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Nimble, stealthy, and quick on their feet, scout rogues are untraceable in nature and untouchable on the battlefield. This subclass of the rogue from Fifth EditionDungeons & Dragonsis best for any rogue who wants to weave through attackers and strike from the shadows.
As a scout rogue, you benefit from a high speed and a lot of movement on the battlefield. Lunge forward and attack your enemies, only to dash away when they prepare to strike you back. This class deals high damage like any rogue does, but you excel at more than combat. As a scout you are most at home in the wilderness, scouting ahead undetected.
Features Of A Scout Rogue
The Scout Rogue excels in mobility withSkirmisher, gains expertise inNatureandSurvivalskills, improves speed withSuperior Mobility, benefits the team withAmbush Master’sinitiative advantage, and gains powerful doubleSneak Attacksat 17th level withSudden Strike.
Description
Skirmisher
At third level, when an enemy ends it turn within five feet of you,you can move up to half your speedwithout provoking opportunity attacks as a reaction.
With this feature you canmove around any battlefield quickly and efficiently.Use this movement to flank with your allies, get out of melee range, or jump target to target.
Survivalist
At third level, you gainExpertise in Nature and Survivalskills.
These are both great skills to have expertise in. Make sure to choose different proficiencies at first levelso you end up with a wide selection of proficiencies.
Superior Mobility
At ninth level,your speed increases by ten feet.
This ability applies to any swimming or flying speed that you may have and increases the range of yourSkirmisherfeature, making it a powerful mobility feature
Ambush Master
At thirteenth level, you getadvantage on Initiative rolls. If you hit a creature during the first round of combat, you and your allies have advantage to hit that creature until the start of your next turn.
This is a great ability that also benefits your whole party, giving your group the opportunity toquickly take out a single foeby piling on with advantage. Encourage your party to follow your lead on Initiative rolls!
Sudden Strike
At seventeenth level, you canmake one additional attackwhen you take the Attack action on your turn. You canuse your Sneak Attack twice per turnwith this second attack as long as you do not attack the same creature twice.
The ability to use Sneak Attack twice in one turn is incredible, especially because at seventeenth level you dealan extra 9d6 each time you use Sneak Attack.With any luck you’ll be able to kill two enemies in one turn using this ability.
Best Ability Scores For A Scout Rogue
Dexterity should be your highest ability score.As a rogue, you will use finesse weapons and thus your Dexterity will determine your attack and damage bonuses. In addition, your Dexterity will determine your Stealth, which is useful for hiding and gaining advantage on attacks.
Wisdom is another crucial statistic.Normally rogues prioritize Intelligence, but as a scout you are more in tune with nature than with books. Your Survivalist feature gives you Expertise in Survival, so with a high Wisdom you’ll have incredible bonuses for that.
Intelligence will still come in handy,although it certainly doesn’t need to be among your highest scores. You’ll use Intelligence for investigating and for Nature checks, in which you’ll have Expertise.
The Constitution should be lower,but not your lowest stat. It’s usually valuable to put some points into Constitution, so you can increase your maximum hit points and protect yourself against the all-too-common Constitution saving throw.
Charisma isn’t very usefulas a scout rogue. You rely on your quickness and your stealth more than you rely on Deception, and since so many features of your class rely on passing unseen you won’t need to establish a strong charismatic presence.
Strength you can dump.Strength won’t come in handy since you don’t use it for your weapon attacks, and you can hopefully rely on Acrobatics more than Athletics.
Best Species For A Scout Rogue
A wood elflends itself to a scout rogue exceptionally well. you may increase your Dexterity by two and your Wisdom by one. Your base walkingspeed increases to 35 feet,which improves the range of your skirmisher feature.
you may also attempt tohide even when you are lightly obscured– thick foliage, poor weather conditions, or dust in the air could hide you from an opponent.
Hiding will come in handy as you’re trying to get Sneak Attack on your enemies.
An aarakocrawill give you the same ability score increases: two points for Dexterity and one for Wisdom.You also gain a fly speed of 50 feet.
If you combine this speed with your Skirmisher feature, you can move 25 feet as a reaction any time an enemy is near you – and at ninth level you’ll have a base speed of 60 feet.
This species will render youextremely agile and mobile,giving you huge range over a battlefield. You’ll also gain natural weapons in your talons, which deal 1d4 slashing damage
A halflinggains a Dexterity increase by two and one other feature by one depending on your subspecies.
You have a lower speed of 25 feet, but you are able tomove through the space of any creatureat least one size larger than yours (which will be most creatures since you are size Small). You also have thelucky feature,allowing you to reroll when you roll a natural one.
When it comes to subspecies for a halfling, there are two that especially work well with a scout rogue:
Dungeons & Dragons: 6 Playable Species That Can Fly
Best Feats For A Scout Rogue
Sharpshooterimproves your use of ranged weapons, which are great weapons for a quick-footed scout such as yourself. This featremoves the disadvantage of attacking from long rangeand lets youignore half cover and three-quarters cover.You can also choose to take a -5 penalty to your next ranged attack roll, in exchange for +10 damage if you hit, which is a valuable gamble.
Mobilewill enhance your Skirmisher feature and your Superior Mobility to make you game-breakingly fast. This feat increases your speed by 10 feet. You ignore difficult terrain when using the Dash action. If you make a melee attack on a creature, that creature can’t take opportunity attacks against you for the rest of the turn.
This feat may seem like overkill for increasing your speed, but if you’re going forpure speedandcombat mobilitythis feat is incredible.
Piercerlets you increase your Strength or your Dexterity by one. You can alsore-roll one damage diewhen you hit a creature and deal piercing damage. When you hit a creature that deals piercing damage, you canre-roll one damage die.
If you roll a critical hit that deals piercing damage, you can roll an extra damage die for that hit.
The Piercer feat works best withranged weapons.
Squat Nimblenesscan only be taken by a Small size species. You can increase your Strength or your Dexterity by one and increase your speed by five feet. You also gain proficiency in either Acrobatics or Athletics, and you gain advantage on any checks you make to escape a grapple.
