... Also, large creatures are good at bottling up narrow passageways.
I'd take a pretty hard look at the Zealot barbarian. They've got the biggest hit dice in the game and get medium armor plus shields if you want. Rage is going to make you resist physical damage. I never like to dump dex, so no heavy armor is not a big deal to me at all.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I LOVED playing my Goliath Cavalier, they are tanky as heck. A couple of suggestions if you go that route: 1) Max your Con score! I found that I was always wanting more uses of Warding Maneuver(their Lvl7 ability), which scales by your Con modifier. I rarely got to use the bonus attack from Unwavering Mark(scaled to Str mod), because once the enemy was engaged with me, they rarely tried to go after anyone else(YMMV depending on your DM of course). 2) Protection fighting style certainly fits thematically, but I think you'll find in the 7th-10th levels or so that it'll be competing with your Cavalier abilities for your reaction(Warding Maneuver, Hold The Line). No, you won't be using those abilities all the time, but Warding Maneuver can fulfill a similar role to Protection, and you can wait for the enemy attack to actually hit before using it. I would probably go with whichever offensive fighting style fits your preferred weapon setup. Plus, if you're marking your enemies they'll already have Disadvantage on attacks against the person next to you.