Does the level of your tank really matter so much?

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I'm thinking of using two tanks in my party, and I think the level of the tanks are less important than the levels of the spellcasters.

What do you think of using high ECL characters as the tanks? This would both keep the total party level a little lower (more XP) as well as allow me to use more powerful racial options without much of a drawback.

For example: many of my original concepts include a Aasimar Fighter 4/Paladin and a Dwarf Fighter 4/Barbarian. Now, what if I were to replace these guys with a Drow Fighter X/Paladin Y and a Duergar Fighter 4/Barbarian X? I think I might be increasing my power as well as my parties versatility significantly overall.


edit: the Duergar stats kinda suck. But my question still stands (maybe I'll make the other tank a different race, I dunno, just brainstorming here).

 

The only drawback that I see with using the high ECL races is that you will be weak a little longer in the beginning. imho this drawback really isn't that much of a deal and the races will allow yoy more perks in the end. The high ECL races also grant nifty perks that will certainly benefit your fighter-types. Spell resistance to keep them alive, resistances to paralysis (stupid hold person...) for your Duergar is nice, and your deep gnomes are even greater with mirror image and blur. These past 2 races are good for fighters-types also because of their innate invisibility. This allows them to high-tail it when they get seriously injured. So yea, to chew the fat, do it... 'its a good thing.'

 

Thanks dude for that super fast, informative response (and there I was thinking Deurgar was a bad choice)!

 

Well in HoF I did not level up my tanks because as you said it made little difference. I leveled up my cleric/mage, which was very effective as he continously grew in power and spell selection. By preventing tanks leveling up I managed to earn very good XP (I hate that 3E's complex XP system and IWD2's unbalanced use of it) and kept leveling up my cleric/mage, he was able to solo, with LOTS of summons, protections, killer spells like disintegrate, FoD, wail of the banshee etc. and instant full heals, he was damn powerful. Often, my tanks and summons were bait to delay enemies till he finished casting a WoB (overpowered killer spell around in 3E), and then the battle was generally almost over as poor enemies fell down one by one thanks to dreadful wail.

 

Wouldnt a Drow Fighter X/Paladin Y recieve XP penalty whereas the favored class is either wizard/cleric depending on the gender??

 

Not if the levels are within one of each other, Darkstrike.

 

For some reason I was thing Y as 2...... go ahead and slap me now!!!!!!!!!

EDIT: Or was it 4.... either way, just slap!

 

No way dude! Just try to answer my questions!

 

You will have to push your tanks to L16 before you can stop leveling them. By then they will have loads of HP, AB and 4 attacks/round (5 if hasted or dualling). After that they no longer will need to level up further.

If you are only going to play in Normal mode, you could stop at L11. But I think you will find that they have insufficient fighting ability towards the end of the game. And since you have to take all available levelups at a time, they just might end up at a higher level than you might have otherwise wanted.

 

Shrikant, if your numbers are about right, I think I will advance my tanks to level 11, squat for the rest of the game on normal mode until facing the final boss or until things get too tough. By doing this, all of my spellcasters will jump in levels a lot, and I will have a better party by the end of the game than I otherwise would have.