I've always felt this was sort of missing from the game until 3.5E launched the scout class. In any case, I tried to find a quick and dirty way of achieving similar ends and here it is. Not my most imaginative effort, but I think it should work.... Comments welcome.
The Scout
Scouts are master at reconnaissance and expert skirmishers. They excel in setting ambushes, sabotage, raids, hit and run attacks, harrying enemy lines, and other forms of guerrilla warfare.
Quick Build
You can make a scout quickly by following these suggestions. First, Dexterity should be your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. Second, choose the outlander background.
Class Features
As a scout, you have the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per scout level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per scout level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, longswords, rapiers, scimitars, shortswords, nets
Tools: Trapmaker’s Kit
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence
Skills: Choose three from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
• (a) studded leather armor or (b) leather armor
• (a) a shortsword or (b) a simple melee weapon
• (a) a shortbow and quiver of 20 arrows or (b) a light crossbow and case of 20 bolts
• (a) explorer’s pack or (b) an dungeoneer’s pack
• A dagger and a trapmaker’s kit
Level Proficiency
Bonus Sneak
Attack
Features
1 +2 1d6 Natural Explorer, Sneak Attack
2 +2 1d6 Cunning Action, Vigilance
3 +2 2d6 Escape the Horde (“Hit and Run”)
4 +2 2d6 Ability Score Improvement
5 +3 3d6 Natural Explorer improvements, Uncanny Dodge
6 +3 3d6 Fast Movement, Hide in Plain Sight (“Camouflage”)
7 +3 4d6 Assassinate (“Bushwacker”)
8 +3 4d6 Ability Score Improvement
9 +4 5d6 Supreme Sneak (“Master Scout”)
10 +4 5d6 Land’s Stride, Natural Explorer improvements
11 +4 6d6 Hide in Plain Sight (“Camouflage”) improvement, Mobility
12 +4 6d6 Ability Score Improvement
13 +5 7d6 Vanish
14 +5 7d6 Blind Sense
15 +5 8d6 Evasion, Natural Explorer improvements
16 +5 8d6 Ability Score Improvement
17 +6 9d6 Thief’s Reflexes (“Ambusher”)
18 +6 9d6 Elusive
19 +6 10d6 Ability Score Improvement
20 +6 10d6 Death Strike (“Deadly Accuracy”)
Natural Explorer
Beginning at 1st level, as a ranger. You choose additional favored terrain types at 5th, 10th, and 15th level.
Sneak Attack
Beginning at 1st level, as a rogue.
Cunning Action
Starting at 2nd level, as a rogue.
Vigilance
Starting at 2nd level, you apply half your proficiency bonus to your initiative rolls.
Hit and Run
Beginning at 3rd level, as a hunter ranger’s Escape the Horde.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th.
Uncanny Dodge
Starting at 5th level, as a rogue.
Fast Movement
Starting at 3rd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are wearing light or no armor and are not wielding a shield.
Camouflage
Beginning at 6th level, as a ranger’s Hide in Plain Sight, except bonus is only +5. At 11th level, the bonus improves to +10.
Bushwacker
Starting at 7th level, as an assassin rogue’s Assassinate.
Master Scout
Beginning at 9th level, as a thief rogue’s Supreme Sneak.
Land’s Stride
Starting at 10th level, as a ranger.
Mobility
Beginning at 11th level, when you make a melee attack against a creature, you don’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not.
Vanish
Starting at 13th level, as a ranger.
Blind Sense
Beginning at 14th level, as a rogue.
Evasion
Starting at 15th level, as a rogue.
Ambusher
Beginning at 17th level, as thief’s rogue’s Thief’s Reflexes.
Elusive
Starting at 18th level, as a rogue.
Deadly Accuracy
At 20th level, as an assassin rogue’s Death Strike.
Tools
Trapmaker’s Kit
Cost: 25 gp; Weight: 10 lb.
This kit contains a small shovel and a variety of ropes, wires, snares, spikes, and other equipment to make traps of various sorts. Proficiency with these tools lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to craft traps.
Rogue + outlander background?
Zardnaar wrote:
Ive got to agree with the outlander bit. Not to mention a fatal flaw, at the moment your missing subclasses as well, even if you only got the one built in right now.
You can have a whole team of "scouts" as a PC group, each bringing different things to the table (i.e., different classes but all with scout-y backgrounds). And that's somethings I really like about 5e characters.
Likewise, a band of thieves. Or a warband. Or any number of other thematic choices.
You don't need a scout class, IMO. A "traditional" strictly martial scout could be a fighter. A rogue. A barbarian. Even stop after just the 1st level of ranger if you don't want spells. Or a combination of any/all of those. Or anything else that you want your "scout" to be.
Why can't people just take Stealth, Survival, and tracking and say they are a scout. Don't really need a complex archetype or class to be a scout.
You certainly can do all of that with the outlander background, but then only the magical ranger has the natural terrain and camouflage bonuses. And frankly the ranger lacks some of the skirmishing-like bonuses of a rogue. On the flipside, the rogue gets various thieving and criminal bonuses (such as knowledge of thieves' cant) that are not necessarily the right vibe for a wilderness scout.
The DM can tweak things like that pretty easily. OK, you're a Rogue, and you took outlander - would you like to trade your theify stuff for wildernes stuff?
I also have to comment the 'whole team of scouts,' because it's one of the things I love about 5e is the everything old is new again bit. There were some kits in 2e that were similar accross a number of classes. There were backgrounds and themes in 4e, too. And PrCs, feats - all kinds of customization in 3.x, of course. So it is nice that 5e backgrounds can help you build a party around a common theme - even if you might still need to wedge a cleric or bard or something else with cure wounds into your 'soldiers' theme or whatever - it's nice that it didn't get rid of something we've been able to do, one way or another, since c1990. 
Of course, backgrounds in 5e have a little more impact than a lot of 2e kits did, and take less system mastery to apply than 3e. So that's not to damn with faint praise or anything. It's just an example of how 5e took something that was good in some prior editions, put a little spin on it, and delivered.
TomCosta wrote:
I've always wanted to try this class concept.
arnwolf666 wrote:
Thanks for the comments. I agree that one of the great things about 5E is some of the versatility that backgrounds and the archetypes offer. In fact, I think the archetypes are a more perfect version of substitution levels from 3.5 E and Pathfinder's similar mechanic. That said, there are still a number of character concepts that I don't think quite work with the existing rules such as the alchemist, scout, and shaman. Certainly you could create some facsimile of those classes, but I don't think any combinations we could make with the current rules would quite capture them. Frankly, I was surprised how well 5E does capture so many of the possible concepts. As such I thought the spell-less ranger/scout didn't really have a good place. That is, a scout that is as good as a ranger at being a wilderness guy without the spells. In the end my version is about 50% rogue, 25% ranger, and 25% other.
I did think about creating archetypes, but didn't quite get there. I thought about more of a military skirmisher versus a trapper, but haven't developed it further. I certainly don't see that as a fatal flaw. A fatal flaw would be if the class just didn't work or was completey unbalanced. And as far as the, heh the DM can just let you swap some stuff for other stuff, I'd argue that's just what I did. As I noted at the beginning, it wasn't my most imaginative effort, but I think it came out relatively balanced and achieves its objectives. But to each his own.
Diffan wrote:
My take on the "scout" would be following:
Outlander background
rogue class
changes (like proposed in the DMG)
lvl 1: proficiency in the trapmaker tools instead of thief´s tools
lvl 2: Druidic instead of thiefs´ cant. OR: a special sign and whistle language that allows scouts to communicate with each other
mimicking sounds of the nature or communicating entirely without noise.
lvl 3: scout archetype
subclass abilities:
lvl 3: - favoured terrain (like the ranger feature)
- proficiency in the longbow
- mobile sneak attack: if you used cunning action with disengage or dash, and you moved at least 15 ft before the attack,
you can sneak attack a target with no creatures adjacent.
lvl 9: - second favoured terrain
- pass without trace
lvl 13 - camouflage/hide in plain sight
- third favoured terrain
lvl 17 - something that allows you to do double damage at the first turn of the combat. Maybe something like the ranger´s volley allowing sneak attack
on each hit. (Damage is split over several creatures, but potentially higher)
- fourth favored terrain
ULich, those are good ideas and I think another way to approach the scout that could work well.
Invisible familiars are my favorite scouts
I made a number of edits based on comments and some new ideas....
The Scout
Scouts are master at reconnaissance and expert skirmishers. They excel in setting ambushes, sabotage, raids, hit and run attacks, harrying enemy lines, and other forms of guerrilla warfare.
Quick Build
You can make a scout quickly by following these suggestions. First, Dexterity should be your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. Second, choose the outlander background.
Class Features
As a scout, you have the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per scout level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per scout level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, longswords, rapiers, scimitars, shortswords, nets
Tools: Trapmaker’s Kit
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence
Skills: Choose three from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
• (a) studded leather armor or (b) leather armor
• (a) a shortsword or (b) a simple melee weapon
• (a) a shortbow and quiver of 20 arrows or (b) a light crossbow and case of 20 bolts
• (a) explorer’s pack or (b) an dungeoneer’s pack
• A dagger, steel mirror, and a trapmaker’s kit
Level ProficiencyBonus Sneak Attack Features
1 +2 1d6 Natural Explorer, Scout Signaling, Sneak Attack
2 +2 1d6 Cunning Action, Vigilance
3 +2 2d6 Hit and Run
4 +2 2d6 Ability Score Improvement
5 +3 3d6 Natural Explorer improvements, Uncanny Dodge
6 +3 3d6 Bushwhacker
7 +3 4d6 Master Scout, Trap Breaker
8 +3 4d6 Ability Score Improvement
9 +4 5d6 Mobile Sneak Attack
10 +4 5d6 Land’s Stride, Natural Explorer improvements
11 +4 6d6 Camouflage
12 +4 6d6 Ability Score Improvement
13 +5 7d6 Fortitude, Trackless Step
14 +5 7d6 Blind Sense
15 +5 8d6 Evasion, Natural Explorer improvements
16 +5 8d6 Ability Score Improvement
17 +6 9d6 Ambusher
18 +6 9d6 Elusive
19 +6 10d6 Ability Score Improvement
20 +6 10d6 Deadly Accuracy
Natural Explorer
Beginning at 1st level, as a ranger. You choose additional favored terrain types at 5th, 10th, and 15th level.
Scout Signaling
During your training, you learned how to use a flags, mirrors, hand gestures, whistles, and animal calls to secretly alert your companions to basic dangers and other scouts to troop movements. You can also leave hidden trail markers recognizable by other scouts as warnings of possible dangers or hazards or so that they may more easily follow your trail.
Sneak Attack
Beginning at 1st level, as a rogue.
Cunning Action
Starting at 2nd level, as a rogue.
Vigilance
Starting at 2nd level, you apply half your proficiency bonus to your initiative rolls.
Hit and Run
Beginning at 3rd level, as a hunter ranger’s Escape the Horde.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th.
Uncanny Dodge
Starting at 5th level, as a rogue.
Bushwhacker
Beginning at 6th level, as an assassin rogue’s Assassinate.
Master Scout
Starting at 7th level, as a thief rogue’s Supreme Sneak.
Trap Breaker
You are as skilled at disabling traps as crafting them. At 8th level, you gain proficiency with thieves’ tools.
Mobile Sneak Attack
Beginning at 9th level, when you use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to take the Dash or Disengage action, have moved at least 10 feet, and have not yet attacked, you can use your action to make an attack roll with advantage.
Land’s Stride
Starting at 10th level, as a ranger.
Camouflage
Beginning at 11th level, as a ranger’s Hide in Plain Sight.
Fortitude
You have advantage on Constitution checks and saving throws against nonmagical effects that can result in exhaustion, including those involving lack of sleep, laboring without rest, running a marathon, forced marches, food and water deprivation, holding your breath, extreme temperatures, and certain illnesses and diseases.
Trackless Step
Starting at 13th level, you can’t be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave trail.
Blind Sense
Beginning at 14th level, as a rogue.
Evasion
Starting at 15th level, as a rogue.
Ambusher
Beginning at 17th level, as thief’s rogue’s Thief’s Reflexes.
Elusive
Starting at 18th level, as a rogue.
Deadly Accuracy
At 20th level, as an assassin rogue’s Death Strike.
Tools
Trapmaker’s Kit
Cost: 25 gp; Weight: 10 lb.
This kit contains a small shovel and a variety of ropes, wires, snares, spikes, and other equipment to make traps of various sorts. Proficiency with these tools lets you add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to craft traps.
Instead of creating a new base class, I would just go with a roguish archetype:
Scout Roguish archetype
Any force on the move, whether it's an army or an adventuring group, needs information about what's ahead, what's behind and, more important, time to prepare for battle. A scout can navigate difficult terrain at good speed and she specialized in seeing her foe before the opponent ever detect her presence. In a dungeon or in the wild a scout is only seen when she wants to be.
3rd level - Natural explorer (as per the ranger ability PHB p.91) you choose an additional terrain at 13th level. Add dungeon to the list of favored terrain
- Alert: when in it's favored terrain, the scout has +5 to Wisdom (Perception) ability checks, and add half is proficiency bonus to Initiative.
9th level - Fast movement (as per the barbarian ability PHB p.49)
13th level - Land stride (as per the ranger ability PHB p.92)
17th level - Vanish (as per the ranger ability PHB p.92) when hiding this way, the scout becomes invisble until he attacks or cast a spell.
First, thanks for all the comments. I appreciate them.
I will reiterate that I don't think the existing rules allow for a nonmagic version of the ranger with similar wilderness skills. They do allow for amazing variety and for everyone to have scout like abilities, which is one the best innovations of 5E. That said, probably the best you could do is take 1 level or ranger and multiclass as a fighter or rogue with the outlander background, but that comes with class features that are not in line with the theme and still leaves you somewhat substandard compared to the ranger, which isn't what I'm looking for. You can go the route of creating a simple archetype, but that leaves you waiting until 3rd level to gain your respective class features and stills leaves you with features that don't jell with the concept. FInally, you could go the route of making some minor tweaks to a classes skill choices and such with the addition of a new archetype, but if I'm going that far, why not go the extra step (which wasn't much as I've already noted this isn't my imaginiative effort since I'm essentially poaching 50% from the rogue and another 25% from the ranger).
Also, by making my own class, I can more easily avoid some of the weird combinations that I noticed in my original write up and in some of the suggestions. For example, how do favored terrain (which already doubles your proficiency bonus for all Intelligence and Wisdom skill checks in your terrain) and expertise stack, if at all? Cunning action and fast movement may prove challenging when it comes to combining them. Cunning action makes Vanish dramatically less useful.
Additional comments welcome.
In 3.5e, didn't the scout's "sneak attack" ability require a move of 10' or more. I also remember being able to use a javelin or a weapon with reach as a class proficiency. (I don't remember, and my books are currently boxed up and buried under other books, so I don't have the reference.
Yes, in 3.5E, they had the skirmish ability which required some movement. I didn't convert that for a few reasons, first it seemed unnecessary to limit the sneak attack for balance reasons since it wasn't like I was giving them something else instead and frankly to me, the sneak attack works well with a class that ambushes and uses other skirmish tactics. That said, it did stick in my head so when ULich suggested somethign similar I did add in Mobile Sneak Attack.
I'm not sure I see someone specializing in sneaking carrying a larger weapon for practical reasons. In 3.5 E they were profiecient with simple weapons, plus the handaxe, throwing axes, short sword and short bow, so not much change.
That said, I didn't want a direct conversion because while I thought the 3.5E scout filled a necessary niche, there were some challenges with it in that almost all of its abilities were along the lines of "+X to some roll," which doesn't convert as well in 5E and lacks a bit of fluff-like panache (even if some of my panache is just in the class feature title). For example, they got Battle Fortitude which granted them a bonus to Fort saves and initiative as long they weren't in medium or heavier armor. A weird way of giving them 3/4 Fort save that was oddly impacted by heavy armor.