Ranking My Tank Builds: 2022

[@WRCannon]

I hit the like button before she was in the frame, scout’s honor

[@jacobhamilton2473]

I did too

[@jasonhull8075]

Ditto!

[@notyepdranel961]

I hit the like button while the video loaded.

[@Jason-ji8ql]

I think this was an interesting exercise, and ironically matches a concept I just learned about in psychology... As Spock would say, "Fascinating..." 🤔 (also liked it before the intro faded out 😆)

[@TheCasualGM]

Hitting the like button is always the first thing I do, especially when watching this channel

[@Kingmaster64]

An actual taunt ability that uses intimidate against wisdom saving throw or something like that would be awesome

[@captainpolar2343]

isn't that just fright (but having to attack you instead of running away)?

[@justinhunter3173]

Your Bladesinger Tank is probably the most fun I've ever had in melee. Thanks for the amazing content!

[@bigaj6901]

Hmmmm... if your wife plays DnD too, why not ask her to help film the team-up builds with you? So you'd both go over 1 character each and discuss inbetween maybe? You'd be an unstoppable adventuring duo ❤ Edit: it might also help with camera shyness if ur doing it together? Idk, just a suggestion so that she can be on the channel outside of the silvery barbs mob 😂

[@DnDDeepDive]

Alas! She does not :).

[@bigaj6901]

@@DnDDeepDive bah! We'll have to settle for cameos then :D

[@tonynguyen4136]

@@DnDDeepDive She does not *yet*.

[@The_Babe]

It's inevitable!!

[@Axel-zc6xj]

@@DnDDeepDive Now I'm curious, why doesn't she? I found out my wife likes some aspects of it, like making backstories, character personalities, and even their looks but has a hard time with the mechanics of builds. So I simply ask her "what would you like your character to do?" Once she tells me, I design the character to be as close as she imagined it, and present it. She's been happily playing a Centaur Zealot Barbarian with the mobile feat for constant charging attacks and is having a blast!

[@OfficialMudandRubber]

After starting the video my GF asked what a tank is, I paused and explained for a few mins, unpaused the vid and then you described what a tank is 😂😂 love it

[@Durtaz]

I’ve said this on a few videos, but your content across this series and others has been an absolute joy to go through. I’ve been listening while doing my mindless work labor for over a year now and this was a lovely trip down memory lane. Keep up the great work! Thanks for being a welcoming voice into optimizing. The take of powerful niche builds instead of just the most powerful bar none builds speaks deeply to what I enjoy in any type of gaming. I couldn’t ask for a better source of inspiration and healthy escape.

[@Blossom_Nova]

Predictions for next week's build: 1. Tank built around a class that hasn't been the focus yet (Warlock, Cleric) or 2. A wacko tank concept that came together against all odds that'll blow our lids off

[@orosiusTV]

I rushed throught Curse of Strahd with your "TANKADIN" like it "Rolling stone", was a lot of fun thanks!

[@rasmusbrix401]

hehe, playing a tankadin in curse of strahd atm :)

[@rachelespiritu4215]

I have such a love for tank/support builds, and I’m glad you give them that respect on your channel. My logic is that, yeah, I know I can optimize any type of character I want, but if I optimize for damage (both sustained or nova), other people at the table feel outclassed. But when I’m playing a tank, I can be right in the center of every combat and be relevant on every turn, without anyone feeling like stepping on their toes. I have a T4 Bladesinger, a T3 Stars Druid, and a T2 Mounted Battlesmith, and they’re as beloved by my tables as they are by me.

[@Lumpyrox1412]

I’d like to feed you an idea. For Halloween season maybe consider doing monoclass builds? Like just milk as much as you can out of a class. Because for a compulsive multiclasser what is more spooky than monoclassing? 😂

[@RPanda3S]

That's actually pretty funny, though to a large extent that material is already out on the net.

[@gavinlangston603]

I lol'd

[@Shodden]

I'd love to see your attempt at making a College of Spirits bard; I love the idea of a paranormal investigator giving his allies inspiration using an ouija board and messages from the beyond. However, with the randomness inherent in the subclass, I'm unsure how to build a reliably effective character.

[@jonathanmartin8716]

One of my favorite tank moments was very simple, we were attacking a volcano base of an elemental fire lord and we break into the inner ring of their base, immediately we realize we're outnumbered, a dozen Azer to our group of 5, Once we're thru the door, the Barbarian-Warlock and I, the Jedi-like Sorcadin down our enlarge potions and go to work. He leads the group south towards 6 and I head north. It takes him and the group of Tempest Cleric, Brute Fighter and Lore Wizard about three rounds to finish off their side, doing damage and healing from the fire splash damage to clear that end, on my end, it's them missing me and me missing them and I was glad they did because I didn't want to take the splash damage. Still, because of my enlarged size I was able to hold up those 6 Azer in a decent size hallway for those three round and wait for the party to came back to help finish them off. There were things I could have done to increase my chance to hit like unleash my Sacred Weapon or switch to bless, but it wasn't about doing damage, it was about holding up half the enemies for the rest of the party so they could fight six on four instead of twelve on five :) I was very proud of myself, I didn't even need to pop shield :) plus the aforementioned, if I hit them, I would have taken a decent chunk of sustained damage for my efforts.

[@MichaelDBruce]

Im late to the comment game here, but my group finished a one shot last night where I ran the Tankadin at level 6 and I wanted to report back! Also, I wanted to provide an honest account but please dont view what I am saying as a criticism of you. I think that this channel is fantastic and love your videos. This is the second character build I have tried in a game and the tankadin was a lot of fun to play!! Overall, I think that the build worked really well, although I think it might work better at higher levels (at level 6, with that first dip, and missing Paladin 6, there were some features missing). I also rolled like hot garbage most of the time, so there's that too. I did end up with three magical items for the adventure but not until everything had been rolled and approved, Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, a +1 warhammer and a staff of healing (which we got mid adventure). One more note, our DM is awesome and definitely tailored some challenges for our group. We had 4 combat encounters, with two short rests and one full heal from a temple in the middle. So while we were able to get hit points back to full each time, our spell slots were gradually running out over the course of the adventure. Pros: For most mundane attacks, I was really tanky. Our first encounter was a crew of skeletons - most of which couldnt hit me. That said, because of issues that Ill list in the cons, I was out of the fight for almost four rounds and a party member went down. There was another enounter where we were ambushed by assassin rogues, I took four arrows with the assassination feature, was able to SoF and Shield my AC upto 28, so only took one of those on a critical hit, taking me from 56hp to 9hp. But nothing else hit me for the rest of the fight. In our final boss battle, I took a cone of cold to the face and survived. I went down because I got hit by a meteor (thats a whole story for itself). Healing worked out here. I was teetering on taking a cleric instead (the other two party members were a warlock and a sorc) but didn't want to have three main casters without some form of tanky boi doing the work. Healing word was great for picking up downed friends. In the final fight we had two people down, and the channel divinity feature "Turn the Tide" was really helpful here and super dramatic. Lay on hands was a good supplement for getting everyone to full health with the staff of healing doing the bulk of work after our assassin encounter. The rolepplay aspect - the backstory I built for this guy was a knight of the round table / judge dredd concept. The flavour of this character worked really well. Cons: This felt at times to be a "one trick pony" at times. My thing was AC and a little in the way of conversation. I probably would have died without the extra hit points from increasing CON but the CHA scores weren't as high as needed to compensate for my garbage rolls last night and I failed some social rolls that ended up going the way of combat as a result. On that note, the saving throws for this character were pretty bad. Thats really how I ended up taking most of my damage - the creatures we faced had options for attacks requiring saves in lieu of AC attacks. I missed a dex save in an encounter and ended up falling into water in our first encounter. It took about 4 rounds to be able to get out and by then my team mates were hurting. You mentioned the taunt aspect, so ill not harp on that, but because of that, mobility was an issue too. If I wanted to get anywhere quick, I needed to use the dash action, which left me without being able to attack. Two of our encounters - one against rogues that would hide and move (low perception meant I wasn't able to find anyone), the other against high level mages who could misty step or fly, meant that I wasn't able to get to them and meet them face to face or compel them to attack. But what I could do was try and put myself in the way of things as much as possible or switch to healing where required to run that aspect. This was a really fun concept to try out and Ill definitely look at some of the others to see if there is something else I can run for the future. I will say that the other build I have run from your channel was the tempest cleric/storm sorc at level 11, which was an amazing play through - but am wondering now how this paladin would have run at a higher level? Thank you so much for all that you do! This channel is amazing and I love your work! Michael

[@beowulf.reborn]

As someone who DM's at least as often as I play (and often much more). The best "soft taunt" in the Game, is Reckless Attack. If a Barbarian attacks recklessly, opening themselves up to counterattacks with advantage, then I will almost always have the nearest melee opponents, and even some ranged, attack that Barbarian. It simply makes the most sense from an in game perspective, the crazy guy with the big axe is obviously dangerous, but he's also reckless and making himself easy to hit, so take him down ... the enemy doesn't know that he has "resistance" to damage, or a the biggest "Hit Dice" in the game. They only know that he has massive holes in his defense. Opposite to that, if a Character has super high AC, and is next to impossible to hit, then I'll have a couple of people try and occupy them, whilst focusing fire on Characters that can actually be harmed. If you want to "Tank" you have to be able to take a hit, not duck, dodge, or deflect every single attack.

[@philwalsworth4085]

Keep doing what you're doing! Love the content! Tanking is a lot of fun, I think AC is my favorite stat in dnd 😅

[@dicewithdeath]

Came here to see what could be done with the dhampir bite, and could see the quality of the thinking - despite not wanting to focus on tanking at the time. Been a regular since. 🎉

[@PrinsB]

You ask if it’s good to split a video in Part 1 and Part 2, when Part 2 gets way less klicks. Yes! Because Viewer Binding by Watchtime is by far the most important stat for the algorithm. So viewer who would leave you in a huge Video may end it but do not klick in the second part, but those who klick on the second part are willing to watch this topic even longer and might even complete the second part too.

[@andrewpaul8732]

Amazing intro. I was looking for tank builds and kept getting the bearbarian and things of that nature and i said "whats stopping the DM from just..not attacking you?" I ended up looking at every subclass of the fighters and barbarians and setting on the Ansestral Guardian. Made him a Dhampir with the charger feat. Drop to half health heal for 15 baby

[@Xubrai]

"Armor class is king". Based on the current Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign my friends and I are about to wrap up, I have to agree. We've managed to turn my Eldritch Knight into an untouchable wrecking ball. At one point, we pushed his AC to 34 (+5 Dex, +1 Shield, +1 Half-Plate [with Medium Armor Master feat], Haste, Fizban's Platinum Shield, Shield of Faith, and casting Shield). It is an absolute rush to have the DM ask "this creature has a +15 to hit, why can't I hit you?".

[@muskrat7444]

Just to be clear. I hit the like because your Tank builds are my favorite!!! Sad I dont play enough to be able to play them all!..... and now there is another one on the way!!!. Wooooooooo!

[@Martick05545]

Something to be aware of is being hard to hit does not a tank make. Because "taunts" aren't really a thing in D&D, you either need to be heavy in control or do a lot of damage and hard to kill. If all you have is a lot of HP or AC, enemies can simply ignore you.

[@jimmyreinstein9993]

That’s why he mentions in his videos that they are soft taunts. They aren’t forced to attack him but are encouraged to attack him because of what would happen if they attacked someone else.

[@Martick05545]

@@jimmyreinstein9993 To clarify: it wasn't a critique of the builds, but general advice to new players.

[@RPanda3S]

Sure doesn't read like that.

[@Kingmaster64]

Pls make a trapper character that baits enemies following them and stepping in prepared traps and stuff that would be so unique

[@mathhews95]

That's hard to make happen in game, tho. Unless your character has the time to prepare beforehand, it's useless. And if you're in a dungeon, that won't happen. A fight broke out in the city? Not happening as well.

[@blackgaurdsmash]

I got a tank for you! Elf: mark of the shadow +2 dex +1 cha dark vision 60ft Fey ancestry- adv against charm trance- no sleep keen senses (prof- perception) cunning intuition (+1d4 stealth/performance) Stack dex, cha, con. fighter (battlemaster) 11 Sorcerer (divine soul) 6 Bard (Swords) 3 lv1: Fighter saves: Con + Str prof: all wep/armor/shields skills: acrobatics, intimidation. 1: Fighter 1- FS: protection 2: Sorcerer 1- Divine soul 1 3: Sorcerer 2- font of magic 4: Sorcerer 3- Meta (quicken/twin) 5: Sorcerer 4- F1 mobile 6: Fighter 2- Action surge 7: Fighter 3- Battlemaster 1 8: Fighter 4- F2 eleven accuracy 9: Fighter 5- 2nd attack 10: Bard 1- inspiration (d6) 11: Bard 2- jack of all trades 12: Bard 3- Swords1/expertise/FS dueling 13: Fighter 6- F3 shield master 14: Sorcerer 5- 3rd level spells 15: Fighter 7- Battlemaster 2 16: Fighter 8- F4 tough 17: Fighter 9- indomitable 18: Fighter 10- Battlemaster 3 19: Fighter 11- 3rd extra attack 20: Sorcerer 6- Divine soul 2 AC- haste, bait and switch, flourish, shield. Defensive: Aid, mirror image, quickened blade ward, absorb elements, silvery barbs. Don't forget: shield master for those pesky dex saves.

[@yesmaybe7466]

I like the idea of a dhampir tank. Utilizing the bite attack to regain hit points…i was thinking paladin

[@keojordan925]

adorable! Hello Mrs. Colbys' . Great stuff keep it up

[@dicksonmattxenoblade6491]

I had an idea for a tank that I tried at one point, not sure how well it works. Basically the idea was you go Armorer Artificer 10, Mercy Monk 7. You take Dwarven Resilience and Durable, and use Patient Defence to gain HP through your Hit Dice. At Artificer 10 you also take the Periapt of Wound Closure to make the healing even more ridiculous. The extra Monk levels are mostly for the extra Ki as well as for Evasion. Not sure where the last levels go honestly.

[@MikeydactylGaming]

I feel like there needs to be a tank that also tanks/taunts spellcasters. It'd be cool if there was a tank that let their allies had advantage on saving throws if they placed the taunt on the spellcaster. I'd love to play something like an ancestral guardian in that case. I actually homebrewed a Dancer Rogue subclass that could taunt a spellcaster.

[@stormcaller7155]

Taunting a spellcaster is extremely difficult, but tanking them can be more easily done by choosing a magic resistance race such as satyr, yuan ti, or gnome

[@LordEric1]

I've been playing a hexblade swordsbard satyr eats makes for breakfast.

[@jamesmullen3068]

Love that rogue tank. I almost played something similar, but I haven't played a tank yet.

[@MadnessOpus]

Tank/bruiser is my favorite archetype not just in D&D, but in all games in general. From all of your builds, my fav is Clockwork Soul/Armorer, hands down. By the way, you guys look like a wonderful couple together!

[@PalleRasmussen]

I agree with you on everything except the CWS/Arm.

[@patrickhobing8785]

Always love your videos. With the One Dnd grapple changes, it could be nice to see you play around with that to make a tank without the typical taunts. I'll also reference you to a comment I made on your mount and blade build where you can bump the survivability of both characters massively if the mount has a soft taunt

[@vinspad3]

Colby's new builds will be my #1 reason to enjoy 1DnD.

[@iansinclair2028]

Glad to see you are having fun looking back at your work colby, i hope you keep enjoying what you do

[@ericmiller4424]

I'm currently running a Battle Smith tank. The level 20 goal is 12 levels of Artificer (Battle Smith), 4 levels of Fighter (Cavalier), and 4 levels of Wizard (War Wizard). My DM is going to allow me to use the INT modifier instead of STR for the Cavalier's bonus action retaliation attack. I made the case that as I use INT as a combat modifier, I should use that as the metric of how many times a day I can use it. The War Wizard was for Arcane Deflection and INT modifier bonus to initiative.

[@arthurmarques6191]

as someone that only plays tank, I appreciate your work 🤩

[@zero11010]

I like that what you’re saying is you wish 5E was more like 4E because it had better tanking mechanics.

[@alanabdallahrogana5949]

Great work! I actually like the consistency in the method but maybe some considerations are necessary: 1. You should take Shild Master feat more often. As you said in your rogue build, its great against fireballs! 2. As for the barbarian with polearm instrad of Shild, dealing high damage with good positioning is basically a taunt 3. AC overperforms for 2 main reasons: - Shild spell and other limited resources are basically limitless in your calcularions - Your enemies dont have a great hit roll, like giants of similar CR would have. A party of optimized characters show really challenged by their DM fights CR 4 creatures até level 1 and CR 10 at level 4, when that's the kind of dynamic you have, AC is secondary against a +11 to hit a low lvl player. 4. Summoning / taking space is not a greatly apreciated tactic. You should have to change the method or create a New category... But its odd to let out onevof the best ways to tank 5. Likewise control is kinda underapreciated in your builds, its not gonna show in the math, but its similar to getting a nice soft taunt, doest show on math but its important for the build. *Instead of taking a 3 level dip in artificer in every build maybe you should consider more spells as 'taunts'. If you make your party fly against a melee enemies they Will attack you! But we kinda dont think of a 4th level fly as "taunt". A good combination of 3 or 4 spells is actually farly better and more versatile than any taunt feature you would have to invest 3 level in spell progression to get. 5b) To that point, Undead warlock is a great dip for tanks, even better for ranged or raging ones. With the new dragonborn combos greatly for AoE concentrationless fear 6 *(and maybe the most important and more conter intuitive)* Having played some ancestral In my life, the best way to actually tank is to AVOID damage, (probably the same for armorer). If ALL YOUR PARTY has resistence agains any attack and attacks are made with disadvantage you what the target to attack them! Not you!! Any half optimized character os reasonably 'tanky' and gets really tanky with a ancestral Guardian protecting concentration (with resistence the DC hardly passes 10) and dobling the HP; not to say about temp HP and armor of agathys/peace Cleric combo. Ancestral Guardian should use a bow! Or get a fast horse to lend the hit and desingage (or echo) or get sentinel and Centaur and be Mounted by the paladin with high AC! Now your forntline is imortal and you get 4 heavy armor attacks (extra attack; bônus action e reaction with sentinel when the pally gets the attacks from you) ... There are quite a lot of ways to tank in dnd and i hope to see a New category of tank that includes summoners and controllers. Or at least that they participate using the current method and the comments makes the math sustainable Keep the great work!!!

[@jeffreywarrencrumbine5685]

Liked because family is everything. Ha! Love the content.

[@coffeeproblems5780]

I played a Dhampir death cleric(5) hexblade(1) Ancients Paladin (14) in a battle Royale one shot, and my DM allowed me to use the spell vampiric touch as an upgrade for the dhampirs bite, and since the bit is a simple melee weapon attack, I was allowed to stack divine smites, that's would crit on a 19 or 20 with the hexblade curse. That character was filthy, and I never died.

[@craigbowyer7235]

Doing a great job with your Pathfinder builds. I've been doing a similar thing too. I tend to like wilderness classes myself including Ranger, Barbarian and Druid. Can you do a BarBEARian next?

[@gammaray3694]

I used the bones of your armorer build for one of my favorite characters I've ever played. Thanks for that.

[@trueyinyang7941]

dude your so upbeat and charming all the time and ur smile is infectious

[@captainpolar2343]

Oath of Ancients (at least 7) Ancestral Guardian (taunt) or Totem (bear can't be beat) (3 levels of either, up to 6 on AG), Yuan-Ti (pure) -pros: not very MAD (cha, con, str), adv on saves against magic (+cha mod to saves, aura 10 ft), resistance to damage from spells (10 ft aura); taunt ability (to force target you, while raging) or resist all damage (while raging); high health pool; spells (such as ceremony, aid, warding bond, death ward, and other instantaneous or non-concentration spells); if AG (and 6 levels) you can reduce damage an ally takes by 2d6 (after applying resistance if they get hit at disadvantage); immune to poison (and it's condition); dark vision to 60 ft; don't need beefy strength (13 required to multiclass) -cons: rage is limited, can't cast spells while raging, can't wear heavy armor (although, half plate and shield isn't looking too bad); 2 stats need to be balanced to be effective (cha for aura of protection, and con for health; although taking a 16 isn't too penalising); probably not a lot of feats (because you have to boost cha)

[@yurirobin]

I think that the problem with armor class is that most DMs, myself included, tend to not target the players with high armor class. It is a little sad but the monsters aren't dumb and they hate to hit things that deflect all their blows.

[@ARatherDapperTapir]

Well, a lot of monsters ARE dumb, it's situational. Certainly not always though.

[@lilbitsssss]

That is why as a DM I always factor a monsters intelligence in combat… if they are trained tactical fighter they focus weaklings or healers if it’s a mindless beast it attacks the closest target or if something damages it greatly then it may go for them evening risking opportunity strikes to do so. But if that Big damage person is slippery with say misty step it maybe tire of chasing it easily and go back to closest target.

[@MTsouria]

The only Tank build I've ever tried in 5e was a monoclass Conquest Paladin and it worked great! Felt nice to control the battlefield through fear and forcing enemies to work around my positioning, like a nice chess battle with the DM. Gives a ton of space to your party members to work with. Have you ever tried that class? Or thought about it?

[@joeyattack99]

Wife + W

[@ChickenSoupMusic]

Undead lock / Conquest Paladin - PAM / Sentinel / Shield Bash…. Maybe 1 level of rogue for expertise. Maybe being a bugbear for extra reach to control out to 15 feet of movement? Knocking things down so they can’t move closer or just fear I. General paired with repelling blast and sentinel. Or totem Barb / Dao Lock. Damage resistance and Armor of Agathys. Spike growth zoning and damage with Repelling Blast. Turn it into a Grappler too - Simic Hybrid for double grappling. 1 level of Rogue for Athletics Expertise maybe.

[@mutatgaming8627]

For a damage build I want to recommend whisper bard 3,fighter2, spore druid 2, gravecleric8, pally 2..... Half high elf for booming blade early without feat . Point buy for 14 str ,14 con, 15 wis, 12 char. racial to Str and Wis... heavy armor and shield for defense. Spells :Spirit weapon, Guardian of Faith, spirit guardians, Thorn whip for forced movement or placement of enemy and Shillelagh. Note Guardian of Faith doesn't have a limit of 1 so you could cast multiple with overlapping coverage, but your already taking 2 rounds to set up. First round spirit guardian, spirit weapon... round two guardian of faith, spirit weapon.... round 3 Mark with grave curse ... action surge... booming blade/smite(booming blade is made with a melee weapon attack), Only get 1 attack no reason to wait for crit to smite on other turns., spirit weapon. You could skip the guardian of faith and booming blade faster, but I'm always casting it .... at the very least to protect squishy friends. Wild shape is an option but really using druid for move take damage stay take damage like spirit guardian.

[@KevinVideo]

It's wild to me that 5e doesn't have much in the way of taunts, and only a handful of ways to keep an enemy attacking you. I haven't had any experience with PF2e yet, but in PF1e there were multiple feats and spells that allowed you to taunt enemies or take hits. There was the paladin 1st level spells "Compel Hostility" and "Knight's Calling", the feat "Antagonize" that gave you different benefits if you used Intimidate or Diplomacy on a target creature, the fighter "Pin Down" feat (similar to Sentinel), and even the tiefling only Suicidal trait that let you jump in front of an attack. It was so easy to make tank characters in that system. Heck, there was even the Stalwart Defender prestige class (called the Dwarven Defender back in 3.5) that was a dedicated tank "class". I'm hoping PF2e carried some of the 1st edition stuff over. With "6e" coming out next year, it's already too late for 5e to do something so dedicated.

[@brianfox340]

I watch videos of yours even if i never plan to play the build myself. Such good content.

[@7flavorshrimp62]

I just checked the channel to see if you had posted anything! Hype!

[@nickpray8503]

I like all your videos, but I laughed as I hit the button this time. Seems like you have a lovely family.

[@mikeshockinggentspence8714]

AWWWWW you guys are adorable! Another great video I definitely don't watch as an ASMR!

[@seanmander]

Your fam is friggin adorable

[@PyrielKathos]

Funnily the best 'tank' experiance I've had was actually with one of your very first sustained damage builds, the fightarian. I swapped to guardian barbarian and have thoroughly enjoyed running around being a pain in the plans of the enemy. Although thank goodness we run a paladin and cleric in our party, I spend more time unconcious than I do fighting!

[@pdubb9754]

Perfect timing! I just started reviewing your tank builds. Plus, your wife is in the video.

[@jeffersonian000]

My favorite Tank by far is the Naked Bladesinger, Barbarian 1/Bladesinger 2+. Just go all in on Con, Dex, and Int, for a sustainable AC in the 30’s and all the spell utility. Second place goes to the Mark of Warding Dwarf Armorer 4/Abjurer 2+. The over 630+ “hit points” to burn through due to Durable and Dwarven Fortitude while passively blasting via Armor of Agathys is for you, not so much for everyone else at the table.

[@PalleRasmussen]

But you cannoy caste or use spells while Raging to halve HP. Can you Bladesing?

[@Adam1984_]

@@PalleRasmussen Yep! Bladesong is not a spell, and is therefore unrestricted by Rage.

[@jeffersonian000]

@@PalleRasmussen It’s for the Unarmored Defense, Con save, and the d12 hit die. Rage is what you use after you’ve run out of all other options.

[@Silverythoughts]

I had the absolute pleasure of running the Bladesinger tank build at level 15 for a one shot. Let me tell you it's the real deal - my AC was so good I purposely took attacks of opportunities to steal enemy reaction to add in extra protection to my party

[@logancuster8035]

So watching this video brought up for me the distinction of “Sustained tanking” and “Nova Tanking”. Would love to hear if you think this is a useful distinction. A sustained tank, would always, or nearly always have their protective and survivability features available while a Burst Tank would have limited resources used to protect their allies and survive themselves. A character that uses the Shield spell, or the Rage feature, for survivability would be two examples that come to mind of a Burst tank, but I’m sure there are plenty of others.

[@Axel-zc6xj]

Hello Misses Colby's Wife, it is a pleasure to meet you!

[@NodHero]

She had the full "why do I put up with his shenanigans" face going, lol.

[@jordanw2741]

I wasn't going to watch this video, but something about the video compelled me to both like and watch this. Weird...

[@DnDDeepDive]

😂😂

[@custardstuff5178]

What an adorable couple!

[@DnDDeepDive]

Thanks!

[@benjaminroberts5126]

You had me at "I just took a hike and I'm all sweaty."

[@DnDDeepDive]

[@RK9th]

Based on how well the quickened blade ward worked for Clockwork Soul, my guess for the next tank build is something that takes advantage of the reworked Earth Genasi from MoM. Maybe with heavy armor master to help nullify some of the damage that's already resisted.

[@samasin5565]

Would love to see a tank ranking that focuses on how much "protection" etc. the tank is able to provide. Even if DPR and Nova damage are also in a lab, I think they are closer to simulating combat effectiveness than DTPR. Even if you have to get a bit subjective, it might be cool to just see which you think are the actual best tanks at tanking.

[@thomastownley5049]

I love your builds so much. I'm one of those people who enjoys building characters almost as much as playing the game so I'm definitely in the right place. I was wondering if you could make a character (or have made a character I missed) that, rather than being a front line fighter, stays back and gives disadvantage to enemies/advantage to friends?

[@RPanda3S]

There's a hobgoblin helper build that may be close to what you are looking for.

[@liammeisgood8665]

I hope next week’s build uses gift of the ever living one. I am playing a moon Druid/celestial Warlock rn and would love to see your take on a build like that.

[@7flavorshrimp62]

TANK BUILD NEXT WEEK LETS GO

[@psoren423]

Your show is so clean and informative and fun… why don’t you have 100k yet? Hello, Mrs. Homelander. 😂

[@jarrodthekidder1]

That was cool to see your wife haha. Thanks for all your hard work man. Been loving this

[@Stickyrolls123]

You've inspired me! What about a tank that's a mix of Cavalier and Druid? The idea being to focus on the battlefield control aspect of tanking. Guess you would get the added benefit of shape-shifting as well. Not sure how thid would go, haven't played dnd in about 20 years and am getting back into it.

[@debuyarou7463]

I hope that you will not get me wrong but I don’t like concept of tank in DnD because I don’t want simulation of video game. I video game you have tank, healer and DPS and video games are build around that. For me DnD is on scale from video game to realism more closely to realism. So in DnD you don’t have taunt and aggro and you don’t have classic tank who tanking boss and healer who heal mostly him and if need rest of party for the reason. Me as DM, I always adjust encounter depending on party composition. For example: If someone play Assassin Rouge I will put one extra enemy so that he can one shot with his class feature because I don’t what him to have feel like his class features are useless and should pick something else. So for me tacking in consideration party composition and adapt is necessary to have not too easy or not too heard and also fun encounter. Plus in most of the time you can’t outheal enemy damage and you shouldn’t because DnD is not constructed to play like MMO RPG. Yes you can be durable and be tanky but to force enemy to attack you is more for video game then DnD. It is not in spirit of DnD to remove free will for someone (exception are spells like dominate person or dominate monster, and boss have save to take and legendary resistance etc). Boss should have choice to ignore you and attack someone else. Because I did not read last few books I don’t know if wizards put taunt mechanics in game, and if they did I will rule otherwise.

[@undercovers2006]

I have been toying around with a character build, that makes a good tank with good TPK management. It's a shadar-kai, 8th level Eldritch Knight & 12th level Divine soul sorcerer using shadow blade, and with the ruling by wizards of the coast. It makes it a good DPR build as well using booming blade, and twin spell.

[@undercovers2006]

If you want, I can email you the write up.

[@syrupchugger421]

Thnk you for the video. So many creative and cool ways to protect my friends

[@alanwadey2848]

It worked; I hit like as soon as your good lady was on camera.

[@onyxninjafail]

With these tank builds and the limited options available to get a soft taunt, I always end up thinking, there's gotta be a way to get a soft taunt going via some sort of spell, right? Compelled duel seems purpose designed for it, but of course it has its drawbacks. Maybe bless on everyone except yourself if you're facing a saving-throw-based enemy? Some kind of powerful AOE support spell that you can have all of your squishy friends stand in while you stand out front outside of the AOE?

[@jormungandthemidgardserpen1845]

So, how about bear totem 3(5) + fiend warlock X tank build? Survivability of a classic bear barb with temp hp generation of the fiend patron(i believe it's charisma + warlock level per slain creature). Then there's a handy d10 in case you need to patch up a weak save(wisdom, for example) and then at level10 you can grab psychic resistance and resist 99% of all damage types while raging? I think temp hp, even if not super reliable, kinda compensates for smaller hp die and considering resistance, those temp hp last longer. And with PAM+GWM this character becomes catch 22 tank, in my opinion. Because if you attack them, then they do their job and can damage you back with armor of agathys or fire shield(both are not concentration, btw). And if you don't attack them, you get a raging berserker running free and murdering everything with PAM+GWM and +1(+2) pact weapon and 3 attacks per turn. Sure, this build is MAD, but just by getting +2 CHA, you are a decent warlock with situational spell casting outside of combat, social aspect and a murder machine with like 40-60+ of somewhat reliable(because reckless attack + pact weapon heavily negate GWM penalty) dpr. Plus, even if you run out of rages, you can just cast spirit shroud and become an even better murder machine.

[@FiLtheThriL]

Love ya man. Best d&d content out there.

[@yosoyhansolo]

Obligatory like and view and comment exclusively because your wife is in the video

[@bigaj6901]

In ur face, Colby! :P

[@WereDictionary]

Part of the survivability of the Bear totem Barbarian is that while they are at the front and they are throwing out impressive damage numbers, they technically dont taunt. If I was the BBEG, I would go for the party member who falls the easiest first. Likely blindside the fragile mage if I can, THEN nuke the dumb cleric because they keep everyone else topped off, THEN the stupid rogue who has been a literal thorn in my side the entire battle, THEN the beefcake who resists everything, especially if I can stay out of their range. If I dont get an incentive to hit the tank first, Im gonna stall the tank for as long as I can get away with it. Which is why access to a soft taunt is so important.

[@doccerebrum5449]

Well I always view your videos but the wife cameo was a bonus that earned a like, plus I love tanks so win/win/win

[@axeman1134]

Hey Colby! I'm just getting into d&d with my kids. We don't have any books yet but are using D&d beyond; do you have any builds that just use the base game?

[@vinspad3]

I would love to see a 'vanilla' opti build.

[@JosephSmith-lm4ri]

Here's a concept: Interception fighting style conquest paladin with the metamagic adept feat, twinned spell, and compelled duel. Just as a basic thing to work from, would this he good or absolutely horrible?

[@kai---runeskin1417]

I love your vids and hope you have a wonderful day! Thank you.

[@gabrielseller6434]

Alternatively to revisiting the Bear Totem barb, seeing as they're almost a hybrid build, I think it would be neat to see how they Fair on the sustained dpr tier list

[@chiekohoki]

How did you not call this "Rank a Tank" Also your wife is adorable, I can see where your kids get it now! :P

[@zardok11]

Definitely liked only because of the wife! Jk.. love all you stuff.. wife certainly helps though!

[@ApocalypticSigns]

Great channel. Great energy. Love it.

[@zero11010]

Your measurement mechanic is inherently unfairly balancing builds with a nova defense. A thing the build can use very few times per day. I’d be happy to help you build a tool that would be more robust. So, if a build gets half damage once per day that will register as totally different from half damage once per time hit.

[@TheRobversion1]

perhaps you can go back to those older tank builds and do a 2.0 where you multiclass them with a taunt? one "taunt" i think you can afford to consider more is actually casting control spells that disable enemies but not all of them. a caster tank (like the clock sorc) doesn't even need the armorer already to discourage the enemies from attacking others. the fact that they cast a concen spell that disables the enemies should make him the primary target of most enemies on the field in their attempt to break the clock sorc's concen (or outright kill a dangerous caster) and regain action economy. Treantmonk talks about this in his latest vid on aggro/armor of agathys.

[@Mr_Kupatso]

Love it! Hmm, how do you think the rogue tank would work mixed with your new STR based rogue build instead... 🤔

[@brannenpfister2579]

Ancestral guardián x/echo knight3 multiclass is still the best tank I’ve played. Grabbed gift of the chromatic dragon for further damage mitigation. Slaps. Support Tank Barb is a lot of fun!

[@Ash.King.Y]

As told before the bladesinger tank is my favorite build until now. But I'd love to see the beast barbarian/soulknife rogue (16)

[@Ricardo-zo1ti]

Writing the request for a new team build :) I loved the mount and blade, that's the sort of super synergistic pair that I would LOVE to play

[@lexmtaylor]

Found another soft taunt. Compel Duel is a bonus action to cast and Concentration. It can be added to any character with Fey Touched feat.

[@arthurmarques6191]

wait.... at the start of the video: I need a shower at the end: I am gonna take a nap.... oh ow 🦨

[@wreckedgamerqq5001]

-blink blink- the wifey made an appearance? Awwww! And she’s camera shy?! Now ain’t that adorable!

[@akpunisher15]

Thanks for the videos!! i would love to see a Gunslinger optimized!

[@connordavis727]

Please do Order of the Lycan for Halloween this year!!! 🐺

[@Roger-uw1pj]

I liked this so much I clicked like twice!

[@shaulkramer7425]

the two of you are such a beautiful couple!