Skald as power multiplier...the best rage powers, range, and other questions

[Derrick Winters]

Upon noticing this item, I've wondered what a high-level skald could do with arbitrarily long performances...

(We can use a +1 Endless Ammunition Bow to keep a performance going)

We get six rage powers total, at 3/6/9/12/15/18th lvl.

So... what are good combinations?

Elemental Blood(Air): Three Rage powers for minor bonus dmg, some Electricity Resistance, and 60' Flight.

Elemental Totem(Fire): Three Rage powers for minor bonuses vs fireball, counter damage if you are hurt via crit, and the ability to veil yourself in choking smoke akin to Pyrotechnics that doesn't affect you.

The last element breaks LoS and may allow you to act effectively against spellcasters.

So, a random high-level skald starts his raging song, buffs some random NPC chumps with it, they start to smoke and fly, concealing the skald in their midst... instant raid force?

Concerning that idea...what exactly *is* the effective range of bardic performances?

"The target must be able to hear/see the bard".

Some performances have set limits, i.e. 30ft or 60ft, but many do not.

...does the range of the performance depend on the perception skill of the listener?

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Does anyone have experience with skalds and can offer some advice for useful rage powers for a skald to buff his allies if he doesn't need to worry about duration; and can someone enlighten me what the effective range of a bard's or skald's performance actually is?

Is there magic to make your performance louder, to extend this range?

[Undone]

Come and get me
Reckless abandon
Witch hunter

[In My Humble Opinion]

The Spirit Totem gives everyone a free slam attack vs adjacent foes. Pretty cool stuff.

Also what Undone said.

[Avoron]

Greater Spirit Totem and an army of Dhampirs

[Devilkiller]

We've got a Skald cohort in our mythic game, and these are likely to be the rage powers he'll pick.

Lesser Beast Totem - The claws could be nice if you get grappled or swallowed, but this is mostly just a prereq. We're kind of wondering if a quadraped animal companion which doesn't have claws already would gain them. If so that makes the power a little stronger (mammoth with claws seems weird, but extra damage seems nice)

Beast Totem - Getting an AC boost while raging instead of an AC penalty seems pretty nice to me. It could also help offset any AC penalties you might choose to take on from Reckless Abandon or Come and Get Me.

Greater Beast Totem - Pounce! The party's greatsword Barbarian with 70' movement should get a lot of fun out of this one as might the Mammoth Rider.

Fearless Rage could also be nice since fear effects can be pretty crippling, but I haven't really planned that far ahead yet.

[Adept_Woodwright]

If there's a character that brings a lot of summons in to fights regularly, one of the linnorm rage powers is pretty decent... I'm a fan of the Tor linnorm death curse, but YMMV.