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So, tonight, myself and a group of friends decided to whip up some of the new classes and run them from the start. (We had a Swashbuckler, Arcanist, Investigator, Shaman, Warpriest, and myself as the Skald)
Now, personally, I have been watching the Skald class with hungry eyes, as I absolutely love the fluff and idea behind the Warrior-Poet, the leader who sings his men to battle, and draws the magic out of the air with his mighty song. The wise jarl who charges into battle, accomplishes great deeds, and weaves them into legend.
I had an absolute blast playing the character. I was Rig the Longtooth. Rig the Battlewright. Rig the Mad. I roleplayed him to the hilt, coming up with battle poems on the spot, carousing with the Ulfens, and getting into a bar fight. (The GM picked a perfect module for me)
But at the end of the night, after discussing things, I realized something important. All of the fun, all of the fluff was from how I played the character. None of it was really supported by the class features. I largely snubbed the bard spells, as they didn't really fit the theme. My party almost entirely snubbed the rage, as it prevented almost all of them from doing their jobs, and the penalties of accepting make it a tough choice even for the melee characters.
As the core feature of the class, the Ragesong just felt weak at best, harmful at worst. Having to keep everyone in range, remind them when it was running, figure out if anybody even wanted/benefitted from it, and in the meantime keep trying to pitch in.
I was the big noisy impressive guy in the front lines with low HP, very low armor (light armor, rage penalty, low Dex) and when the bad guys rushed me in our first fight, I dropped pretty quick (thus fatiguing my party right away). The rest of the night, I managed to dish out some nice damage with my Orc weaponry, but the ragesong was an afterthought if anything.
I made Rig a Half-Orc (for the weapon profs) and focused largely on balanced stats with higher Str/Cha, as these would be the primary stats I needed. Saying this class is MAD hardly scratches the surface. Str to hit, Dex to dodge (light armor), Con to live, and Cha to sing/cast. Not to mention skill/knowledge checks.
I really like the idea of Spell Kenning. I think that it should be fleshed out further, come earlier, and replace his normal spell casting. He should be coaxing the magic out of the land with trueseeing, and truesinging. He's not as good as a normal caster would be, but the land grants him what he needs. (Basically make it low powered, small numbers/inefficient, but incredibly versatile)
I think the class has potential. The richness of history and flavor this class could bring is immense. Keep him away from the idea of Beserk, bard spells and madness, and make him into a real warrior and leader. He is the canny King leading his sworn men from the front lines. The Bard who can sing the stones from the ground. The Steward of his land and his ancestry. He's not just "Guy who sings mad, and writes down spells."