Hello, all. Recent reader/forum lurker and first time poster. I've recently run into a bit of a road bump in the campaign I'm playing in and was hoping for a little help making the best out of a less than ideal situation. I'm currently running a Rogue(swashbuckler) 4/Fighter 2, although after Sunday we'll be lvl 7. The party consists of another rogue(assassin), Cleric(Tempest), Fighter(Battlemaster), and Warlock who I'm not 100% on her pact. However, the Fighter/tank has had to drop out of the campaign due to rl obligations and it's leaving our squishies a bit vulnerable. I had been using a rapier/hand x-bow with the crossbow expert feat as a sort of duelist type character. It seems like it might be time to drop the x-bow and pick up a shield though. After talking to the DM he's agreed to let me swap out my feat/fighting style to try and facilitate this sort of makeshift tank. The question is how to best accomplish this?
We used rolled stats and thanks to a lucky 18, and being an elf, I do have a 20 dex. Throw in studded leather and a +1 magic ring and AC wise I'm at 18 with the shield putting me at a solid 20. Con is a 14 so that's not terrible. As a result I think I'm ok going with the Dueling fighting style (maintains the theme of the character) over Defense or Protection. I don't see myself getting much use out of protection as all allies will be well beyond 5 feet from me, and while +1 AC is nice I think I'm ok at 20 for the time being.
I'm pretty sure Battlemaster is the obvious choice at Fighter 3 where maneuvers like Goading attack, Parry, and Menacing Attack and can make me a bit stickier and mitigate some damage.
The big dilemma is feats. I know sentinel and shield master are great when you start out on that tanky path from level 1, but would they be worth it in my situation? Or would something like defensive duelist become a little more valuable, while also being oddly thematic. There's also the option of something like Resilient(Wis) to shore up the other big saving throw.
I realize this will by no means be a fully optimized min/max tank build, but I would like to attempt to fill the role as well as possible.
Any thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
We used rolled stats and thanks to a lucky 18, and being an elf, I do have a 20 dex. Throw in studded leather and a +1 magic ring and AC wise I'm at 18 with the shield putting me at a solid 20. Con is a 14 so that's not terrible. As a result I think I'm ok going with the Dueling fighting style (maintains the theme of the character) over Defense or Protection. I don't see myself getting much use out of protection as all allies will be well beyond 5 feet from me, and while +1 AC is nice I think I'm ok at 20 for the time being.
I'm pretty sure Battlemaster is the obvious choice at Fighter 3 where maneuvers like Goading attack, Parry, and Menacing Attack and can make me a bit stickier and mitigate some damage.
The big dilemma is feats. I know sentinel and shield master are great when you start out on that tanky path from level 1, but would they be worth it in my situation? Or would something like defensive duelist become a little more valuable, while also being oddly thematic. There's also the option of something like Resilient(Wis) to shore up the other big saving throw.
I realize this will by no means be a fully optimized min/max tank build, but I would like to attempt to fill the role as well as possible.
Any thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
