Is a Ranger still part of a group while scouting?

[Mercule]

I'd say scouting is part of why you're travelling faster -- you're looking for the best routes, etc. It's not a big deal. Overland isn't tactical. You get the bonus overland speed in exchange for the risk that the ranger may end up in combat all by himself. Probably not, since rangers typically have good stealth, but possibly. I'm pretty sure every ranger I've seen has made it clear that they're always running recon. At least in the wilds; in the dungeon, it's usually the rogue.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Since I like my games to take inspiration from the fiction I like. I would liken it to Strider escorting the hobbits from Bree to Rivendell by way of the wild.

Sometimes he was with them, sometimes he scouted ahead to determine the best route & look for enemies. Sometimes he looped behind to look for signs of pursuit and clean up signs of their travel.

So like Mercule I think this is exactly how a Ranger gives travel benefits to the party.

 

[ClaytonCross]

Well it depends mostly on line of sight and GM discretion. I would say if your scouting forward the stealth rules state "You can’t hide from a creature that can see you" PHB p177, this has a couple of implications because stealth is NOT all or none. With that in mind, if your party is not being stealthy you can always find them as long as your not out of line of sight and they can find you as long as your cover doesn't heavily obscure you in their direction. So if your hiding behind bushes on the same side as your allies they can see and follow you as well as respond to hand gestures like waving and stopping no matter how high your stealth role vs enemies on the other side of the bush was. The same applies to scouting building etc.

Line of sight determines scouting range.

Line of sight is variable due to environment.

So scouting range will change with environment.

...however line of sight should typically be the same in front of the scout and behind the scout meaning if line of sight allows the scout to move 120ft from the party then the scout should see 120ft forward from enemies and 120ft back to the party creating a 240ft scouting buffer to protect and warn the party as the same sight limitations would mean enemies can't see the party until they get within 120ft of it. That still applies in 30ft, 30ft, 60ft scenarios that might be typical in dark dungeons for example. I typically would not want to scout more than 120ft forward and try to get the message cantrip with magic initiate or having another party member use it on me. I think that's a pretty obvious relationship, but also, it means if I fail at scouting and someone gets by me I am never more than 4 rounds out to support the party.

My party has imposed 120ft out door 30ft indoor scouting limit since I have eldritch blast and can support immediately or almost immediately by running toward them 30ft reducing the difference to 90ft and shooting 30ft on the other side for melee enemies that are closing. The 30ft is because inside building walls play havoc with line of sight and moving 30ft back to the safety of the group and misty step as a bonus action means I can rejoin the group and position to attack even when my scout might get ambushed or line of sight is not great but 30ft is still enough to prevent enemies getting surprise rounds on the party unless we run into monks or barbarians which is not an every day event.

In my openion, as long as the Scout can maintain that contact of line of sight and signalling they are still traveling with the party and when you have 1 round engagement with enemies attacking your party using ranged attacks of 120ft or more that is even more true.