At that level I'd consider a twf sword and shield paladin. You'll be pretty tanky and have really nice damage with Smite Evil on a target.
If you really want a tank go full plate and shield
Class is irrelevant. High hit points max out dex at 16 (armor restriction)
If you don't expect alignment hiccups, I'd second the recommendation for Paladin. That way you can be a fighter that pretends to be a spellcaster :P
Seriously though, paladin could be an awesome tank, along with having sweet damage output in most cases, or even better damage output if smiting. Divine Grace gives you great protection on the Save-or-Suck abilities that you might get targeted with if you're taking the brunt of things, and with high AC/HP (plus your ability to heal as a swift action) you should be able to last pretty long.
Combine with full BAB progression and some nice spellcasting options here and there, and it might serve you pretty well.
For Maximum Armor/Dex Ratio I suggest the Celestial Plate armor.
Even though this is Paizo published material I don't think it is pathfinder, but rather 3.5. You need to update the fullplate's base AC.
If Paladin is something you could like I recommend the dwarven stonelord archetype.
His level 5 ability stone servant starts our weak but gets better later. The other abilities he gets are cool.
New to Pathfinder entirely, relatively new to the 3.5 system.
Having played an archer and a bard previously, I want to play some kind of tank/damage-dealer, but I'm worried about being useful at the level we're playing at (all of us are fairly decent at optimizing).
So I'm hoping someone could point me to some classes to look at, or even sample builds. I'd be okay with a spell-caster that pretends to be a fighter (see wild-shape focused Druid) as well.
Check out my post here for a great and very powerful front-line option that is essentially unkillable.
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For Maximum Armor/Dex Ratio I suggest the Celestial Plate armor.
Even though this is Paizo published material I don't think it is pathfinder, but rather 3.5. You need to update the fullplate's base AC.
The old version of my site is very out of date. I highly recommend checking out the new site if you want to see more content (monsters, deities, etc.) from nearly every book in the AP, Campaign Setting, Companion, Module, and even RPG lines (excluding Bestiary 2-3, GMG, NPC Codex, and the most recent month's of release currently).
There are,ike 5243662645 melee builds on these boards.