"Tank" here is a verb, which came into use around Everquest times. It broadly means to be able to cause the enemies to focus their attacks on you, and also, defensive fighting techniques that act to mitigate this damage.
In a video game that has tanks, the characters that do this tanking have tools for it. Everquest, which copied D&D on many things, imported the spell "taunt" as an ability that their warriors had. World of Warcraft, made exclusively by Everquest players, copied all this as well. Once WoW hit critical mass, many games copied the terminology exactly, and those that did not ("uhh, it's '
provoke' here guys) did so just to not use the word as it was already MMO lingo.
4ed introduced tanking to D&D. It had general roles- controller was crowd control, and wizard was your iconic guy here. The tanks were called "defenders", and fighter was here. What would be called "dps" ('damage per second') or "dd" ('damage dealer') in a video game was called a "striker", and healers and buffers fell under 'leader'. Only the last name was retarded, the others were pretty good attempts. In this game, tanking took the form of "marks", which applied the "marked" condition:
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You take a −2 penalty to attack rolls for any attack that doesn't target the creature that marked you.
You can be subjected only to one mark at a time. Newer marks supersede older ones.
A mark ends when its creator dies or is unconscious.
Every defender class had one or more abilities that would mark enemies, and would sometimes apply riders to the condition that could make creatures that attacked things besides you subject to much greater penalties, etc. The actual in-world effect of a "mark" was left largely undefined- it was in some text implied to be actual taunts and goads, but there were usually nothing that would interact with this.
So in 5e, there's several ways to become temporarily or permanently very hard to damage. This certainly includes the totem barbarian who has chosen bear for their first totem animal, but it also includes characters that get a few spell levels and have access to the
shield spell, or anything that grants temporary hit points somewhat often. What the game has very little of is stuff in the way of actual target disruption, which is the mostly-missing tier of tanking.
But there are some:
Fighters (all) can use the defender or interception style, and Paladins I think can too. For this reason, Dark Knights can. These don't interact with targeting, but they do provide ways to reduce damage to allies.
Nature clerics, Nalthic Ninjas, and Saneelan Ninjas can reduce damage of certain types, using elemental features.
But then there's the Cavalier Fighter:
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Unwavering Mark
Starting at 3rd level, you can menace your foes, foiling their attacks and punishing them for harming others. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can mark the creature until the end of your next turn. This effect ends early if you are incapacitated or you die, or if someone else marks the creature.
While it is within 5 feet of you, a creature marked by you has disadvantage on any attack roll that doesn't target you.
In addition, if a creature marked by you deals damage to anyone other than you, you can make a special melee weapon attack against the marked creature as a bonus action on your next turn. You have advantage on the attack roll, and if it hits, the attack's weapon deals extra damage to the target equal to half your fighter level.
Regardless of the number of creatures you mark, you can make this special attack a number of times equal to your Strength modifier (a minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.
While disadvantage is much steeper than the -2 fourth edition had, the downside here is that the enemy can simply walk away from you and not be subject to your stuff. Your team needs to group around enemies to make sure that this effect works, or you need to have a great way to punish them with your opportunity attack.
And we also have the Rune Knight:
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Runic Shield
At 7th level, you learn to invoke your rune magic to protect your allies. When another creature you can see within 60 feet of you is hit by an attack roll, you can use your reaction to force the attacker to reroll the d20 and use the new roll.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
This is a pretty solid support feature. The Rune Knight also has storm rune ("You can invoke the rune as a bonus action to enter a prophetic state for 1 minute or until you're incapacitated. Until the state ends, when you or another creature you can see within 60 feet of you makes an attack roll, a saving throw, or an ability check, you can use your reaction to cause the roll to have advantage or disadvantage.") and cloud rune ("When you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you is hit by an attack roll, you can use your reaction to invoke the rune and choose a different creature within 30 feet of you, other than the attacker. The chosen creature becomes the target of the attack, using the same roll. This magic can transfer the attack's effects regardless of the attack's range.")
I think either of these fighters has what amounts to what would be, in a video game, tanking.
The Ancestral Spirit barbarian also has two great tricks:
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Ancestral Protectors
Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, spectral warriors appear when you enter your rage. While you're raging, the first creature you hit with an attack on your turn becomes the target of the warriors, which hinder its attacks. Until the start of your next turn, that target has disadvantage on any attack roll that isn't against you, and when the target hits a creature other than you with an attack, that creature has resistance to the damage dealt by the attack. The effect on the target ends early if your rage ends.
Spirit Shield
Beginning at 6th level, the guardian spirits that aid you can provide supernatural protection to those you defend. If you are raging and another creature you can see within 30 feet of you takes damage, you can use your reaction to reduce that damage by 2d6.
When you reach certain levels in this class, you can reduce the damage by more: by 3d6 at 10th level and by 4d6 at 14th level.
While there's a bunch of ways to play without any of these, largely based on positioning, these all are built to defend your allies in a melee. But they are also tied to subclasses; picking a subclass dedicated to defending your allies is a pretty big investment, and the obvious downside is that there are fights where these powers often don't matter much. For instance, if the enemy counts among its allies some weaker creatures that will attack you in melee and some weaker creatures that will attack you with spells, while it casts spells on your party and you, basically all of these abilities are dead.
I very deliberately didn't add anything that forces target swaps / taunts / etc. into the Kenda Gems. The Lustrate Stars do have some powers that can defend your allies, but they don't do so with taunts that work against melee attacks.
I don't think Skattebo is going to be able to do anything to get creatures in melee to target him in preference to his squishy allies in melee.
