How to Build a Better Scout?

One of my players is deeply unsatisfied with how poorly his character build reflects his character concept. The concept is basically a mundane ranger: a brave and hardy woodsman who disdains magic, an expert stalker and hunter who never shies away from a fight. Imagine one of the Delta Force commandos from Black Hawk Down: highly skilled and always cool and collected, even under heavy fire.

But mechanically the character doesn’t reflect this image at all. He’s a 12th-level fighter with all his skill points tied up in cross-class skills, resulting in a tracker who can’t track, who never hears or sees anything until it’s on top of him, who can’t walk across an open field without breaking a branch, who never seems to know anything useful about the forest around him. So please help us rework this character to have the mechanics fit the concept.

The scout is a common fantasy archetype that isn’t easily modeled with the standard core classes. I remember that when 3e first came out there were many discussions about how to best build one. Given all of the d20 advances made in the last few years, I was wondering if there have been any updates to the debate.

Here are some approaches we have considered. So far none of them quite feel right:

Single-Classed Fighter with Appropriate Feats and Skills. This is how the PC is currently built. Pros: The base HD, BAB, and saves appropriately reflect the fighting skills and toughness of the character. Cons: The low number of skill points combined with a very weak selection of outdoor class skills make it very difficult to build a scout that is able to do any actual scouting very well.

Single-Classed Ranger. The 3.5 ranger class is much closer to a classic scout than the 3.0 version, but the ranger’s spellcasting ability makes this a non-starter in our low-magic setting. Pros: The skill selection and amount of skill points are right on the money, and several class abilities perfectly fit the scout concept: camouflage, endurance, hide in plain sight, swift tracker, track, wild empathy, and woodland stride. Cons: Two signature abilities of this class fit neither our campaign nor this specific character: favored enemies and access to divine spells.

Multiclassed Fighter/Rogue. This class combo seems to be the most common way to build a scout character. Pros: Rogue levels certainly provide plenty of skill points, and a few class abilities like evasion and uncanny dodge would work well with the scout concept. Cons: The rogue’s skill selection overly emphasizes urban adventuring, and the crucial Survival is not a class skill. The low number of hit points along with the middling BAB progression don’t reflect the character’s toughness and skill in a fight.

Multiclassed Fighter/Barbarian. Pros: Barbarians get more skill points than fighters and Survival is a class skill. Their good BAB and hit points reflect the toughness and fighting skill of the character. Fast movement and uncanny dodge work well with the scout concept. Cons: The barbarian’s signature ability—rage—does not work at all with the character.

Alternate Core Classes. I know that at least a couple new classes have been designed to fill the void. The Wheel of Time book actually had a scout class, and there was a vanguard class in d20 weekly. Would anyone recommend these classes, or suggest additional ones?

Prestige Classes. Despite the proliferation of these things, I don’t know any that quite fit the bill. Any suggestions?

More Radical Solutions. I’m also open to more radical methods to build the character—like using d20 Modern classes, using the d20 Anime point-buy system, or just building my own core class from scratch. Unfortunately, the further you get away from the core rules, the more work is required to ensure balance.

Here's a few combos that might work:

Multiclassed fighter/ranger (keep ranger levels below three and spellcasting never shows up; Alternately, you could replace the spellcasting with Fast Movement until he gets second level spells (this would be mechanically similar to him simply using those slots for Longstrider every day). Since 8th level is the earliest he'd get 2nd level spells, you won't have to worry about that for a while. Take Favored Enemy as Animal and Magical Beast and you can rationalize it by saying that he's a very skilled hunter).

Multiclassed fighter/ranger/barbarian (4/3/3 gives room to advance a couple levels in barbarian. This allows the character Uncanny Dodge, etc. If rage is a problem, he can think of it as a reckless fighting style. Or not use it. Or you could let him level in ex-barbarian (mechanically that puts him at a disadvantage but no more than if he were a barbarian who had later become lawful).

Multiclass: Fighter/Ranger/Rogue (This allows access to wilderness skills through ranger and Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, etc through rogue. The character isn't likely to ever get 2nd level spells so the Spellcasting=Fast Movement fix might work well for it.)

Multiclass Ranger/Rogue (Like the above but with more sneak power and less fighting power).

You could use the Complete Warrior's variant Ranger. Basically you lose spells, gain fast movement at 6th level, gain an ability to add +4 to Con, Dex, or Wis 1/day for 1 min/lvl at 11th level, gain the abiltiy to remove disease or neutralize posion 1/day at 13th level, and Freedom of movement at 16th level.

It sounds to me like you just need to tweak a ranger just a tiny bit.

Replace the favored enemy with fighter feats.

Then have the player restrict his spell selection to things that can be hand waved away as skills. Delay Poison and Resist Energy, if cast on himself, could be extra toughness. Detect Poison or Detect Snares and Pits can be his field medicine and situational awareness respectively. You can make a reasonable selection of spells at all levels that fit into this category. It's not like a ranger gets a ton of spells anyway.

PS

Did your player originally pick the fighter class because of all the extra feats or just for the BAB?

If that is the case, I would probably go 3 levels of rogue and then all the rest fighter. This build is assuming you do not take any PrCs.

3 Levels of Rogue
Cons: marginally less hitpoints overall (-12), lose those extra fighter feats at higher levels.
Pros: only -1 BAB overall, marginally better Reflex save, more skillpoints, some low-level Rogue abilities.

It sounds like your player's greatest weakness was in not having enough skill points to put in his skills. I would suggest having rogue as your first level. You lose 4 hit points, but receive a big 8+INT bonus x 4 in skills. More if you are human.

Here's your answer. The ultimate scout is a druid. It can take the shape of any woodland creature. Should have wis as its highest ability score (helping spot and listen). Spot and Listen are class skills. Cross class some hide and move silent along with some cloak/boots of elvenkind (not even needed if using animals) and the druid can do everything a scout could need. Make sure to use an animal companion that flies and take that new animal companion feat from WotC website for a second animal companion to get another who has scent on ground. That way you've now got the ultimate scout like character!

But a druid is magical, and the original post specified a non-magical woodsman.

I'd go with either a modified Fighter (change feat progression to 1 every three levels instead of two, bump skill points up to 6 and use Ranger skill selection), or a modified Ranger (drop spellcasting, add 3 bonus feats evenly spaced through level progression).

I think the ranger is closest to what you are looking for. The variant from Complete Warrior will eliminate the spellcasting abilities from the ranger. You could replace Cure Disease/Neutralize Poison ability with a Stealth bonus usable once a day.

The Favored Enemy ability could work well with the character concept. Favored Enemy in 3.5 no longer represents a ranger's racial hatred unless that is the direction that you want to go. The ability could very easily reflect that rangers are very observant and aware of how their enemies will behave. They can exploit that knowledge to their advantage. Favored Enemy: Human could work well for a battle hardened scout.

You may want to consider a couple levels of fighter if you are looking to bolster the commando concept. I wouldn't multiclass agressively, however. As you mentioned, Camouflage and Hide in Plain Sight are abilities that you don't want to give up.

You might like the Woodsman from the Wheel of Time book. They've got a very special ops feel to them. Here's the gist of them- full BAB, d10 HP, good Fort save, 6 skill pts/level (with all the class skills you're looking for), simple & martial weapons, light & medium armor and shields. Special abilities include: choose an environment- add half your DEX bonus to attacks rolls vs humanoids in this environment (gain more environments at level 8 and 16), Tracking, Imp. Initiative in light/no armor at 2nd level, +2 to Hide and Move Silently in the woods at 3rd level (increses to +4 at 12th level), bonus feats from combat-centric list at levels 4, 9, 14 & 19, and Weapon Specialization at 6th level.

Basically a Fighter with some pre-chosen feats, more skills and skill points balanced by no heavy armor and less bonus feats. Though if you add it up, the pre-chosen feats, class abilities and bonus feats equal 11- the same number of bonus feats a Fighter gains. So it might be a little unbalanced compared to the Fighter but that will depend on your game. If you gave the class a d8 hit points instead of d10 that could make it better. Then again, one person's "unbalanced" is another's "perfect fit".

Elder-Basilisk said:

Here's a few combos that might work:

[SNIP]

Click to expand...

Very nice suggestions. You make a good point that the player could take up to three levels of 3.5 ranger and still not have spells. And then swapping fast movement for 1st-level spellcasting ability is a pretty good idea.

My only reservation is that most combos come with abilities that don't fit the character, like sneak attack, rage, or favored enemy. Still, this is grist for the mill.