Aarakocra: Flying is fun, but you get none of your essential stats.
Aasimar: Extremely powerful, arguably the strongest race for this build.
- Protector: The weakest choice, but that +2 CHA still takes you far.
- Scourge: +1 CON, +2 CHA, and area damage that stacks with your aura.
- Fallen: +1 STR, +2 CHA, and frighten enemies on the very rare CHA save.
Bugbear: +2 STR and darkvision are respectable, but that’s about it. +5ft for your attacks opens up some options for a polearm tank.
Dragonborn: +2 STR and +1 CHA is terrific. Plus, the new Dragon Fear feat can give you a decent area frighten ability.
Dwarf: +2 CON, darkvision, and poison resistance make dwarves good tanks.
- Hill Dwarf: The extra health is nice, but that’s about it.
- Mountain Dwarf: +2 STR and CON is usually amazing for a paladin, but it will prevent you from maxing out CHA early. Still a solid choice.
- Duergar: Less beefy than the Mountain Dwarf, but the extra resistances and spells might be even better.
Elf: You don’t need the extra DEX.
- High Elf: You also don’t need extra INT.
- Wood Elf: And you don’t need extra WIS.
- Drow: But +1 CHA is useful! If you want some sort of DEX-based build, this could be a good choice.
Firbolg: +1 STR doesn’t get you much, and the spells aren’t useful to you.
Genasi: +2 CON is always welcome.
- Air: DEX isn’t for you.
- Earth: Might as well just go mountain dwarf, but +1 STR is still good.
- Fire: Fire resistance is useful and Burning Hands can be too, but it won’t be game-changing.
- Water: Acid damage isn’t as common as fire, and you don’t need more WIS.
Gnome: Intelligence is not scary and neither are tiny people.
- Forest Gnome: You don’t need DEX.
- Rock Gnome: +1 CON does not a frightening conqueror make.
- Deep Gnome: You don’t need the DEX, and you definitely don’t need to be hidden.
Goblin: Also small. Also not scary.
Goliath: Giant people, on the other hand, are scary. +2 STR and +1 CON is very useful to you, and Stone’s Endurance is a sound ability for a tank. Plus, Athletics!
Half-Elf: +2 CHA, and then you can add +1 to STR and CON. And you get darkvision, resistance to charms, and extra skills. It just hits all the bases very nicely.
Halfling: Tiny people still aren’t scary, and you still don’t need DEX. But being lucky isn’t so bad.
- Lightfoot: +1 CHA! And nothing else.
- Stout: +1 CON and poison resistance is nice, but not nice enough to play this.
- Ghostwise: Not the scary type of ghost.
Half-Orc: Same as the Goliath, but built for offense. Good potential for building a two-handed tank.
Hobgoblin: +2 CON and darkvision are good, but not much else here to be proud of.
Human: +1 to all stats is good, but nothing special.
- Variant Human: As usual, Variant Human is incredible. Take a nice tanking feat, add a point to CHA and STR, and go to town.
Kenku: You are a mighty and terrifying warrior, not a sneaky avian scoundrel.
Kobold With -2 STR this is probably the worst small race for you.
Lizardfolk: +2 CON is nice, but they don’t have much else to offer.
Orc: Just go half-orc. You’ll be happier, your DM will be happier, your friends who don’t have Volo’s will be happier.
Tabaxi: +1 CHA makes this about as good as the Drow. Still sub-optimal.
Tiefling: +2 CHA is always welcome, and fire resistance is great. Hellish Rebuke is also a good spell for you to have in your back pocket.
- Feral Tiefling: High elves weren’t useful and neither is this.
- Devil’s Tongue: Slightly better if you’re trying to be the party face.
- Hellfire: You’ll get more mileage out of Hellish Rebuke than Burning Hands.
- Winged: In addition to looking awesome, flying is great.
Tortle: +2 STR is decent, but Natural Armor will put you behind the plate-wearers a little, and you won't be able to make up for it with the Defense fighting style because that only applies when wearing armor.
Triton: +1 to STR, CON, and CHA would be good enough, but Tritons also get access to some good spells for disrupting groups.
Yuan-ti Pureblood: A respectable +2 CHA, but also poison immunity and magic resistance. Potential to be very strong.