Introduction
The Scout Rogue brings some wilderness explorer flavor to a class often known for stalking dungeons and city streets. However, unlike the Ranger, it doesn’t lean on magic borrowed from the Druid. Instead, the Scout leans on their skills to survive in the wild parts of the world.
While the flavor is slightly different from a typical Rogue, the Scout doesn’t change the Rogue’s role in the party. A few Ranger-adjacent skills has surprisingly little impact and doesn’t predispose you to specific tasks. In combat, the Scout is good at staying out of melee and great at leading an ambush.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Scout Rogue Features
- Scout Rogue Ability Scores
- Scout Rogue Races
- Scout Rogue Feats
- Scout Rogue Weapons
- Scout Rogue Armor
- Scout Rogue Multiclassing
- Example Scout Rogue Build – Field Scholar
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the 2014 DnD 5e Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.
Scout Rogue Features
- : Spectacular for ranged
builds, but less helpful for most melee builds, and, since it works as a
Reaction, it can conflict with Uncanny Dodge. Cunning Action can also solve
the same problem, so Skirmisher feels like a miniscule addition to your
capabilities.
You can’t use this until an enemy ends their turn, so they’ve already done any attacking which they plan to do, and you may have used your Reaction on Uncanny Dodge to mitigate damage from a hit. If you’re built for melee, using this often means spending more movement on your turn to get back into melee, so reserving your Reaction for Uncanny Dodge is a better investment. If you’re built to fight at range, you can use this to get out of almost any creature’s reach, then you’ll still have your movement and your Bonus Action on your turn to use Cunning Action for something else more exciting than Disengage.
- : Two new skills and Expertise in both of them, giving you Expertise in a total of four things (provided that you’re not also getting Expertise from other places). Expertise will easily make up for a relatively poor ability scores in Intelligence and/or Wisdom.
- : Really helpful in conjunction with Skirmisher and your need to stay as far away as you can. This notably doesn’t affect fly speeds.
- : Consider the Alert feat for the bonus to Initiative rolls. You want to go first to maximize the utility of this feature. Encourage your allies to focus on your target and quickly eliminate high-priority targets early in the fight before worrying about other enemies.
- : This extra attack consumes your bonus action, so two-weapon fighting is redundant. Allowing you to Sneak Attack twice in a turn effectively doubles your damage output, which is amazing at any level. Unfortunately, you can’t Sneak Attack the same target twice in the same turn with Sudden Strike, so this is considerably easier to use with a ranged weapon.
Scout Rogue Ability Scores
No different from a typical Rogue.
Scout Rogue Races
No different from a typical Rogue. Additional walking speed may be helpful to improve the effect of Skirmisher.
Scout Rogue Feats
No different from a typical Rogue.
Scout Rogue Weapons
No different from a typical Rogue.
Scout Rogue Armor
No different from a typical Rogue.
Scout Rogue Multiclassing
No different from a typical Rogue.
Example Scout Rogue Build – Field Scholar
The Scout isn’t much of a combat monster, but they’re a fantastic explorer. But, lacking many knowledge skills, the best that a typically Scout can do is find something, say “that’s interesting,” then go find someone more knowledgeable to explain it. This build adds knowledge skills to the Rogue, allowing you to find things, identify them, and escape safely to tell your allies what you found.
This build assumes no Optional Class Features.
Ability Scores
We’ll max Dexterity and Constitution, then split our remaining points between Intelligence and Wisdom to support our skills.
| Base | Increased | |
|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | |
| Dex | 15 | |
| Con | 15 | |
| Int | 12 | |
| Wis | 12 | |
| Cha | 9 |
Race
Our choice of race matters very little here, but we’ll use Harengon for this build. Hare Trigger and an extra skill work great. We don’t get Darkvision, so look for Goggles of Night or beg one of your allies to cast Darkvision on you.
Background
Sage. This gets us proficiency in Arcana and History, plus two languages.
Skills and Tools
We start with Perception from our race, then Insight and Investigation from our Background. With our four class skills we’ll take Insight, Investigation, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. We get proficiency in Thieves’ Tools automatically.
At level 3 we’ll get proficiency and Expertise in both Nature and Survival.
Feats
At level 4 we’ll take Piercer for the easy damage boost and raise our Dexterity to 18.
At level 8 we’ll take Gunner and increase our Dexterity to 19.
At level 10 we’ll take Skill Expert
At level 12 we’ll take Alert to synergize with Ambush Master.
At level 16 we take Fighting Initiate (Archery) to boost our ranged attacks.
At level 19 we take Sharpshooter.
Levels
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Expertise – Investigation – Perception Sneak Attack +1d6 Thieves’ Cant | We’re very perceptive, but otherwise we’re a very normal Rogue. |
| 2 | Cunning Action | Cunning Action (Hide) is our go-to way to get Sneak Attack. |
| 3 | Subclass: Scout Skirmisher Survivalist Sneak Attack +2d6 | Skirmisher gives us an easy way to get out of melee combat while leaving our Bonus Action free for Cunning Action (Hide). Survivalist gets us even more skills. |
| 4 | Feat: Piercer (Dex 17 -> 18) | An easy damage boost on any Rogue. |
| 5 | Uncanny Dodge Sneak Attack +3d6 | Uncanny Dodge will compete for space with Skirmisher. Use Uncanny Dodge if you take a big hit, otherwise use Skirmisher to get out of melee safely. |
| 6 | Expertise – Arcana – History | Emphasizing our knowledge skills. |
| 7 | Evasion Sneak Attack +4d6 | Always great. |
| 8 | Feat: Gunner (Dex 18 -> 19) | Upgrading from a shortbow to a Musket is a small but impactful damage boost. The big damage die is also a good candidate for rerolling with Piercer. |
| 9 | Superior Mobility Sneak Attack +5d6 | Extra speed is fantastic. Skirmisher now lets us move 20 feet. |
| 10 | Feat: Skill Expert – Dex 19 -> 20 – Proficiency: Religion – Expertise: Religion | With reliable talent coming at level 11, more proficiencies and Expertise are very exciting. We now have proficiency and Expertise in all of the knowledge skills (Arcana, History, Nature, Religion), so our checks with those skills are consistently good despite mediocre Intelligence. |
| 11 | Reliable Talent Sneak Attack +6d6 | Reliable talent works great with all of our skills and Expertise. We can also use it with initiative rolls since we add our Proficiency Bonus to Initiative with Hare Trigger. |
| 12 | Feat: Alert | Just in time to pick up Ambush Master at level 13. We have 20 Dexterity and Hare Trigger, but that +5 to initiative is still huge. Our initiative bonus is a total of +14. Combined with Advantage from Ambush Master and a minimum roll of 10 from Reliable Talent, we’re nearly guaranteed to act first in combat. |
| 13 | Ambush Master Sneak Attack +7d6 | Arguably our best class feature. We’re nearly guaranteed to act first in combat. If we can hit with an attack (hopefully made with Advantage), your whole party can focus their attacks on your target to quickly eliminate them. Quickly taking one enemy out of the battle will tips the odds in your favor significantly. |
| 14 | Blindsense | Very powerful. |
| 15 | Slippery Mind Sneak Attack +8d6 | Another save proficiency is always welcome. |
| 16 | Feat: Fighting Initiate (Archery) | Not very exciting, but +2 to our attacks is a significant boost to our DPR. |
| 17 | Sudden Strike Sneak Attack +9d6 | If you have two valid targets, Sudden Strike lets you use Sneak Attack on both of them, doubling your damage output. However, qualifying for Sneak Attack may be a challenge since you may be reluctant to use Cunning Action to hide. |
| 18 | Elusive | A helpful defense. |
| 19 | Sneak Attack +10d6 Feat: Sharpshooter | A big pile of damage. We won’t always use Sharpshooter, but it’s great if we have Advantage. Between Advantage and Fighting Style (Archery), our attacks are accurate enough that Sharpshooter isn’t a big gamble. |
| 20 | Stroke of Luck | Always nice. Save this for use with Ambush Master to gaurantee that you can give your whole party Advantage. |
