Playing rogues and scouts all my life, I thought this book would be really good to own but I was very dissapointed. First I just want to make it clear that the assassin prestige class doesn't live up to the name, I think, and the next best rogue prestige is shadow dancer, which isn't that good except for hide in plain sight and shadow jump.
I was really expecting something in this book that involves stealth for my rogue and stealth for my scout.
First, the first 20 pages go out of DnD context and talk about who the author things are good scoundrels in real life, and lists no reason why. Its along the lines of "I think Han Solo is a good scoundrel. Oh, yeah, and Batman, and...well..everyone from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And have you ever watched Star Trek? They have some too. OH! And Neo from the Matrix and Jack Sparrow from Pirates." It goes on and on.
Next it spends 5 pages giving just descriptions of the core base classes can fit into the category of scoundrel with roleplaying, with a sidebar saying "Actually some classes from outside the core books are pretty good scoundrels too. Try it!"
Then it spends 5-10 pages naming different types of scoundrels which it pretty much just did with the descriptions, except now its not referring to classes but in general. For example, the divine scoundrel. It recommends spells for you! :\ Woo detect magic. Then, alas, stealthy scoundrel. Recommended feat? Improved Diversion "Distract your foe long enough to run away" Best Skill Tricks: Point It out. 'Pointing out to your friends that an enemy is present.' (wtf?)
Prestige Classes:
Avenged Executioner- basically sudden strike, and blood murderer. "If you kill an enemy, all others are frightened for one round."
Battle Trickster- 2 bonus tricks, bonus feat, tricky fighting (+1 on an attack roll 1 round after using a trick)
Cloaked Dancer- 3 dance styles, surprise strike 2d6, and +2 arcane casting levels by level 5. Her dances are distract, tire, or frighten an enemy. hm.
Combat trapsmith- This sounds slightly fun as it seems to be a kiting class. You place a trap and run. Traps are all sorts of status or movement affects and later on they deal 2d6 or 5d6 damage. Need at lead 8 ranks in trapmaking. (While this seems fun, if you cant impede enemy movement by the time you get this class if you really need to, maybe something is wrong? 5 levels in it is 5 levels less in a some heavy damage dealing class)
Fortunes friend- Authors favorite. Basically in exchange for powerful attacks you get bonus luck feats, and some class abilities to reroll many failed rolls during the day. +2 arcane casting by level 5.
Gray guard- LG blackguard basically. +divine caster/every other level. Some ok abilities. Steady bab
Magical trickster- uses skill tricks and bonus feats. +2 levels of existing class by level 3.
Malconvoker- A summoning class. Don't know too much about summoning so I can't evaluate this.
Master of Masks- Putting on diff. masks gives diff. spell like abilities. Dragon=fire breath 3/day. Assassin=sneak attack. I would take Binder as a base class over this as a prestige. It does give a few +existing levels though.
Mountebank- Kind of neat if your campaign focus a lot on bluff, disguise, and illusion checks.
Psibond agent- Mental links over subject. Basically a whole class focused on charming monsters/people I think.
Spellwarp sniper- I was angry with this cause I wanted my scout to focus on hiding while using bow and getting decent bonuses. While the author said this benefits scouts, its an all spellcasting class. Woo, so I get precise shot. I already have it from ranger >.>
Uncanny trickster- Same as magical tricker. They use tricks. but like to show off instead of conceal it.
Feats- swift hunter and improved skirmish DO help my scout out. Thank you for that
They have lots of feats for existing classes but few without prerequisites.
Luck Feats- Basically specific feats for rerolling failed rolls.
Ambush feats- Taking sneak attack bonus and use it in a different way (e.i. status effects or ability damage)
Skill tricks- using skills or weapons or items in ways you otherwise cant. For example:
Whip climber- Use whip as grappling hook.
Opening tap- Open lock as swift action
Collector of stories- +5 on knowledge to identify monsters (Would of helped in our session the other day. "I think its an orc. kil- no. Hmm maybe its an orc. kil-still no. Did we fail spot checks? kil- no" lol
Spells- Not very useful overall. Didn't look at all of them
Cleric lvl 1- +5 on heal and +2 on sneak attacks. Um?
Equipment- Worth checking out if you play a rogue. Lots of ways to conceal things you don't want found.
Adventure ideas-
Things like "save the princess"
Well you get the idea :p
Role Playing
