Despite the debate going on in the Gamemasters Forum over scouts being in the Deathwatch. I'm of the opinion that there would be specialist scouts that have chosen to remain in their respective 10th Companies from various chapters that due to their natural skill or perhaps unorthodox methods get recruited as they are Scout Sergeants to be in the Deathwatch.

So I've put together a Specialty doc to cover those that may want to do this. I'm limiting my players to One Scout marine per Kill-Team, IE one person can play a scout marine out of the group if they so choose as an added house rule for me.

What I'd really like is some feedback on the specialty. I've had some of my players make mock-up characters and doing free level advancement to test it with small gameplay scenarios. It's proven a little weaker than a tactical marine in most situations, and the most troublesome setup has been the Scout opting to continuously purchase a heavy weapon to sneak to a flank and fire.

If you have feedback, I'd love to heard it, and I'm more than willing to make adjustments on the fly to the document.

Looks pretty good, but I don't think they should be penalized for using heavy weapons.

I think a full career is overkill. An advanced specialization available at rank 1 would make more sense to me.  

I would limit it to tactical, devastator, or assault careers only and swap out wargear to make certain that players wouldn't look at it as a cheap, easy way to get certain advances.

The penalty applied to the Heavy Weapons is actually from the book, and they can buy the requisite talent to eliminate the negative at level 3. I put it up that far in the advancement because of the rarity it is for scout marines to have heavy weapons. In a normal squad for table top they're limited to 1 out of 9 will have a heavy weapon the rest will be assorted bolters, shotguns, needle rifles, and flamers. Which really are the bread and butter of the scout marine arsenal.

If you have suggestions on how to adjust that I'm all ears, but this was the best solution I could think of at the time I was writing this (like 3 am after a 10 hour work day, I have a busy work schedule).

The overall design is like a generalized weak version of all the specialties if you choose to go that direction, with great emphasis on being stealthy and having demolitions skills.

I haven't read your document, but I agree it should probably be an Advanced Specialization.  What really sets Scouts apart from Tactical marines?  Stealthiness and perhaps more unorthodox tactics (and in some cases, weapons).  I would give them access to Concealment, Silent Move, and some Lore skills and exotic weapon training.  Also, working off the traditional usage of "scout", you might give them an ability to engage Squad Mode at a longer distance and something that extends the range of their comrades' abilities.   Also, make sniping an appealing option (perhaps give them Sniper Rifle/Stalker Pattern Boltgun/ Stalker Bolts as standard Wargear?)

Nerdynick said:

Most of the advice you have is covered. I focused on Stealthiness, Conceal, and more specialized weapons including the Needle rifles.

What really sets them apart from Tactical marines is the ambush or skirmisher tactics, they're intended to be shoot then move individuals where they keep an enemy at range while a standard space marine is a fire and advance tactical doctrine. Eh, guess using that terminology isn't the easiest to understand cause the game tries to adhere to some military terminology.

They're coming from differing ideologies where they approach a problem differently. From what I've seen of advanced scouts in the fiction is they'd rather infiltrate and use precision fire to eliminate a target, or explosives to take down a structure. The counter point is that standard marine doctrine is to establish a beachhead, then push forward engaging enemies as they arise until they've reached their destination. It's far less subtle but can be equally effective. If you're looking at the codex the standard marine approach is the acceptable one, while the scout approach is considered unorthodox but effective none the less.

In fiction Davion Thule acknowledged Sergeant Cyrus' talents, even calling them unorthodox, but have been found to be effective and implemented some of those ideas into his command.

 I notice that the scout can't take the talent for the Needle rifle. Or is that part of Astartes weapon specialisation?

Equerry of Tzeentch said:

That is part of the astartes weapon training.

Looks good. In Dawn of War 2, Syras, the Scout Sergeant was in the Deathwatch for 200 years, according to his in-game bio. There's simply no reason Scouts shouldn't be in Deathwatch.

Kilbourne said:

It should really be Scout Sergeants that get either recruited or seconded to the Deathwatch as they're fully developed marines. This Specialty assumes the player is a fully developed Marine that just happened to be good at doing what the scouts primarily do so the remain as such.

Looks good to me, I was actually going to do a build Cyrus from DoW2 with this specialty.

DaedalRogue said:

It's worth noting that Cyrus does say that he's been in the Deathwatch it doesn't say he was a scout in the deathwatch, he way only have started to act like a scout when he re-joined the chapter and started training in the 10th company. it doesn't say he didn't like to stealth about while he was in Deathwatch either.

Face Eater said:

It does state he was selected for service in the Deathwatch due to his unorthodox tactics. And really it goes either way, it never states he was a tactical, devastator, or assault marine in his service of the Deathwatch. Just because there is this ambiguity means there is wiggle room to have specified Scout Marine specialists. It's in the fiction at the very least that some chapters do have them (Space Wolves), and others that don't (Black Templars). Opening the option up to say that the chapters that do have Scout Marines in general just is for usability and player options.

A point of note so far from reading your background, it is not a nearly a badge of office to wield a chainsword, it is given to sargeant's upon their elevation to that position, as I recall it is specifically pointed out in the insignium astartes, I wish I was at home to give you the page number but it is there along with the change to the helment.

Zrako said:

True, but its down to the Marine's choice as to whether they choose to use this weapon. Also Not every scout marine would be a sergeant you do have the availability of marines who are specialized in being a scout not being a Sergeant at all. Wolf Scouts being the best example of this where they are veterans but not Sergeants.

It's also been noted recently that I haven't included the class Oaths, which means I need to add those as well.

Now updated with available Oaths under the special rules section.

Have fun, Enjoy, I think I'm done tinkering with this until someone points out a flaw or a balance issue or unless I've forgotten something again.