D&D 5E Tanks and Walls

[Tony Vargas]

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.

Tank does seem to mean tough and hits hard, but also implies slow (heavy armor) - which certainly seems like a 'tank' to me, as a civilian, with only modest interest in modern military doctrines. I guess compared to marching infantry, though a tank is mobile?

In the 3.x era, when people went on about the barbarian being a 'better tank,' I often thought it sounded more like an attack helicopter - high damage, high mobility.

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.

MMO's were imitating D&D, so formal D&D roles came from D&D, even if you subscribe to the edition-war-era theory that they got there via MMOs.

In the olden days, we refered to roles by the class that defined them, and the only alternative for each role was a sub-class of that class. So Fighter (alt Ranger, Paladin), Cleric (alt Druid), Magic-user or 'Mage' (alt: Illusionist), Thief (alt: Assassin or arguably Monk). But I remember hearing 'fighter wall' back in the day, too, and, of course, 'Band-aid'(tm) or 'Healer' for Cleric.

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....

Really, I think the fighter is much closer to that vision of a 'Tank' (or attack helicopter) today than it had been since 2e. It hits very hard via Action Surge and multi-attacking. It needn't be as low-mobility due to heavy armor as it used to be. It's only a bit more than moderately tough. Not an eggshell armed with a howitzer, but definitely emphasizing offense.

The 1e/4e 'fighter wall'/'defender' is not done in 5e so much, and the 3.5 fighter as exotic-build-component and/or battlefield-control/tactical-reach/spiked-chain-monkey is long gone.

 

[Yunru]

People these days. Tanks used to be slow as hell. They were only great because of their armour.

Of course their designs have refined dramatically since their inception, but that's where the terminology originates from.

 

[Ristamar]

I'd be curious to find out when the label "tank" first emerged as a tactical role in a video game, board game, or RPG context. My first exposure to it was the mid 90's when I was playing MUDs (the precursor to today's MMOs) via a telnet connection. Wikipedia sites MUDs as the origin of the term, but I get the feeling it may have been around longer than that.

 

[MarkB]

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.

I used to play World of Tanks, and in that game the big damage dealers are the Mobile Artillery types. And you tend to keep those back behind the front lines, while the tanks are out in front spotting for them and taking the brunt of the enemy's firepower.

 

[jadrax]

I'd be curious to find out when the label "tank" first emerged as a tactical role in a video game, board game, or RPG context. My first exposure to it was the mid 90's when I was playing MUDs (the precursor to today's MMOs) via a telnet connection. Wikipedia sites MUDs as the origin of the term, but I get the feeling it may have been around longer than that.

When Vampire the Masquerade came out in 1991, I remember having a long discussion about which of Brujah or Gangrel were the 'Tank Class'. So it was definitely in common usage before then. I always got the impression it was war-gaming slang that had moved over to RPGs.