Best 10th lvl Melee "Tank"

[useridunavailable]

Oh. Now you're opening up a can of worms...

Pixie.

I actually made up a Pixie PC once, but I scrapped it when I saw the constant Greater Invisibility... That's a little too much cheese even for me. Even without it, the LA tradeoff is in the player's favor, IMO.

 

[Andion Isurand]

On page 108 of Anauroch: Empire of Shade

# Thaalud Stone Armor

Heavy armor; cost 2,800 gp; armor bonus +12; max Dex bonus +0; armor check penalty -8; arcane spell failure 40%; weight 180 lbs. (medium size)


composed of heavy stone plates held together by metal rivets and hinged joints. The stone used is a rare variety that is very dense and resistant to chips and fractures.

Not sure if you can get that for your character or not, but oh well.

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Feat suggestions for strait touch AC in armor and stability


Player's Handbook II
Shield Specialization
Shield Ward

Races of Stone
Deflective Armor (psionic)
Focused Shield (psionic)
Greater Heavy Armor Optimization
Heavy Armor Optimization

more Races of Stone
Dwarven substituion fighter for d12 hit dice (replacing 1st and 2nd level feats)
Dwarven substitution fighter (Heavy Armor Expertise @ instead of 8th level feat)

 

[Andion Isurand]

However, if keeping your foes off your friends, the following list has more mobility and stickyness. Follow the red asterisx.

Taking 3 levels of Knight (PHB2) to combine Bulwark of Defense with a martial adept feat (ToB) to gain Step of the Wind* (setting sun stance) will greatly improve any spiked chain* tripping build you might have in mind, both to succeed in tripping and avoid being tripped. It will also make you very "sticky" and hard to get around even when the enemies are not lying prone. (Plus, Knights have a good Will save and a d12 hit dice.)

Using weapon groups varient in UA, you could also avoid the need for taking exotic weapon proficency and go strait for the above feat, followed by Expertise, Improved Trip*, Combat Reflexes and all the rest (Weapon Finesse, if applicable)

Improved Initative can help you advance toward your foes in order to threaten them before they begin their turns (allowing your Bulwark of Defense to take effect) keeping them from tumbling/moving past you and advancing upon your friends, possibly pulling them to the ground in a spot farther from your friends as well.

A 4th level Knight can move at full speed in medium armor, adding to your ability to intercept your foes in that regard. Plus you gain the ability to provoke enemies into attacking you in preference to your friends. Hopefully by then mithril armor is an option, depending on what your dexterity modifier might be.

At 6th level you can begin opting to take damage that adjacent alllies would have otherwise recieved, and also you impose further tumbling penalties upon those foes that you threaten. Once you have 6 levels of Knight, and having only 4 levels left to spend, I'd condier mutliclassing into something else. In addition, 6th level is golden for base score progression. After that, I would consider the following feats:

Stand Still (ExpPsiHB)
Improved Expertise (CW)
Allied Defense (Shining South)


If you are human, then Jotunbrud* (RoF) as a first level only feat would be a good choice for your tripping build, allowing you to count as being one size larger for the purpose of opposed checks, when its advantageous to you.

You can also add the +1 Sweeping ability* (MoF) to your weapon for an additional +4 bonus on opposed strength checks made as part of a trip attempt. Giving you a grand total of +18 on trip attempts before applying strength, by following the red asterisx.

 

[Thurbane]

I think a lot of people are missing the fact the OP is (repeatedly) asking for a build from material available in the SRD...

 

[Andion Isurand]

I thought the only core part of it he wanted, was race selection.

 

[hagor]

Actually, I made an NPC/semi-PC as a replacement/stand-in character for the City of the Spider Queen campaign I'm in.
He basically is a straight human fighter, and did rather well. He might need some more fine-tuning for your use.

So, meet Dré:

STR 18; DEX 12; CON 16; INT 13; WIS 14; CHA 8

main weapon: heavy flail

main feats:
- weapon focus (flail); weapon specialisation (flail); improved critical (flail) (for a nice threat range!)
- combat expertise; improved trip; improved disarm; power attack
- improved initiative; blind fight

tactics:
mainly: trip opponent and use the free melee attack to pummel the prone opponent

Hagor

 

[Darkwolf71]

I think a lot of people are missing the fact the OP is (repeatedly) asking for a build from material available in the SRD...

Nope, he only needs an SRD race.

I need to make the biggest baddest tank i can using only core races (including races of destiny/stone) and any feats and classes in 3.5...

 

[Dimensional]

Hokay

only Using Races of Stone & SRD

Dwarf Ranger1/Barbarian(whirling Frenzy)1/Dwarf Paragon 3/Deepwarden5

if possible I'd suggest taking the Dungeon Psecialist variant Ranger from Dungeonscape to gain Trapfinding inplace of the rangers track as you get track later from Deepwarden.

deepwarden allows you to use con in place of dex and thus bypass the MAx dex problem of most armours.

Thus leave dex at 10
With A starting Con of 16, + 2 for duergar +2 for Dwarf Paragon +2 for Levels. Con 22
You will need In 12 to qualify for deepwarden.
Ignore Chr

Get as high a strength as you can if possible buy some wis to counter act you poor Will save

Feats
1 - Endurance
3 - Extra Rage
6 - ?
9 - ?

Final Saves
Fort 16
Reflex 4
Will 5 + wis Mod

BAB is +10
AC is assuming Full PLate + Towershield 10(base)+8(armour)+6(con)+4(towershield) =28
Raging brings that to 30 and gives you an extra +2 to reflex saves and an extra attack.

You also have uncanny dodge and the ability to remake failed will saves.

Your offense is lowered a bit by the tower shield but I'd say it's worth it.

An ALternative if you Like The dwavern Defender Class is to Drop The barbarian level and take a Fighter level instead. Take toughness in stead of extra rage and dodge with the fighter feat.

Then take only 2 levels of deepwarden and 3 levels of Dwavern defender.
You lose Rage and the Deepwarden ability to re roll failed will saves. You gain +2 to fort and will saves, +1 AC and defenseive stance 2/day - Stance is particularly good in this build in that the extra con also adds to your ac so in stance you AC goes up by 6. so in this build you final AC would be 35. but your pretty imobile.

Jeremy

Jeremy

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'd second the Githzerai Monk- I've played one, and they're nasty. His AC was second best in the party.

Mine was muticlassed with PsiWar to do the Expansion trick, and had additional "Aces."

If you have access to it, the DCv1 has 3 feats that are beyond kewl for monks. The first is Ring the Golden Bell, which lets you do your unarmed strikes at range. The second is Unorthodox Flurry, which lets you add a light (possibly 1 handed) weapon to your monk list- including for FoB. The third was one of my PC's "Aces"- Pole Fighter- adding a Polearm to the monk's weapon list.

That's right- a super AC coupled with 7+AoO's per round (Combat Reflexes was a must), Reach, and FoB. He could really soften up opponents, which the Power Attack feat tree PCs loved to take advantage of. He dealt out as much damage as the party's Barbarian, and often got through fights without a scratch.

Though he was also going to take a psionic PrCl (Lucid Cenobite from Hyperconscious) that would have improved his monk abilities, I'll point out that had that PrCl not been allowed, Kensai was the next choice.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For a similar bit of fun, the Anthropomorphic Ape from Savage Species has very similar mods to a Githzerai and the same LA.