D&D 5E Tanks and Walls

[GMforPowergamers]

SO I started to think about terminology the other day.

Way back in the end of 2e beginning of 3e I started to hear the word tank thrown around, and imagined it must be some gish build... by the time 3.5 came about I had heard enough to know they mean big meat shield, but it never, even today made sense to me.

When I think of a tank I think of mobilized artillery, something that is very fast and hits hard and changes the whole battlefield at once.

When I think of a meat shield I think of a WALL, something strong and sturdy you can hide behind.

I know the term tank comes from MMOs, and that the 4e roles I love so much comes from them. But tank still in my mind is more striker/controelr then defender.

Has anyone else ever had that problem? I mean I don't know about you but that big gun is the first thing I picture when the word tank is used....

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Back in the longago, I heard the term "tank" toss around for the first time in the context of "We need a tank, so someone should play a fighter or something with a lot of armor." In context, it was meant so that "tank" was actually equating the entire party to a tank: somebody with a lot of armor, somebody with the heavy-hitting artillery, and some extra guns and "keep us moving" folks too.

As a result, I've always thought of the "tank" being the one making it possible to get the artillery, or "blaster" if you prefer, into position - like how an actual tank would still be called a tank even if its gun were removed for some reason, but the point of that big armored vehicle is to get that gun where it needs to be.

 

[S'mon]

"When I think of a tank I think of mobilized artillery"

Mobilised artillery may look like a tank, but typically lacks its armour. There are also 'tank killers' which can hit hard with a big gun, but are destroyed easily when hit. The point of a tank as a weapons system is that it both hits hard, and unlike mobile artillery or tank killers, it is also hard to kill. If it were just a wall, people would ignore it and focus on the artillery.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I first heard the word "tank" in an RPG-like context fairly recently, maybe 2011, and at the time I wasn't even playing D&D. It was pretty confusing.

The _idea_ of what is now called a "tank" is of course much older--the best use a D&D wizard has for a suit of magic armor in D&D has always been to put it on a fighter.

As far as whether the term is appropriate: the difference between a motorized gun and an actual tank was always about the armor. Early tanks didn't even have cannons, IIRC they just had machine guns. So I think "invulnerability" is closer to the core idea of a tank than "firepower" is, ergo the term is appropriate.

 

[Yunru]

"Tank" refers to, believe it or not, that British invention that changed warfare. And I mean the first one. Slow, deals only moderate damage, but wades through damage with no problem.

"Walls" wish they could be tanks. They're tanks without the damage.

 

[discosoc]

You can ignore a wall, but you can't ignore a tank. That's the difference.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

You can depriorize a tank though until his buddies are dead.

Which is why Sentinel and sticky grapplers are popular. Although a wall of zombies is better than any single character ever could be.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

You can ignore a wall, but you can't ignore a tank. That's the difference.

where I agree with that, I also can't imagine someone hiding behind a tank to be the damage dealer... the tank IS the damage dealer. The 4e role striker to me sounds like a 'tank' to me, it's mobile damage... but in MMO terms the tank is the defender.

 

[discosoc]

where I agree with that, I also can't imagine someone hiding behind a tank to be the damage dealer... the tank IS the damage dealer. The 4e role striker to me sounds like a 'tank' to me, it's mobile damage... but in MMO terms the tank is the defender.

The tank deals damage, but a tank by itself is kind of vulnerable. It needs to be supported, and I'm not talking just "healing."