“Tanks” and “tanking” are familiar concepts in MMOs, MOBAs, hero shooters, and other team-based games that emphasize defined combat roles. In those games, tanks lead the charge, shape engagements, and protect their allies.
For this discussion, a tank is:
A character that can take more damage than average before suffering consequences, and can leverage this trait along with others to control an encounter and protect allies.
Tanking is the application of these traits—actively influencing the battlefield, shaping enemy behavior, and enabling the success of the team. It may have both active and passive components.
In many video games, tanks act as the spearhead of the team. They create space, establish formations, and serve as the focal point of an encounter. This fantasy is intuitive, popular, and widely understood.
But in most TTRPGs, this fantasy either doesn’t exist or breaks down in practice. Even when a system appears to have a “tank class,” the mechanics often fail to support control or ally protection. This leads to a disconnect between player expectations and how the game actually plays.
The Barbarian in D&D 5E illustrates this clearly. With a large hit die and Rage damage mitigation, the Barbarian can withstand more punishment than most characters, yet enemies can simply ignore them. Foes can walk past, strike the wizard, and suffer at most a single attack of opportunity. Because this durability cannot be leveraged to protect allies or influence enemy behavior, the Barbarian cannot fulfill the role of a tank in practice.
The reason is simple: durability alone is not enough.
A real tank requires three pillars:
The ability to withstand more damage than average.
The ability to influence enemy actions or positioning.
The ability to safeguard allies or redirect harm.
Without all three, the fantasy is incomplete and unsatisfying.
With these three pillars identified, we can develop game mechanics that support the fantasy and enable tank-focused playstyles.
Being able to take more damage does not make a character a tank by itself. If enemies can choose to attack weaker targets instead, durability becomes irrelevant. From a design perspective, tanks need:
incentives for enemies to attack them, or
consequences for ignoring them
This allows the tank to redirect danger toward themselves and make meaningful use of their resilience.
A character who merely soaks and deals damage is simply a durable striker. A true tank has control—tools that manipulate enemy choices or positioning to create an advantageous situation for their allies. This often takes the form of:
taunts
forced movement
penalties for disengaging
engagement zones
Control establishes presence and lets allies capitalize on openings.
Without protection, the tank cannot meaningfully prevent harm to the party. Instead of being a tank, they fill a Bruiser or Brawler role. Protection mechanics:
disincentivize attacks against allies
redirect damage
increase ally defenses
punish enemies for targeting anyone else
This is where taunts, interposition, shielding, and bodyguard mechanics shine.
Players also need meaningful expression within the role. Damage dealers have countless ways to fulfill their fantasy; tanks should too. To support different identities and playstyles, we can look at two archetypes of tanking.
Anchors hold space, establish a zone, and protect allies by making the area around them safe.
Examples: Orisa (Overwatch), Taric (League of Legends)
Anchors reward staying near allies, redirecting attacks, and punishing enemies that attempt to bypass them. Their tools reinforce formation, stability, and deny enemy advancement. The fantasy of an Anchor is to be an immovable object, an adamant wall that rebuffs all attacks and provides a safe haven in the chaos of combat.
Anchor tanks should have abilities that reward keeping allies nearby or tools that help create that situation.
Examples include:
damage mitigation for each nearby ally
knockbacks that create space and establish zones
reactive abilities that redirect attacks to the Anchor
The Anchor serves as both rally point and spearhead. But none of this works if enemies can attack allies freely. Anchors therefore require:
redirection mechanics
penalties for targeting allies
bonuses to nearby allies’ defense
These systems ensure that attacking anyone but the Anchor becomes the worse option.
Rams break space, disrupt formations, and force attention through aggression.
Examples: Venom (Marvel Rivals), Wrex (Mass Effect)
Rams reward intrusion, destabilization, and drawing pressure by being impossible to ignore. They force engagement, punish retreat, and create chaos that allies can exploit. The fantasy of a Ram is to be a wrecking ball, shattering enemy formations and forcing them into awkward positions, pinned by you and your allies while separated from their supports.
Ram tanks excel when charging into the enemy and fracturing their structure.
Examples include:
stacking mitigation that grows with each hit
pulls that cluster enemies, or fear effects that scatter them
retaliation when allies are targeted
To function, Rams require ways to:
force enemies into combat with them
punish attempts to flee or bypass them
Without this, they become optional threats instead of unavoidable ones.
So far, we’ve focused on player-facing design, but these principles also apply when creating NPC encounters that embody the tank role.
NPC tanks, however, must preserve player agency. PCs can be given strong taunt and compulsion tools, but NPCs must never remove meaningful decision-making from players.
With that in mind, here are two NPC examples from my own system, Chimera—one Anchor and one Ram.
The Dragoon punishes enemies for attacking its allies and uses knockback to establish a zone of control and block access to objectives.
Repudiation (Attack) — Mid-range, medium damage, knocks enemies back.
Aegis (Attack) — Short range, light damage, knocks back and pierces armor.
Surveil (Quick Action) — Allows multiple reactions per round at the cost of mobility.
Reprimand (Reaction) — Attacks any character who damages an ally within a small radius; infinite range with accuracy drop-off over distance.
Vigilance (Passive) — Bonus accuracy, crit chance, and knockback when attacking via reaction.
Guardian (Passive) — Provides full cover for adjacent allies.
The Fury deals heavy damage and makes itself a tempting target whenever it attacks. Even if ignored, it punishes enemies for engaging elsewhere.
Instigate (Attack) — Small cone, applies damage over time and pierces armor; makes the Fury Vulnerable until next turn.
Aggravate (Attack) — Larger, stronger cone that must charge between uses.
Provoke (Full Action) — Taunt effect: nearby PCs become Vulnerable on a failed save; if they do not damage the Fury by their next turn, they lose Spirit, the ability resource.
Tenacity (Reaction) — Enemies suffering damage over time take it immediately, or gain a small amount if they have none.
Rage (Passive) — Bonus accuracy and crit chance if a PC attacks one of the Fury’s nearby allies.
Guardian (Passive) — Provides full cover for adjacent allies.
Tanking in TTRPGs is not impossible, but it does require intentional design. Tanks need systems that support role-based gameplay, as well as mechanics that grant them durability, control, and protection.
By understanding these three pillars, recognizing the structural challenges of tabletop combat, and embracing varied expressions like the Anchor and the Ram, designers and GMs can bring the tank fantasy to life at the table.
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