Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gorck" data-source="post: 9067119" data-attributes="member: 7037537">There are 2 main ways to tank:High AC - Have a high enough armor class that enemies can't do damage to you.  How many hit points you have isn't as important if your enemies can't penetrate through your armor to deplete them.High HP - Have a high enough pool of hit points that enemies will take a long time chipping away at you.  Having a high armor class isn't as important because you can take many more blows before you're finally taken down.Both methods have their pros and cons, but some that come to mind as I gain more experience as a DM:The High AC method seems more helpful against low intelligence enemies.  They'll gladly sit there and mindlessly attack whatever is in front of them.  But an intelligent foe will quickly realize they can't do anything against you and look to attack someone else, unless the you have something to prevent/discourage them from doing so (Protection fighting style, Compelled Duel, etc.).The High HP method seems more useful as long as your armor class is moderate - high enough to stop some blows, but low enough to continue to entice enemies to attack you rather than your allies.  But if your hit points aren't high enough, you'll find yourself making death saves before the battle's over.The Monk can get a decent enough AC over time (20 DEX & WIS = 20 AC), but will likely start out with a moderate AC (16 DEX & 14 WIS (or vice versa) = 15AC), meaning the High AC method won't work well at lower levels unless the DM is kind enough to dole out some AC-assisting magic items.  However, with only a d8 for HP and a probably too-low CON, the HP pool won't be high enough to allow for the High HP method.  Abilities like Deflect Missiles/Energy and Evasion can help, but are situational depending on the type of incoming attack.  If the player rolls stats instead of using Point Buy or Standard Array, and happens to get lucky and roll 3 really high ability scores, then maybe a Monk tank might be feasible.  Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it unless WotC releases a tank-themed subclass in the future.</blockquote>

Verification