Playing without a tank

[Nightfall]

Never mind Barbarian, you want levels in Monk!

A Druid/monk?! That seems slightly...odd but certainly stackable.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

The randomness of the d20. Keep the other guys back unless you all have to sneak. The big range and even probability for all possible numbers will result in someone screwing up with more characters involved

That's why you just all take 10. Also makes for easy record keeping.

 

[Darklone]

A Druid/monk?! That seems slightly...odd but certainly stackable.

I thought we were talking about what a rogue should do

Certainly one level of monk is great for druids who like to go into melee.

 

[Kesh]

Using stealth was probably not meant to get around fights but to get a nice surprise round plus perhaps a full attack action plus sneak attack before the enemies can react... Get Rapid Shot and enjoy your bow. Or TWF and throwing weapons. Better: Both.

Well, my plan was to scout long enough to determine if the kobolds had anything to do with the missing children. If not, go around 'em. If so, I could sneak attack my first bowshot. That went to hell when the druid came marching up.

I had forgotten that Uncanny Dodge stacks. I might just do two levels of barbarian then, though I'm still focusing primarily on ranged combat to start with.

Monk is, unfortunately, out of the question. I'm not going Lawful. Barbarian rage actually works well with my character concept, so it's a better fit.

 

[PwrMnky]

two thoughts

1) I don't think any party "needs" to have those roles fullfilled. You're telling a story about characters. Not playing a video game. A good DM can still run a campaign without a "tank." I've never enjoyed the idea of "go in there and get hit." It just never seemed challenging Role Playing-wise or Mini Max-wise.

2) But I always think summoning spells can take the place of a tank. A great healer can help fill in the gaps. And ... surprisingly ... illusions can cause enough distraction for a few rounds.

 

[Darklone]

I had forgotten that Uncanny Dodge stacks. I might just do two levels of barbarian then, though I'm still focusing primarily on ranged combat to start with.

Monk is, unfortunately, out of the question. I'm not going Lawful. Barbarian rage actually works well with my character concept, so it's a better fit.

Staying focused is a good idea. Allows you to take Rapid Shot and no other feats

Bbn/Rogues rock. I've seen many of them (often I had groups where noone had no rogue levels) and the raging sneak attacks still produce strangely high numbers in my nightmares.

Well... and it was the obvious choice considering your race and favored class.

 

[KrazyHades]

In one of my old campaigns we had a group with no tank, but a sorcerer, a wizard, cleric, and rogue. The sorcerer went for lots of illusion and stealth style spells, which they used to scare or lure away or just sneak around. He also would make illusions to hide the rogue (such as placing an illusion of a rock in front of him) so that the rogue could still hit the opponents with sneak attacks. It worked out well.

I was careful to change my DMing strategy, but not too greatly. I might still create large numbers of enemy monsters, but one favored strategy of the party was for the sorcerer to create pandemonium with a big illusion and then disguise the party as the same type of creature and just amble along through the chaos.

Don't forget, and yes I know you probably know this (but some DM's seem not to!!!) that one should give the XP for solving the encounter, not necessarily killing all the enemies!!

 

[drothgery]

I've been playing with the same group for a few years now, and the current campaign is the first one where we've had a pure tank (i.e. someone with almost all their levels in heavy melee classes). Usually we make do with some combo of skirmishers, sneaky guys, and arcane artillery, but right now our group is a gnome bard/sublime chord, a human cleric, a Kalashtar soulknife/illume soul, and a half-orc figher/barbarian.

Generally speaking, if you lack a tank, you try a lot harder to make sure combat happens at range (use archery or magic) or with surprise (sneak attacks) than you would with one.

 

[Nightfall]

I thought we were talking about what a rogue should do

Certainly one level of monk is great for druids who like to go into melee.

Well does it matter? Rogue/barb, monk/druid, monk/rogue? The middle one is still the best!

 

[Calico_Jack73]

The other two players went with a sorcerer and a druid.

As soon as the Druid can Wild Shape into a bear you'll have your tank. Don't forget that the Sorcerer and Druid both can summon plenty of Meat Shields. The Druid can swap any spell out for a Summon Nature's Ally on the fly.

I wouldn't worry.

In a game I played just over a year ago my druid was more of a tank than any other character. With the ability to turn into a Brown Bear (and later on a Dire Bear), the Con and Str increases that go along with it, and the ability to heal myself with spells or just changing shape again I could go toe to toe with pretty much any warrior out there. If the other warrior has more attacks the druid (in the shape of the Dire Bear) would use his Improved Grab ability and grapple the other warrior to death. Having a 31 Str and Large Size helps.