Edit: Also I am trying to remain civil on posting. I am not one for insults and such as it proves nothing. I like how Sunic and Jaron have good points on the subject. Still it comes down to DM handling it. If a DM wants to make his players have 30+ sheets of characters then why bother role playing. All the game becomes is a numbers exercise to see what is the best option for completing an adventure. I had a DM who made the game me vs him. I had to outwit him, I had to think of stratgies to defeat his plans, I had to work for his respect. Games like that are no fun. On the other side of the coin neither is a game where combat takes 2-3 hours and all of it is because people make their characters for "role playing".
No, it doesn't, because the reason why scouts fail is nice, solid numbers. Not subjective useless handwaving. It doesn't much matter if it's a Rogue, or a Factorum, or a goddamned DRUID getting owned, the point is that scouts get owned. That's not dying over and over and over (unless you're a gimp), it's not DM vs player, despite my snarky remarks towards Jaron. It's called you must be this tall to play, and if you're too short, you don't play.
As for coddling, no, there is no fucking coddling, because doing so not only promotes bad play in your game, it means more headaches for any other MCs they might have. "Player wants scouting to be viable."
I WANT WINTER TO NOT BE FUCKING COLD!And that's nice and all, but since winter is fucking cold, and scouts fucking fail, we're not going to get what we want just because we want it. And would you like a pony with that? That sounds dangerously close to entitlement.
If you want to do something, you need actual abilities to do that. If you lack said abilities, you fail. With something inherently flawed, like stealth you can't get said abilities. Your archetype is not supported, deal with it.
But let's pretend he has a MC who warps and undermines his entire world so that the gimp can succeed 80% of the time, and not the vastly lower number he actually does. It doesn't take another reference to Iterative Probability to illustrate how completely and utterly fucked he is, as it will on average take
three attempts before the odds are about even he fails. And as soon as he does fail, even once, he gets slaughtered. I hope you have a twelve pack of those scouts, because
even with a coddling MC, you'll fucking need them all.
As for X Codes, and his whining, flailing, and failing funny thing about that. IP proofed party vs IP proofed enemy didn't result in a hopeless battle, and it didn't result in an easy battle. It instead resulted in... a draw.
Scouting, meanwhile would have resulted in a dead gimp, and a short man party. And here's a really novel question.
Who the fuck does the scout replace?
Druid? Let's see, you lose the guide keeping everyone on the right track, you lose the class feature as good or better than the scout by itself, and don't forget the might of DRUID SPELLS.
Wizard? Lol, losing primary source of save or loses means the group fails.
Undead Cleric? Hey, someone who can spot ambushes that isn't a gimp. Also, lots of Str damage in an easy to hit with form.
Living Cleric? Save or loses, DPS...
Clearly, the scout isn't worth as much as any of these. Nor is it worth -20% XP and loot to all of them, to take a 5th person.
If you assume a lower tier party, the scout still completely and utterly fails to justify his existence.