How can I help one of my players be more tanky?

Question

I'm running a game of four (currently) 5th-level characters. All of them are heavy damage-dealers (a wizard, warlock, ranger and paladin) with the paladin as the nominal tank. However, the paladin is consistently going down the first few rounds of every combat. He has a pretty high AC (20 with shield of faith), but his Con is only 12 resulting in only 39 hit points. For comparison, both the dwarven ranger and warlock have more hit points.

I can sense that the paladin's player wants to be more tanky, but isn't really sure how. They are already in the habit of using shield of faith, as I mentioned, and took the protection combat style. What kind of magic item/special ability/other help would be good to give them to help them feel like they're achieving their goals, without just having them stumble upon an Amulet of Health and letting them dominate? I'd like not to have it be too heavy-handed.

Some ability I could give the other characters to let them buff the paladin would also be good.

Answer 1

It sounds to me like your Paladin player didn't realise the importance of Con when he built him, so the first thing I'd consider is letting him swap some stats about. In the interest of fairness, I'd give this option to everyone. I'd have a brief chat at the end of the next session "Hey guys, we've been playing for a bit, and maybe your characters aren't working quite how you intended. If you want to re-spec them, let me know, and as long as it isn't too broken, we can sort something out."

If you want to stick with their current build, then I'd suggest the Paladin looks at the Aid spell they just got at level 5. Its often overlooked, but gives 5 extra HP to 3 characters without concentration. These are not temporary hit points, but an increase to hit point maximum, meaning they can be recovered by healing and will stack with temporary hit points.

If you want to give them a push with a magic item but don't want to go with the Amulet of Health, the Belt of Dwarvenkind is a good alternative. +2 Con and they grow a beard.

The final option I'd consider, would be the Inspiring Leader feat. A high Cha character, probably your Warlock or Paladin, gives the whole party (Level + Cha mod) temporary hit points. This stacks with the HP boost from Aid, but not other temporary hit points. I'd make this a quest reward only if they really need it and have earned it, because giving out feats can unbalance the game very quickly.

Answer 2

I honestly don't think an extra 5 or 10 HP is going to do much to fix the problem you're having. If one level 5 character is taking 40-ish damage in a couple of rounds even with AC 20, I feel like something is going wildly wrong with how you're running combat. Sure, that could happen under normal circumstances, if it's a hard-to-deadly fight with a boss monster or a group of enemies who specialize in just doing tons of damage and nothing much else (say, griffons or ettins), or if there's just a run of unfortunate dice rolls; but for this to be happening in nearly every encounter, it kind of sounds like every enemy in the fight is focusing fire on the Paladin, and that's not really how 5th Edition is supposed to operate.

There's no character in the game that can absorb all the attacks from a whole encounter-worth of monsters and stay upright. If there's four PCs, the damage kind of has to spread out among them so the party's action economy doesn't suffer.

I sometimes see a mindset, often from people who are coming out of Warcraft or similar games, that every attack that doesn't target the tank represents a failure on the tank's part, but that's not really valid in D&D. The "tank" classes don't actually have that much more HP than anyone else, and while their AC might be somewhat higher than other melee-focused classes, it's not that much higher -- overall, a fighter or paladin is more survivable than a ranger or similar, but only by perhaps 20%.

When I'm the DM, I usually figure the party tank should take twice as many attacks as anyone else, but should not be the only target I'm attacking, unless the party is going out of their way to make that happen (such as everyone else hiding in ambush while the paladin walks in the open).

Answer 3

Your combats are likely too hard

A single flind is CR9, which alone is a deadly challenge for 4 5th level characters (5000xp whereas the deadly threshold is 4400xp), and in melee has a +9 to hit which is quite high.

If this was the 'boss' encounter of the day, after a series of easier encounters then that is fair play, but if the player is going down in every combat then quite simply your combats are too hard.

A CR5 creature is meant to be a medium challenge for a group of 4 level 5 PCs. I would suggest not really picking a creature with a CR above the party level, especially if you are also adding extra mooks which make combats much harder due to the action economy.

If you look at the starter adventure lost mines of phandelver, the hardest fight (for groups up to level 5) is a young green dragon, which would be solo, is CR8 and often the advice is to talk to it and avoid the actual combat encounter. It is also specified to fly away at 50% HP which is a pretty big deal when it comes to encounter difficulty.

How to fix it if you don't want to change the combats

I can understand wanting to use powerful enemies, but you need to help your party out by increasing their power accordingly. At level 5 it is perfectly acceptable for this paladin to be in plate armour, with a shield, and having an AC of 22 including shield of faith. My own paladin in this situation multi-classed into warlock to get access to the shield spell as well, taking AC up to 27 whenever I needed it.

Because I liked to tank I rarely used spell slots on smite, and instead preferred to use shield to stay alive.

You might also want to review the party and ensure they are using effective tactics. A flind for example has 30ft movement, and unless you started the combat that close and the flind won initiatve, someone in the party should have done something debilitating to the flind to prevent it getting straight into melee, get a few rounds of ranged attacks off and weaken it before it closes in.

You might have a party where everyone thinks damage is the be all and end all, which is isn't, especially against such a powerful enemy.

Your wizard could cast slow, your warlock could keep it at bay with repelling blast etc. There are all sorts of method.

Your paladin player might like to get straight into melee, but that isn't an efficient tactic, and if you are sticking with difficult combats then they need to be more sensible.

Lastly I would suggest letting the paladin respec, maybe they could do with a CON boost, or let them take the average HP instead of rolling, or like I do give max HP for the first 3 levels to ensure the 'tanks' have that HP buffer they often rely on.

To address how to be tankier

I have looked at playing melee tanks before, and concluded that most classes just are not good at it. AC20, or 22 with standard gear doesn't cut it against difficult foes in my eyes, and as levels go up the + to hit from enemies begins to scale faster than +AC.

As such you have to turn to magic.

My paladin tank, which is the only character I have ever created that I would consider actually tanky, is an oath of conquest, with a level of hexblade.

Hexblade means I can skip STR and become SAD (single attribute dependant) instead of MAD (multiple attribute dependant), which allows for higher CON.

It also gives me a short rest spell slot, and access to the key spell; shield.

Conquest paladin means I use fear liberally which gives enemies disadvantage to hit me.

So I have an AC up to 28 when I need it, a +5 bonus to my aura of courage for amazing saves and can afford to keep my STR at 15 which allows for more HP.

I would suggest you let your player make a similar build, because otherwise sticking to 'standard' builds against the combats you seem to talk about just won't work.

I would even caution against this, because I recently did a level 20 fight and the crazy attack bonus' at that level meant that I still got hit more often than not, and actually just sticking within 30ft and giving my aura of courage (plus my aura from my holy avenger) was more use to the group than anything else I could do. D&D simply doesn't allow for proper tanking against anything that wants to kill you.

Answer 4

Phil, Darth, and SeriousBri have very good answers to the underlying problems, and you should try those first. If you still want to go with a character-level solution, or you've changed your monster tactics and it's still a big problem, here are some possibilities. Mix and Match according to your best understanding of the weak spots.

Step 0: talk to the player

You should probably do this first no matter what strategy for character-level improvement you decide to go with.

• See if the player has plans in mind to improve their PC's situation, which also gives the opportunity to explain relevant mechanics better if they're still confused.
• You can check that the player doesn't have any specific RP things that might interfere with some of the solutions you're considering.
• Depending on how severe the problem is, and what method you decide to go with, your preferred solution may also work better with player buy-in, especially if you want to encourage more strategic usage of spells/resources everyone already has.

Remember that the PCs, in-universe, have also noticed how quickly Paladin drops once something gets through their guard. It's not out of the question for the characters to decide 'something needs to be done about this' and acknowledging the situation in RP.

Method 1: Get that tank some (more) armor!

A key part of the 20 AC already fielded by Paladin is shield of faith, which is a concentration spell. Because shield of faith is concentration, it's vulnerable to dropping every time a hit gets through, which can interact nastily with a focused multiattack. Consider shield of faith as a handy burst of AC, rather than a permanent part of Paladin's AC, because it's not permanent.

If Paladin is still dropping fast even after you've spread your attacks around a little, adding a point or two of non-concentration AC will help them survive longer. More protective armor would hit ACs of 21 or 22 with shield of faith, and still be competitive against harder-hitting foes even when the spell drops. Against easier foes, Paladin no longer has to burn the spell slot or concentrate for AC, which opens up other strategies.

You can also use magical armor or shields providing +1 or more to AC, which may work if you want to boost AC and the player wants to keep the armor style as-is for RP reasons. This is where you start toeing the line of bounded accuracy, though, so be careful.

Cons: if it's important everyone in the party can sneak effectively, any armor better than a Breastplate will impose disadvantage to Stealth checks, which may be a specific RP/mechanical choice the player is making. That can only be countered with mithral versions of the armor, or a magic item that conveys advantage on Stealth checks. Ranger's pass without trace will help to some degree on this issue. If you allow Feats (and the Paladin uses medium armor), Medium Armor Master will also help, and gives room for improved AC if DEX is high enough.

Teamwork tactics for AC: Your wizard now has access to Haste, which grants +2 AC and gives a limited extra action, which gives Paladin some flexibility in how to act during their turn.

Method 2: Get that tank some health!

This one's a bit harder to do without player buy-in, depending on whether you want to go for a magic item or not.

Useful spells (remember temp hp does not stack):

• Heroism grants temporary hp equal to your spellcasting ability modifier (requires concentration)
• Aid grants +5 hp to current and max hp to 3 creatures, no concentration

Dungeon Master's Guide sets guidelines that rare magic items should probably start entering your campaign at about level 5. Possible magic items:

• Amulet of Health: sets CON to 19. An option, but one you've already left on the backburner
• Belt of Dwarvenkind: grants +2 to CON, among other effects (advantage to saving throws against poison and resistance to poison damage may also help survivability)

Do you use Feats?

• If Paladin prefers Heavy armor, Heavy Armor Master subtracts 3 damage from nonmagical weapon bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage
• Tough grants +2 hp on each level up, and applies retroactively, giving Paladin an effective 16 in CON for the purposes of hp.
• Inspiring Leader requires 13+ in CHA, and gives temp hp equal to feat-holder's character level + CHA modifier per short or long rest.

It's within the DM's purview to grant feats even if it's not at a level-up where a feat would normally be available. This is not one of the more subtle options, but Paladin is 3 levels away from when they could normally select a feat.

Method 3: Get that tank some tactics!

Beyond just spreading the foes' attacks around the party, boosting AC or boosting hp, encourage the following in your players:

Look for ways to impose Disadvantage on foes attacking Paladin:

• using the Dodge action on their turn in deadly fights,
• Depending on the foe, Protection from Evil and Good (concentration) forces disadvantage from attacking aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. (This is also available to your Warlock and your Wizard, and the Horizon Walker/Gloom Stalker Ranger, for team tactics)
• Your wizard has access to Blindness/Deafness; the blinded condition grants advantage on attacks against a blinded creature, and imposes disadvantage on attacks by the blinded creature. (Fiend and Undying Warlocks also gain access, if applicable) Color Spray would also work for this, especially upcast for more dice.
• In addition to blinded, the conditions frightened, poisoned, restrained, and incapacitated (stunned, paralyzed) will also impose disadvantage on attackers

Look for ways to give resistance to damage types to Paladin:

• Protection from Poison is a Paladin spell, no concentration, gives resistance to poison damage and advantage on saves against poison for 1 hour
• Protection from Energy is a Wizard spell (and Ranger, once they get 3rd level spells) which gives resistance to one type of elemental energy for an hour (concentration)

Overall party tactics:

• Encouraging crowd control or environment control abilities if the party isn't already using them (blocking line of sight for ranged attackers, imposing terrain obstacles for melee attackers, using Sleep upcast for more dice to remove minions for a while, etc.)
• Debuff the foes. Increased damage is very fun, but suboptimal for survival in deadly fights. Spells to slow, hold, blind, bind, or turn your foes against each other can increase your chances a lot.
• Paying attention to the environment. Are you in the middle of a big room where everyone can surround Paladin and just go to town on them, or are you trying to use your surroundings to limit how many attackers can get into melee with Paladin at one time?

Answer 5

"Tanky" is the ability to survive while keeping the enemy focused on you. The options for "tanky" characters, (ranked in order of effectiveness) are:

1. being untargetable, but having the enemy more interested in finding you than attacking your allies
2. damage resistance/energy resistance/enemy having disadvantage on damage rolls
3. a high health pool
4. temporary hitpoints/regeneration
5. miss chance/enemy having disadvantage on attack rolls
6. AC

I'll go over them in detail below:

1. Being untargetable is relatively easy in most encounters, hide behind a wall, temporarily visit the ethereal plane, use ranged attacks, or hit-and-run tactics from further away than an enemy can run in a turn, (go paladin-on-a-horse trope.) The hard part is keeping the enemy interested in you and only you. This can be accomplished by doing more damage than your allies, (often by having them focus on smaller, easy to one-shot minions while the "tank" is the only one attacking the main enemy.) It can also be accomplished through spells and abilities that override the enemy's normal motivations, (4th ed had a bunch of these for tankish characters such as "marking" someone so they aren't allowed to attack anyone else, or an aura where if they attack anyone else you get a free hit on them.) You can also use mind control spells, (even failed attempts often piss the enemy off enough that you are a bigger threat than the damage dealers.) You can also use illusions or fog spells to make an enemy think you are the only viable target, (your allies are attacking from cover that isn't really there, or from a spot they can see out of, but the enemy can't find them.)

2. Damage resistance and energy resistance are a godly abilities as instead of taking a huge spike in damage and dieing you have time to heal between attacks. Your overall amount of damage taken might be higher than someone with high AC, but your survivability is better as someone at 1 HP is just as effective as someone at full, but as soon as you go negative you lose actions. An enemy having disadvantage on damage rolls works out similarly removing the spikes where you die too fast to be healed.

3. Similar to damage reduction a high health pool means you have time to heal before getting killed. This costs more actions in combat than not taking the damage at all so it's worse than damage reduction, (but it's way easier to accomplish.)

4. Temporary hitpoints and regeneration mean you have an effectively higher health pool, but they rely on having time to set them up, or time to get back to full HP. While they are better from an action-economy standpoint than healing, they are usually harder to accomplish.

5. Miss chance means you take 0 damage sometimes and 100% damage other times. This means if the enemy gets lucky, you take a LOT of damage very quickly and die. However unlike AC it's based on something you can control not based on the enemy, (in most cases, some enemies can ignore your miss chance.) You can often force an enemy to have disadvantage based on terrain and this works out the same as a miss chance mathematically.

6. Having a high AC means you take 0 damage sometimes and 100% damage other times. This means if the enemy gets lucky or is slightly higher difficulty than you can handle, you take a LOT of damage very quickly and die. On the other hand, you can waltz through low level encounters where the enemy gets average luck without taking a single hit and get over-confidant that you are "tanky". While this seems similar to miss chance it's worse because it helps you when you don't need it, and doesn't do enough when you do need it.

I haven't done much 5th edition, so maybe this has changed a bit, but the math in 3.5 meant to become more "tanky" AC was actually a bad way of doing it.