A "Tank" that commands attention.

[Rasman]

I'm sorry that this is a bit of a broad question, but I had a thought about a kind of character that I want to play once my current game ends. I'm wanting a melee bruiser that literally forces his enemies to attack him. However, I am honestly not sure how to achieve this or even what class would be best for this. The game is open to literally any class and I can use 3.5 material as well. Thoughts and suggestions would be highly appreciated.

[DragonSinged]

From the 3.5 PHII, the Knight class does basically just that.

[Xerlith]

The problem with the Knight is that he does this poorly. I'd recommend a lockdown Crusader build, which forces you to be attacked by the virtue of giving your enemies enormous to-hit debuffs if they attack your allies. If you want the Knight's Challenge, you can go Knight4/Crusader16. Grab a guisarme and spiked gauntlet, now you're golden.

[NoACWarrior]

Knight is helpful for aggro control until you get bulwark at lvl 3 - after that I'd say go something else (like crusader).

The question is what do you do once the aggro is on you...

Lock down like Xerlith says.

Pick up a spiked chain for the +5 reach.
You might want to pick up standstill - since you are playing PF it is one of the most awesome lockdown feats there.
Combat Patrol as I remeber it gives you a huge swath of theatening spaces, so your bulwark is more effective.
If your DM allows port over deformities from Heroes of Horror and get the tall one - you get an additional 5 ft reach.
To top it off see if your DM will allow mage slayer - and now casters can't do anything either (they can't cast spells defensively).
At higher levels get the mage bane enhancement and the merciful enhancement for your weapon - the extra damage helps with disrupting spells and will not break your knights vows.

Theres a few more feats you can pickup giving you more AoOs per round, but they take away from your LD capability.

Pretty much everything which wants to move can't move and any caster gets an AoO when casting any non-quickened spell.

[magwaaf]

mage slayer is great if you are going with absolutely no casting or even spell like abilities.

also take goad

http://dndtools.eu/feats/miniatures-handbook--75/goad--1238/

[Larpus]

What about a Come and Get Me (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/rage-powers/paizo---rage-powers/come-and-get-me-ex) Barbarian?

Throw in Invulnerable Rager (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/archetypes/paizo---barbarian-archetypes/invulnerable-rager) for some decent DR and maybe 3 levels of Two-Handed Fighter (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo---fighter-archetypes/two-handed-fighter) to make those AoOs hurt more; it costs you 2 points of DR though.

EDIT: It does take a while tho (with or without dipping), so for lower levels I'd try to work out a smaller version of that with your DM through Intimidate.

[Mostlymad]

Pick a tank-like class you think is fun.

Select the Antagonize (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/antagonize) feat.

Have fun.

[watchwood]

See my sig. There are resources for it.

[Sylthia]

While not a purely by the book solution, and somewhat RP dependent, you can play out your taunts in-character to try to draw aggro to your character. If your DM likes, they can have you roll an Intimidate check or whatever skill you deem appropriate. I've been toying with the idea of trying to codify this as a house-rule.


Pick a tank-like class you think is fun.

Select the Antagonize (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/antagonize) feat.

Have fun.

This looks somewhat usable, but I'd rather have it be a standard action that works against multiple targets, rather than the one that I infer from reading, or make it a swift action. Using up your turn to taunt one creature seems a bit steep. (Although I'm sure there's some build that can make that viable.)

[cosmonuts]

The problem with the Knight is that he does this poorly. I'd recommend a lockdown Crusader build, which forces you to be attacked by the virtue of giving your enemies enormous to-hit debuffs if they attack your allies. If you want the Knight's Challenge, you can go Knight4/Crusader16. Grab a guisarme and spiked gauntlet, now you're golden.

Save DC on Knight's Challenge scales with knight class levels, so I'm not sure how effective grabbing 4 levels of knight before crusader is.

[Xerlith]

Save DC on Knight's Challenge scales with knight class levels, so I'm not sure how effective grabbing 4 levels of knight before crusader is.

Well, you can either be very effective at taunting and very uneffective at surviving or the other way round. Sadly, Knight comes with a suckage package. The 4 levels are fo runnning around in a mithral fullplate + Bulwark Of Defense.

[NoACWarrior]

Ah neatto, you learn something new everyday!

You also get the Test of mettle which is tied to character level, not knight level, so it scales well with multiclassing!

[Rasman]

See my sig. There are resources for it.

That is useful. Thank you. :elan:

I would LOVE to play the Tetori, but grappling is always hard because big monsters have HIGH CMDs. I would be interested to see an effective build for a Tetori Monk tank, in all honesty.

I've also played an Invulnerable Rager before and LOVED it. He was hard to hit and hard to damage at lower levels. That was partly due to a DM crafted item that he gave everyone one of, though.

[Tokiko Mima]

What I do when I want a tank that forces aggression is play a Karsite Dragonfire Adept with the Entangling Exhalation feat from Race of the Dragon. Karsites are a +2 LA race that specifically get's medium armor proficiency. Therefore, as humanoid types that are proficient with any type of armor by virtue of race, they are also proficient with any kind of shield. So load up and max out your AC with medium armor and a tower shield and ignore all attack roll penalties because your exhalation is going to be gumming up anything that doesn't have evasion, while it is unaffected by attack penalties since it's main weapon is an AoE cone. They only downside of the build is that it makes it tough to make successful AoO's.

[Feralventas]

So I ctrl+f Paladin, and nothing came up.

At 4th level you can start preparing Compel Hostility. Make Charisma your primary stat, then Constitution and Strength. Your Smite will still deal plenty of damage, particularly at higher levels when you can also use Litany spells to hold foes down or deal extra damage.
are
Compel Hostility is a 1st level spell for Paladins that, when an ally is attacked by an enemy both the Caster and the Ally are adjacent to, the Caster can take an immediate action to force the Attacking Enemy to make a Will Save or else attack the Caster instead of the Ally.

It's pretty close to an MMO's Taunt effect.

[Xerlith]

So... A Paladin4/Crusader1/Ruby Knight Vindicator10/Knight3/Crusader+2 is the Tank to end all Tanks?

EDIT: Actually, scratch that.

Knight4/Crusader1/Cleric1/PrC Pal3/RKV10/Crus+1 with Serenity?

[Fenryr]

Warder from Path of War. (http://dreamscarredpress.com/dragonfly/ForumsPro/viewtopic/t=3021/finish=20/start=0.html)

Armiger's Mark and Grand Challenge plus Iron Tortoise maneuvers. The first one is a mark that you may apply whenever you deal damage to an enemy and enemy gets a -4 (scales up to -8) when attacking anyone but you. The second is the AoE version of Armiger's Mark (a global taunt). The third one has a couple of taunts and ways to defend your allies.