Spank Me Harder! A Guide to Playing a Tank in Pathfinder 2e

Tanking is FUN in concept, right? There's something awesome about a character that can just take hit after hit standing in front of their allies, and still bounce back for more! But, is it viable in PF2e? Won't the enemies just walk around you and kill the squishy backline?
This video shows you how YOU can tank, whether you enjoy playing fighter, champion, monk, kineticist, inventor, barbarian, or any number of other classes! I walk through class abilities, give some basic tips for gameplay, as well as explore some sample builds in case you need ideas for character creation.
This covers mostly content in the remaster, but is still using only the compatibility errata for Player Core 2 classes.
I hope you enjoy it! If you can, take some time and let me know what you think , and feel free to post your homework in the comments!
Chapters
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - How to Take Punishment
4:44 - Asking for Punishment
11:01 - Sample Builds
17:27 - Homework and Wrap-Up
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[@Greg_Rock]

*Insert Konosuba Darkness reference here*

[@introneurotic]

This video is QUALITY. I wish more Pf2e KZbinrs would spend more time making videos interesting with graphics and an enthusiastic voice with energy. You've got a fine KZbin future ahead of you!

[@kades5456]

Pathfinder is an absolute blast ot play but alot of the time its hard to know what is going to be good until you try it. But in a narrative game it can be difficult to learn on the fly what abilities are good and what abilities are bad, so breakdowns like this are super helpful!

[@PathPrimers]

I'm glad! Stick around and I'll definitely have more of them soon!

[@RainbowLizardOne]

Some fun tank builds I've enjoyed playing as: - Braggart Swashbuckler - using the Antagonize feat, enemies you've Demoralized are stuck being Frightened unless they attack you, so unless they want to hit you, they have a -1 to everything (so long as you succeed your Demoralize roll). Using a Buckler or Dueling Parry allows the Swashbuckler to get very solid AC, they can grant themselves extra HP with Vivacious Bravado, and Opportune Riposte gives you a chance to punish enemies who do end up attacking you. It can be a little reliant on getting good Demoralize rolls, but it's very fun when you do. - Grappler Armor Inventor - This build comes online at later levels, but it's very funny once it does. With the armor modifications that grant bonuses to Athletics, as well as the usual set of resistances that the Armor innovation can give, you end up being a very effective grappler and quite durable. But the star of the show is Electrify Armor - grapple enemies and turn this on and they're pretty much forced to take significant damage to escape, or just stay in the grapple and cry. Inventors are disappointingly lacking in HP but this is still a lot of fun. - Air/Earth Kineticist - An alternate tanky kineticist that takes advantage of Concealment and has extra mobility from Air impulses. The Desert Wind composite stance is an incredible option in conjunction with Safe Elements in order to protect allies, giving a flat 25% miss chance to enemies inside your aura when targeting allies outside it - ideally, the only ally who doesn't get Concealment is you. Their ability to create difficult terrain with earth impulses and aura junctions also helps them keep enemies locked down. - Tiger Stance Medic Monk - Using the Tiger Stance to boost your mobility and the Medic dedication, you can take 10 foot steps in and out of Reactive Strike range, Battle Medicine yourself and your allies multiple times, and still hit with Flurry of Blows or Flurry of Maneuvers. This is more of a support build, but your support is so annoying on top of your good damage and survivability that enemies might want to go for you anyway.

[@PathPrimers]

These sound like a BLAST to play!

[@claudiolentini5067]

Manouvers Monk + Medic dedication is a great support build, and the Braggart is a blast to play

[@snakeinabox7220]

Dude this is hell. Im going to wait here for 35hs. The anticipation is doing more Dmg to me then the Dragons I'm holding at bey

[@PathPrimers]

Hopefully you enjoy it!!

[@strdstryr]

This is great! I've been working on a pseudo-tanking inventor for our next campaign and loved seeing a great breakdown of the core mechanics of how to do it and what to keep it mind. Excellent video and loved watching it. I'm thinking inventor at level 1, weapon innovation with an asp coil. Initial modification is Entangling Form, which applies both grapple and trip traits to the weapon. At level 2, take the fighter dedication to pick up reactive strike (at level 4). So I should be able to grapple or trip at a distance and keep enemies at bay! Since the coil is a one handed weapon, I would still have access to a shield too. There's of course the armor innovation for an inventor as well, but it doesn't speak to me the way weapon innovation does.

[@bijnahonderdeuro]

A very funny way to get a grapple+trip weapon is an inventor dedication. You can do silly things like topping off a guisarme with entangling form. Or slap it on a whip or flail if you want the shield.

[@jucuver123]

I rly like the format of the video

[@link090909]

Was going to drop a like anyway, but had to instantly do so for the phrase “the juice is not worth the squeeze”

[@thementalitydisturbedcolli7430]

My favorite tank build: Life Oracle + Champion dedication, 10 + Con hp per level, good early to mid game AC from champion dedication and Lifelink focus spell + champions reaction is such a great combo that makes you feel very relevant even when its not your turn. That on top of being an awesome healer and solid buffer/debuff caster. Also getting some athletics prof for grapple/trip is awesome as well.

[@Quetzelkoa]

This is a really good mixture of overview, insight, and relevant graphics that add to the experience without distracting. Great work!

[@bijnahonderdeuro]

Homework: For the champion build, Marshal and the Diplomacy stance. It indirectly gives you an offensive presence that's hard to ignore (giant barb +1 status, potentially clumsy enemies) and adds more fear protection. Anything with an occult caster loves bon mot, so diplomacy is a solid investment anyway. For the dragon barb, dragon breath and silencing strike. You are on a timer as a barb and we don't have the feats to take another dedication for healing. So chip things to death or put multiple foes in the reactive strike danger zone with dragon breath. Cancel spellcaster turns with strikes so that your team has caster superiority and pray they deal with any other problems that arise. Kineticist. Aura shaping is a no brainer. Timber sentinel is a great back up plan and Spike Skin can protect either you or your allies.

[@applesflapples9127]

excellent

[@Dwim]

Great video, have my sub !

[@groovinmagic6290]

Thank you for the excellent video!

[@SwingRipper]

5:36 shade at the Guardian lol Great analysis! My favorite tank build is a Warpriest **CLERIC** of Irori so I can Athletic Rush in for +2 to Athletics for a round (that is also a stride)... You also get to use Shield + Shield Block and Cleric Heals to sustain when you are targeted! As long as you are not one shot, you are full health after spending 2 actions. Raising a shield lets you mitigate the lack of defenses and you can keep on stalling for as long as you have heals (which is a LONG time as a Cleric). The enemies also can't ignore you as you then get to trip / grapple them or just keep on healing allies. It is INCREDIBLY difficult to deal with! Nothing is better at drawing threat than a healer, but you don't actually lose much survivability due to Cleric being able to self heal efficiently. Sometimes late in a fight you need to play backline, but you are still a full Cleric so you can totally shift that direction and throw out buff / debuff spells to make enemies want to come and attack into your defenses / self healing. Another note is that Shield Augmentation can let a shield Trip / Disarm / Shove (pick 2), or a Shield Boss can make a shield a perfectly serviceable weapon (particularly for a class that gets a boost to its damage like Barbarian or Ruffian Rogue). My next "tank to play" on my list is a maneuver focused Flurry ranger as flurry reduced MAP applies to maneuvers as well! Wrestler Archetype for Combat Grab is also REALLY good for any unarmed character. The extra skill increase in Athletics lets you increase Medicine very easily alongside the "grapple skill" so you can have Battle Medicine also make use of that offhand. Any character can both Heal and Crowd Control simply by investing in some skills... Wrestler Archetype can make that much easier. (Bastion can help action economy issues with shields, Medic can further boost non-magical healing on a tank). Even in a non-FA game I frequently see tank characters dip into one of these archetypes in order to help them accomplish their job just that little bit better (particularly if their main class lacks something like how Barbarian does not have great on hit effects, Combat Grab really helps them apply crowd control alongside their damage threat)

[@PathPrimers]

I played a very similar cleric, just with Laborer's Bastion instead of Irori! If you can pick up Reactive Shield (such as through the Bastion Archetype), there is some nice synergy with Raise Symbol, saving actions on your turn if you plan it outright. Good call on Shield augmentation, I had forgotten about that! Flurry Ranger seems really fun now that we have that ruling, and opens up a lot from the edge previously being very bow/thrown weapon focused. And yeah, wrestler is nutso good. Just very good feats, to the point where it's on the edge in FA games for me.

[@SwingRipper]

@@PathPrimers I think Wrestler is VERY STRONG, but is very + fun for the whole table as it lets others do their things more efficiently. I usually play with unrestricted Free Archetype, "Pick one of these 5 free archetypes", or no FA. Wrestler is definitely VERY strong for any build that has a free hand and is Strength based

[@f2p_felix]

One of my personal favorite Tank builds is the Weighty Impact feat Summoner! So long as you land a hit, you can pop a single action to Knockdown, which attempts to Trip an enemy WITHOUT USING OR CONTRIBUTING TO MULTI-ATTACK PENALTY. And of course, with Eidolon’s Opportunity, it can take a swing at the enemy when they try to stand back up. Also, if I’m reading the Knockdown entry right, if your Eidolon lands the Reactive Strike, you should be able to attempt to Knockdown the enemy again first thing next turn, provided they’re still in range, but feel free to correct me on that. Also, depending on what spell school you get access to via your Eidolon, you could potentially even get some difficult terrain-inducing spells on your Summoner too to get some nice area denial as well!

[@PathPrimers]

Wanna know something wild? Before the remaster, knockdown was just an automatic success. You hit? Spend an action for a free successful trip. But it sadly does not work with something like reactive strike. You aren't necessarily reading it wrong, it's admittedly vague. The question about follow-up actions vexed the community for awhile until Logan Bonner clarified it in a QnA with How It's Played. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKrCpHyaotisga8si=4z8jjzL5wSlp0b2W

[@f2p_felix]

@@PathPrimers Oh yeah, I remember! Kinda wished kept it that way, but considering it’s also an ability monsters get, maybe it’s for the better that they nerfed it. And thanks for the tip! …Did have a feeling it was a tad too good to be true.

[@SquidasaurusRex]

Weapon Inventor can add Grapple AND Trip to a melee weapon. A single handed reach melee weapon let's you use a shield for extra AC and Shield Block. Might need some GM fiat as most 1-h reach weapons are Uncommon, leaving you with the whip with its low damage die. 2-h are probably the standard to go for RAW. A ransuer gives you good damage die size, reach, and Disarm giving you three maneuver traits. A bo staff has low damage for 2-h weapons but has Parry giving you a minor defensive option. Animal Instinct Barbarian is another good DPR tank. Best static AC of all instincts with the Animal Skin feat. Natural weapons have easy access to Grapple traits. Deer gets Grapple and Reach. It's anathema to use weapons but not a shield, making you even tankier. Regardless of instinct, Furious Bully is probably the goto at level 8... Shoutout to Friendly Toss though-- sure you can use it offensively but it also means you can throw allies to safety away from enemies and avoid reactive strikes crushing your poor squishy casters. Champion at level 8/10 is easy. Quick Shield Block is great as it frees up more actions on your turn for Grappling and minotaur-ing. 10 is generally picking up your Divine Ally upgrade feat. It'll be interesting to see how PC2 shakes up Champion, especially with that new Shield focus spell that looks like a good offensive/defensive alternative to Lay On Hands / Touch of Corruption. An interesting off-tank setup I'm currently playing around with building is a Duelist/Aldori-Duelist build. They dueling parry for +2 AC is nice but nothing special. It comes online at later levels when you can strike or Disarm foes when they critically fail the strike. Duelist gives you Selfless Parry and let's you do the riposte reaction on protected allies. Remastered Disarm is good for burning actions or applying accuracy debuffs. Great to supplement another frontliner PC, like a Champion or Barbarian without a shield. I haven't looked at Kineticst too much but you've peaked my interest... I was interested in a Wood/Metal Kineticist to build some sort of wall build. Can't hurt my party if they're on the other side of a wall. If only there was a way to sustain one wall while I erect the other. Unfortunately it's not a spell otherwise you could archetype with Witch for Cackle. I'll have to rethink this one...

[@PathPrimers]

Ooooh, good call on the weapon inventor. I often overlook it as I just prefer armor inventor, but it's neat that they're the only grapple trip weapon! Makes a nice niche!

[@saprone8885]

My favorite tank build is a polearm Fighter (elf, sylph, dwarf adopted ancestry). The build has a plenty of healing, damage mitigation, max armor, 40 speed, high accuracy/dpr. Combined with a Sorcerer it has the most reliable combo to deal with boss fights. These are often the most difficult encounters in my experience. The combo is: Crashing Slam + Slow (spam). If anyone knows anything stronger/more reliable let me know. I do not like using battle maneuvers on their own, because they weren't as reliable compared to attacks in my experience. I especially dislike the free hand battle maneuvers, because you can't use them well with reach. If you use reach you indirectly tax action economy and it is very reliable if you (+ teammates) position well. The next reason I dislike battle maneuvers is that attacking is often more beneficial. Like you said damage is a form of tanking. A dead creature can't deal damage anymore. Class Feats: ------------------------- 1. Sudden Charge 2. Psychic Dedication: The Tangible Dream - Shield (focus point) 4. Basic Psychic Spellcasting: Bless, False Vitality 6. Psi Development (focus point) 8. Lunge 9. Slam Down 10. Crashing Slam ('win game') Free Archetype: -------------------------- 2. Champion Dedication 4. Healing Touch (focus point) 6. Retributive Strike 8. Desperate Prayer (*focus point) 10. Rogue Dedication The Psychic + Champion combo is to get more focus points (free archetype). You get access to Shield, Shield Block from Psychic. Champion gives access to Retributive Strike, which synergizes very well. All of these abilities are reliable ways of healing/damage mitigation. In case an enemy attacks you I would use Shield Block (often use Shield on myself). The damage mitigation from Shield Block is about the same as the healing from Lay on Hands. However Shield Blocking does save an action next turn and you probably won't use your reaction anyway. The ideal scenario is that an enemy attacks your ally and you can use Retributive Strike. This means free damage mitigation and an 0 MAP attack. You save the focus point and can heal your ally on your turn. With reach you should position yourself in a way to encourage attacking allies. You also want to position in a way to get flanking and/or trigger Reactive Strike. Yes reach is very important. Notice I took Rogue Dedication. This is mainly for Gang Up for easier Retributive Strike/Reaction Strike + flanking. The speed and max armor are from Elf + Nimble Elf + Unburdened Iron + Fleet.

[@xaropevic7918]

I did a lot of tank builds because I love tanks, such as mountain dwarf with the stance that increases AC, a kineticist tank (prob should make other versions with other elements to still be tanky), a few that are barbarian, a decent bunch that are champions but prob my favorite is the tank that is my favorite class, Wizard Quite off topic, but I wanted to make a build around a halfling wielding a frying pan as an attacking pan, but my version is prob pretty bad lol

[@alexllenas4607]

There aren't Taunts *YET*. The Guardian is a new class that will release next year and they have a Taunt on their playtest

[@PathPrimers]

While it's true the guardian has an ability called "Taunt", it is not a true Taunt in the traditional sense of the word, as enemies are still free to attack your allies. (Which I'm glad for. Pathfinder doesn't need a true Taunt)

[@jamescopeland6802]

i've never played any version of pathfinder, but i am thinking of the idea of a different version of a tank build that is some sort of ranged fighter that mainly tanks by stunning all or most enemies either before they attack or before they get close if possible, maybe rather then main tank this would be a support tank since it probably couldn't stun all enemies.

[@wishiwerespecial]

You can tank in any game. Now can you tank well. That's the actual question.

[@Athkore]

Wouldn't the best Athletics weapon be a Shield with a Shield Augmentation? As with a shield augmentation (which can have a potency rune) you can give the shield two manuver traits.

[@PathPrimers]

Shield augmentations are good, but don't give grapple. Having the ability to both grapple and trip is important to be able to target two different saves. So if you want to remain the most effective at locking down, you'll still need an athletics item. Additionally, the agile trait is important, and the requires a feat for the shield.

[@Athkore]

​@@PathPrimers I see, that makes a lot of sense. Though you can also give the shield the agile trait with the Agile Shield Grip feat. So the only thing a shield ca't do is grapple. Its a solid number 2 then. Been theory crafting a tank, and there has been so much to consider, this vid has been a massive help.

[@hawktitan7896]

How do you not take protector tree with a wood kin tank build. Heh

[@thomas.edgerton]

I really dislike the term. Tanks should have massive turrets on them.

[@thomas.edgerton]

But, besides that great video. :P Keep it up.

[@christopherluke9658]

No no you can’t