Fighter/Cleric Tank Help

[Silenas]

Well I tried a pure Fighter Intimitank (Human) and when it came to vs casters.. major fail.
Then I read about Battle Clerics being excellent tanks, so I looked into cleric skills vs fighter, and I actually like the idea of combining their skills.

Id like to point out DPS is last on my list. I want to be a meat shield. I have started a char already and I am liking Intimidate, Concealing Mist (seems to work well with intimi - get them attacking you and blind em for reduced damage), and Turning undead for crowd control, while being able to survive heavy melee *and* caster mobs I have the attention of.

So how many lvls in each class should I take and what other skills should i pick up to help? Can there be a 3rd class I can splash in there for extra defence and/or crowd control skills?

Any advice is appreciated.

Also does it matter what class I start with with multi classing? I do know Custom Human Fighter gets to start with 3 feats.

[Impaqt]

Well I tried a pure Fighter Intimitank (Human) and when it came to vs casters.. major fail.
Then I read about Battle Clerics being excellent tanks, so I looked into cleric skills vs fighter, and I actually like the idea of combining their skills.

Id like to point out DPS is last on my list. I want to be a meat shield. I have started a char already and I am liking Intimidate, Concealing Mist (seems to work well with intimi - get them attacking you and blind em for reduced damage), and Turning undead for crowd control, while being able to survive heavy melee *and* caster mobs I have the attention of.

So how many lvls in each class should I take and what other skills should i pick up to help? Can there be a 3rd class I can splash in there for extra defence and/or crowd control skills?

Any advice is appreciated.

Also does it matter what class I start with with multi classing? I do know Custom Human Fighter gets to start with 3 feats.

There are some major flaws in your plan.

Intimidate: Good.
Obscuring Mist and other Fog/Clouds do not "Blind" your attackers. It simply provides a 20% Concealment chance to miss.
Turn Undead: DOesnt really work at all past level 6 or so even for Pure clerics let alone a Multiclass.
Surviving melee mobs requires Hit points and/or High AC
Surviving Caster mobs requires High Saves/Evasion.

Cleric doesnt really factor into this concept well at all.

[Silenas]

Ok, so what 2nd class would give me the best saves vs magic?

[moorewr]

A Battle cleric can be a lot of fun, but it's a tricky advanced build requiring top-notch gear and understanding guildmates.

In your case you should probably consider going with a pure Paladin or a Paladin/Fighter mix to get most of what you are considering this time around.

One possibility is 18paladin/2 fighter - this would give you extra feats and a bump to the amount of intimidate you can take, but you'll have very few skill points and Intimidate is cross-class for paladins (and clerics). 18 paladin gets you the third tier of Defender of Siberys.

I doubt you want to pay for 13 INT, so go for shield DR instead of AC when intimidating/meat shielding. Offensively there's either the TWF or THF line - essentially only equip your shield when soaking damage.

[hermespan]

I've tried several multiclass tank builds. So far what I've come up with is an intimitank and dps.

For intimitank 18 pally/2 rogue[or monk] is hard to beat.

You'll have some incredibly high saves, beautiful immunities, the charisma you'll have is a great synergy to intimidate and also gives you awesome bonuses to your saves. With rogue, you can pump UMD higher (again charisma synergy) which gives you access to gear you can't use as a pure paladin (like the chaotic +4 deflection bonus bracers from Delera's), you get evasion, and if you dex him, you will be able to wear light armor in end game and have the same AC you would with full plate so you can take advantage of evasion.

You can get all defensive feats but you probably won't need them. At end game you can gauge where you're at and swap out some feats that boost stuff which is already strong without the feat and get weapon specialization etc to help you hit.

TBH this type of build works best as a 32 point build since you need str, con, dex, cha, and wisdom (or take the force of personality feat) to be decent. There is no dump stat in a build like this, except maybe wisdom, with the FoP feat.

Edit: you need a 14 wisdom for top level pally spells...

With the right gear you can tank boss casters (like the lich etc) with relative impunity compared to someone without the saves wearing heavy armor.

Just remember that as super-tank, don't expect to do a ton of damage, but within a build like this you can find a balance that works for you with feat and enhancement selection. For skills, at first level take rogue, start with 13 int, you get 40 skillpoints. Pump UMD, Intimidate, Balance, Jump, Swim, Concentration and whatever floats your boat. For 4 levels take pally, and pump concentration and balance, put half points into jump. At 6th level take rogue again and pump intimidate and UMD to "catch them up" (efficient use of rogue skillpoints). Thereafter pump UMD and intimidate.

[strath]

If you want a meatshield with divine casting I would go favored soul 17/paladin 3 you give up your top tier spells for immunities, a sweet passive aura boost, and great saves.

Similarly for less casting but even greater survivability you could do Paladin 18 Rogue 2 (for evasion)

If you have your heart set on Fighter cleric, I would say take at least 13 levels of cleric you want at least 7th level spells for endgame.

Play with the character builder so you can plan out the build and set up feats before you take the plunge.