D&D 5E Help me tank Storm Kings' Thunder!

[Jonatan Knudsen]

I'm about to play D&D 5e for the first time (played lot's of 3.5), and I'll be tanking for a squishy team consisting of a bard, ranger, wizard and cleric. I'm wondering how to keep them safe, against giants!

At first I thought a polearm master + Sentinel looked neat, but against giants who also has reach I'm not sure I'll get much mileage out of polearm master. I don't want too much adventure spoilers, but I'm assuming giants is going to be the typical adversary and I'd love to get some ideas about how to build for a successful tank in that adventure. That should rule out grappling, and I guess also low-hp tanks like a rogue? Battlefield control to stop the giants from squishing the softies is probably paramount, but I think I can leave that up to the wizard and bard.

Currently I'm considering a bearbarian, or a fighter. I've rolled 17, 16, 15, 13, 12, 12 so I have a very good basis for level dipping and being creative with the build. Building a successful tank doesn't really seem all that complicated, except... giants!

 

[balzebub]

Can't tank in 5e, no effective mechanics to force mobs to attack you. Besides, giants have reach and can also throw rocks to deal damage at range. I would think the most effective in controlling the battle field would be your party spell casters since giants are vulnerable to any spell requiring int/wis/cha saving throws. I guess any fighter build with high AC and HP would dom

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[Zene]

In SKT, high AC doesn't help much; the main foes have extremely high to-hit bonuses. By far the most effective tanks I've seen were bearbarians. I'd suggest vhuman, half-orc, or dwarf (either the extra hp kind or the extra str kind, both are nice); adamantine half-plate if you can get it. For stickiness, the sentinel feat and/or shield master (knock em prone) and/or team members that can lock em in place (wizards are nice for shaping the battlefield; bards are nice for controlling so you only have to tank one at a time; warlocks with repelling blast are nice to push em over to you).

 

[Blue]

5e has less options to force engagement than 3.5, but if you are engaged with an opponent they do often just stay engaged. They will suck an OA to move away, and have disadvantage if they make a ranged attack while in melee. So while it isn't as easy as 3.5, ignore the people who say there is no way to do it in 5e - the rules clearly do give some support, just not at 3.5 or 4e levels. Also they only get 1 rock attack vs. multiple melee attacks, so if you engage a giant and it throws a single rock at disadvantage you've gotten a really big DPR dip from it anyway, consider your job well done.

Giants have a high to hit but until later levels a generally low AC. (Note: trying not to spoil about other foes, but you've already made a deduction that "Storm King's Thunder" has giants and I'll run with that. ) For hitting hard (which isn't what you asked about), multiple attacks and Great Weapon Mastery go well together. I mention this because giants are big bags of HPs and casters will more likely be involved in battlefield control then expending all of their slots carving through that so that will fall on the weapon wielders.

Because Giants hit often no matter what, the barbarian's resistance while raging is very useful to staying up. This does make choosing which encounters to rage an important task, especially at lower levels before you have a lot of them.

After STR, I'd put CON well above DEX. Both for HPs and healing HD, but also because it's sometimes a better move to let the giants close first and then go engage, instead of moving forward and hoping the giant will engage you. But DEX will help your AC and so much else that it's still probably worth a good score. Luckily you rolled phenomenally so you can go for high scores in all of them.

Giants do so much expected damage in melee each round that the Battlerager subclass's temp HPs isn't worthwhile. That's better for long combats of attrition. Totem seems to be the strongest pick.

vHuman is good and lets you start with a feat. With 17, 16, 15 as your high rolls you could also benefit from a +2/+1 race if you wanted 18, 18, 15 instead of 18, 16, 16 to start. I wouldn't worry about it too much, as long as it's somewhat aligned ygo for race features. Half-orc has a bunch that work well with a barbarian as well and you could pick up a feat at 4th instead of an ASI. Are you starting at 1st?

 

[Jonatan Knudsen]

Thanks for the replies! Unfortunately the GM won't let me Multiclass to druid - I thought that might be a good option. But both rogue and fighter looks good after lvl 5. Rogue for evasion cutting one attack down to 1/4 of dmg and sneak attacks making me more of a threat. Maybe go dual wield at lvl 4? I'm starting with Sentinel

Another very promising option is MC to fighter(battlemaster). The maneuvers seems quite awesome and fighters are sturdy beasts. After lvl 5 the barbarian doesn't deliver that many super awesome perks imo