D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Seen a tank like this before?

[Turtlebuster]

Human ECL 10
Fighter 1
Cleric 2
Crusader 2
Ruby Knight Vindicator 5
Feats: Shieldmate,Protective Devotion, White Raven Defense, Shield Specialization: Tower, Divine Spirit (heal self 3 + cha with immediate action turn attempt), Improved ShieldMate, Shield Ward

Gear (well under suggested starting gold): +2 Tower Shield, +2 Mithral Mechanus Armor, +2 amulet of health, +2 belt of str, favorite white raven weapon

AC: 30 (with a 12 dex, can improve) +4 sacred as immediate, +1 when holding white raven weapon and adjacent to ally

Benefits: stack con first, then cha/wis/str for a strong ac and a total of a +15 (effective) bonus to your allies' ac. This amount varies by relation to you and enemies but as a bonus, part of this effective "ac" is the -4 from Iron Guard's Glare which simultaneously makes enemies more inclined to hit YOU, as well as stacking effects that other pcs won't likely be.
Round 1: immediate action, +4 sacred bonus to allies w/in 30ft, 1 min. Standard action, Shield of Faith Mass, +3 deflection to 6 allies , 6 min.
Enemies threatened by you take -4 to attacks on allies. Allies adjacent to you gain +3 shield bonus (passive). Allies adjacent to you gain +1 bonus while you hold a white raven weapon.

Thinking about something like this for a very intense 3.5 game I'm involved with. So far I've seen 2 sessions with about 8 full hours of combat each and with 4 pcs at ecl10 we are seeing tough cr16 fights. I'm rolling a badass control halfling/dragonborn Healing Domain Sorceror with Spellshield stacking con and (listen, oddly) and am doing well trying to manage a beastly water orc diamond mind warblade monkey grip with 160ish hp, but despite 2 powerful pcs there is just no way we aren't headed for a tpw soon and I was thinking of stacking passive healing on a high will/fort build and drawing fire to myself so the terrible warlock and ninja/rogue can have more fun doing what they are trying so hard to do.
it should be noted that, while I originally built my sorceror with spells to aid sneak attackers and burst, I did not know i'd be in a campaign entirely against blindsight/blindsense/tremorsense/trueseeing (but then, these are 16-17cr with wizards, so I'm an idiot)

I pulled this out of an old ECL 3 I never played.
Any easy improvement ideas? I'm not too concerned with either full bab or caster/initiator level. I'd prefer to do everything than anything perfectly and I don't expect for anything above 15th ish level. We're using pretty much every WotC official 3.5 sourcebook

 

[WarlockLord]

I think one of my friends built something similiar.

So what does your build do if a caster shows up and starts throwing around SoDs?

 

[Empath Negative]

I think one of my friends built something similiar.

So what does your build do if a caster shows up and starts throwing around SoDs?

Does the same thing any sane society would do. Murder any casters at level 1 or before.

 

[WarlockLord]

Am I reading this right that you're up against level 16-17 wizards?

 

[kitcik]

3.5 Seen a tank like this before?

Yes, and there seems to be something missing. What could it be?

 

[Omegaxicor]

hahahaha The problem with this Tank is the problem with all D&D Tanks, they are Tanks...

They will survive anything but time, but so will their enemies

 

[Sekhmet]

AC is only one of the possible defenses a character can have, and is actually the least effective of them all.
D&D isn't suited for the MMO "tank" mechanic. There is nothing stopping enemies from targeting other forms of defense - Spell/Power resistance, elemental resistances, or saving throws.
What use is a high AC against a semi intelligent opponent?

 

[Turtlebuster]

Save or die? Well I don't want to thumb through the ToB right now but he's crusader/cleric/fighter/ruby knight which I think gives him a big boost to fort/will saves and with the disciplines offered to him I think there are 1 or 2 counters that will help out in this regard as well.
Plus, for further advancement he could probably just go Ordained Champion - he can already supplement healing to his party with 3rd level divine spells and several of feats aren't written in stone.

Ya, he does lack some damage but with a 8-15 point spread (my rolled stats are usually slightly higher) he can easily have a higher than needed to hit bonus and reliably put out 20-30 single target, which while admitedly low, is at least enough to not be ignored in most cases. Further more, we are playing with a flanking rogue who can feel a little safer which might indirectly increase damage.

We aren't fighting 17th level wizards (yet) our last encounter was a 16-17cr with wizard/sorcerors. I don't know what weird mod my DM pulled them out of to keep us guessing but he improved them significantly. We've not spellcrafted a spell above 5th level, but we are dealing with dispells and ranged touch attacks from multiple sources (the damage is usually mid 20s) while engaged with a large numbers of creatures with varying hd, the larger with 150+ hp and the smaller with just under that who burrow and possess improved sensory options.

Right now the warblade I'm running with can put up 80-100 damage with 2 of his manuevers very consistently but due to the large number of enemies we face who can burrow and/or have reach, it's difficult to ever control the encounter. He gets wailed on until my sorceror can do annoying things with wall of force and resilient sphere to heal. It works - it's cheese, but it won't keep working with the sheer amount of damage that can be rolled in a single round.

Plus... we decided to play with Wound points as a nice twist, which is scary as hell.
@Sekhmet : I agree that you can't treat tabletop like an MMO, but as per the reading of Iron Guard's Glare which imposes an automatic -4 to hit under the described circumstances, your enemies are immediately made aware that YOU are the cause of this. Most of what we are fighting is indeed sentient or controlled by something intelligent. I'm not sure that I do have something on par with this game but in general a fairly active +11 ac to allies and -4 to enemies hitting my allies seemed like it would go a long way.

I prefer to complete these encounters by virture of character builds/teamwork. Let me lay down what we just faced and if anyone feels like advising me/us I'd be grateful.

Coming down a mountainside to a deep gorge (120ft, 50ft fast current at bottom) we encounter the study stonework bridge. The bridge is 10ft wide and on either side of the gorge there are 2 40ft stone watchtowers that "anchor" each end of the bridge on the right and left. On the far towers we spotted a large green dragon and 2 hooded figures that we knew to be the "standard" casters from previous encounters. On the near towers are 2 bladlings who we know to be annoying but otherwise adorable. On the near side bridge entrance are 2 of the medium sized serpentine combatants flanking 1 of the larger similar looking creatuers and on either sides of the near towers at ground level are 2 more large combatants (1 on each tower side). Circling high overhead is a yrthak. We start the battle with greater invisibility since we know think that only the serpentine creatures and the yrthak have improved perceptions. I open with ray o clumsiness on the right side large creature with the intention of reducing it's dex to 0 on the following round with ray of exhaustion. The warblade and the rogue/ninja hope to charge and catch the middle creatures offguard and wound/slay them quickly, thinking the bladelings won't be of much use once they realize whats happening. The warlok, invisible, flys up and over the bridge area to where he can shoot a caster on the far side. 3 burrowed creatures totally pop up around the warblade's flank and as we hack our way around we start kiting back away from the bridge to the front right side where the sorceror puts up a wall of force to stall and manages to reach it high enough at one point to force the green dragon to fly directly into it. At this point we do less killing and fight for the high ground of the right tower while mazing with wall of force. We eventually take the right tower after bullrushing a 3rd, more powerful caster off of it and only have to deal with a dragon after the warlock sleeps the yrthak into the river below. The kiting continues as we hop down onto the bridge and run across while wall of force now blocks the pursuers from our side of the gorge who cannot burrow through stone. We then face only 2 "standard" casters, the green dragon and 3 strange little creatures who really just try to dispel every round. With another wall of force I cheese the dragon out of the sky into taking enough falling damage to fly away and we have a couple rounds to heal before the last important wall of force fades. We can probably now deal with the 5 combatants on the starting side of the bridge, barring crits of course, as long as the higher cr caster we bullrushed off of the tower doesn't do something clever.

But in all of this, my sorceror ecl 11, is burning action dice for 5th level spells, has run through his cure spells and is at about half of 102 health. The warlok is fine atm, the ninja is fine atm and the warblade is somewhere less than half of his 150ish health. Surviving this encounter is all good and we should manage but we are out of resources and we are in the boonies. I feel I need a build with more healing capabilities (even if it isn't burst) to aid this but I'm also afraid that pure healing won't be enough. Without being able to heal the damage dealt every round to every person, these 20 rd encounters will eventually kill my party.. I get around this with wall abuse but I'd like to hear other tricks

 

[Sekhmet]

[MENTION=6696221]Turtlebuster[/MENTION]
You have a 30 AC. With Iron Guard's Glare, you must threaten your opponents to have any affect whatsoever. With Shieldmate and White Raven, your allies must be adjacent to you.
Most people already have a Deflection bonus better than +3, so Shield of Faith probably isn't helping anyone, anyway.

So, in practice, you're looking at +4 AC, capping at around +8 situationally.

If you have a 30 AC, your allies will need to have better than 23 AC to make it more effective to target you rather than your allies with AC targeting attacks, before you consider the amount of HP each individual has.

 

[emoplato]

Human ECL 10
Fighter 1
Cleric 2
Crusader 2
Ruby Knight Vindicator 5
Feats: Shieldmate,Protective Devotion, White Raven Defense, Shield Specialization: Tower, Divine Spirit (heal self 3 + cha with immediate action turn attempt), Improved ShieldMate, Shield Ward

Gear (well under suggested starting gold): +2 Tower Shield, +2 Mithral Mechanus Armor, +2 amulet of health, +2 belt of str, favorite white raven weapon

AC: 30 (with a 12 dex, can improve) +4 sacred as immediate, +1 when holding white raven weapon and adjacent to ally

Benefits: stack con first, then cha/wis/str for a strong ac and a total of a +15 (effective) bonus to your allies' ac. This amount varies by relation to you and enemies but as a bonus, part of this effective "ac" is the -4 from Iron Guard's Glare which simultaneously makes enemies more inclined to hit YOU, as well as stacking effects that other pcs won't likely be.
Round 1: immediate action, +4 sacred bonus to allies w/in 30ft, 1 min. Standard action, Shield of Faith Mass, +3 deflection to 6 allies , 6 min.
Enemies threatened by you take -4 to attacks on allies. Allies adjacent to you gain +3 shield bonus (passive). Allies adjacent to you gain +1 bonus while you hold a white raven weapon.

Thinking about something like this for a very intense 3.5 game I'm involved with. So far I've seen 2 sessions with about 8 full hours of combat each and with 4 pcs at ecl10 we are seeing tough cr16 fights. I'm rolling a badass control halfling/dragonborn Healing Domain Sorceror with Spellshield stacking con and (listen, oddly) and am doing well trying to manage a beastly water orc diamond mind warblade monkey grip with 160ish hp, but despite 2 powerful pcs there is just no way we aren't headed for a tpw soon and I was thinking of stacking passive healing on a high will/fort build and drawing fire to myself so the terrible warlock and ninja/rogue can have more fun doing what they are trying so hard to do.
it should be noted that, while I originally built my sorceror with spells to aid sneak attackers and burst, I did not know i'd be in a campaign entirely against blindsight/blindsense/tremorsense/trueseeing (but then, these are 16-17cr with wizards, so I'm an idiot)

I pulled this out of an old ECL 3 I never played.
Any easy improvement ideas? I'm not too concerned with either full bab or caster/initiator level. I'd prefer to do everything than anything perfectly and I don't expect for anything above 15th ish level. We're using pretty much every WotC official 3.5 sourcebook

Yes you have a lot of AC to give out and even some penalties to enemies but you unless every one is crowded around you won't do any good. Are you charisma oriented? If you are get Clarion Commander, Devoted Bulwark, Faith Unswerving, and Imperious Command as soon as possible. Also a stunning surge weapon gives a scaling charisma based stun effect that is far better then stunning fist. The shieldmates are about as useful as Iron Heart aura which means they aren't especially since they don't qualify for anything else(at least Iron Heart Aura does).