Noob seeking advice

[Bobeh333]

Hey im just wondering what would be a great tanking class for beginners (sorry if i spelled that wrong lol).

[Trillea]

Congrats on your 1st post, and being smart and asking questions.

As for your question, here goes.

By tank, the most common definition is "Take a lot of punishment, while being able to dish some out as well" so I will be proceeding under this assumption, while also assuming that you are F2P with access to 28 point builds only, and no Warforged, Drow, or monk class. Please correct me if any of this is incorrect.

The easiest to build would be a human initimitank fighter.

For stat layout, I would go with:

STR 15 (10 build points) (all levelup points go here as does 1 human enhancement)
DEX 8 (0 build points) (get heavy armor and tower shield ASAP, adamantine Fullplate as available until you can get dragontouched)
CON 14 (8 build points)
INT 13 (6 build points)
WIS 10 (2 build points)
CHA 10 (2 build points)

For feats I would take:
1) Toughness, Shield Mastery, Two Handed Fighting
2) Combat Expertise
3) Weapon Proficiency: Khopesh
4) Weapon Focus: Slashing
6) Weapon Specialization: slashing and Improved Shield Mastery
8) Greater Weapon Focus: Slashing
9) Improved Two Handed Fighting (you will have the STR for this by now)
10) Improved Critical: Slashing
12) Greater Weapon Specialization: Slashing and Improved Trip
14) Power Attack
15) Skill Focus: Intimidate
16) Greater Two Handed fighting
18) Lesser Dragonmark of Sentinel, fighter feat of choice - maybe stunning blow
20) fighter feat of choice

The focus of this build will be to intimidate the monsters and then get behind your shield and turtle up by shield blocking, thus severely reducing your incoming damage. Adamantine fullplate is not usually too expensive in early levels if you play smart, and conserve cash. You can get +5 adamantine fullplate later for free by gathering enough ore from the Black Anvil Mines, and can get a heavy fortification necklace from the same quest in the same way. I don't think you can have both at the same time though, so whichever you already have, take the other one. If you have neither by that point, take the necklace.

The two-handed weapon feats are to help you when you need to deal damage. Pull out a greataxe or greatsword and start swinging.

While leveling up, you will get 4 skill points per level. I suggest putting them in Balance, Use Magic Device, Intimidate, and some each in jump and tumble, tumble only enough to get past your dex penalty and armor check, the rest in jump to help your mobility.

While not the most powerful build on the block, you will be very sturdy and as you gain practice grabbing aggro through damage and intim, you will be the best friends of any casters, rogues, and clerics that you group with.

By the way for shields you will be wanting tower shields as they come available, the DR on them is higher when shield-blocking (which you do by holding shift)

[AdahnX]

I'm still a little noobish and could be wrong, but I think you meant two handed fighting instead of two weapon fighting. You have two weapon fighting written on your feat list. Anyway, either one could work to switch to when you need to do damage, but TWF would require 15 Dex to start and a +2 Tome later for improved (or two level points into Dex but that would take away from Str).

[Muldamai]

I would also say, for someone new, go with a different weapon that khopesh to start. It is pretty much the best weapon there, but everyone uses it, so Auction House pricing reflects that, and starting off money takes a little time to build up. No reason not to change to khopesh later, once you had a chance to maybe get something good to drop, or you build up funds. On the Auction House, you can find better bang for the buck so to speak in other weapons to start.

Edit: For example, go with Longsword initially. Not as good, but you can take the same feats, any move khopesh down the line to take at a higher level.

[Bobeh333]

I was thinking about buying the drow elf are there any significant different builds with the stat differences and such? Also thanks for the information man, just curious about the drow elf

[Trillea]

I'm still a little noobish and could be wrong, but I think you meant two handed fighting instead of two weapon fighting. You have two weapon fighting written on your feat list. Anyway, either one could work to switch to when you need to do damage, but TWF would require 15 Dex to start and a +2 Tome later for improved (or two level points into Dex but that would take away from Str).

You are correct, and I am editing my original post to reflect it. I was a bit too tired when I made this.