Skald

[Shadowscale]

Just started a rise of the runelords campaign where I'm playing a skald. I've noticed this far my abilities seem to give around the same level boosts of a bard with the added negatives of fatigue and alienating the dex fighters and casters. My question is what makes a skald good and better than a bard given they can't cast while enraged and neither can the rest of their party?

[Kurald Galain]

Very easy: Rage Powers. Take a lot of them, and once you start singing they apply to every single teammate. Superstition? Party gets +3 on saving throws. Elemental Blood? Everyone gets to add +1d6 fire damage to their attacks. And so forth.

Skalds are awesome.

[The Vagabond]

Skald and bard, despite being similar, are surprisingly different beasts. If possible, however, I would request to be able to use the Unchained Barbarian's rage, if possible.

Anyway, the power of the Skald is mostly in it's combat ability- It has a good Fort save for more Save-or-dies, and, biggest of all, Rage Powers. You basically turn your allies into lesser Gestalt Barbarians with these. Secondly is Scribe Scroll, in case you want it. I've heard good things about the Spirit Totem line of rage powers.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

The Skald's raging song does not actually make you fatigued.

[mostholycerebus]

They are more group-dependent than Bards. Even if you find yourself in a group of martial types, the Skald may still be a bad choice if those characters are magic users or have other issues that dont take advantage of the song. However, in a group of fighters, barbarians, some rogues, etc, the Skald can be very potent.

They are also pretty versatile, with great skill selection, combat ability, and spells.

[DMVerdandi]

Well, the cool thing is that:
A. Anyone can deny the benefits of raging song, including the Skald

B. It's a full party rage, that gives everyone rage powers (as everyone has said.) This is nuts, because if you think about it, each different rage power has a different effect, so its like every rage power is essentially a remix by itself.

C.If you already have A barbarian or bloodrager in the party, they essentially get to rage for free, using their own stat modifiers.

D. Song of Marching is a doggone Boot camp Cadence. So dope.

E.Song of the fallen
Nice little way to Revive an Ally for the cost of a Cure Light wounds.


Inspire rage is MUCH better than inspire courage. Especially for Melee characters.
Inspire courage does hardly anything for Casters, so it's neither here nor there.
While you don't get to use Mental stat skills, anyone who will accept inspire rage would be using them in combat anyway.

Inspire Competence will be missed

Inspire Greatness Is kind of rolled over into Inspire Rage.

HOWEVER, again, because of the ability to add rage powers to Inspired Rage, It in some ways just the best song that can be sung (in the right party).

Take Extra Music[x4] Lingering song, and then Extra Rage Powers for every other level, and you will be a beast.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Spell Kenning is a nice bit of versatility, especially if you book-dive. And they look like they'd be much nastier combatants than bards, who I was... unimpressed with in PF.

[Ssalarn]

Spell Kenning is a nice bit of versatility, especially if you book-dive. And they look like they'd be much nastier combatants than bards, who I was... unimpressed with in PF.

Bards can actually be crazy good combatants, but it does take less work for the Skald to tear it up on the field.

Party make up is the real difference. The Skald is going to have situations where his performance may or may not be the right fit, where the Bard can generally always have a performance up that's useful, if not quite as awe inspiring as the Skald can be when the party and encounter are in his favor. The Skald's biggest trick is being able to take an entire totem tree and share it to everyone in the group; adding Beast or Dragon totem to a whole group, including summoned allies, is awesome.

[atemu1234]

This thread has sold me on backporting Skald for 3.5.

[Shadowscale]

My skald is a halfling with 14 strength, 18 charisma, and average everything else using a scythe and a chainshirt, can someone help me optimize any of that with rage powers, feats, or other options? Or are my choices just all stupid?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Bards can actually be crazy good combatants, but it does take less work for the Skald to tear it up on the field.
Pathfinder bards? I couldn't find anything particularly good for them outside of spellcasting. Not like 3.5, where you can Snowflake Wardance/Dragonfire Inspiration/Words of Creation/Song of the White Raven/whatever

[Othniel]

My skald is a halfling with 14 strength, 18 charisma, and average everything else using a scythe and a chainshirt, can someone help me optimize any of that with rage powers, feats, or other options? Or are my choices just all stupid?

I built a Half-Orc Dragon Skald a while back for a Skull and Shackles campaign that died. Based him (loosely) on Snorri Sturluson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snorri_Sturluson). Here was the basic build:

Stats:
16
14
15
14
8
14

Skald's Vigor at level 1, plus Endurance as bonus feat for Half-Orc alternate racial trait. Picked up Diehard at 3, and was planning on Deathless Initiate later on. Would've been an epic character.

Your level 1 feat is Skald's Vigor and you take Greater Skald's Vigor at level 11 (requires 10 ranks in Perform (Song)). After that, you can build a few different ways. Power Attack is a good choice; maybe follow up with some of the feats from that chain (Furious Focus maybe?). If you want to be more of a group buffer and/or enemy debuffer, you could go with Weapon Focus -> Dazzling Display, and then Intimidating Performance. Battle Cry is a decent option as well.

A few good things to pick up along the way:

Poet's Cloak (lets a Skald use Inspire Courage if you ever want to)
Bloodsong enchantment for your slashing weapon. Falchion is a great choice, or Elven Curve Blade if you're an Elf, Half-Elf, or pick up the proficiency (wouldn't personally waste a feat on it for a Skald).

Rage Powers: LOVE the Spirit Totem line for Skald. You share your rage powers with your party, so everyone has spirits swirling around them attacking their enemies. Cool stuff.

[Xerlith]

Pathfinder bards? I couldn't find anything particularly good for them outside of spellcasting. Not like 3.5, where you can Snowflake Wardance/Dragonfire Inspiration/Words of Creation/Song of the White Raven/whatever

They can go Str-heavy and leave a 14 or 12 in Charisma with the Arcane Duelist, or tear it up solo-style with the Dex-focused Dawnflower Dervish. Inspire Courage is still awesome, although not AS awesome as it was in 3.5. Still, a Dawnflower Dervish Aasimar with Favored Class Bonus granting them 1.5x the progression can be deadly. That's +8 to hit and damage at 12th level, solely from the Performance.