One Piece is a series known for its explosive battles and heavily offense-based characters. Big Mom, Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, Whitebeard, and others can all call down mighty blows, their attacks able to literally demolish landscapes and reshape the world.
With the existence of such powerful attackers, it only makes sense that there should be characters that can take these hits and strike back. These defensive characters play an important part in One Piece: keeping the mighty in check, and making fights all the more tense as audiences try and guess whether power or endurance will win the day.
10 Tony-Tony Chopper Strategizes And Defends
A fantastic doctor in the field, Chopper takes his time when fighting a tough opponent. His main strategy is usually to simply last long enough in battle to find the opponent's weakness, and then exploit it for a quick and devastating finish. His defense form, where he transforms into a big ball of fur, is great at deflecting attacks - similar to Luffy's Gum-Gum Balloon, with springiness traded for toughness. Since his monster form became easily controllable, his tactics have changed a bit, but Chopper is still one of the more tactical fighters in One Piece.
9 Gecko Moria Uses A Shield Of Zombie Underlings
Unlike most characters in One Piece, Moria leaves the fighting to others while he sits comfortably to the side. Fortunately for him, his Shadow-Shadow Fruit powers are perfect for this, giving him the ability to raise zombies to do his bidding. Moria needs to steal the shadow of a living person for this, but his trickery makes this simple most of the time. Even when entering combat himself, he often does so as a commander. During the fight between him and Luffy, Moria piloted the giant zombie of Oars for the majority of the fight.
8 Garp The Fist Wields The Toughest Armament Haki
While Garp is by no means lacking in offensive ability, his toughness is simply astounding. He boasts the toughest Armament Haki in all of One Piece, no mean feat considering the defensive capabilities of the series' strongest characters.
His fist has never really been defeated by another weapon, hence his nickname. Many fans hope to see Garp in action again soon as he is truly a force to be reckoned with.
7 Franky's Cyborg Body Deflects Most Attacks
Equipped with gadgets and technology beyond compare, the Straw Hat Pirate's carpenter Franky's most notable feature isn't his body's offense, but its defense. Other than his back and brain, Franky is made completely of metal, making him nearly impervious to most attacks that target his front. This includes bullets, cannonballs, and Haki attacks if their user isn't a big-shot. He was even able to survive the titanic explosion he himself triggered at one of Dr. Vegapunk's laboratories (although it did mess up his face quite a bit).
6 Caesar Clown Strikes From A Distance
Another pirate who prefers to have others do the dirty work for him, Caesar's defense comes from a combination of his trickery and evasive ability. When encountered on Punk Hazard, Caesar had a horde of altered humans, abominations, and regular troops fight and work for him. After he couldn't hide behind them any longer, he resorted to his Gas-Gas Fruit, which is similar to Smoker's Devil Fruit in that he is gaseous and can fly.
Instead of trapping enemies in Smoke, Caesar knocks them out with gas, or can suck the air out of an area to prevent breathing. By doing this, he can either subdue an enemy remotely or simply escape, both decidedly defensive maneuvers.
5 Monkey D. Luffy Is A Rubber Man
Luffy's ability to take a beating is a staple of his character at this point. No matter how many times his enemies knock him down, he'll always get back up until he stands victorious. His defense is boosted immensely by his Gum-Gum Fruit, which makes him impervious to any attack that isn't sharp, elemental in nature, or infused with Haki.
It also allows him to stretch out of the way of oncoming attacks, or turn projectiles back on the user. Luffy's sheer tenacity simply can't be topped.
4 Diamond Jozu Is Nearly Impervious
Although only seen once during the War at Marineford, Diamond Jozu of the Whitebeard Pirates has one of the strongest defensive Devil Fruits in the entire series. As his name would suggest, his body can harden into a crystal-like substance as hard as diamonds. He can still be defeated by certain elemental attacks, like when Aokiji froze some of his body off when he got distracted. If Jozu used armament Haki in battle, it's possible he'd be the toughest character in the entire series.
3 Kaido Is The Toughest Man Alive
Dubbed the "Strongest Creature" in One Piece, Kaido's offense is backed up by an unparalleled defense. Other than Kozuki Oden and Garp, Kaido has never suffered a single lasting wound until the arrival of the Straw Hats on Wano. His Dragon-Dragon Fruit gives him the added toughness of dragon scales, and combined with his Armament and Supreme King Haki, landing a meaningful blow on Kaido becomes a nearly impossible task for even the toughest of combatants.
2 Pica Can Become One With Any Stone
One of Doflamingo's Head Officers, Pica has one of the more unique and powerful Devil Fruits the series has seen. His Stone-Stone Fruit doesn't simply turn his body to stone, but allows him to inhabit and control any amount of stone he enters. This includes entire towns as seen in the Dressrosa arc.
While obviously toughening him up to the hardness level of rock, Pica's ability also gives him a strategic defensive advantage. His enemies have to be able to find Pica inside his stone if they want to take him out, meaning only those with extreme offensive capability can get to him before he reattaches lost stone.
1 Bartolomeo The Cannibal Wields Unbreakable Barriers
The character with the most defensive ability in the entirety of One Piece is no doubt the Luffy fanboy Bartolomeo. His Barrier-Barrier Fruit allows him to create a seemingly indestructible barrier by crossing his fingers. Having taken attacks like King Elizabello's "King Punch" without weakening at all, the only attack that could plausibly break Bartolomeo's defenses would be a top-tier Haki attack from one of One Piece's strongest. If the biggest Straw Hat fan learned to use Haki himself, he might truly be indestructible.