Skirmish.. what the?

[Aus_Snow]

I have a bit of a problem with Skirmish. Not the 'how' in game terms, but the 'how' in terms of making sense.

The AC part, no problem. The extra damage from simply having moved, applying to melee or ranged attacks. . . um. That's the sticking point.

The thing is, I quite like the Scout except for this one detail. So I'd appreciate it if someone could explain how this ability makes sense to them.

So. Why does Skirmish do what it does?

 

[Mouseferatu]

I think of it as a combination of the following:

1) Momentum. By moving first, the scout builds up something of a head of steam, allowing the strike to do more damage.

2) Confusion. (This is the more vital of the two.) By moving, "juking and jiving" if you will, the scout flusters the target, causing him to expose, or at least fail to protect, vital areas.

 

[Aus_Snow]

1) Momentum. By moving first, the scout builds up something of a head of steam, allowing the strike to do more damage.

2) Confusion. (This is the more vital of the two.) By moving, "juking and jiving" if you will, the scout flusters the target, causing him to expose, or at least fail to protect, vital areas.

Thanks, Mouse. The second I can understand. But the first. . . what if the Scout moved away form the target, then shot with say, a crossbow?

But yeah, confusion. I get that.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Thanks, Mouse. The second I can understand. But the first. . . what if the Scout moved away form the target, then shot with say, a crossbow?

But yeah, confusion. I get that.

Yeah, the first doesn't always hold up. I figure it's one of those things that applies sometimes, but not always.

The confusion aspect is, indeed, the more vital of the two, as I see it.

BTW, just in case you don't know, the errata clarified that the scout's movement must take place before the attack. Not entirely relevant to the discussion at hand, but close enough I thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[Aus_Snow]

BTW, just in case you don't know, the errata clarified that the scout's movement must take place before the attack.

Well, I'm glad to hear of that errata, though I'm not quite sure how I missed it. That was something I'd forgotten to mention in my OP (the pre-errata issue there).

 

[frankthedm]

I have a bit of a problem with Skirmish. Not the 'how' in game terms, but the 'how' in terms of making sense.

The AC part, no problem. The extra damage from simply having moved, applying to melee or ranged attacks. . . um. That's the sticking point.

The thing is, I quite like the Scout except for this one detail. So I'd appreciate it if someone could explain how this ability makes sense to them.

So. Why does Skirmish do what it does?

Same hang up I have on the class. The "How" questions. I insisted the player who wants to play the scout have several of the abilties changed to supernatural. Mostly I view the abilties to boons from Travel, Air or Nature related deities. The skirmish sounds ~o.k.~ from the hard to keep an eye on pseudo sneak idea. The Errata really CDG's any chance of skirmish being breakable since the scout's only hope of really getting a bucket of damage and then getting away was a mounted charge.

Page 11: Scout’s Class Skills
Add Disable Device to the scout’s list of class skills.
(This addition fits with the flavor of the class.)

Page 12: Skirmish (class feature)
The second sentence of the skirmish class feature
should read as follows (new text indicated in red): She
deals an extra 1d6 points of damage on all attacks she
makes during any round in which she moves at least 10
feet away from where she was at the start of her turn.
The extra damage applies only to attacks made after the
scout has moved at least 10 feet. The skirmish ability
cannot be used while mounted.

This update should be made wherever the skirmish
ability description is presented (see also pages 31, 56,
and 177).

 

[Hypersmurf]

The Errata really CDG's any chance of skirmish being breakable since the scout's only hope of really getting a bucket of damage and then getting away was a mounted charge.

It takes some investment, but...

GREATER MANYSHOT [GENERAL]
You are skilled at firing many arrows at once, even at different opponents.

Prerequisites: Dex 17, Manyshot, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, base attack bonus +6.

Benefit: When you use the Manyshot feat, you can fire each arrow at a different target instead of firing all of them at the same target. You make a separate attack roll for each arrow, regardless of whether you fire them at separate targets or the same target. Your precision-based damage applies to each arrow fired, and, if you score a critical hit with more than one of the arrows, each critical hit deals critical damage.

Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.

-Hyp.

 

[Greg K]

I have the same problem with skirmish. My solution was to just not use the Scout, but rather to use the Wilderness Rogue variant to cover the Scout (as I had already been doing prior to Complete Adventurer). However, there was a scout variant in a Class Acts section of Dragon that gave up both Fast Movement and Skirmish in exchange for Sneak Attack. And, if I recall correctly, there was also a mounted variant in the same issue.

 

[pawsplay]

Basically, it doesn't make sense. The cool part is, you have the scout moving around, weaving in and out, and otherwise making the game mat more interesting. The downside is that the ability really breaks down in certain contexts. The scout in our group was fun at first, but after a while, it got annoying figuring out which 10' he would move this time around. Then there's the fact that a scout doesn't get their extra damage in a surprise round, unless they charge, making them really pathetic ambushers.

 

[MarkB]

It takes some investment, but...

GREATER MANYSHOT [GENERAL]
You are skilled at firing many arrows at once, even at different opponents.

Prerequisites: Dex 17, Manyshot, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, base attack bonus +6.

Benefit: When you use the Manyshot feat, you can fire each arrow at a different target instead of firing all of them at the same target. You make a separate attack roll for each arrow, regardless of whether you fire them at separate targets or the same target. Your precision-based damage applies to each arrow fired, and, if you score a critical hit with more than one of the arrows, each critical hit deals critical damage.

Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.

-Hyp.

Bounding Assault and Rapid Blitz from PHB2 also work nicely with skirmish, though the BAB pre-requisites are steep.