Paladin Tank

So, my Paladin is decked out in plate-mail and a horse for 5-Armor.  Is there a best practice for this?  I can't even nick him.

Challenge him with non-combat challenges (just not all the time!) such as rivers that require swimming across, creatures that use lightning, combat where speed and/or agility are far more useful than being a tank or unholy moves.

Allow him to revel in being a tank. Separate him and have him surrounded by hordes of enemies... They may not be able to nick him, but how will he be able to protect the other members of the party?

Also, whenever you get  a 7-9 result for him, 'take away his stuff'! Damage that armour, make it useless.

First of all: there's a possibility that we've allowed armor to get too high too fast. The hard part is, like noofy mentions: it may or may not be a problem. After all, a fight might not be about your ability to drop the Paladin. We're also re-balancing monsters, to work better with armor.

There's nothing that says you can't throw higher level threats at them. Higher lever creatures can cause the Paladin to Defy Danger when he takes damage, which is at least as dangerous.

I think the best approach though is to embrace it. If the paladin's made choices to make himself tough to hit, he wants to be tough to hit. Let him wade into combat with only a few little hits: that's his deal. But there's more ways to challenge him. His friends aren't so invulnerable, so he'll have to make rolls to protect them. Not taking damage doesn't slay the dragon, so he'll have to make moves to do that.

Sage, your moniker is most appropriate ;)

You've got "ignores armor" and so forth as monster special tags, so that can get his attention. Because there is likely a huge differential in armor levels among the group, trying to "build a challenge" is going to be a disaster - the thing that can challenge the 5-armor guy is going to stomp everybody else into jam. So don't do that. But situations where there are lots of things that need defending, and situations where all that armor is a mixed blessing, that's good stuff.

I guess you're right.  And he carries around a vulnerable NPC with him wherever he goes (his steed).

I'm making a point of describing damage to his armor whenever I can, especially as it blocks damage.  I figure if losing his armor ever is ever going to be an option, it has to feel justifiable.

Mainly though I'm trying to make things interesting without making the heroes "not cool".  So far, so good, I guess.

Expanding on my higher level monster comment, you can take an existing monster and, without adding more damage, make them higher level. This means that they now cause the Defy Danger move when they deal damage (even a point) which makes the Paladin's life tougher without taking away his ability to resist damage. There's also plenty of monsters that have attacks that bypass armor (as Jason mentioned) or which do things that aren't damage - tough choices, etc.

Speaking of which, and this is totally wording things up, but what it says is:

"When you take damage from an enemy of higher level..." then Defy Danger.

It also says:

"Armor - The item subtracts this amount each time the wearer takes damage."

Semantics, of course, but does that mean that, having soaked that one crushing point of damage with my plate mail, I now have to Defy Danger, even though I lost no HPs?

Is "taking damage" different from "losing HPs"?

I realize that I don't have to jump through hoops to justify this, because you're the designer and probably knew what you meant.

So, after wasting all of that typing, "Might you Defy Danger from a damaging attack, even if none of that damage gets through?"

Yes, I think so. I should probably, ya know, put that in the rules somewhere. :)

In addition to all the awesome advice in this thread, let me just say:

Rust Monster

The key is not to use the Rust Monster as a DM leveler to jerk him out of his armor but to make the dungeon exciting and perilous to the paladin. Nothing like wading through a horde of beasties at the head of a charge towards some evil that must be stopped and finding a hungry Rust Monster waiting for you. Do you risk your armor to stop the evil?


- Colin

You've got "ignores armor" and so forth as monster special tags, so that can get his attention.

This.

more on the breaking armor thing. if you dont want to take it all in one go, which can be seen as very mean, take it piecemeal. when he doesnt roll quite high enough say his armor is hit and damaged so it now soaks one less point of ouch. this will allow you to hit him more and more as time goes on but prevent that horrid "ha ha now youre naked" moment which tends to get players pissed.

armor degradation, its your friend.

Interestingly enough, this has come up in our game now as well. It's no game breaker, but certainly a potential annoyance. I'm going to see how the workardounds suggested here help.

Just about every game has its "I'M INVINCIBLE!" character type.  The guy who revels in being untouchable.  I think that part of the fun of being the GM is to be sneaky and be bold and find way to challenge those invincible goons.

All the suggestions here are good ones - wearing heavy armor and being a giant tank doesn't just say "I am the least likely to die" but tells the GM "try and kill me.  I relish it"