Wilderness Scout

Overview

The Wilderness Scout is Rifts' wasteland tracker, ranger, and outdoor specialist — the character who knows the land, finds safe routes through hostile terrain, tracks creatures across difficult ground, and survives where civilization cannot. Unlike pure scholars and specialists, the Wilderness Scout has real combat capability; in canon they are often grouped with the Men of Arms for their fighting skills. They are the party's guide through unmapped territory and their first line of defense against wilderness threats.

Wilderness Scouts are tough, weathered, and quiet. They range from indigenous wasteland survivors to Federation scout-trained military personnel to Magic-Zone wilderness specialists who navigate the strange flora and fauna of post-Rifts North America.

This is the combat-capable member of the Specialization family — comparable to a Ranger, but built on the expanded-skills framework. It pairs martial training and medium armor with a tracking-and-survival identity that no other skill class matches.

At a glance

Class features by level

Sub-Specializations

Tracker

• L1: +1 status bonus to Tracking (cumulative with the Specialization), and a +1 status bonus to Strikes against tracked creatures for 24 hours after tracking them.
• L7 (Greater): Tracking range extends to 1 mile via subtle signs.
• L15 (Master): Recognize a specific individual's tracks across great distances.

Pathfinder

• L1: +1 status bonus to Wilderness Navigation. Identify "impossible" routes — cliff faces and the like — through terrain.
• L7 (Greater): with an hour of scouting, find a hidden route to a known destination (gated by the time, not a daily cap).
• L15 (Master): Identify magical or dimensional routes that aren't on standard maps.

Hunter

• L1: Stealth-based ambush bonus — a +1 status bonus to attack rolls on the first round of a Stealth-initiated combat.
• L7 (Greater): Once per turn, when you make a Strike you can make it a Hunter's Strike — a +2 status bonus to that Strike's attack roll, with extra damage equal to your Survival proficiency × 1d6. This is part of the Strike and adds no action cost.
• L15 (Master): Hunter's Strike is still usable no more than once per turn, but you can't attempt a second Hunter's Strike on the same turn.

Class feats

Class feats available at each feat level — you gain one at every even level, and can always pick a feat of your level or lower. The Wilderness Scout is the combat-capable skill class; its feats mix Ranger-style hunting and ambush with wilderness mastery.

Level 1

• Skill Specialist. Gain an additional Specialization beyond your class's 3 starting.
• Outdoor Survival. +1 status bonus to foraging for food and water and to enduring environmental conditions.
• Animal Handling. Gain the Beast Handling Specialization.
• Hunt Quarry. Designate a creature you can see or have tracked as your quarry. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Seek, to Track it, and to Recall Knowledge about it, and the first time each turn you Strike it you ignore its lesser cover and concealment. One quarry at a time.

Level 2

• Camouflage. While in natural terrain, you can Hide and Sneak even without cover or concealment, and you gain a +2 status bonus to Stealth checks in the wild.
• Trackless Step. In natural terrain you ignore non-magical difficult terrain and leave no tracks unless you choose to.
• Quick Tracker. You can Seek for tracks and follow a trail as a single action, and your Field Tracking takes half the usual time.

Level 4

• Improved Tracking. Field Tracking range +1 day; you can track creatures across difficult terrain that normally hides tracks.
• Hunter's Bow Specialization. Any thrown or bow weapon scales with your Survival proficiency for damage.
• Precise Shot. Your ranged Strikes against your quarry gain a +1 circumstance bonus to the attack roll and ignore the target's lesser cover.

Level 6

• Terrain Advantage. While you and your allies are in natural terrain, allies within 30 ft gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Stealth, and you can lead them through difficult terrain you guide them around.
• Quarry's Bane. Your Strikes against your quarry deal 1d6 additional precision damage (increases with Hunter's Focus).
• Skirmisher. The first ranged Strike you make after you Stride doesn't trigger reactions, and you ignore the penalty for making a ranged attack while in or adjacent to melee.

Level 8

• Wilderness Ambush. When you make a Strike that initiates combat from Stealth, deal +2d6 damage; this is part of that Strike and adds no action cost.
• Cross-Country Pursuit. Track and pursue a fleeing target across a region, abstracted scene by scene; it can't simply outrun you over distance.
• Evasion. When you roll a success on a Reflex save, you get a critical success instead.

Level 10

• Hunter's Focus. Your Quarry's Bane precision damage increases by 1 die, and your quarry is off-guard to you the first time you Strike it each turn.
• Pin Down. When you hit your quarry with a ranged Strike, you can reduce its Speeds by 10 ft until the start of your next turn, and it can't Step.
• Wilderness Sense. In natural terrain you gain imprecise scent and tremorsense out to 30 ft, and you can't be made flat-footed by creatures you've detected in the wild.

Level 12

• Master of Wild Places. Your Hunter's Lodge upgrades to support a larger party with cleaner facilities and a greater resource yield.
• Quiet Death. Stealth-initiated attacks deal additional damage, and victims fail to alert others on their first detection check.
• Master Tracker. You can follow trails up to a week old, track across water and other "trackless" media, and never lose a trail short of magical concealment.

Level 14

• Deadly Ambush. Your Stealth-initiated Strikes deal 2 additional dice of damage, and a creature you reduce below half its HP from stealth is off-guard until the end of its next turn.
• Apex Predator. Your quarry can't become hidden or undetected from you while on the same plane, and your bonus to checks and Strikes against it increases to +3 circumstance.
• Hold the Wild. In natural terrain, turn a 15-ft area within 30 ft into difficult terrain for 1 minute; you and your allies ignore it.

Level 16

• Living Map. You maintain a mental map of your entire campaign region and can identify locations from second-hand descriptions.
• Wilderness Master. Your Survival, Nature, and Stealth all function as one tier higher for their checks.
• Lethal Hunter. Your critical hits against your quarry deal 1 additional die of damage and inflict persistent bleed equal to that die.

Level 18

• One With the Wild. While in natural terrain you are permanently concealed, immune to environmental hazards, and can move at full Speed while tracking or Sneaking.
• Ghost Step. Trigger: an attack targets you while you have cover or concealment in natural terrain. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the attack and become hidden if it misses.
• Relentless Pursuit. Once per round, you may Stride toward your quarry as a free action, and you can never be outpaced by a quarry you're tracking over distance.

Level 20

• The Perfect Hunt. Against your quarry, your Strikes score a critical hit on a natural 19 or 20 and ignore its cover, concealment, and any Hardness from natural armor or hide.
• Master of the Wilds. Your capstone Wilderness Ritual needs only 10 minutes, and your Hunter's Edge awareness extends to anywhere you've set a Wilderness Marker.
• Unseen Death. When you Strike from stealth or against an unaware quarry, the attack is automatically a critical hit if it hits a creature of your level or lower; against higher-level creatures it deals the Deadly Ambush bonus dice twice.

Where the class shines

The Wilderness Scout is moderately combat-relevant — tougher and more dangerous than the Chopper or Trauma Medic, but lighter than the project's dedicated martial classes. It works best as:

• A combat-capable, second-line presence.
• A Stealth-and-ranged ambusher who opens fights on its own terms.
• A tracker and scout who handles intel-gathering between battles.
• A wilderness anchor — urban scenes blunt the class, where wilderness scenes are where it carries the party.

Wilderness Scouts are non-magical, so they can install cyberware at no resource cost — though many eschew it for the same reason the Psi-Knight does: it dulls the intuitive instinct the class relies on.