Summary
Tanking is a complicated business inBaldur’s Gate 3,similar to D&D, where the game’s rules come from. Still, having a character that can take an excruciating amount of damage and still walk it off is an integral part of the game, as they’ll take the damage instead of your squishier spellcasters or healers.
With all that said, many questions will pop up when creating such a character and leveling them up. What class, race, and gear are the best options? What should they do during the fight? Well, there are a few ways to go about it, and it depends on how you like to play, but we’ll give you some pointers to get things started.
5Improve Your Armor Class
Armor Class — AC for short — is the number it takes for you to get hit by Attack Rolls. Everyone’s base AC is ten plus their Dexterity bonus unless stated otherwise, and the higher that number is, the harder it is for enemies to hit you. So, you should do everything in your power to make this number as high as possible, right?
Well, yes and no. You should make it high, of course, but it shouldn’t be your only priority. There are quite a few ways to circumvent AC. For example, a Fireball doesn’t care about your AC; instead, you’ll roll a Saving Throw to avoid its damage, and you’ll still take half the damage if you pass the Saving Throw.
A high AC is particularly useful in the early game, and in the late game, it’ll make sure most minions will rarely hurt you. But a powerful boss will hurt you regardless, either because they have a stupidly high bonus to their Attack Rolls or because they’ll put you into Saving Throws. Through gear or your class, you can also trigger certain events by either being hit or letting enemies hit you, so it’s nice to have good control of how high or low your AC is. For example,a Fighter’s Ripostecan trigger if an enemy misses you, giving a high AC even more value.
Heavy armor and shields are the most common way to keep this number high, though medium armor can be an interesting option depending on your Dexterity bonus and your feats.
The most common Saving Throws to avoid damage are Dexterity and Constitution while being good at Wisdom Saving Throws is good to avoid certain conditions or being mind-controlled.
4Get Enemies' Attention
Unlike most RPGs that feature a taunt type of condition — one that forces enemies to attack you — Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t have any ability like this. The closest thing is the Compelled Duel spell, but it’s only one target. It might fail, and they can still attack others; they’ll just have a disadvantage. It’s a start, but there is a better way to get enemies' attention: be a menace.
A good tank in Baldur’s Gate 3 is also a character who can deal a lot of damage. By throwing yourself in the frontline, right in the middle of your opponents, and hitting them with devastating attacks, they’ll be more likely to attack you instead of enemies who are further away — that is, if you don’t just straight up kill the enemy, preventing everyone from being hurt in the first place. Staying close to ranged enemies will also increase the chances of having them focus on you or retreat, giving you an opportunity to attack.
This won’t make it 100 percent guaranteed they won’t attack someone else, but the chances are in your favor here. And, since you control the entire party (unless you’re in multiplayer), you should have your ranged characters retreat after they’re done attacking or using things such as Invisibility or Darkness. It’s okay if Darkness also blinds your tank — if both the tank and the enemy are blinded, the disadvantages will annul one another.
3Take Damage Resistances And Advantages Against Conditions
So, what about the powerful bosses who will circumvent your AC in one way or another? Well, you have to find ways to decrease the overall damage. Damage resistance is the most obvious choice. If you resist fire damage, for example, every fire attack will deal only half of what it was supposed to.
There are a few ways to go about it. The first and easiest tocontrol is your Race.Tieflings are resistant to fire damage; Dwarves and Strongheart Halflings to poison, and Dragonborns give you the most freedom, as you can choose between fire, cold, acid, poison, or lightning resistance during creation. You can also get resistance from specific equipment or temporary resistance through potions.
The same applies to receiving certain conditions or dealing with Saving Throws in general. For example, Elves are a surprisingly good tank because they are more resistant to being Charmed, meaning mind control will be less of a problem. Certain items can give you resistance to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma Saving Throws — three ability scores you may not be excellent at.
As an extra tip in terms of race, consider Half-Orcs. They can stay awake with one hit point after their health goes to zero, and their critical strikes hurt a bit more compared to most.
2Consider A Fitting Class
Martial classes with big hit dice are usually the top contestants for tanking. Having a d10 hit die and at least a +2 to your Constitution is already good, and you can still do better here.
That puts both Fighters and Paladins as excellent choices straight away. Paladins can get immediate attention due to their spells and smite — if they don’t kill the target with said smite — while Fighters can have amazing control of the battlefield through maneuvers or spells, depending on your subclass. They can also keep consistent damage during any fight.
Barbarians are also notorious tankers, especially the Wildheart subclass, whose bear rage will give you resistance to every damage type except for psychic, meaning you can take a lot of damage before going down. Lastly, Clerics also have some tanking potential depending on their subclass, though they’re not the best option.
Still, your Cleric can work as an off-tank and take some damage along with the tank so they can both survive the encounter, or a Druid would also work here, thanks to their transformations having a separate health bar. Plus, these classes can heal themselves when necessary.
1Consider Appropriate Feats
Each class can choose three feats when leveling up, except for Fighters and Rogues, who can choose four. Using these moments to increase your main ability score is essential, but you can still do that and getone or two featswith no problem.
For tanking, Heavy Armor Master and Shield Master are amazing choices, as they can diminish the damage you’ll take, and Shield Master will particularly help you if your Dexterity is too low to avoid certain spells. Resilient is an interesting choice here, too, as you can choose an ability score you’re bad when it comes to Saving Throws and give you a permanent bonus there. Meanwhile, Tough gives you a nice health boost, so you can take this instead of upgrading your Constitution multiple times.
Causing damage is also effective, so Great Weapon Master is an excellent way to deal with enemies and Sentinel, so you can hurt opponents even outside your turn more often using your reaction. Lastly, if you have plenty of spells like a Paladin, War Caster will help you keep your powers activated, affecting enemies longer.
