Best Tanks

[r2d2go]

Anyone have ideas? Here's what I have so far.

Races:
Warforged: Bunch-o-immunities, +2 Con.
Dwarf: +2 Con.
Mongrelfolk: +4 Con.

Classes:
Psychic Warrior (and other psionics): 1st level, Share Pain + Vigor + Psicrystal.
Primeval: 1st level, Dire Vulture Form gives +14 Con.
Bear Warrior: 5th level, +8 Con in Bear Form.
War Shaper: 1st level, +4 Con.
Tier 1 nonsense: Spells do everything.

Templates:
Dragonborn: +2 Con.
Arctic: +2 Con.
Dustform + Incarnate Construct: Caps at +9 NAC, but can get you infinite strength...
Blooded One: +4 Con, LA +1
Mineral Warrior: +4 Con, DR 8/adamantine, LA +1
Lolth Touched: +6 Con, LA +1
Half Minotaur: +8 Con, LA +1

Monsters:
Monstrous Crab: At 24 HP 241 hp, immunity to mind affecting, CR 11.
Seismosaurus: 464 hp, CR 12.
Titanic Small Monstrous Scorpion: 362 hp, immunity to mind affecting, CR 13.
Dire Vulture: At 18 HD, 243 hp, CR 10.
Shambling Mound: Give it a thunderhead. Watch players cry.

[Elderand]

Crusaders make the best tank in my opinion. The ability to heal yourself and lay the beatdwon on anything that try to move past it is invaluable.

[(Un)Inspired]

Typically dungeons and dragons doesn't function like an mmo insofar as you don't really want someone who's role is to get their teeth kicked in.

It's almost always better to strike first, and hard enough that your enemies can't strike back. If they do get a chance to shoot at you, it's invariably better to avoid the attack then to just try and "tank" it.

Even psychic warriors and Wilders with vigor and share pain can only suck up a few hundred damage a round at the cost of bleeding extreme amounts of power points.

Monsters and enemy npcs can easily do more damage than whatever you could hope to take. This doesn't even take into account all the numerous way you could be instantly killed or ruined with SoD spells.

Don't think in terms of con and hp or even ac. Think about thinks like mirror image or incorporeality or IotSV if you want to be defensive and effective.

[sideswipe]

play a troll with energy resistance as high as possible against fire and acid.

find a way to negate non lethal damage to some extent. (i have no idea with this one it just randomly crossed my mind).

if you can possibly gain immunities to fire and acid.... you are immune to damage basicly, well as far as all damage becomes non lethal.

can someone elaborate?

[Bakkan]

play a troll with energy resistance as high as possible against fire and acid.

find a way to negate non lethal damage to some extent. (i have no idea with this one it just randomly crossed my mind).

if you can possibly gain immunities to fire and acid.... you are immune to damage basicly, well as far as all damage becomes non lethal.

can someone elaborate?

You've started describing the Emerald Legion, a thought experiment to create mass-producible nigh-invulnerable minions. I don't have the details of the original build, but the basic idea was as follows:

Start with a creature with Regeneration. Troll is decent, War Troll is better (only one Regeneration vulnerability).
Add templates or other character choices to make the creature immune to his vulnerabilities (half-dragon is an easy choice). Templates are nice because they're not magical.
Add a way to ignore nonlethal damage. This is the first hard task, in my experience. There is a half-undead template of some kind in Dragon magazine that works (you don't want to go full undead because then you lose your Regeneration). The paladin spell favor of the martyr will also do it, though it is of short duration IIRC, so you need a magic item or permanent or permanancied version. This is vulnerable to anti-magic fields, however. The Scarlet Corsair (I think that's the correct name) prestige class offers immunity to nonlethal damage about 7 levels in, and is probably the best choice if you aren't allowed Dragon magazine and want to work in an AMF.

Once these three things are accomplished, you are immune to almost all hit point damage. You have to be careful about the alchemical substance trollbane, however, which will bypass Regeneration. I think one version of the Emerald Legion gave the creatures one of the Half-Golem templates (which is LA: - unfortunately) that made it immune to piercing and slashing weapons, which are the only kinds of weapons that trollbane can be applied to. I think this is the last hole to fill to make a creature completely immune to hit point damage.

The remaining things to do on a full Emerald Legion build is to gain immunity to all forms of ability damage and drain, mental control, unwanted teleportation, etc. If we're allowed to put a whole lot of levels on this thing, the Void Disciple prestige class will even give it immunity to spheres of annihilation.

[Emperor Tippy]

Or you just pay for a scroll of Hide Life and then get to never again worry about death from HP damage or Save or Die spells.

Wizards: Still better than you at everything.

[sideswipe]

You've started describing the Emerald Legion, a thought experiment to create mass-producible nigh-invulnerable minions. I don't have the details of the original build, but the basic idea was as follows:

Start with a creature with Regeneration. Troll is decent, War Troll is better (only one Regeneration vulnerability).
Add templates or other character choices to make the creature immune to his vulnerabilities (half-dragon is an easy choice). Templates are nice because they're not magical.
Add a way to ignore nonlethal damage. This is the first hard task, in my experience. There is a half-undead template of some kind in Dragon magazine that works (you don't want to go full undead because then you lose your Regeneration). The paladin spell favor of the martyr will also do it, though it is of short duration IIRC, so you need a magic item or permanent or permanancied version. This is vulnerable to anti-magic fields, however. The Scarlet Corsair (I think that's the correct name) prestige class offers immunity to nonlethal damage about 7 levels in, and is probably the best choice if you aren't allowed Dragon magazine and want to work in an AMF.

Once these three things are accomplished, you are immune to almost all hit point damage. You have to be careful about the alchemical substance trollbane, however, which will bypass Regeneration. I think one version of the Emerald Legion gave the creatures one of the Half-Golem templates (which is LA: - unfortunately) that made it immune to piercing and slashing weapons, which are the only kinds of weapons that trollbane can be applied to. I think this is the last hole to fill to make a creature completely immune to hit point damage.

The remaining things to do on a full Emerald Legion build is to gain immunity to all forms of ability damage and drain, mental control, unwanted teleportation, etc. If we're allowed to put a whole lot of levels on this thing, the Void Disciple prestige class will even give it immunity to spheres of annihilation.

half fey template immune to enchantment spells and effects. so no mind control.
does the half undead not make you immune to negative energy drain and things like that?

[Bakkan]

I don't know. I've never actually read that template, I don't have access to Dragon material.

[Rebel7284]

Best tank is probably a Ruby Knight Vindicator. They can combine the "Tier 1 nonsense: Spells do everything" with a great tanking chasis and maneuvers of a crusader. Breaking the action economy as early as character level 12 doesn't hurt either.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Low levels (below 5th): Dragonborn Water Orc Mineral Warrior Crusader, breath attack with Entangling Exhalation.

Mid levels (5th+): Warforged Psion (Shaper) using Share Pain on his Psicrystal and sharing Vigor and Psionic Repair Damage with it. Don't forget about its hardness, and keep it in a compartment on your person so opponents never have line of sight/effect to it. Use Midnight Augmentation Bestow Power to refill your powerpoints.

High levels (varies): Just about any Tier 1 character.