What do you mean by "not give out a lot of CMB bonuses"? Unless the GM is house ruling to restrict the style there are plenty of ways to get CMB bonuses in the rules, especially with archetypes that are built for it.
It's pretty difficult to give advice without knowing exactly what sort of house rules you're playing under. Pathfinder is a very high magic system, and one of the reasons tanking isn't really viable is because magic makes it entirely trivial to get around a tank (and there's no taunt system to force an enemy to focus you anyways). What does low magic entail for you?
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Tabletop RPGs are nothing like what World of Warcraft devolved into (unless the DM doesn't know what they're doing and forces it to be), so you don't need to think of it in terms of specific combat roles. Anything can be made to work (though some party compositions are certainly more or less challenging than others).
That said, if you want to make a warrior who's built like the proverbial brick s**#house and doesn't rely overmuch on combat maneuvers, the obvious choice is a Barbarian - they have more hit points than any other presently-existing class and lend themselves well to have a VERY direct approach to combat. Try a Dwarf or Half-Orc with 18 or 20 Constitution, and fights with a weapon and shield, and you should be a very happy camper.
Paladins being able to self-heal leads to interesting tanking... Plus they get spells and other goodies!
Yeah, it's less about tanking and more about sustain; Barbarians and Paladins are the best for this because Barbarians can negate a lot of damage with their DR and Paladins can self-heal without losing actions. On the flip side, Fighters have the worst sustain of all the full BAB classes (even the Monk has a form of healing, even if it's terrible).
What you should really be looking for in a full BAB class is ways to contribute without depending on your casters to do so; you should be good without them, so you can be awesome with them. Bloodrager is another class that is very good for this, even though they're lacking in damage mitigation they come with their own buffs (especially the bloodlines that give you a major spell buff while raging, like Arcane) so the wizard doesn't need to cast it on you.
Though a Fighter can have the best avoidance (AC) in the game.
The warpriest is also a pretty good damage sponge, but the paladin is probably better. The warpriest does have a nice trick for when he draws too much heat. Take your combat action and fervor Sanctuary on yourself at the end of it. Half of your attackers should fail the will save for attacking you during their turns. And of course, only a few NPCs will succeed on the knowledge arcana check to know that maybe they shouldn't attack you this round.
AC protects against damage, but the Fighter's AC is counteracted pretty heavily against the Fighter's poor saves*. Barbarians, Paladins, and Core Monks have very strong saves so even though their AC is lower their ability to mitigate threats is better.
Also I think the Monk actually has the best AC but don't quote me on that.
*This is assuming you're not playing an Eldritch Guardian, in which case throw everything I just said about Fighters out the window. The Eldritch Guardian is really good.
Not sure I agree. Reflex saves aren't that important for tanking and the Barbarian and the Paladin don't have much better saves.
Will saves matter but once you get Clear Ioun Spindle Wayfinder, you are mostly good.
We should do a build off to see if you can make a Monk with higher AC than a Fighter!
Level 12??
As was touched on, there really isn't "tanking" in Pathfinder per se. There's very little that will direct a motivated enemy NPC from beating up a squishier class like an archer. You really only have two options:
1. Have a character that is in the right place at the right time (usually in the enemy's face) and gives a reason for the NPC to hit them rather than just provoking the AOO and moving on to squishier targets. An example of this is a Reach- build with Improved Trip, or a heavy hitting barbarian.
2. Have a character that reduces enemy damage without actually taking the blow. This usually relies on magic of some kind, so I'm not sure how well that works for your campaign. An Oradin (Life Oracle multi-classed with a dip of Paladin) is a good example of this.
Not sure I agree. Reflex saves aren't that important for tanking and the Barbarian and the Paladin don't have much better saves.
Will saves matter but once you get Clear Ioun Spindle Wayfinder, you are mostly good.
We should do a build off to see if you can make a Monk with higher AC than a Fighter!
Level 12??
Erm... Barbarian and Paladin saves are insane. You are really undervaluing Superstition and Divine Grace. Not to mention the Barbarian can just spell sunder through no save spells like Maze.
I'm not really interested in doing a build off, a large part of the point of my last post was that AC doesn't matter as much as people give it credit for and it alone does not mean a class has good defenses.
If he's referring to magic items to boost CMB, then I don't think there are very many of those anyway.
If even Paladin magic is frowned upon in your world, then you should probably just go Barbarian. Sadly, the Brawler loses too much in a game without maneuvers. Brawler doesn't have much else going for it. It's the lowest damage of the full-BAB classes.
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I am very good at protecting my allies from conventional attacks (attacks against AC), without magic items I would only lose +1 currently on my ability to grant AC.
Click on the Profile to see a more detailed break down.
Edited: I can currently provide up to +17 to an ally's armor class (though to get this high can't happen until I have taken my 3rd swift action)
Round 1: Swift Crane Style, Move Authoritative Command, Standard Fight Defensively (Adjacent Allies have +3 luck bonus to AC, Allies following Authoritative Commands gain +1 competence to AC)
Out of Turn Self and Dog bodyguard adjacent allies +10 AC (see profile break down for how this gets so high)
Round 2: Swift Challenge (pick weak ally as ward), Move Authoritative Command, Standard Fight Defensively: As last round but you take -1 AC and ward gains +1 untyped AC
Round 3: Swift United Defense (ward ally), Move Authoritative Command, Standard Fight Defensively: As last round but you take 21 AC and ward gains +3 untyped AC
Total AC bonus for Warded Ally +17 (when bodyguard hits)
If your GM allows 3rd party OGL classes, you might want to check out the armiger from Rogue Genius. It's a class designed to be a tank. The class provides many class abilities used to protect adjacent allies, gives TONS of hit points, and is balanced by having a medium "to hit" advancement track. Basically, the armiger soaks up damage while protecting an ally.
