Help me building a Skald for a friend

[Selion]

I'm playing together with friends the beginning of "wrath of the righteous" (no spoilers please), a friend of mine has not too much time to build his character himself and asked for help. We are currently level 1, atm his character looks like that:
Human skald liv 1

Str 14
Dex 10
Con 13
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 16

(Int is basically for flavor)
Traits: reactionary, campaign trait
Feats: Skald's vigor, improved initiative.

I searched online for guides and useful feats, but i'm not satisfied and i don't want to leave him with a disfunctional character.
I'm not into total optimization, i just want something which works.
Skald's vigor, despite being suggested in basically every guide i read, seems a too tiny regen to be effective, especially at mid-high levels, when battles last just a couple of rounds.
This is a selection of feats i found useful:
Battle cry
power attack (just to open for cornugon smash)
Cornugon smash
vital strike route (mythic version is gold)
Arcane strike route (mythic version is also good)

Pretty much this.

About rage powers i'm tempted by the celestial totem tree, especially for the improved healing, to couple with the mythic ability which applies breath of life on every healing spell.
I like the spirit totem tree for the flavor and i know that it is very popular on skalds, would it be effective at high levels if my friend choose to focus on charisma?

Other ideas or suggestions?

[Kurald Galain]

There are a couple of ways you could develop the skald.

One obvious way is party buffer. Load up on as many rage powers as possible (Superstition and Elemental Blood are nice ones, too) and add in feats like Battle Cry, Obscuring Beacon, Flagbearer, and maybe Insightful Advice or Combat Advice. Spirit Totem is nice particularly at low to mid level, but you eventually want to retrain that. The obvious question here is how many of your party are str-based melee warriors; if there is a lack of them, you want either the Battle Scion or the Spell Warrior archetype instead.

Another way is melee striker. You throw up a song, and then start whacking people. For this build, you should get a higher str and con, so your melee damage becomes respectable. Cornugon Smash with the Hurtful feat is a good combo here.

Another way is debuffer. For this, you want more charisma. Focus on the bard's save-or-suck and save-or-lose spells like Cacophonous Call, and max out your save DC. This meshes well with Combat Reflexes and a reach weapon (and dex instead of str), and possibly Bodyguard (and there's a trait that raises bodyguard to +3 or +4).

Either way, initiative is nice but not really your top priority; I suggest spending your trait on something else, and picking up Imp Init around level 7 or so, after you've covered more pressing feats. You may want to consider the Symphony of Elysia masterpiece, too. And you're right, Skald's Vigor isn't great. HTH!

[Eldonauran]

I'd say skip out on Skald's Vigor. There are a few ways to give the party fast healing without spending a feat (or two) on it, and since fast healing doesn't stack, it would be pointless to double up on it. Some of those ways: Life Budding in the Salted Earth (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/bardic-masterpieces/masterpieces/life-budding-in-salted-earth-sing-string-wind/), Song of Kyonin (http://www.aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Song%20of%20Kyonin), Music of the Spheres (http://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Music%20of%20the%20Sphe res). Even psuedo-fast healing through stacking Lesser Celestial Totem with a spell like Path of Glory (http://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Path of Glory).

I can only speak towards my own preferences on Skald's. They function best when they are boosting the capability of the entire party. They can be melee or ranged menaces in their own right, and excel at it. But, when in their own element, using their magic to bolster the entire party with two simultaneous songs/masterpieces, sapping the strength of the enemies while their allies channel their rage song, and causing curses to 'pop' whenever an enemy slaughters one of the summoned monsters, they are fairly dangerous and scary.

[upho]

I think we need the answers to at least two very important questions especially for a skald before we can give the most applicable advice:

What's the party composition? Melee- or ranged-heavy, casting- or "other"-focused? Is it mostly Dex- Str- or "Other"-based? Or is it more "all over the place"? Does it include a summoning-focused member?
What are your friend's preferences and wishes (if any)?
Is your friend more of a disco queen, metal headbanger or jazz enthusiast? Something else?

Very generally speaking, I agree with previous posters. And yes, also IME (Greater) Skald's Vigor requires very substantial investments in order to actually rock (pun intended).

I have very little experience with mythic, but I do know that casting gets a quite a bit more of a boost than other focuses. Also, keep in mind that Paizo AP's assume a low optimization level, so I'd be careful not to go to far and risk making the game less fun (unless of course your GM has told you otherwise).

[Selion]

Thank you everybody for the tips. The party composition is heavy melee, we have a magus (me), a hunter, a warpriest and a sorcerer.
The better choice, thus, seems to be the buffing type, the first level up i'll try to probe my friend's desires.


Is your friend more of a disco queen, metal headbanger or jazz enthusiast? Something else?

More the bob dylan's type :P, that's why i selected the skald for him, so that he can couple effectiveness in combat with storytelling

[Geddy2112]

If the party is heavy melee and you want more Bob Dylan and less Scandinavian church burning black metal, I would focus on buffing and casting, backing off on strength and martial ability. If you do want to go martial, power attack, coragun smash, arcane strike 2 handed is fine and just play more akin to a barbarian.

How did you get ability scores? You could easily dump strength(or at least switch with dex) and just have weapons for backup or reach/reflexes like Kurald said. With raging song you can pinch hit for the team the few rounds of combat per day you need to even if you have a negative strength modifier. Charisma should be your utmost priority, then dex/con, int, strength, wis.

Spirit totem is probably the best totem choice until you get really late game, and opens up the potential for "knocking on heavens door" puns. There are plenty of other viable totems though, particularly for an undead heavy game. Second battle cry and flagbearer(great with reach weapon+spear and banner of ancient kings).

Unless your friend wants to spell-kenn blasts, fated champion is basically a straight upgrade to vanilla skald. Urban skald is worth considering as it still allows for the party to cast and can buff other stats. It might be better to go last in this party so the hunter, warpriest, and magus can use their opening buffs and other spells before raging and beating face. This way you could trade out improved initiative for other feats. Lingering performance is not as critical for skalds as it is bards, but still a good choice. Take it at level 7 when you can perform as a move action and then cycle raging song for extra rounds per day. Discordant voice is pretty fun at level 10-subtle, but very few things resist sonic damage.