Dorn as the only tank in the party

pakbgee

Is Dorn capable of being the only tank in the party? Being a two-handed fighter without a shield i mean...
my main is an archer, i have 2 mages (edwin and neera), viconia, imoen

Wilbur

It will be more difficult with only one tank, but doable. I depends on if you like many of the difficult battles to be even more difficult. Baldur's Gate isn't one of the easiest games to begin with. I usually play on insane difficulty so I don't mind dying a lot
You could always use your archer as a tank when it is needed.

cyberarmy

Well, he lack con but if you can manage to control battlefield with crowd control spells he can butcher the entire map. Just give him boots of speed and some piercing damage protection.

Flashburn

Dorn can't tank to save his life. He can, for a round or two - in a pinch - but you should not rely on him to do that job all the time. He doesn't have a CON bonus to HP, so he's a glass cannon and should be doing a DPS role instead.

I would swap him out for Kagain and stick the DEX bracers on him if you want a tank.

Debaser

@pakbgee @Wilbur @Flashburn @cyberarmy

DORN IS AN ARCHER FIRST! OFF TANK SECOND!

Dorn should really have Proficiencies like this by level 6 to be effective:

++Two-Handed Sword
++Two-Handed Weapon Style
++Longbow (For composite Longbows for the bonus to hit)

Poison weapon works for Bows, so with the multiple attacks of being proficient combined with his strength bonus at 19...he's a vicious archer who can poison when he hits you...then swap to two-handed swords to finish you off.

He's more of a ranged / off-tank character because of the low Constitution of 14, but he's not total glass cannon. You can give him the Con Tomb for a slight health bonus..and he can wear the heaviest armor without restrictions so he's hard to hit. And he gets D10 health rolls as a Blackguard.

Give him one of the better enchanted longbows and honestly I think he's better than Minsc, Kivan and Coran at the end of the day as an archer due to the poison attack.

FrozenCells

It's fine since you have two mages who you can use as tanks when necessary. With a shield/ghost armour spell, mirror image and later stoneskin it will take quite a while for anything to do any damage to them. Of course it's only temporary but when you have Dorn and the archer doing big damage, the enemies ought to be dead or incapacitated before your spell protections give way.

revaar

With that party composition, I'd say your best tanking prospect is actually Viconia. Strap her into some Ankeg plate, with the best shield you can find, the Stupifier mace, and once you find the Str gauntlets, throw those on her and switch to real full plate, for the better bonus AC against certain weapon types. She'll end up with an ac some where around -5, thanks to her awesome Dex. She can further buff up with her divine spells and patch herself up if thinks look ugly.

Dorn on the other hand is better off suited to throwing on boots of speed and hitting the flanks/Archers/Mages with a two-hander and getting back out if the bulk of the enemies focus on him.

Deucetipher

@revaar 's right, viccy can tank with the right spells, but Dorn can work too, though he isn't ideal. Ring of Protection 2, full plate, claw of kaz, helm of balduran and he gets down to -6. I assume CHARNAME isn't using the dex gaunts, and no one else in your party needs them, so throw them on him to get him down to -8. Claw of kaz will protect him from missile weapon (along with boots of missile avoidance) and the golden girdle/destroyer of hills switch on need for most of the more dangerous meleers.

A -8 is plenty for most things in this game. The CON penalty from Kaz doesn't hurt him.

The early build version of him would be full plate, claw of kaz, ring of p +1, dex gaunts, which will still put him at -5, which is serviceable. His HP will be a bit lacking, but the game gives you enough pots to see ya through the tough battles.

@frozencells makes a great point about mage tanking as well.

DinsdalePiranha

normal difficulty, maybe, hard is also doable, insane not so much. there are quite a few enemies who can hit you hard and accurately (Dwarven Doom Guards in Durlag's Tower for example) , you're gonna either need to kill/disable them extremely fast, or... well, raise dead is always an option.

pakbgee

im at level 4-5 pretty early in the game (at Neshkel), Viconia is at -5 with cheese chainmail from Drizzt, Dorn is at -4 with dex gauntlet and armor of arkheg
how do you afford the darn Claw of Kaz, that thing is expensive!

DinsdalePiranha

@pakbgee: high rep, having a high CHA character as the leader (say, Coran with +2 cha cloak and +1 cha helm, or Imoen with friends spell) when talking to the merchant, also, money will fall into your lap at an extreme rate - clearing Durlag's Tower alone can yield you about 70k gold easily.

vekkth

strictly speaking, you do not need a super specialized "tank" in BG1. With amulet of shielding almost anyone can have very low AC, so "tanking" in general comes down to above average health pool and immunities. Since second is much more important then first, it is basically picking right class abilities or right spell/scroll combo for a specific fight. Dorn has plenty of immunites so he is definitely capable of tanking. I've found that probably best tanking character in game right now is Yeslick with gloves of dex and cursed belt. While he lacks immunities, he compensates that with great weapon prof (Stupifier, sup) and, well, being a cleric. But my solo kensai tanks even better when properly buffed for a fight.

DJKajuru

Viconia can get a really low AC with ankheg plate +shield+ring , so you can use her in close combat to dodge enemies while Dorn cuts them down.

Madhax

A traditional tank like Kagain is only necessary for beginners or people who don't want an overly-complicated playstyle. If you're going to have Dorn be the toughest melee combatant in your party, then you might as well not bother with a tank at all. Focus on archery and controlling magics with the bulk of your party. With a couple mages and archers raining death and dropping webs in the battlefield, Dorn can simply waltz through with Spider's Bane or a Free Action ring/potion and clean up the mess.

In other words, I see no point in trying to turn Dorn into a sword n' board meatshield. Either get someone else to do it, or don't bother at all. Either way works.