Skald help please!

[GreyBlack]

Okay, so for a new campaign, my DM okayed me to play an Antipaladin, specifically because we are doing a homebrew Horror campaign, so my concept was a guy who spreads disease and is looking to purge the world of sentient life. Problem with this character is that I kinda accidentally pinned a murder on one of the other PCs (it's not my fault that he barricaded himself in the room in the middle of the night after I murdered the woman and he refused to open up for the Watch!), and now his character is bent on figuring out who committed this murder.

SO, seeing as a battle between an Antipaladin and a Synthesist is going to end poorly for me (he is LN), I'm going to hedge my bets and prep a new character, so right now, I'm curious about the Skald. I would want to play him as a gravelly voiced Norwegian Death Metal singer, focusing on his ability to whip his allies into a frenzy. The question is, what good options should I grab for a Skald? Any suggestions for building this character?

[Secret Wizard]

Skalds are just like Bards, but better at Power Attacking, due to the ability to rage, but worse at knowledge skills.

Archetype Possibilities: Base; Demon Dancer (good flavor, you don't actually have to Dance); War Drummer (good battle prowess, doesn't actually need to do percussion, very good at intimidation and shattering things); Totemic Skald (can transform into bats, spiders, etc.)

Attributes: STR/CON/CHA, rest should be fair, some DEX should help. WIS can be dumped to 8ish. CHA needs to be at 16 points minimum by 16th level.

Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus (great for damage); Skald's Vigor and the Greater version (very good mass healing); Arcane Strike, Riving Strike (makes it easier to land spells on a target); Intimidating Prowess, Cornugon Smash (if you plan to Intimidate); Berserker's Cry with the Raging Skald rage power (+2 to melee damage that stacks with Raging Song once/day, free action while starting a Raging Song, doesn't stack with Heroism and such though); Recovered Rage (for long adventuring days); Skill Focus (any of your performances affected by Versatile Performance), Eldritch Heritage (Maestro Bloodline is pretty good); Improved Initiative...

Traits: Can't go wrong with Shoanti Spirit-Singer and something like Reactionary.

Spells: You could make a good Fear build with the right feats on intimidation, Riving Strike and some Spell Focus (Necromancy)... Another possibility is the smasher build with buffs, Bladed Dash and Timely Inspiration and such... or you could use illusions...

[Kurald Galain]

I would want to play him as a gravelly voiced Norwegian Death Metal singer, focusing on his ability to whip his allies into a frenzy. The question is, what good options should I grab for a Skald? Any suggestions for building this character?

That depends.

Do you want to play him as a frontliner? Or as a leader that lets his allies do all the work but boosts them sky-high? Or as fearsome singer that demoralizes and debuffs his enemies?

Of course you can do a bit of each, but it helps to pick a primary focus. For a frontliner, you should have a strength primary, and prioritize feats like power attack and arcane strike, and use swift action spells since your standard actions go to attacks. For a buffer, you should put all your feats in Extra Rage Power, and pick spells that are party buffs (e.g. Heroism, Haste, and so forth). For a debuffer, you should have charisma primary, wield a reach weapon so you can trip enemies, and note that there are some pretty good debuffs and SOL spells on the bard list.

[Ashes]

I would want to play him as a gravelly voiced Norwegian Death Metal singer,

I honestly have no decent crunch to add, but I'd just like to say, that Norway is generally known for Black Metal, not Death Metal :smalltongue:

[GreyBlack]

That depends.

Do you want to play him as a frontliner? Or as a leader that lets his allies do all the work but boosts them sky-high? Or as fearsome singer that demoralizes and debuffs his enemies?

Of course you can do a bit of each, but it helps to pick a primary focus. For a frontliner, you should have a strength primary, and prioritize feats like power attack and arcane strike, and use swift action spells since your standard actions go to attacks. For a buffer, you should put all your feats in Extra Rage Power, and pick spells that are party buffs (e.g. Heroism, Haste, and so forth). For a debuffer, you should have charisma primary, wield a reach weapon so you can trip enemies, and note that there are some pretty good debuffs and SOL spells on the bard list.

Well, I kind of envision a buffer standing on the back lines alternating between gutteral mumbling and screaming while rocking out on electric guitar... umm... magical lute?... then putting the fear of Grod in the enemies, so primary buffer, secondary debuffer I guess. I was looking for feats that may help with this role more than anything.

[Secret Wizard]

So yeah, go with the Skald's Vigor + Intimidating Prowess/Dazzling Display route. That should keep you busy until higher levels.

I do recommend the Belzken War Drummer archetype... it aids you in getting Weapon Focus faster, you can shatter things with your performance, and you get a good bonus to intimidate.

[Othniel]

I've spent a lot (a lot) of time over the last few months playing with Skald ideas. The War Drummer is an excellent archetype, but realize that you are completely giving up Bardic Knowledge. Sure, you can still put points into them, but you're giving up your bonus. That's fine, as long as the group knows not to turn to you for knowledge checks. Two feats I'd recommend, particularly if you want to go the Intimidate road, are Dazzling Display (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/dazzling-display-combat) and Intimidating Performance (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/intimidating-performance). They work extremely well together, particularly once you can start Raging Song as a swift action. If you want to stand in the back, I'd probably go with an archery build and use a composite longbow to take advantage of your big strength bonus (the adaptive enchantment will help here, and I'd toss on the furious one as well once you can afford them). Archery sucks up a lot of feats, so you probably won't be able to go down both the archery and intimidating roads, so pick one. Skald's Vigor (and the Greater version at later levels) are pretty much must-haves since they're so handy. I recommend either going the archery route, or picking up a two-handed weapon and going the intimidate route (taking Power Attack and Furious Focus to buff your damage in combat). Keep in mind that you can't take Power Attack at level 1 since the Skald is not a full BAB class (take Skald's Vigor at level 1).

All of the archetypes really have good flavor. Loving the Dragon Skald in my current Skull and Shackles campaign, and I just started a Fated Champion in a Giantslayer campaign. War-Drummer is probably my favorite though because you get a lot of nice stuff (including craft magical arms and armor). The only thing that really hurts the class is the D8 hit die (same as its Bard parent), but there are ways around that (my dragon skald is a half-orc with an alternate racial trait that gives him Endurance. I'm picking up the Diehard and Deathless Initiate feats with an intent to make him really, really hard to put down). If you use a slashing weapon, pick up the Bloodsong (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abilities/bloodsong) enchantment. Great flavor, and it really shines on a Falchion (15-20 threat range while using Raging Song).

Be careful with your Rage Power selection, as you don't get as many as Barbarians (unless you take the Extra Rage Power feat a couple times). The Spirit Totem and Beast Totem lines are very nice. Spirit Totem has great flavor. Remember that you can't share rage powers with your Raging Song that require a standard action or rounds of rage to activate (Terrifying Howl, for example). The Linnorm Death Curse rage powers are great if you have a group that summons a lot of things in battle. Otherwise, I'd skip them, despite the awesome flavor.