D&D 5E [5E Build] The Arcane Juggernaut

I've started playing with something similar in Adventure League. The path I'm taking is Storm Sorc / Tempest Cleric. Tempest cleric allows medium and heavy armor. My thought is to quicken Cure Wounds to be used if needed and still allow the character to cast a cantrip. The character should be able to maintain Shield of Faith and cast the Shield spell enough to keep the AC fairly high. The cantrip would most likely be Shocking Grasp to allow movement with reduced risk of opportunity attacks. Alternatively, Inflict Wounds, can be used with the Tempestuous Magic feature to hit and run. Hopefully that may kite a NPC away from the other casters, DM discretion on tactic.

This character is currently level 5 and hasn't seen much combat to test these ideas out though.

There is more to tanking than increasing HP and/or AC. A tank doesn't just need to be able to survive taking hits, a tank has to give his enemies a reason to hit him instead of his allies. A good tank has some way of punishing enemies who want to attack different targets. Of course, a tank does still need to be able to survive the attention he will draw and a high HP and/or AC is a good way of maximising longevity under fire, but the emphasis must be on controlling who enemies want to target.

There's multiple routes that can be taken to maximise tanking ability as a gish. The most obvious route is the Sentinel feat but that eats up a precious ASI. Likely the least painful to get is the War Caster + Booming Blade combo, any gish should at least consider War Caster for advantage to concentration saves anyway and Booming Blade should be an easy pickup. It encourages enemies to stay close or risk taking damage, and staying close to you should mean staying away from squishier allies. Interestingly enough, arguably the best user of this combo is the Tempest Cleric. It forces a catch-22; stick around and take Spirit Guardians damage or run away and take Booming Blade damage. A simple Disengage action is all it takes to prevent this, but at that point you have forced them to waste an action by simply walking up to them with Spirit Guardians active. Another good user of this combo is the Bladelock, who likewise forces a catch-22; attack the Bladelock and take recoil damage from Armour of Agathys or run away to a different target and take Booming Blade damage. Both of these characters can punish enemies from range, further discouraging enemies from running from you as you can still hit them hard. Both of these characters are examples of good gish tanks, not because they are ridiculously difficult to kill but because they punish enemies for trying to get away and attack your teammates.

What's interesting about the 'SCAG is better than Extra Attack' orthodoxy from the front page is that:

A.) It assumes absolutely no magical items. The core assumptions of the book assumes that, but the hardcovers, softcovers, and canned oneshots sure as hell don't assume that.

B.) Even without the assumption of Magical items, the Fighter / Abjurer ends up falling behind assuming the arrangement of SCAG + Haste Attack + Off-Hand Attack at higher levels when you throw in Song of Victory. The Fighter/Abjurer can sort of keep up with GMW, but then they lose out on AC and they trade a good primary stat for a mediocre one.

C.) At VERY high levels, Bladesong can be used with Shapechange. But lol level 17.

But I think the focus on melee DPR is wrong when it comes to the Bladesinger. See the next quote.

Nathan Mitchell said:

A tank doesn't just need to be able to survive taking hits, a tank has to give his enemies a reason to hit him instead of his allies. A good tank has some way of punishing enemies who want to attack different targets.

Click to expand...

If a Bladesinger really wants to draw hate, the best way to do that is to drop a concentration spell that wrecks the battlefield. Once you bust out the Polymorph or Fly or Evard's Black Tentacles or Wall of Force or Banishment, trust me -- the enemies are going to start gunning for them. This is a huge problem for other wizards, especially once nasty attacks start becoming standard for ranged enemies. I played through Storm King's Thunder, and I frequently saw the party sorcerer drop concentration on a Wall of Fire or Telekinesis or Sleet Storm due to getting a boulder or greatsword to the face.

This is why I think that the suggestions of the Bladesinger to draw hate by focusing on melee DPR are highly misguided. If you want to draw hate, just do what wizards do normally.

Aw jeez, the necromancers got at the thread. This is really old and I never got around to refining or editing it. To be honest, I'm not really sure what you guys are talking about. The context is kinda lost.

Both of my sample builds have ways of keeping enemy attention on themselves, while hopefully maximizing their longevity in the fight. Damage is a tertiary concern but it's definitely present. After all, if you're all wet-noodles enemies will just ignore your threats. I have moved on to other things, and don't really plan on updating this thread anymore. I'd love to see someone expand and improve on the idea, though. I've played a few different versions of the build myself, and I can say that it is a pretty satisfying build to play.