I sense this getting ready to start taking up far too much of the Simple Q&A thread, so I'm making its own thread.
Situation: [spoiler]Red Hand of Doom is coming up, sooner or later. I don't have anything in the way of specific spoilers, nor do I want them. I have been told to expect to be fighting armies, plural, and that the occasional true dragon may show up. Apparently we're to start at ECL 5 or 6 (though the DM can probably be talked into giving us equivalent XP instead so we can spend it beforehand if need be), and expected to go no higher than about ECL 10, 12 at the highest.
Nobody in the group is interested in coordinated character creation. I've suggested everyone make 2 or 3 characters they'd like to play. After we see what we have available to work with, we can try to build a cohesive group out of that, with nobody getting shoved into a role they don't want because everything else was taken beforehand.
Right now I'm trying to come up with a tank build. Obviously the ability to avoid incoming damage, and to be menacing enough that enemies can't afford to just ignore me and attack others, is critically important. I'd also like to be able to recover from any amount of damage that gets past my defenses without spending party resources to do it.
I have a DM that is neither very familiar nor comfortable with alternative magic systems, and specifically dislikes psionics. If I can stick to mechanics that are present in the core rules (albeit preferably at more favorable rates and combinations than I can get in the core books), that should help to avoid a lot of nerf and ban bullshdrama.[/spoiler]
Warforged juggernaut interests me for the immunities, but the healing immunity is a turn-off since I can't count on the other players to support me with repair spells or high craft checks. Mineral warrior for the damage reduction is something I'd like to use if I'm not warforged, or if I'm incarnate warforged.
I've also been considering using the Troll-Blooded feat along with the Feral template so I can (if necessary) survive taking far more damage than my max hp, and also recover from damage types that could actually kill me as long as I'm careful not to invite too much of it in a short period of time. Alternative methods of getting both regeneration and fast healing that doesn't require being conscious might be good, but I don't know any.
Right now the best I've come up with is a feral mineral warrior human (buying off feral and applying MW at 3, buying off MW at 6) barbarian 1/human paragon 1/barbarian +1/fighter 2/horizon walker 1/human paragon +2 to account for 8 levels of building. I'm using two flaws, wolf totem barbarian, the barbarian ACF where you trade rage for favored enemies and the ranger archery combat style, and swapping the archery combat style for the strong-arm style from Dragon 326.
Feat layout looks like this.
Human: Toughness
Flaw: Weapon Focus
Flaw: Endurance
1: Troll Blooded
WT Barbarian 2: Improved Trip
CS Barbarian 2: Power Attack
3: Knock-Down
Fighter 1: Cleave
Fighter 2: Great Cleave
6: Improved Bull Rush
Human Paragon 2: Three Mountains
I could really use some suggestions and help, here.