D&D 5E Tankiest 5th-level PC

[iserith]

I'm playing in a one-shot on Saturday (an adventure in a swamp!) and I'm lacking time to really dig into the PHB ahead of the session, so I'm hoping the community can help me with a character build. I tend to play support characters, but the party needs a tank by the looks of it. I'd like to have the tankiest tank that ever tanked at 5th level.

Character creation rules:

PHB Content
5th Level
Attributes Point Buy/Array
HP averages (first level max)
Starting equipment +1 healing potions +1 uncommon magic item

I appreciate any assistance you can provide!

Edit: I'm pretty sure variant humans, multiclassing, and feats are allowed.

 

[Barolo]

Just to clarify the objective: is it all you want to do to be able to withstand the maximum amount of punishment on your own, regardless of any other contribution you could give? Also, do you want to accomplish this only through a combination of AC, HP, temp HP and damage mitigation/reduction, or is spending resources to heal oneself also valid tanking? Or would stickiness, battlefield control and the like be desirable?

 

[GlassJaw]

Halfling barbarian, sword & board, bear totem, no armor, Shield Mastery feat.


Sent from my iPhone using EN World mobile app

 

[iserith]

Just to clarify the objective: is it all you want to do to be able to withstand the maximum amount of punishment on your own, regardless of any other contribution you could give? Also, do you want to accomplish this only through a combination of AC, HP, temp HP and damage mitigation/reduction, or is spending resources to heal oneself also valid tanking? Or would stickiness, battlefield control and the like be desirable?

Yes?

I'm open to anybody's definition of tank. I've never really played in that role before in 5e, so I'd like to see some options.

 

[kbrakke]

I am a fan of fighter 5 for EK and defense style.
V-Human
S: 15(9) D: 10(2) C: 15(9) I: 10 (2) W: 13 (5) Ch: 8(0)
Racial go to con and wis, feat is heavy armor master bumping strength.

Level 4 take warcaster so that you can cast shield and keep your weapon in your hand.

Take defense style for +1 to ac. Take Shield at level 3 and Booming Blade and never take spells that require an attack roll or save (Except perhaps one ranged cantrip just in case).

At level 5 you have minimum 19 AC going up to 24 ac 4 times a day, you reduce BSP by 3 and are a fighter so you get to do all that fun stuff. If you want to weave your spells with your fighting more just swap int and wis and have ok spells.

I have been playing a similar character except she is an Elf for storm king's thunder. Level 7 is nice because you can get Blur, then level 13 is where you become a solo wrecking crew with haste. Getting plate armor and a flametongue helped a lot, but even without it you do reasonable damage and can tank for days. Just remember every time you cast a non-shield spell that it could have been shield.

 

[Yunru]

With five levels to work with, a Barbarian with Sentinel makes the best Defender (to use a 4e term), or maybe the Rogue if you (somehow) get a way to negate your squishiness (starting as a variant human Fighter with Heavy Armour Master comes to mind).

The Barbarian gets the advantage of raging, Sentinel stops enemies dead right next to you, and Reckless Attack gets you advantage at the cost of your AC.

The Rogue on the other hand revolves around using Sneak Attack famage on the OA to "disuade" enemies from moving away from you.

 

[Barolo]

You can also go the classic moon druid. Your own stats won't matter that much, as you will be absorbing damage with your wildshapes. You can cast barkskin before wildshaping to increase your beast AC. Also... as you can easily spare a 13 str, you could multiclass barbarian for raging wildshapes. Real tankiness here. You could start as variant human with a feat, and take tavern brawler, for bonus action grappling. It seems some sentinel shenanigans are available also, but I guess your level may be too low.

 

[akr71]

Heavy armor and swamps sound like a dangerous combination to me... I would go for the bear totem barbarian myself - half-orc or mountain dwarf, maybe it is a bit of a tired trope, but it works.

Depending on how you want to play him/her, there are a number of Feats that could be fun: Grappler, Durable, Shield Master, Great Weapon Master or Sentinel come to mind. However, the ASI is always helpful too.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Barbarian is a great suggestion as described above but I'll throw the paladin into the race. Heavy armor + defense fighting style, lay on hands gives a handy hp reserve, spellcasting gives you shield of faith and even more healing.

Any oath will work here, you just need to decide what you'd want as a minor focus. Devotion for clearing status ailments and easy magic weapon access. Ancients for a bit of control. Vengeance for increased damage.

Your feat choice would also be free to go wherever you please. Heavy armor master isn't shabby as it somewhat scales as enemies make more attacks. Sentinel gives control options. Inspiring leader is a good buff. Shield master Ive seen used to grant nice advantage and reduce movement options. Of course the ability score increase is also always good.

 

[Barolo]

Some other fun options: for low level, heavy armor master is really nice. Combined with warlock's armor of Agathys, you may be absorbing a lot of punishment while retaliating with cold damage. In this case, you could start off as variant human fighter with the feat and then choose between 4 levels of warlock (for lvl 2 armor or Agathys twice per short rest 2 x 10 temp HP, go fiend for extra temp HPs on enemies down after your armor of Agathys run down) or go fighter 4 (eldritch knight) / warlock 1 (for booming blade + shield as [MENTION=6781797]kbrakke[/MENTION] suggested, with warcaster also for nasty opportunity attacks, but armor of Agathys is limited to 5 temp HPs). The other nice amenity of playing a tank with warlock levels is that you can have a decent ranged attack more or less for free.

Cleric 1 (any with heavy armor) / Sorcerer 3 / warlock 1 allows for some tricky stunt. Again variant human with heavy armor master, but now take the blade ward cantrip and quicken spell metamagic. Now you have 10 temp HPs per armor, that you can extend to 20 by using blade ward. Keep yourself close to your enemies and let them die trying to kill you. If they are not biting the bait, you can even move around provoking opportunity attacks. With "20" temp HP, taking -3 dmg and retaliating 10 dmg per attack this can be really fun. If you get bored, quicken spell is there for other spells. You can even quicken the blade ward while grappling/shoving prone your enemies (doable even with mediocre str, as most monsters lack skill proficiencies, but you can actually have decent str, as all you need is 13 wis, cha, and you want 15 con). You can also have shield spell and choose whatever is more suitable for the encounter, be it high AC (against ranged enemies) or temp HPs + retaliation (melee cannon fodder is specially vulnerable here).