I would like to put my two cents in here as an experienced tank in pathfinder ... All I have ever played is tank classed and i have tried them all barb pally fighter even wild shape druid as far as protecting my party goes I have found there is no class better then a phalanx fighter with reach .... If you boost your ac with a heavy shield amulet of armor and bracers of armor then place your character in front of your party and make sure you have combat reflexes anything that wants to get to them usually has to get by you and take an aoo and if they do they have to stop moving also you get to add your shield bonus to an adjacent ally if they do get past at higher levels the only thing more effective that I've used is possibly an invulnerable ranger barbarian
What levels do you usually play? I've found that when you reach to around levels 8+, a LOT of enemies can outmaneuver a "tank" unless it's specifically built to cover a lot of area. A 10 to 15 ft threat area won't really stop the 200ft movement of a young blue dragon or the teleportation of a vrock or bone devil or the earth glide of a greater earth elemental. And as levels go by I've found these types of enemies increase in frequency.
Of course battlefield control casters can be very useful for "herding" enemies, but it's still hard to pull of tanking by just "standing between the party and the enemy".
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It can be difficult with flying creatures one thing that allowed me to still tank effectively was actual lying picking up the net feats that way when a creature tries to fly buy bam entangled strength check to pull it down and he has to stay within ten feet of you ... Now mind you I play pfs so we really only go up to lvl 12 and yes there are some situations where the encounter is just not made to be tank able but that's when you two hand your weapon and do as much damage as possible
Yeah, nets are great, and I can see PFS working better than homebrews/APs; from what I've understood, PFS modules tend to focus a lot on humanoid opponents?
Ok then I decided to put my most recent question In a rules question thread as it will be more effective there. And I decided to use tower shield specialist.