Tanking and You

[Cardea]

So this question gets asked every few months, and I didn't see one made in 2016 yet.

What are some good tanking builds? Classes, feats, items, etc. etc..? Pathfinder is constantly putting out new material, so I wanna know if there's new stuff that could contribute to this pursuit.

Path of War's Warden along with its various archetypes and Sacred Shield Paladin are two of the more popular choices that I'm aware of.

[CharonsHelper]

Generally Pathfinder doesn't really have 'tanking' as a role. If you want to stop a foe from going after your allies, the best way is generally to get in their face and hit them with a sword. If you turtle up too much, they'll just start ignoring you after a round or two.

A reach weapon to control the battlefield with AOOs can work pretty well, especially to keep the mooks under control with trip/disarm, though it doesn't help nearly as much against bigger/tougher foes.

If you really want to 'tank' though, the only way I know of to do it effectively is an Oradin build (Oracle/Paladin) who feeds his allies his own HP through Life Link and then heals himself with Lay on Hands swift actions.

[Secret Wizard]

There's a million ways to tank in Pathfinder.

They just aren't the MMORPG "taunt and you have to hit me" types of tanking.

[Tuvarkz]

Warders and Zealots are about the best options, to be honest. Not taking into account counters:

Warder both increases the AC (and will saves) of nearby allies and can inflict a penalty on the enemy to attack anyone other than the warder (Both the bonus and the penalty scaling with level), plus can threaten an increasingly large area that eventually counts as difficult terrain.

Zealot can transfer damage taken to allies unto himself and mitigate it via burning power points, use Aid Another to boost their AC at a distance, and said Aid Another bonus is also made to scale further via class features. The Creation mission gives him the ability to heal and a breath-of-life equivalent ability, and the Protection mission gives him a good degree of battlefield control. In the meantime, the Destruction mission advocates for killing the enemy before it can reach the Zealot and his allies.

Coupled with martial maneuvers that can disable an opponent, stop enemy attacks, and that also help up keep with damage, the two are the better choices to go tanking.