Quote Originally Posted by Man_Over_Game View Post
Well, that depends. There's two different definitions of what people call "tanking":

  1. Survivability (Which makes you get attacked less)
  2. Aggro (Which makes you get attacked more)


A Bear Totem Barbarian is a Survivability Tank, but it doesn't do anything to make enemies attack him. Enemies can ignore the Bear Barbarian, and they'll be all better for it, which is why Bear Totem Barbarians usually grab feats to provide more Aggro, either as a means of keeping enemies from ignoring them through force (Sentinel), or by just dealing more damage (Polearm master).

An Ancestral Guardian Barbarian is an Aggro tank, but it doesn't do anything to help itself survive. If enemies are already going to be attacking the Barbarian, the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian does literally nothing. This is why Ancestral Guardian Barbarians focus on survivability, with feats like Tough.
Just as a small note, you’re talking about subclasses here. The barbarian base features provide a very strong foundation for both Aggro and survivability as is.

For survivability, you have a d12 hit die, solid AC, and get resistance to the most common forms of damage with rage. As far as aggro goes, you get reckless attack to both increase your damage output (more of a threat) and to make you a more attractive target by giving enemies advantage to hit you.

Every barbarian subclass builds upon these excellent features to improve survivability or aggro, but baseline the Barbarian is plenty good at both.