I originally asked this question on the Simple Questions post, but could already see I was asking to get flamed, so I figured I'd move it here instead of cluttering that thread, plus I can give a better description.
I'm looking for one of two things. First, I want someone to build me a character, because I apparently suck at it. Second, and probably more important for the overall community, I'd like to know if there is a list where other people that suck as bad as I do can get characters playable (with notes) from low level. My original post on the simple questions thread was:
Is there a list somewhere of CO builds that are playable from 1st level? I currently need a front-line fighter of some sort for a campaign starting at 5th level. And anytime I look at builds, they go to 20th and list strategies at 20th, but not strategies and playability notes for any lower levels.
One response was that I need to search better and listed examples like Incarnate (Law) 20, Totemist 20, etc. The other was a pointer to the low-level build compilation. My problem with the first response is that I have searched, and after searching even for those specific examples, learned nothing. My character will start at 5th level. So a 20th level build with a 20th level combat strategy listed doesn't help. The handbooks, like the incarnate handbook, would probably help if I had a couple of months with nothing else to do but compile stat spreadsheets. But I don't learn well from books, so the handbooks just make my head hurt. And the low-level compilation is just that: low-level characters. Although my character will start at 5th level, I don't want to kill him off and start a different character when he gets to 6th. And without someone holding my hand, I'm going to make the same poor choices from 6th and on that I have in the past and end up with a sucky high-level character.
So what I want is a list of 20th level builds, but that tells the strategy at each step of the way. I know that at least some thought has been put into this, because I see retraining and such at higher levels in a lot of the builds. This implies to me that someone took something at a low level to improve playability and then scrapped it at a higher level in exchange for something that became more useful. Again, with enough time and such, I could probably take the list of skills, feats, stats, spells, equipment, etc at a given level and plan out some sort of strategy based on that. But I'm not that great at strategy either.
Anyway, for more detail on the first option, in the hopes that someone happens to have an LE Incarnate tank or something laying around that can be explained to me, here is what my specific current situation is:
I need to build a tank/zone controller type character at 5th level. The rest of the party currently consist of an unoptimized rogue and unoptimized druid (as far as I know). Our DM will do fine, but he has had problems in the past with running an NPC while DM'ing (NPC ended up leading the party and conveniently finding the best magic items), so I'm trying to get a powerful enough character that he won't feel he needs to run one to keep us from dying. I don't need to kill the bad guys outright, as I'm not trying to show up the other characters, I just need to keep the bad guys away from them. In another campaign I tried a spiked chain fighter lockdown build. He immediately ran into encounters where every creature had cover (the first one happening in a barracks full of hammocks) and lost all of his AoO. I'd rather not have a character that could be made useless so easily.
Oh, and the DM has basically every 3.5 book. He's said any race, any class, any 3.5 wizards book (no third party) goes.