This honestly seems pretty clear cut to me. Here were the things that stood out:
- "I want something that can dish out hits *and take them*"
- Already tried Fighter, Paladin, and Cleric, as well as Monk, indicating a preference for tanky melee characters
- "I tend to play goodie two shoes with the caveat of being a prick sometimes."
- "I get very frustrated easily when the main character dies."
All of that to me *screams* Barbarian. You can take hits better than literally any other class and have the lowest chance of going down, it's a tanky melee class, you can certainly dish out hits, and you can RP the sometimes being a prick as being part of their anger issues. Yes I know, you are concerned with being overly one dimensional, but one should not discount the value a ring of flinging and a bag of axes can provide in helping with that, as can the subclass - Wild Magic Barbarian for example will have a continually shifting set of boons that will vary their role and playstyle for each encounter, at least to an extent. You could also pair them with something else if so inclined, but at a minimum enough Barb to get Rage sounds like it would do wonders for you. I'd likely personally recommend Paladin, especially since you liked Paladin enough to consider coming back to it. Paladins in full plate with Rage going can be terrifying, both offensively and defensively.
Play a Gnome Barb 3 / Paladin 6 with at least 16 Cha and you'll have +6 to all saves and advantage on them, just saying, no magic will ever fail to be resisted. Or go Half Orc and guarantee you never go down (or at least get a free redo) while also getting some absolutely disgusting crits, with advantage on your attacks and triple damage smites as payoffs.
Just some ideas. Good luck!
