D&D 5E 5e build help needed: Resistance and temp hp!

[PnPgamer]

I've been theorycrafting a tanky character that has a main point of getting constantly temporary hit points and having resistance, DR from heavy armor mastery or both. Do note that i don't want to utilize druid in this because i've played that class before.

I've looked up options that do this:
Damage reduction and resistances:
Infernal pact warlock
Barbarian rage
Bear Totem barbarian rage
Heavy armor mastery (feat)

Temp HP:
storm herald barbarian (tundra)
Battlerager barbarian
Heroism (spell, bard/paladin)
Armor of agathys (spell, Warlock)

I assume someone has had this same idea, and i was thinking what is the best way to utilize this? Would the only good one be a single classed barbarian of either storm herald or battlerager? Any other options im missing? Any multiclassing tips?

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[Blue]

I looked at this when the battlerager first came out. Having B/P/S resistance made the tHP twice as useful at times, which was quite nice. But I wasn't enamored with the rest of the class.

Storm Herald grants to allies as well, but grants very few tHP. Even assuming it's effectively doubled against some types of attacks, it's not a huge amount.

Armor of Agathys goes up by spell level, so it's less than either. Plus it takes an action to cast. Which also makes it hard to combine with barbarian for resistance since they can't cast once raging, so you need one of the other options. Though it could work as a battle-start option to combine with Dark One's Blessing for tHP on dropping an opponent. (And resistance to a signle type at 10th.)

 

[PnPgamer]

I looked at this when the battlerager first came out. Having B/P/S resistance made the tHP twice as useful at times, which was quite nice. But I wasn't enamored with the rest of the class.

Storm Herald grants to allies as well, but grants very few tHP. Even assuming it's effectively doubled against some types of attacks, it's not a huge amount.

Armor of Agathys goes up by spell level, so it's less than either. Plus it takes an action to cast. Which also makes it hard to combine with barbarian for resistance since they can't cast once raging, so you need one of the other options. Though it could work as a battle-start option to combine with Dark One's Blessing for tHP on dropping an opponent. (And resistance to a signle type at 10th.)

armor of agathys is not a concentration spell, so a multiclass could maybe cast it and then rage on that same round.

 

[Blue]

armor of agathys is not a concentration spell, so a multiclass could maybe cast it and then rage on that same round.

Yes, and once the 5 tHP per spell level is up they would have no way to renew it without dropping out of rage. As I said, it's "hard to combine", which definitely admits it's possible.

But without renewing, and such a small original amount, I'd want a way to renew it. Dark One's Blessing could work, but it would require focusing on dropping opponents, so you'd have to carefully target weakened ones.

 

[Grue AC]

Heads up if your taking Heavy Armor Master and resistance that XGtE confirmed DR triggers FIRST. Not worth building for both anymore.

 

[PnPgamer]

Heads up if your taking Heavy Armor Master and resistance that XGtE confirmed DR triggers FIRST. Not worth building for both anymore.

technically, the dr 3 is also reduced by the resistance, kind of. Making it effectively still benefit you 1-2 reduce in damage.
ie. enemy does 10 damage, you reduce it to 7 from armor feat, and then halve that to 3. 3 is still two points less than if only resistance was a factor, which would result a 5 dmg.

 

[Blue]

In terms of spells that grant tHP, I think Heroism has a lot to commend it. While it's concentration so it doesn't pair well with Barbarian rage, it is a 1st level spell that grants Ability Mod tHP every round for up to a minute. It's a Bard and Paladin spell. Also, it's touch delivered so it could potentially be party dynamic instead of being self-contained. It upcasts to get more targets instead of more tHP which is unfortunate for this character but makes it fun for party buffing.

 

[Chryssis]

although it is UA and seems mearls is scraping everything that was previously put out, the mystic (immortal) would be a good multiclass. upto 5 temp hps/turn with no action on your part and only a small dip needed. with the resistance results in a reduction of upto 13dmg/turn. Mystic also adds at least 2 ac, and a bunch of utility at a cost of a few max hps (d12 vs d8+1)

 

[FrogReaver]

I've been theorycrafting a tanky character that has a main point of getting constantly temporary hit points and having resistance, DR from heavy armor mastery or both. Do note that i don't want to utilize druid in this because i've played that class before.

I've looked up options that do this:
Damage reduction and resistances:
Infernal pact warlock
Barbarian rage
Bear Totem barbarian rage
Heavy armor mastery (feat)

Temp HP:
storm herald barbarian (tundra)
Battlerager barbarian
Heroism (spell, bard/paladin)
Armor of agathys (spell, Warlock)

I assume someone has had this same idea, and i was thinking what is the best way to utilize this? Would the only good one be a single classed barbarian of either storm herald or battlerager? Any other options im missing? Any multiclassing tips?

Thanks in advance for the help

The most fun way would be to do level 1 tempest cleric/level X infernal warlock. Be a variant human and take heavy armor master. Use Hellish Rebuke and the Wrath of the storm to try and kill foes that hit you. Getting stats to work might be slightly difficult but not impossible.

Go tomelock and take a melee spell you like. Use eldritch blast or the chosen melee cantrip your turns. Once you hit level 5 warlock there might be some occasions to use a fireball instead of a hellish rebuke. By then you should be getting 7-8 temp hp a kill and killing anything that hits you pretty quickly. If you feel you aren't generating enough temp hp then take inspiring leader at level 4 warlock to help with that.