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Last night, I played Murder's Mark on Roll20 with a group of fellow Society members from my local store. 4 of the 5 of us used playtest characters as mentioned in the subject: Arcanist, Hunter, Shaman, and Skald with a Fighter thrown into the mix. I personally played as the Skald (my Society dash-one being a Bard).
Level 1 Human (Caldaru) Skald
17/12/13/13/10/14
Feats: Combat Expertise, Improved Trip
Traits: Called (Faith), Bred for War (Race)
L1 Spells: Grease (DC 13), Liberating Command
For starters, I resigned myself to the fact that I would never be great in combat. I have feats selected through Level 12 for this character for a build I've nicknamed "Master Caster Blaster".
We finished the module with only two major combats and talking our way through all of the other encounters.
Combats
Skald
Both combats went by fairly quickly (2-3 rounds each). Initiative modifier of +1 is kind of sad, so I was low end of the turn order both times. Only having six rounds of raging song, I conserved until the finale.
In the first battle, I attempted to trip a creature that couldn't be (whoops) and provided flank for the remainder of the battle. I had the opportunity to cast Liberating Command on the Fighter (to no avail). In spite of several player failures, I feel like the character did its job in a support role.
In the finale, I started up Rage Song at first opportunity: the Fighter, Hunter, Hunter's animal companion, and Arcanist accepted (this actually brought the Arcanist from 0 HP to 1 HP, allowing her to get out of combat when the party had no dedicated healer... kind of a nice utility). The situation had cleaned itself up by the time Round 2 came around again, so I helped with chip damage against the BBEG.
Arcanist
I realize this class will receive an overhaul... outside looking in, the Arcanist felt a lot like a Sorcerer. Chip damage and buffs for the Fighter.
Hunter
Felt a lot like a Druid at first level. The animal companion did a lot of the heavy lifting and the Hunter mixed it up in melee, but damage output mid-range for the party.
Shaman
The (Heavans) Shaman felt like an Wizard at first level. He made good use of his spirit ability and magic, helping us shut down a potentially major issue in the last fight.
Fighter
Of the party members, the tank and damage dealer. Not much else needs to be said.
Social/Investigation
I'll just say 6 skill points don't go very far, but Bardic Knowledge helps. When you're the closest thing the party has to a "skill monkey", it's nice to be able to roll on all knowledge checks, even if you're only adding +2. With the exception of identifying the first creature we were fighting, our party pretty much nailed our knowledge checks. We had one character that was truly a face and a second that was pretty good backup (I at least had a 60% chance of aiding any given social check, and my unneeded intimidate was +7). Every perception check had at least 2 people succeeding with flying colors. Every major issue we ran into, we had a solution for (with the exception of desperately needing a grappling hook, but so I digress).
Final Thoughts
I like the Skald so far. Take a Bard, strip the performances you'll probably never use, and turn "Inspire Courage" into something personalized and devastating at later levels. Losing versatile performance and the extra skill points every level stings, but dropping some of the social aspects to make a Bard-like character a bit more primal and destructive in combat is refreshing.
Though we could have probably used ourselves a dedicated divine/healer, I would roll with this party again.
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Good to hear the skald's working okay as a support character. It's an interesting niche, so I'm glad it's working in play.
My plan going into building it was focusing support, because 3/4 BAB and no bonus combat feats = lagging behind in the damage department later in levels (something I discovered with my PFS Bard). I may crunch some numbers to see if I'm better off with higher Strength (to make those trips happen) or Charisma (a little extra spell, rage, and social support) before I officially ding Level 2.
The raging song feels good, but a lot of people won't like the -1 AC, limitations during rage, and the round of fatigue afterward. My goal is to make it worth accepting from as many people as possible. The other night, a Sorcerer accepted it to remove the staggered condition (in the future, my raging song could "stabilize" people with shallow negative hit points long enough for them to take care of themselves or get out of combat). At level 4, I should have Superstitious and Witch Hunter on-board as well: casters beware. ;)