Any idea why stealth isn't in their class skillset? Is this a typo? This confuses me a bit as the spy version has it and both classes have the Stalker Talent. You'd think being able to sneak up on (or away from) wildlife would be a valuable skill to an outdoorsman.

You'd think. It's about the most upside down spec in the game I think.

I think the idea of the Explorer version of the Scout is something like an Edmond Hillary, Marco Polo or even James Cook. Their role is to find new places, map them, then return with that information. They travel over impassable terrain, discover unknown secrets, bet there is no reason to hide.

It's the military Scout from the Spy career that's forced to be stealthy.

The Explorer Specialisation that actually needs to move quietly is the Big Game Hunter.

That still doesn't actually explain the crazy mix of talents, but I guess that they knew Scout would be used twice when they originally made it, explaining the combat talents in there.

I think the idea of the Explorer version of the Scout is something like an Edmond Hillary, Marco Polo or even James Cook. Their role is to find new places, map them, then return with that information. They travel over impassable terrain, discover unknown secrets, bet there is no reason to hide.

It's the military Scout from the Spy career that's forced to be stealthy.

The Explorer Specialisation that actually needs to move quietly is the Big Game Hunter.

That still doesn't actually explain the crazy mix of talents, but I guess that they knew Scout would be used twice when they originally made it, explaining the combat talents in there.

Really wish I knew which book had Big Game Hunter. And that still doesn't explain why Scout still has Stalker if you're not even going to get the related skill as a default class skill.

Big Game Hunter is in Enter the Unknown, the Explorer book.

Spy does have the Stealth skill, and Coordination. But having skill ranks isn't essential to a skill success, just a base characteristic of 3 or even 4 will be enough most of the time.

There is no doubt the skill and talent blend is broad and somewhat unrelated to each other, but it does what it does quite well. If you want to be the sneaky type then go with Spy Scout. If you prefer the tour guide or university trained traditional explorer then Explorer Scout is a better choice.

They have the talents because your experienced Scout is going to be 2 boost dice better than most other people at sneaking around. At the table, you can bet that you'll occasionally need to make an individual Stealth check (and Coordination is usually on an individual basis) and you can be **** sure you'll be grateful for the boost. Besides, Stealth is flashy to players but thematically the talent might be on the tree b/c of the Coordination boost.

*cracks knuckles*

If we're beating on the horrific Scout spec, I want to be involved!

Seriously, Scout is the most kriffed-up tree in the game. It's a horrible grab-bag of random things that doesn't line up with the career or other specs.

Actually, it's fine in the Spy career - that career has skills that are actually useful. But it's horrible in Explorer.

I used to rant about it all the time. Some were halfway amusing, too.

Suffice to say, the entire Explorer career was weaksauce, which is why the first splatbook released for EoE was 'Enter the Unknown'. Scout actually isn't too bad as a second spec for a Big Game Hunter, which actually has the stealth and weapon skills you'd expect it to have.

Really wish I knew which book had Big Game Hunter. And that still doesn't explain why Scout still has Stalker if you're not even going to get the related skill as a default class skill.

You're new here, huh?

I think the idea of the Explorer version of the Scout is something like an Edmond Hillary, Marco Polo or even James Cook. Their role is to find new places, map them, then return with that information. They travel over impassable terrain, discover unknown secrets, bet there is no reason to hide.

Yes, Richard. but it's Star Wars. Everything on that planet is going to want to eat you, and that includes the plants and rocks. There's every reason to hide, or shoot.

To be honest, if a player wanted to play the kind of scout you'd envisage in a Star Wars game, like the guys in green on Endor, I'd probably direct him to Soldier/Trailblazer.

Yah, I'm not opposed to the Scout concept, it's this spec that's the issue. It's a design mess. The Talents and Skills are supposed to compliment one another. The game's description of their Talents is that they represent tricks and such a PC learns through practical application of their Skills except in Scout too many of the Talents have no learned Skill that corresponds with them. All the spec needs I think is to ditch Medicine and Athletics for Stealth and Vigilance or Range(H) and it works better.

Yah, I'm not opposed to the Scout concept, it's this spec that's the issue. It's a design mess. The Talents and Skills are supposed to compliment one another. The game's description of their Talents is that they represent tricks and such a PC learns through practical application of their Skills except in Scout too many of the Talents have no learned Skill that corresponds with them. All the spec needs I think is to ditch Medicine and Athletics for Stealth and Vigilance or Range(H) and it works better.

I think it was notable that one of the extra EoE pregens was a scout, and she'd spent pretty much all her starting XP on non-career skills that were required to realise her concept...