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My gaming group is going to start the Skulls and Shackle adventure path very soon. I know they are all chomping at the bit to play a PC that is not so nice. So far in the group we will have a blaster wizard, a reasonably heal bot-ish cleric, a fighter, and I am not sure what my other fellow player will be doing. All I know for sure is that he will go out of his way to not be good at any sort of social skill beyond intimidate. He does pretty much everything possible to be poor at social skills.
I figure I should play some type of face character. One that can either lie or flatter in situations where it's too dangerous to try and fight. It would be nice to have some spellcasting and decent martial ability. Of course that immediately screams out bard, but I don't know how I feel about them. They were always better on paper than play to be during the days of 3/3.5 and it's a long adventure path. I want to have fun.
What I do know for sure about my character are these facts. I have DM permission to play a changeling who is passing for a half elf. Her mother is a sea hag to go along with the pirate type theme. I probably plan on taking Mother's Gift as her first feat.
My rambling leads to this question. What kind of class do you folks recommend I should take? Maybe some interesting bard archetype. I honestly don't know right now.
Bard would seem to be the way to go, indeed. They have changed quite a bit from 3.X, mostly in that you can still function while using your performance abilities. Their skill set works well in the AP, though you will probably want to use a trait to get Swim as a class skill. One thing I would recommend, though, is skipping Mother's Gift. A Bard doesn't get that many feats, and if you want to be able to fight and face well burning a feat on Mother's Gift, especially at level 1, might not be the best idea (especially if you want to be a Dexterity Bard or a passable offensive caster).
As for archetypes, Sea Singer is very thematic. Losing Versatile Performance isn't fun, but the abilities will actually be fairly useful in Skull and Shackles. Buccaneer is good if you plan on having a fairly high Charisma and abusing "Knock Out." In general, just avoid anything that replaces Inspire Competence and you will be fine.
If you're looking for the other side of the Bard coin, you could do so much worse than an Inquisitor.
Good at ranged, spectacular at melee, useful spells and phenomenally versatile abilities with Judgement and Bane and the like. Taking the conversion inquisition instead of a cleric domain might get you trashed in an optimization thread, but it makes Wisdom your face skill stat - which also happens to be your main casting stat, and, you know, Will saves and all.
Plus, identify all the monsters - this has an awful lot of potential to be expressed through tales of the sea, sailor's proverbs and sea shanties.
Contingent, of course, on how your character feels about having a deity.
Buccaneer Bard with Enforcer and Skill Focus (Intimidate) feats and is very effective.
Buccaneer Bard with Enforcer and Skill Focus (Intimidate) feats and is very effective.
Or since the enforcer probably has 16 strength anyway, Intimidating Prowess is even better so any strength buffs improve your intimidate.
Taking the conversion inquisition instead of a cleric domain might get you trashed in an optimization thread, but it makes Wisdom your face skill stat - which also happens to be your main casting stat, and, you know, Will saves and all.
Of course, I forgot that Changelings get a bonus to Charisma anyway, so the switch isn't necessary.
As far as Mother's Gift, getting Spell Resistance is probably going to make you happy. More AC is unlikely to make you feel bad about your choice. Claw damage, probably not so much.
Let me throw an Arcane Duelist Bard into the mix as well. Strong choice if you're thinking Bard.
Bards are awesome in Pathfinder! Don't discount them because they weren't that great in 3rd/3.5... yes, they were were pretty bad. They pale in comparison to Pathfinder bards. First of all, they get a LOT more performances now that didn't even exist in 3.5... and now they're actually USEFUL. You don't have to spend a standard action every round to perform like you did in 3.5... you just spend 1 standard action to START it, and as long as you keep performing in the following rounds, it's a free action to keep it up. At higher levels you can start a performance as a move/swift action, so at that point it doesn't even get in the way of doing other stuff. It's leaps and bounds better than 3.5's "bardic music". Not to mention Pathfinder's Bardic Knowledge is AWESOME! It's what 3.5's Bardic Knowledge SHOULD have been. Bards are the kings of knowledge, especially with Lore Master. And yes, they make ideal party faces because they are CHA-based, they get hefty skill points, their social skills are class skills, and they even have spells to boost checks even higher. Check out the bard and the archetypes... some fit the pirate theme well, like the buccaneer, but be careful not to throw away any awesome abilities just for a different theme - honestly the default bard is just fine.
Also, changelings make fantastic witches. They get powerful spells and even have a changeling-specific archetype. This makes you very good at putting enemies to sleep and then OWNING them. :) Could be fun. The only thing is CHA isn't the witch's primary attribute, and you have to do a little work to make them good in melee (using Prehensile Hair or something... I'm sure there's a guide somewhere).
The sorcerer is CHA-based and I know there are some martial-based bloodlines, so that could work too (sorcerers are also light years better in Pathfinder than they were in 3.5). Beyond that, you might try out the magus. They are DEFINITELY fun and they combine martial combat with arcane magic by their very design. There might be an archetype there that might suit you, too. The thing about the witch and the magus... even though CHA isn't their primary attribute, you can still MAKE a face character out of them by investing all those skill points you get from INT into the social skills... plus they both have check-boosting spells to help.
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I would suggest a rogue or even better a Ninja. ... Who don't fantasize about Pirates and Ninja's? it practically screams for some good honest Ninja's to appear and duke it out with some Pirates ...
They have all the social skills, loads of skill points, poison use, and the best part is ... your a Ninja!!! :)
Or you can just go rogue if your DM is limiting the books. ... But you can still call yourself a Ninja!!! :)
Take Besmara as your goddess put on some black clothing and call yourself Dread Pirate Roberts or Roberta ...
Let the awesomeness begin ....
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I have to admit that the bard is looking much, much better now that I take stock of it. The inquisitor is also an intriguing class. I had never truly looked at it before. I am curious if a deity like Besmara would have inquisitors. She seems fairly uncaring.
Bards are awesome in Pathfinder! Don't discount them because they weren't that great in 3rd/3.5... yes, they were were pretty bad. They pale in comparison to Pathfinder bards. First of all, they get a LOT more performances now that didn't even exist in 3.5... and now they're actually USEFUL. You don't have to spend a standard action every round to perform like you did in 3.5... you just spend 1 standard action to START it, and as long as you keep performing in the following rounds, it's a free action to keep it up. At higher levels you can start a performance as a move/swift action, so at that point it doesn't even get in the way of doing other stuff. It's leaps and bounds better than 3.5's "bardic music". Not to mention Pathfinder's Bardic Knowledge is AWESOME! It's what 3.5's Bardic Knowledge SHOULD have been. Bards are the kings of knowledge, especially with Lore Master. And yes, they make ideal party faces because they are CHA-based, they get hefty skill points, their social skills are class skills, and they even have spells to boost checks even higher. Check out the bard and the archetypes... some fit the pirate theme well, like the buccaneer, but be careful not to throw away any awesome abilities just for a different theme - honestly the default bard is just fine.
Also, changelings make fantastic witches. They get powerful spells and even have a changeling-specific archetype. This makes you very good at putting enemies to sleep and then OWNING them. :) Could be fun. The only thing is CHA isn't the witch's primary attribute, and you have to do a little work to make them good in melee (using Prehensile Hair or something... I'm sure there's a guide somewhere)....
If you consider Inquistor, look at the Conversion Inquistion that lets you dump Charisma and use Wisdom instead to key CHA face skills
I have to admit that the bard is looking much, much better now that I take stock of it. The inquisitor is also an intriguing class. I had never truly looked at it before. I am curious if a deity like Besmara would have inquisitors. She seems fairly uncaring.
While I don't have her write-up in front of me, I seem to remember that her relationship with sea monsters is one of a bully bullying other bullies. Perhaps your Inquisitor could focus on monsters who've forgotten their place and aren't giving Besarma proper homage?
Given the nature of the series, a water oriented Druid would be useful.