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So a while back my GM said he was going to run rise of the ruin lords, so a I made a skald for it and was really looking forward to playing it. Now he had decided to run Wrath of the Righteous instead. He has run this before and last time, I played a Magus which ended up being a ton of fun. We never finished Wrath of the rightous last time so i kind of want play the magus again and hopefully finish this time, but I also kind of want to play the skald i made. Looking through mythic abilities though it just seems like a mythic magus is more fun than a mythic skald? Does any one have any Ideas for a myhtic skald?

The Jester King wrote:

As far as I know a Skald only uses a verbal component to cast spells and do not require the use of their hands in spell casting. But it seems to feat intensive to get there anyway do I will probably stay STR based for my damage.

It's just two feats for Dervish Dance. Three for Slashing Grace (which is weaker in my opinion), and with Perform (dance) being a requirement, it synergizes with Bardic Performances that actually require Perform checks. It can come online as early as 3rd level (or 2nd level if you decide to take a Fighter dip, for example).

Of course, I do forget that Skald's boost Strength and Constitution, and not Dexterity, but remember that less Dexterity means less tankiness. Your Raging Song also reduces your AC, which means you're more likely to be hit, and tanks usually want to reduce their ability to get hit as much as possible.

**EDIT** Reviewing the relevant Skald spells text:

Skald Spells wrote:

Every skald spell has a verbal component—these verbal components can take the form of song, recitation, or even nonverbal music like percussion. To learn or cast a spell, a skald must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell's level. The saving throw DC against a skald's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the skald's Charisma modifier.

The bolded part implies that every single spell you cast, even if it doesn't have verbal components (normally), it requires verbal components.

Obviously, exceptions like Silent Spell bypass this requirement, but this means if a spell only has Somatic components (which is rare), the Skald tacks on Verbal components that he has to fulfill as well (which, again, only apply if he doesn't do something like a Silent Spell). The only nice thing is that it doesn't necessarily require him to speak to fulfill, since instruments can fulfill said verbal component.

Ah. I've never actually played a bard before so i always assumed that they didnt need their hands cause they were always occupied playing and instrument. So when I saw that line of text I assumed it meant "They only need a verbal component to cast spells". My bad.

Path of glory and lesser celestial for a tank skald. You'll be placed in a spot so make it work for you.

Your weapon should be cruel furious and blood song. Likely in that order.

Use blistering invective. Max out intimidate. Now they are shaken? Sickened and on fire. That's -4 to hit and -2 To damage and -4 to saves. Where as you (at level 4) will be healing about 7 a round.

That's your tank. Less damage on you and constantly healing damage to you.

wow I really like the sounds of all that! Effective and fun. Thanks!

As far as I know a Skald only uses a verbal component to cast spells and do not require the use of their hands in spell casting. But it seems to feat intensive to get there anyway do I will probably stay STR based for my damage.

I'm looking at slashing grace and I don't see any reason why a Skald couldn't use it and cast spells. Is there something I'm missing on that one?

We are doing 20 Point Buy so for stats. I was thinking
Str: 14 (12 after racials)
Dex: 12
Con: 14 (16 after racials)
Int: 12
Wis: 9
Cha: 15 (17 after Racials)

Thoughts?

Who are your other party members? You might want to use Wyrm Singer, Urban Skald, or War Painter depending upon your composition.

so far we have a rogue and a white haired witch and a 4th who is probably running a kineticist

It really depends on what your expectations are.

1) Survivability. This is pretty good. You can use medium armor with a heavy shield for a decent AC. And you can take the Skald's Vigor feat to give yourself strong fast healing. And you can cast spells like mirror image and displacement for evading hits.

2) Threat generation. This isn't bad, but Pathfinder doesn't have a lot of obvious threat generation abilities. You will be able to do decent damage, while your song is making you an obvious buffing source for your allies. So, for dumb enemies you can get out in front, while intelligent enemies will want to kill you to end your buffs/healing.

yeah that's pretty much what I want. The ability take a punch and still properly buff my party and do decent damage. I hadn't seen that feat yet, that definitely looks like something with picking up.

So I am playing in rise of the ruin lords and I have decided to give the skald a try. I intend on being a gnome. Our party however, doesn't have a designated rank. So I was wondering if it was at all possible to make a Skald tank, and what kind of feats, spells and abilities I should be looking at.

we Had our first session today. The players ended up getting beaten up pretty badly by some of the doppelgangers before coming along a "injured" "Iza Weeds" They decided to barricade themselves in the laundry room with her as they tended to her "Injuries" and got in a nights rest. they took turns keeping watch but when it came to be the Monk's turn (who had received the most damage that day)Doctor Oathsday revealed himself and stabbed the monk in the back, knocking him unconscious. His scream of pain woke the rest of the party up, but do to a series of rather unfortunate rolls on their part, Oathsday made quick work of all of them.

We are gonna start over next week with a new party member and I was wondering if any one had any ideas how to make that segment of the adventure a little newer and more interesting for those who have already been through it.

Thanks for the update! It looks like it shipped a little while ago, I will keep that in mind when september rolls around and the next book comes out!

my order has been pending for almost a week now. This is my first time ordering off paizo.com/subscribing to an AP so I'm not sure if this is normal or not... Its getting a little annoying cause it hasn't charged my card yet, I'm nervous I'm gonna accidentally take to much money out of my account and the order will get canceled. Mostly though I am just hoping for an update on the order. my friends were looking forward to starting today so they were really disappointing when i had to cancel.

My order has been pending for almost a week now... is that normal?

how many points are you guys giving your players for point buy? I was thinking 15 and fave 4 players. didnt want them to be to powerful running through a horror campaign. at the same time i dont want them to die all the time, cause thats lame and no one will have any fun.

yeah, the first thing i did after reading the PG was ban all but the core races. I want everything to feel strange and alien, and thats a little hard to do when one of the party members is a Vishkanya Samurai wizard. wasn't sure if there were any other recommended bans or limits to enhance the atmosphere of the campaign.

Hey, so I just placed my order in for the AP a few days ago. I subscribed so i should get the pdf soon too, but my players are bugging me with questions about what is and is not allowed in the campaign. Does the AP lay out any additional character creation guidelines? sort of how the players guide, gives advice on playing a psychic class. Or is everything they need to make their characters in the players guide?