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I am about to be starting in a very primitive homebrew pathfinder campaign. The gm stated that almost every weapon is going to be fragile/primitive, bone, stone, bronze (though we don't have the ability to learn how to craft it yet), and obsidian. Same with armor, he is only allowing bone and leather.
Classes are very limited but he left the Skald up for grabs since this is going to be a tribal warfare and dinosaur jungle type campaign. He said the campaign will very slowly progress towards more civil weapons such as bronze, iron, and steel but that will take alot of time.
I chose to go with a hobgoblin, Skald Wardrummer because he can use clubs and greatclubs which though wood lack the fragile tags. Zilde'jhynn Tem-po is my characters name and his stats are...
Str: 16
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 8
Cha: 13
I am at a tossup on feats to choose. The gm says only pure classes "No Multiclassing." So I am trying to figure out the best route of feats. I was debating Lingering Performance but I don't even know if that works for Skalds since his class songs says "replaces Bardic Performance." That being said I am also curious if the Society Trait "Maestro of Society" works for Skald "Inspired Rage." I want Zilde'jhynn to be a buffer for sure but I want him to do very well in combat. Any suggestions?
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It may help too that I let you guys know that besides Perform (Percussion) that Zild'jhynn has a +10 Intimidate as well. So if there are any good feats that help with Intimidation such as something that allows me to use it as a move action, free action, or swift action instead of its normal action requirement that would be great too.
"A raging song counts as the bard's bardic performance ability for any effect that affects bardic performances" - you're fine with both of those.
Enforcer is a feat which lets you follow up nonlethal damage with an intimidate check. Cornugon Smash is probably preferable though later since it only requires using Power Attack (you are taking PA, right?). There are rage powers which help intimidate - if there are other PCs who might use them they might be worth pursuing. The Blistering Invective 2nd level spell lets you intimidate an area (and set them on fire!).
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Sweet! I wasn't sure if raging song counted as bard performance or not. That's great!
Yes I will definitely be taking Power Attack and just checked out Cornugon Smash which will be perfect!
I doubt many of our players will be using intimidate often so the rage powers may not be worth taking.
As for Blistering Invective i planned on taking that one after checking into some of the spells on the bard list last night.
Tyvm for the answers and suggestions bro!
If you are grabbing Cornugon Smash, it might be worth checking out the Hurtful feat as well, especially considering your massive Intimidate modifier - it lets you attack a person you've intimidated as a swift action, just to get that drum solo going with rapid attacks. Power Attack is a prerequisite as well for that feat, something to keep in mind.
EDIT: I always thought that the War Drummer has some pretty neat synergy with the Shoanti Spirit-Singer trait & the Defensive Strategist trait. Grab it with Adopted (it is Race, Human only) - it lets you start a bardic performance/raging song in the surprise round even if you are unaware of your opponents 1/day, but you'll still be flat-footed. Defensive strategist pretty much ensures that you are never flat-footed, and couple that up with the war drummer being able to draw weapons as a free action during a raging song - your body will practically be able to smack things before your mind realises that you can smack things.
I was going to post about Hurtful last night, but somebody must have cast Mythic Deep Slumber. Anyhow, Hurtful is a good idea though it and Arcane Strike won't work well together. Hurtful will probably contribute more damage overall though, and it could be especially nice if you use your free Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat to put the Cruel enchantment on your greatclub. That will allow you to sicken the creature you hit with your Hurtful attack. Cruel will also work well with Dirge of Doom and Blistering Invective. You could even move up, cast Blistering Invective defensively, and attack one of the demoralized foes with Hurtful.
If you're worried that the duration on your intimidate might not be long enough you could consider Intimidating Prowess (add Str to intimidate) and or Skill Focus (intimidate). If you're interested in the latter you might consider being a human and taking the Focused Study racial trait, which gives you free Skill Focus feats at levels 1, 8, and 16. It is great for picking up Eldritch Heritage, and with Familiar Folio you could have a mauler archetype familiar who gets all your bardic buffs and beats the snot out of your opponents. There should be plenty of jungle critters available.
Here's a possible human build which might not totally suck:
1 FS-Skill Focus:Knowledge(Nature), Power Attack
3 Eldritch Heritage (Arcane)
5 Cornugon Smash
7 Lingering Song
8 FS-Skill Focus:Intimidate
You could obviously mix those feats up in a different order if you wanted to bring Cornugon Smash online earlier or whatever. At some point you could also consider taking Undersized Mount so you could ride your jungle critter or Outflank so it could give you some nice attack bonuses. If you decide to ride it might be worth considering a level of Fighter with the Dragoon archetype to get free Skill Focus for the Ride skill along with the Mounted Combat feat. Of course you might not want a familiar at all, but it seems very thematic for a jungle Skald.
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These are definitely some sweet ideas! I had never even seen the Hurtful feat before.
@Pounce
Ty for the trait suggestions...I was having alot of trouble deciding good traits to take. We are only allowed 2 traits though and no drawback for an extra (which I know is PFS standard). It may be worth taking them both instead of my initial choice which was Maestro of Society which my gm ok'd for use with Skald. The other I had chosen was Poverty Stricken since Skalds surprisingly don't get survival as a class skill and this entire campaign will focus around our own abilities to forage and hunt for both food and drinkable water. (The gm has a house rule that create water works to create the substance but the water created has no sustaining effect) He threw this campaign together to be a very challenging one based on survival. Our party will only be three strong (we are all veterans to RPG's and he wants to test our abilities.
@Devilkiller
I do like the idea of going with a human and ramping up a combat familiar. I also like the idea of using the Craft Arms/Armor to place cruel on my greatclub BUT the gm also has a house rule that magic items are going to be exceedingly rare to near impossible to obtain (So much so that he is banning all Item Creation feats except Brew Potion and Scribe Scroll). He is forcing my skald to replace the Craft Magic Arms and Armor with a Bonus Combat Feat of my choice that I must still qualify for.
All that being said I probably won't be going the human with familiar route because he is adamant that I stick with my initial choice of race which is Hobgoblin. He wants the party to be racially diversified since we are all beginning as displaced people from tribes that have been wiped out recently. We will be beginning in an encampment that is mostly neutral in alignment and accepts wandering outcasts from all races and tribes. This encampment is based in a coastal jungle surrounded by other hostile tribes and vicious dinosaurs/other prehistoric beasts.
We only get a 15 point buy and nothing can go below 8 after racial modifiers. The party currently consists of a tengu Hunter, a human Cavalier, and me. The skald is probably not the BEST choice of class but it is more conducive to my playstyle compared to the other classes available to us which are:
DRUID (extremely useful in this campaign though I just can't find a good build that interests me.)
BLOODRAGER (fun stuff. No true benefit to the party though since it's essentially another hammer to swing)
WARPRIEST (there are no gods in this campaign. I could go with a divine concept and yes there are heals from warpriest but like the Bloodrager, essentially another hammer)
SHAMAN (very tempting, battlefield control, familar!!, heals!!, and hexes! I would have gone this route but I can't figure out a build with a 15 point buy that would be very effective without completely gimping all combat capabilities)
WITCH (Squishy as crap but fun!, Familiar, Hexes are great!, awesome debuff/battlefield control though focusing on single opponents)
BARBARIAN(bleh, I am looking for a caster type that can be effective in battle and help the group in the areas they are found lacking)
RANGER(we already have a hunter and I don't want to trump his tracking and animal companion abilities. I want him to feel useful and I think rangers are played out in the campaigns I run and play in.)
BRAWLER (not my cup of tea and another Hammer though more versatile than most hammers when it comes to maneuvers. I don't see Sunder, Grapple, Steal, Reposition, etc working well against a T-Rex.)
SLAYER (Not a fan of roguish characters)
ROGUE (See above :D)
FIGHTER (Another friggen hammer. Makes sense I guess because of the primitive aspect of the campaign but I don't want to play anything unless it has spells!)
After that list the only ones that truly interest me are
Skald, Shaman, Witch, and Warpriest (which is my last resort).
The campaign has not started yet so I still have options available but am stuck with hobgoblin race.
Your DM sounds like a pain in the neck or some other area of the body. I've recently become aware of a newer feat called Familiar Bond which has only Iron Will as a prerequisite. Here's a build incorporating it as well as the Hurtful feat (which I somehow forgot to work into the first one). The intimidating glare rage power plus the Hurtful feat should allow you to make two attacks per round starting at 3rd level, and that seems pretty cool to me. If you wanted the familiar earlier you could easily reshuffle the feats.
1 Power Attack
3 Hurtful, rage-intimidating glare
5 Iron Will
6 rage-lesser beast totem
7 Familiar Bond, bonus-Cornugon Smash
9 Lingering Song, rage-beast totem
11 Extra Rage Power (terrifying howl)
I figure Lesser Beast Totem might be cool as it would allow you to give your familiar two claw attacks assuming it doesn't already have any. Lesser Fiend Totem for a Gore attack could work almost as well for a familiar who already has claws and would give you a Gore too. Granted, your Gore would be at -5 to hit and might do mediocre damage, but it would be another chance to intimidate somebody if you hit, and with Terrifying Howl you can make life really bad for demoralized foes.
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I am definitely taking Lingering Song at 1st level. I would have loved to take power attack as my 1st lvl feat but it has a prerequisite +1 bab which I do not meet since skalds have a Medium BaB progression. I will have to take it probably around lvl 3 or 5. Cornugon Smash and Hurtful will be a great addition to the build as well.
I am still at an impasse as to my choice of traits...Maestro of Society and Poverty Stricken will be a big help in the campaign for sure but the Shoanti Battle Singer via Adopted, and defensive strategist traits but that will be completely a situational bonus really. Maestro and Poverty will be great for extra rounds of Inspired Rage when combined with Lingering Song which will put me at around 21 rounds per day at 1st level. The Poverty Stricken will give me an essential skill that will be used very often for getting along in the wild which is what the campaign is going to be based around.
One weird thing about the War Drummer is that since you can Quick Draw clubs you could potentially be pretty good at throwing them. This might not be very good as a primary combat style, but having a few sticks to toss at people might be fun. For instance, if you intimidate somebdy as a move action and then kill them with your swift action attack from Hurtful you might want to whip out a club for free and throw it at another nearby foe with your standard action.
Power Attack Blooper - Oops, sorry about missing the BAB requirement. I guess I usually don't take Power Attack on characters with less than full BAB. Unfortunately there's another potential problem with the build I posted since the familiar from Familiar Bond doesn't qualify for the Mauler archetype. You could pick up an animal companion via Animal Ally instead if you'd like. Something like a big cat could benefit from your inspired rage and potentially add a lot of damage. On the other hand, you could also focus on feats to improve your survivability.
Feats - Taking Power Attack and Hurtful at levels 3 and 5 followed by Cornugon Smash at level 7 would set you up pretty well for combat. I see Lingering Song as being useful more for covering breaks in the performance when you cast Saving Finale than for extending your rounds of performance per day, but it is a good feat either way.
Traits - The Memorable trait would make demoralization from your intimidate skill last 50% longer, which might be nice?
I guess I assumed that as an intimidate focus build you'd take the Intimidating Glare rage power. It lets you demoralize an adjacent foe as a Move action. It also qualifies you for Terrifying Howl later on. Whether Terrifying Howl is worth taking on a PC who can cast Fear is up to you, but the TH save DC might be higher, and you aren't burning up spell slots for it.
Another viable combo with intimidating glare at low levels would be to start your raging song as a standard action, intimidate your foe as a move action, and then attack as a swift action (potentially making a 5 foot step somewhere in there). You could also use a move action intimidate with standard and swift action attacks to get two attacks at levels 5-7.
Obviously you'll be able to intimidate as a free action with Cornugon Smash later on, but it takes a while to get that. Intimidating Glare also has a longer duration (1d4 rounds base instead of just 1 round)
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We just started playing this campaign last night. So far he has worked out wonderfully in the few encounters we have had. His skills seem to be up to par as well when it comes to survival in the primitive wilds.
@Devilkiller: I looked into Intimidating Glare and decided that it will be a must have with this build. Zilde'jhynn was very fun on his 1st level run through and did very well with his intimidation tactics. I really appreciate the positive feedback and advice you have thrown my way.
I am still looking into what other rage powers and feats that would work well with Zilde'jhynn. Any other pointers would be great. If not ty again!
I'd previously mentioned Terrifying Howl, but you could consider taking that via the Extra Rage Power feat since your allies won't be able to use it (due to the activation being a standard action)
Lesser Beast Totem is kind of dull though it can give you a decent attack option if you get grappled. Beast Totem raises everybody's AC while raging significantly though, so it could be nice. Greater Beast Totem gives everybody Pounce, and that seems pretty awesome.
Lesser Celestial Blood might be nice depending on what enemies you’ll fight. Groundbreaker and Knockback might fit the greatclub theme pretty well, and the fact your allies would get these abilities too might let you cooperate to make an area of difficult terrain and then push enemies out of it (most useful if one of you has a reach weapon)
What feat did you take at 1st level, Lingering Song?
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Yah I did end up taking Lingering Song as my 1st level feat...I believe my feat, (RAGE POWER) progression will be as follows
1st: Lingering Song
3rd: Power Attack (INTIMIDATING GLARE)
5th: Cornugon Smash
6th: Improved Crit [Greatclub]-Bonus, (LINNORM DEATH CURSE, TARN)
7th: Hurtful, Furious Focus [DM replaced Craft Magic Arms/Armor with a Bonus Combat Feat]
9th: Skald's Vigor, (LINNORM DEATH CURSE, TOR)
11th: Combat Reflexes
12th: (COME AND GET ME)
13th: Hammer The Gap
15th: Weapon Focus [Greatclub],(DEATHLESS FRENZY)
17th: Intimidating Prowess
18th: (GUARDED STANCE)
19th: Extra Rage Power-->(GUARDED LIFE)
The Linnorm Death Curse doesn't seem that exciting to me unless maybe you're granting it to a bunch of NPC warriors for a big battle or something. Maybe it is a prereq for something else you want or I'm missing something though.
I'm also not sure why you wouldn't want to reverse the order you take Hurtful and Cornugon Smash in. I guess maybe you're concerned about getting off your intimidate on a charge or in other situations where you need to move and attack rather than use intimidating glare as a move action and then get two attacks. This is only a significant decision for 3 levels though, and the PC looks like he should be fun either way. It is nice that intimidating folks will help cut back the bonus you give them to hit you with Come and Get Me.
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My idea on the Linnorm Death Curse is that it does add some extra damage on hits and the fact that the gm has limited us to such crappy weapons any extra damage is a good thing + he also makes us roll Once for HP and we also have really crappy armor the best of which will be bone scale mail after much time ingame research and crafting. The likelyhood of some of us falling to 0 hp is much greater than the average game since he is making this campaign as HARD as POSSIBLE. In the moment that people fall below 0 hp for for the first few levels the Hunter and I can use Cure Light Wounds to get them back up. At later levels they will have fast healing from my Skald's Vigor + Deathless Frenzy + Guarded Life which will allow the effect of the Death Curses to Proc (theoretically). I am still kind of torn as to other better rage powers to take than the Death Curses. Linnorm Death Curses are not a prereq to any other Rage Powers that I know of and I only took them because I haven't found a whole ton of other rage powers that look as appealing. I Alot of them are standard actions to activate and I want to have all my Rage Powers be usuable by the other PC's in my group. I am currently in the process of looking at other rage powers to get a better feel for what I should go for in place of them should I find something more appealing.
As for the Hurtful and Cornugon Smash I have debated both ways about when it would be best to take which. Currently the levels in which I take them is not set in stone yet so I have a bit more time to debate which order would be more useful. I am still at a toss up on that choice.
The intimidate + Come and Get Me is also going to be augmented by the Guarded Stance which will also offset the likelyhood of getting hit to much with the enemies following attack.
If your allies don't actually fall unconscious I'm not sure if the curse aspect of the Linnorm Death Curses would get activated. I suppose that +2 damage on each attack isn't bad, but you could get as much or more damage out of some other powers such as Lesser Fiend Totem and Fiend Totem or the various Spirit Totem powers. I'm also fond of the AC boost from Beast Totem since it doesn't require an action to activate and the next rage power in the chain gives you Pounce.
Since you seem to be planning for 20 levels you also could consider checking out the Arcane Strike feat. The swift action to activate it can be a nuisance, but the extra damage is nice, and if your DM is stingy with magic weapons it might help you beat some DR or hit incorporeal creatures.
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Dang. Yep you are right. I was under the impression that the Linnorm Death Curses activated if brought to 0 hp, unconcious, or killed. Not neccisarily a "back to the drawing board" scenario but that does put a little hiccup in my rage power planning...hmmm. I had debated the Arcane Strike as a feat though I am not sure that I want to take it yet. It could be a good choice though it keeps me from using the Hurtful feat during the round I decide to use Arcane Strike.