Shattered Kingdoms

Now that I have toyed with my scout for a good month, wanted to bring up some points for discussion regarding their skills, in no particular order:

Ambush. The skill is very under used because of all the limitations with it. You can only ambush while camouflaged and only with a bow and arrow. Why can't you ambush with a spear or crossbow? I can get behind needing to be camouflaged, though I feel like if you are able to hide or be invis it should also work so long the target cannot see you. And it should always work on a sleeping target.

Snare. Another super rarely used skill. Really is more of a troll skill, since a bell going off doesn't tell you much of what snare was hit or by what; unless you only set one snare per area. Would be more useful if you knew what went into what snare. Also, a snared target should take extra damage with ambush imho.

Scout vs. Mercenary. No secret that a Mercenary is better at shooting bows and crossbows then a scout when specializing in said crossbow or bow. I think scouts should have something to give them an edge over them somehow. Maybe add an accuracy bonus to rapid shot or give them an extra skill of sharpshooter, much like finesse for scouts, giving them the ability to shoot a target with extreme accuracy and find the weak spots in heavy armor.

Envenom. I am not sure how to feel about it. I feel like being able to add cause critical to weapons and ammo is too strong. This should be cause serious max. Cause light is pretty useless, since most with decent enchants will just ignore it. I also feel like this should only work with herbs. And herbs should get a tweak letting grandmaster scouts with mastered herbalism find the strongest toxins. As it is, the weak poisons are never going to actually poison anyone, unless you are trying to poison their store bought pet. It would recommend having weaken, poison, cause light and cause serious work with envenom. And herbs scale with level of scout, or at least offer grandmaster scouts with mastered herbalism the ability to find strong to powerful poison, weaken, cause light and cause serious herbs.

Tame. Really frustrated with this skill, since I feel like a scout's tame is only moderately better than a store bought one. I get having limits in strength with more than one pet, but more is not often better. As it is, a elf scout with max charisma at grandmaster and mastered tame is limited to master level pets to tame. I will gladly give up the ability to have an extra pet or store bought one, if I can just tame one good tame. A grandmaster level beast that is actually decent. I really feel like this skill needs tweaking.

Skin. Why in the world is the fail rate so high? Hard enough to kill dragons, why do I need to fail 50% of the time with mastered skin and high stats? I feel like again, a seasoned scout who has skin mastered should fail less than 5% of the time. Also, why do dwarves get a bonus to their skins? How is a dragonscale skin more innate to dwarves and lets them have an extra rune of armor protection? Or can fey races get an extra rune of magic protection to their skins?

I am interested to hear your thoughts.

Well said, I agree with every point, actually.

Well done, Trag. Hope at least some of your concerns get addressed.

Would like to see something like this done for necromancer, swashbuckler, and rogue.

The only thing I have to say at this time is that you can apply multiple applications of the same venom type to boost its effective level.

Agreed, I would give up two medium tames and a store bought for a high-level tame any day.
Skin success rate needs to be up'd when you hit GM.
Envenom don't mind it, multiple appliances of the same venom is ok.
Sharpshooter skill is definitively necessary, especially for heavy armor enemies.

once I finish training my scout, I will have more insight on this matter.

How about adding herbs that cause/cure deafness as well or herbs that cure thirst? Also we could stand to make edible herbs (food ones) a bit more filling, giving them meaning.

Would be neat to see some other herbs. Maybe something you can pick up in valleys and mountains. No herbs there. Or even the tundra? What about some water breathing seaweed for underwater?