Skald PrC [PEACH]

[Eno Remnant]

Skald

For those who love music, there is the Bard. For those who love to fight, there is the Barbarian. For those who hear the harmony of a beating heart, the sharps of blades, the flats of clubs and the sweet melody of pained screams, there is the Skald.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Perform (Oratory) 9 ranks
Special: Bardic music, Rage ability

Skill Points: 4 + Int

Hit Dice: d8



Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Spellcasting


1st
+1
+2
+2
+0
Bardic Music, Rage, Battle Chant
+1 level of spellcasting


2nd
+2
+3
+3
+0

—
+1 level of spellcasting


3rd
+3
+3
+3
+1
Let’s Get ‘Em, Boys! 2/day
+1 level of spellcasting


4th
+4
+4
+4
+1

—
+1 level of spellcasting


5th
+5
+4
+4
+1
Let’s Get ‘Em, Boys! 3/day

—


6th
+6
+5
+5
+2
Bloodthirsty Roar 1/day
+1 level of spellcasting


7th
+7
+5
+5
+2
Let’s Get ‘Em, Boys! 4/day
+1 level of spellcasting


8th
+8
+6
+6
+2
Bloodthirsty Roar 2/day
+1 level of spellcasting


9th
+9
+6
+6
+3
Let’s Get ‘Em, Boys! 5/day
+1 level of spellcasting


10th
+10
+7
+7
+3
Berserker Dirge

—



Weapon Proficiencies: Skald characters do not gain any weapon proficiencies.

Spellcasting: At every level except 5th and 10th, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in one class providing you with Bardic music. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (unless stated later in this entry).

Bardic Music: Your Skald levels stack with your Bard levels for the purpose of determining Bardic music uses. You do not, however, gain additional features like Inspire Heroics.

Rage: Your Skald levels stack with your Barbarian levels for the purpose of determining rage duration and uses. You do not, however, gain additional Rage features such as Tireless Rage.

Battle Chant: Even the intense fire of your rage cannot overcome your love of music. While raging, you may expend one use of Bardic music for the day as a swift action to use Bardic music for the duration of the rage. By instead expending two Bardic music uses, you may also cast spells gained through this class or your levels of a class providing Bardic music.

Let's Get 'Em, Boys! (Su): Your rallying cry gives strength and courage to both yourself and your allies. At 3rd level, you may expend one use of Bardic music to increase the attack and damage rolls of yourself and every ally within 60 ft. by +1 for every interval of 5 you make in a Perform (Oratory) check (to a maximum of +8 at 40) for 1 round per class level. By expending an additional two uses of Bardic music, allies within 60 ft. affected by a fear effect may reroll their save against that effect at a +4 bonus. These are morale bonuses. These effects can be used twice per day, with an additional use every two levels hence.

Bloodthirsty Roar (Su): Years of vocal practice and aggressive combat have made you able to roar like a horrible creature of myth, cowing enemies and even inflicting physical harm. At 6th level, you may expend one use of Bardic music to give all enemies within 60 ft. -5 to attack and damage for 1 round per class level. This effect increases by -1 at every level after 6th (to a maximum of -8 at 10th level). By expending an additional two uses of Bardic music, you may frighten all opponents within the same range, as the spell Fear. This is a mind-affecting ability. By instead expending four uses of Bardic music, you may also deal 1d6 sonic damage per class level to every opponent within the same range, as well as applying the previous effects. The save DC for all of these effects is the result of a Perform (Oratory) check. These effects may be used once per day, with an additional use at 8th level.

Berserker Dirge: You are an instrument of death, a perfect harmony of pain and beauty. As you sing, those aspects are evoked into reality, transforming your feelings from mental to physical—aweing and terrifying all who witness your power. At 10th level, you may expend three uses of Bardic music at the beginning of a rage as a free action. Your bonuses to Strength and Constitution during a rage increase to +10. The penalty to AC remains at -2. Any enemy within 10 ft. becomes shaken, and must make a Will save (DC = 10 + Class level + Cha modifier) or else become frightened. You may expend an additional two uses of Bardic music to negate the fatigue caused by your rage, and as a swift action use Inspire Courage as a Bard equal to your combined Bard and Skald, and Bardic music-providing class levels. By expending an additional three Bardic music uses, your weapon becomes imbued with death magic, as the Slay Living spell, which can be discharged with a melee attack (DC = 10 + Class level + Cha modifier).


CHANGES:
Reduced Bardic music costs on the capstone to something more reasonable.
Reduced the Slay Living ability's cost a second time.
Adjusted spellcasting progression, Battle Chant ability and capstone because Bard isn't the only way to get Bardic music



This is the second homebrew class I've created, and the first I've ever posted anywhere. I created it after seeing a homebrew class called the Bardbarian which, in the opinion of myself and my friends, was quite dreadfully done. I claimed I could do better, and this is the result. Yes, I know there's already a prestige class called Warrior Skald, but I didn't know that at the time of creating this one.

The basic concept is the use Bardic music to give a Barbarian buffing and debuffing options, allowing them to fill in as both primary/secondary melee and buffer/debuffer in a party.

My major concerns are class skills, the Bardic music costs (too lenient?) and the capstone, but other suggestions are very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Eno Remnant]

This could use a bump.

I'd really appreciate some help with this class, I wanna use it in a friend's campaign so I need to ensure it's balanced correctly.

[Mcdt2]

Gonna spoiler this for length




Skald

For those who love music, there is the Bard. For those who love to fight, there is the Barbarian. For those who hear the harmony of a beating heart, the sharps of blades, the flats of clubs and the sweet melody of pained screams, there is the Skald.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Perform (Oratory) 9 ranks
Special: Bardic music, Rage ability

Good fluff description, here at the beginning.

BAB prereqs makes this PrC enterable at level 7 (Bard 4/Barbarian 2 for maximum casting/music, Barbarian 5/Bard 1 would give you Trap Sense, 1 more Rage use, and Improved Uncanny Dodge). Personally, I might lower the Prerequisite to +4 BAB, to allow entry at 6, likewise decreasing the needed Perform ranks to 8, but that's just me. I like entering PrCs as early as possible, makes builds go "online" faster.



Skill Points: 4 + Int

Hit Dice: d8



Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Spellcasting


1st
+1
+2
+2
+0
Bardic Music, Rage, Battle Chant
+1 level of spellcasting


2nd
+2
+3
+3
+0

—
+1 level of spellcasting


3rd
+3
+3
+3
+1
Let’s Get ‘Em, Boys! 2/day
+1 level of spellcasting


4th
+4
+4
+4
+1

—
+1 level of spellcasting


5th
+5
+4
+4
+1
Let’s Get ‘Em, Boys! 3/day

—


6th
+6
+5
+5
+2
Bloodthirsty Roar 1/day
+1 level of spellcasting


7th
+7
+5
+5
+2
Let’s Get ‘Em, Boys! 4/day
+1 level of spellcasting


8th
+8
+6
+6
+2
Bloodthirsty Roar 2/day
+1 level of spellcasting


9th
+9
+6
+6
+3
Let’s Get ‘Em, Boys! 5/day
+1 level of spellcasting


10th
+10
+7
+7
+3
Berserker Dirge

—




Full BAB is good, definitely needs that. Hit Die could probably do with increasing to d10, but it's fine at d8. Skill Points are probably fine at 4+Int. Good Fort makes sense, but Good Ref is a tad odd to me. I think they should keep the good Will saves of the bard, instead of the good Reflex.



Weapon Proficiencies: Skald characters do not gain any weapon proficiencies.

Spellcasting: At every level except 5th and 10th, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in one class providing you with Bardic music. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (unless stated later in this entry).

Bardic Music: Your Skald levels stack with your Bard levels for the purpose of determining Bardic music uses. You do not, however, gain additional features like Inspire Heroics.

Rage: Your Skald levels stack with your Barbarian levels for the purpose of determining rage duration and uses. You do not, however, gain additional Rage features such as Tireless Rage.


Nothing unusual here, though I will comment that losing 4 caster levels on bard really hurts, though at least you can still get 6th level spells by 20, if you went straight bard afterwards.



Battle Chant: Even the intense fire of your rage cannot overcome your love of music. While raging, you may expend one use of Bardic music for the day as a swift action to use Bardic music for the duration of the rage. By instead expending two Bardic music uses, you may also cast spells gained through this class or your levels of a class providing Bardic music.


Good stuff, though I might want to clarify the first ability. Am I correct that it means you spend the Bardic Music use as a swift action, which allows you to use Bardic Music for that rage? Because on the first reading I thought you meant that you activated the Music as the swift and it lasted for the entire rage without concentrating, which made the following ability seem a little pointless at first.



Let's Get 'Em, Boys! (Su): Your rallying cry gives strength and courage to both yourself and your allies. At 3rd level, you may expend one use of Bardic music to increase the attack and damage rolls of yourself and every ally within 60 ft. by +1 for every interval of 5 you make in a Perform (Oratory) check (to a maximum of +8 at 40) for 1 round per class level. By expending an additional two uses of Bardic music, allies within 60 ft. affected by a fear effect may reroll their save against that effect at a +4 bonus. These are morale bonuses. These effects can be used twice per day, with an additional use every two levels hence.


I assume this is intended to be used as a standard action? RAW it defaults to that, but just want to clarify. It seems like this is supposed to be a sort of "fire and forget" version of Inspire Courage, but the default ability already lasts for 5 rounds after you stop playing. Theoretically one could do well enough on the Perform check to get a bigger bonus than the level provides, but seeing as this ability isn't affected by Inspire Courage boosting items, it's easy enough to surpass it for an optimized bard. Perhaps let it be activated as a swift action, to give it some value over Inspire Courage?



Bloodthirsty Roar (Su): Years of vocal practice and aggressive combat have made you able to roar like a horrible creature of myth, cowing enemies and even inflicting physical harm. At 6th level, you may expend one use of Bardic music to give all enemies within 60 ft. -5 to attack and damage for 1 round per class level. This effect increases by -1 at every level after 6th (to a maximum of -8 at 10th level). By expending an additional two uses of Bardic music, you may frighten all opponents within the same range, as the spell Fear. This is a mind-affecting ability. By instead expending four uses of Bardic music, you may also deal 1d6 sonic damage per class level to every opponent within the same range, as well as applying the previous effects. The save DC for all of these effects is the result of a Perform (Oratory) check. These effects may be used once per day, with an additional use at 8th level.


Basically Inspire Courage but in reverse, with far greater numbers as well. It seems a bit odd to me to require daily uses of Bardic Music to power it, in addition to limiting it directly with daily uses. I'd suggest using just Bardic Music uses, personally, although it might be a good idea to increase the amount needed in that case.



Berserker Dirge: You are an instrument of death, a perfect harmony of pain and beauty. As you sing, those aspects are evoked into reality, transforming your feelings from mental to physical—aweing and terrifying all who witness your power. At 10th level, you may expend three uses of Bardic music at the beginning of a rage as a free action. Your bonuses to Strength and Constitution during a rage increase to +10. The penalty to AC remains at -2. Any enemy within 10 ft. becomes shaken, and must make a Will save (DC = 10 + Class level + Cha modifier) or else become frightened. You may expend an additional two uses of Bardic music to negate the fatigue caused by your rage, and as a swift action use Inspire Courage as a Bard equal to your combined Bard and Skald, and Bardic music-providing class levels. By expending an additional three Bardic music uses, your weapon becomes imbued with death magic, as the Slay Living spell, which can be discharged with a melee attack (DC = 10 + Class level + Cha modifier).

Very nice ability, although it's a massive jump in power compared to the previous abilities. I'd definitely suggest changing the Str/Con bonuses to be the rage bonuses+2, so that 16th level characters with only the lowest tier of Rage don't suddenly become stronger than a 20th level straight classed barbarian.


Final thoughts:

Nice class, could use some tweaking and some more abilities spread out over the class. Don't have any ideas for specifics unfortunately.

[Carl]

Ooookay, so many issues here.

1. Battle chant's second capability is hilariously overpowered. The way this is setup you can take a single level of barbarian, 9 levels of Bard, and 10 of this. That means you'll have casting equivalent to a level 17 bard, and for the cost of just two bardic music uses you can cast. Soooo powerful.

2. Lets Get em is only an issue so much as in that it's dead easy to cheese perform check's so a +8 is easy to get. Cap it at +5 instead, thats a lot more balanced. I'd also change the fear effect, just make it a straight up bonus to saves vs fear equal to the attack and damage bonus.

3. Roar is way too good, again cap it at -5 and drop the damage removal, it's like a free stacking DR 8 for everyone right now, your also letting them pull a huge AoE fear effect, and at the top end you get 10D6 sonic damage in a huge radius. It's too many capabilities at once. It should be one choice of the three, not all at once as it lets you dump way too much in a single action. It also needs to not be usable alongside bardic music or lets get em, (i.e. if any of those are active they end and if those are activated they end this, same really for lets get em, it should end bardic music).

4. First if someone's only taken Barbarian 1 they won't have their rage maxed in power so how does this work for them, you need to change that. Also again too many stack-able effect's, It should be pick one, especially how many SoS/SoD's you have in there.

[Eno Remnant]

I fully intend to give both of you (we're all paladins here, that's pretty cool) responses to your feedback, but am presently working on something else, so for now I'll leave you with this:

Put these abilities up against a Wizard of the same level.

Note that Bloodthirsty Roar was restricted to 2/day for a reason.

It has been said in these forums (can't remember who or where) that a capstone should make a class competitive at Tier 1.

[Mcdt2]

I fully intend to give both of you (we're all paladins here, that's pretty cool) responses to your feedback, but am presently working on something else, so for now I'll leave you with this:
Yay, Paladin buddies!


Put these abilities up against a Wizard of the same level.
Well, in general, they are vastly inferior at every point, until we reach the capstone, where it's... only largely inferior


Note that Bloodthirsty Roar was restricted to 2/day for a reason.
I certainly agree it should have limits on usage, but I mostly feel requiring a limited resource, for something that's already limited in usage is... inelegant, to syay the least.


It has been said in these forums (can't remember who or where) that a capstone should make a class competitive at Tier 1.

I don't know who said that, but I would whole-heartedly disagree. Leaving aside that I prefer T3 as a balance point, if you are designing to hit T1, make it balanced across the levels. Sudden and ridiculous jumps in power are inelegant and just plain bad design. Take, for example, the case of the Truenamer- just because at level (20ish? I forget how utterances scale) they can cast Gate at-will doesn't change the fact they are useless at every other level.

[brian 333]

I'd like to see some negatives associated with the class. For example, the Skald is a lorekeeper and diplomat, and must be trustworthy. When a Skald is performing his duties members of opposed clans or tribes will respect his position and not act aggressively toward him unless provoked. However, those within the society which spawned the Skald expect him to be truthful any time he is performing his duties and, as such, any time he is caught lying they will attempt to cut out his tongue.

Note that prevarication, beating around the bush, and insinuation are all acceptable, but the outright intentional statement of a falsehood will result in the character being stripped of his status as Skald. Disgraced Skalds lose their special abilities to inspire others, however, a Skald who has been publicly disgraced yet somehow retained or had restored his tongue becomes a Black Skald, whose music and chants instill fear in others.

[Carl]

I fully intend to give both of you (we're all paladins here, that's pretty cool) responses to your feedback, but am presently working on something else, so for now I'll leave you with this:

Put these abilities up against a Wizard of the same level.

Note that Bloodthirsty Roar was restricted to 2/day for a reason.

It has been said in these forums (can't remember who or where) that a capstone should make a class competitive at Tier 1.

In comparison to a full wizard this is totally laughable. But that's not really the point.

Whoever said a capstone should make a class T1 needs to learn more about either the the basics of 3.5, or game design in general.

First and foremost everyone i've heard talk on it has said that you should balance your class to the tier you want it to work at. The second is that a capstone should be very defining, but the whole class should be at the same power level, not just one feature.


The other problem here is that whilst a T1 balance point is a valid choice on it';s own, your dealing with base classes that are T3 and T4 classes. Your going to have to do some truly insane buffing to make that scale to T1 and even more to keep the Barbarian side relevant. The latter being a definite issue ATM. Basically T1 is a valid choice, but horribly impractical.

[infinitetech]

a nice light hearted class, refreshing