He Who Walks Before

[Maat Mons]

I haven't played all that much 5e. In a semi-recent game, I was playing the meat shield. So it seemed reasonable to me that I walk in front when we were going into dangerous areas. Then I fell in a spike pit and almost died. Which made me wonder, "Maybe the guy who's good at noticing traps should walk in front?"

So who do you put in front? A tough guy, of a trapfinder? Of do you build some sort of hybrid meatshield / trapmonkey to go in front?

[MrStabby]

Read the room.

Sometimes one. Sometimes the other.

Depending on how your table runs perception maybe the highest perception. Maybe a familiar? Adapt to circumstances really.

[Gignere]

The familiar, the rogue, the Druid, the warlock, followed by the Paladin. In our case Paladin is the only one without darkvision and we’re in the under dark so we don’t want him in the front.

[Naanomi]

Our ‘traveling’ order is usually:

1) A familiar at least a full turn’s movement ahead of us
2) Our best trap finder
3) Our tank
4) All of our squishy types, spread out a bit (pack animals go here)
5) Any ranged and/or fast yet reasonably durable types bringing up the rear

Obviously switches around for ‘kick in the door’ situations etc

[MaxWilson]

I totally thought this was going to be a Dresden Files thread. I was all ready to tell you that Sharkface cannot be statted with finite, D&D stats like HP.

Also, Cold Days is a lot scarier now that we know what He Who Walks Beside could do with access to the island...

[Maat Mons]

Yeah, sorry. I sometimes name my threads in reference to things I like without considering the false impressions I might give.

And no spoilers! I hadn't even realized there were two new books this year. I'd fallen out of the habit of checking for updates on new books. Five years of no books, and now suddenly two in the same year. It's like Christmas up in here.

Now, if George R. R. Martin could follow this example...

[Falconcry]

Yeah I was ready to try and make “Alfred” out of a spore druid and a GoO lock.

On topic I play in threw campaigns at the moment. In a party of four paladins with multiclassing we go for straight door kickers. In Frostmaiden we use a criminal barbarian and a ranger. The last has a familiar and a proper rogue to check before we splinter the door.

[Izodonia]

The U.S. Army has it right: Rangers lead the way. They're skilled enough to spot stuff and tanky enough to deal with the stuff they didn't spot.

[MaxWilson]

Yeah, sorry. I sometimes name my threads in reference to things I like without considering the false impressions I might give.

And no spoilers! I hadn't even realized there were two new books this year. I'd fallen out of the habit of checking for updates on new books. Five years of no books, and now suddenly two in the same year. It's like Christmas up in here.

Now, if George R. R. Martin could follow this example...

Prepare to have your mind blown repeatedly. :)

[JellyPooga]

The Tanky Trapfinder leads the way. AKA the Rogue.

Right out of the box, Rogues are actually pretty tanky. d8 HD isn't completely horrible; it's really only 20hp less than a Fighter (on average) over the course of a full 20 levels. With decent Dex or any kind of investment into armour proficiencies, their AC can actually be pretty decent. Add on Uncanny Dodge and Evasion for damage mitigation and Rogues can take a decent amount of punishment. I'm not entirely sure where the "squishy Rogue" notion comes from in 5e. If you really build for it, Rogues can tough it out with the best of them; for a PHB only version of this, Hill Dwarf Rogue with a dip into basically any other martial (I prefer Barbarian) for medium armour and Shield prof, or just grab the Moderately Armoured Feat (I prefer the dip). Focus Con and Wis to taste. Add Expertise in Perception and Thieves Tools. Bam. One Front-man. Everything else about the build is up to you. If you want to double-down on the "trapfinder" bit, take Dungeon Delver and Skulker, if you want to focus on the Tanky side take Tough or Resilient

People rag on the Dungeon Delver feat for being "too niche", but it really is the "I'm the guy at the front" Feat and if (like me) you're a stickler for small details (like the one where the whole party moves at half pace to search for traps, or Darkvision imposes disadvantage on Perception checks), then it's also really good for when time is of the essence or you're making a tactical advance/retreat into new territory.

It's basically my go-to character when I don't have something whacky I want to try out; sometimes I'll shake it up with a different race (e.g. Stout Halfling or Half-Orc) and switch up the dip and subclass for variety, but the basics stay more or less the same and it's a ton of fun every time.