Skald Rage Powers

[Serisan]

I'm playing a Skald in PFS and looking at Rage Powers that I'd like my party to have. I'm torn on a few, though I fully expect to use every feat from level 3 on to take Extra Rage Power to fill out the song. Thoughts so far:

Level 3: Superstition, Witch Hunter
Level 5: Battle Cry (it's a feat, but allows for rerolls)
Level 6: Spell Sunder
Level 7: Celestial Blood, Lesser (melee attacks are Good-aligned, add 1d6 against evil outsiders)
Level 9: Celestial Blood (acid and cold resist)
Level 11: Celestial Blood, Greater (free rerolls!)
Level 12: Eater of Magic (more rerolls!)

Any thoughts on this? Any obvious omissions, replacements, or position swaps?

[Major_Blackhart]

I didn't even realize that they had the Rage Power class feature. For some reason, I always thought it was just an extension of their skald class.
Ok, here's how it goes. The way you should consider things is based on several features. Our group currently has our Raging Skald as a face, while me as the Primal Steelblooded Bloodrager and our Mutation warrior human are the front line combatants, and the warpriest is a healer/rearguard combatant. All of us are devout Gorumites BTW, going for a theme.
Anyway, the way we built things is that he took a look at what rage powers would augment the group best. So he went with the following:
Reckless Abandon, Superstition, Ghost Rager, Knockback, Overbearing Advance, Guarded Stance

Both Ghost Rager and Guarded Stance allow for additional armor class of different types, Reckless Abandon basically allows us to use power attack with, well reckless abandon, and the other abilities are essentially icing on the cake, allowing for the entire group to do a lot of battlefield control.

But really, it depends on what you want him to do. Our guy is acting the controller. Check out all the rage powers, the totems especially can make for some interesting options.

For instance, if you want your group to be entirely armor proof and impenetrable juggernauts, you could go the Dragon Totem line and all three Increased Damage Reduction abilities. That will give everyone in the group DR9 eventually I believe. Which ain't bad. And if you have an invulnerable rager or an undead bloodrager, then you have some real hard hombres.

[LessPopMoreFizz]

Spirit totem. Hands down.

[Sammy T]

I was looking at superstition, beast totem, and first 2 (abyssal?) bloodline to make everyone enlarged pouncing mage killers by L10 (with a retrain of a burner feat at L10). Of course, the elemental fire or air bloodlines make strong case as the extra movement makes your pouncers faster or give them flight. Battle cry is nice to have in the mix.

The only issue I had was making my skald have decent contributions with his own DPS after trading away all my feats for rage powers

[Serisan]

@Major_Blackhart - One of my restrictions here is that it's PFS, so I won't have a consistent group. Other than that, I follow your logic completely. My move towards rerolls is a consequence of that, along with the CG alignment that I decided on for the character. I had also been considering a more natural attack focused line-up, but it didn't seem to jive with the alignment and concept, so I junked it.

@LessPopMoreFizz - why you gotta troll me like that? :-p

[Serisan]

Sammy T wrote:

I was looking at superstition, beast totem, and first 2 (abyssal?) bloodline to make everyone enlarged pouncing mage killers by L10 (with a retrain of a burner feat at L10). Of course, the elemental fire or air bloodlines make strong case as the extra movement makes your pouncers faster or give them flight. Battle cry is nice to have in the mix.

The only issue I had was making my skald have decent contributions with his own DPS after trading away all my feats for rage powers

While I certainly don't want to be a party drag, I would like to think that providing boatloads of rerolls to the party is a pretty substantial benefit.

[pauljathome]

Don't forget that only the rage powers you get at level 3, 6, etc can be given to allies. The others only affect the skald

[Serisan]

I missed that line. That is very sad.

Back to ye ol' drawing board.

[LessPopMoreFizz]

What makes you think I'm trolling?

[Sammy T]

pauljathome wrote:

Don't forget that only the rage powers you get at level 3, 6, etc can be given to allies. The others only affect the skald

damn.

[Serisan]

LessPopMoreFizz wrote:

What makes you think I'm trolling?

Because you had no supporting argument for the choice.

Doesn't help that I don't see the Skald as being excessively CHA focused and PFS has a high undead count.

[Chris O'Reilly]

You might not find superstitious worth it without being able to pump it with favored class bonuses. It's bonus to will saves will only be 1 higher than the song itself and doesn't stack with heroism.

[LessPopMoreFizz]

Serisan wrote:

LessPopMoreFizz wrote:

What makes you think I'm trolling?

Because you had no supporting argument for the choice.

Doesn't help that I don't see the Skald as being excessively CHA focused and PFS has a high undead count.

Supporting argument:

Getting an additional 'free' attack per party member (and at level 9 *another one! per enemy engaged with a party member) is pretty bonkers, and 20% concealment against ranged attacks, reach weapons and large sized foes isn't exactly something to sneeze at.

Yes, it's ineffective against undead, but then, that's a consideration you'll have to make in the context of your campaign (in this case, PFS.). It's still very strong.

As for the Skald not being charisma focused - at high levels, you're going to want at least a 16 eventually, and at low levels, starting with the extra 2 points in Cha and using the level up points elsewhere if need be to start out with that extra round of raging song isn't exactly a bad move. In my mind, Spirit Totem is good enough to seal the deal and make Cha a clear prime stat for a Skald built around it. YMMV.

[Serisan]

With the power sharing restriction, I think I'd do the following instead:

Level 3: Superstition (shared), Antagonize
Level 5: Battle Cry
Level 6: Celestial Blood, Lesser (melee attacks are Good-aligned, add 1d6 against evil outsiders)
Level 7: Celestial Blood (acid and cold resist)
Level 9: Reckless Abandon (shared)
Level 11: Eater of Magic
Level 12: Celestial Blood, Greater (free rerolls!)

Obviously, some feats are missing. I'm just sleepy.

[LessPopMoreFizz]

You have to be able to share prereqs to share higher level stuff, so I don't think you can take Celestial Blood at 7 like that.

Quote:

If a rage power requires another rage power (such as disruptive, which requires superstition), the skald cannot grant that rage power to allies unless he can also grant that power's prerequisite. He may add multiple rage powers to an inspired rage at the same time using this ability (such as granting superstition and disruptive simultaneously).

[Serisan]

Chris O'Reilly wrote:

You might not find superstitious worth it without being able to pump it with favored class bonuses. It's bonus to will saves will only be 1 higher than the song itself and doesn't stack with heroism.

That is a fair point.

LessPopMoreFizz wrote:

Supporting argument:

Getting an additional 'free' attack per party member (and at level 9 *another one! per enemy engaged with a party member) is pretty bonkers, and 20% concealment against ranged attacks, reach weapons and large sized foes isn't exactly something to sneeze at.

Yes, it's ineffective against undead, but then, that's a consideration you'll have to make in the context of your campaign (in this case, PFS.). It's still very strong.

As for the Skald not being charisma focused - at high levels, you're going to want at least a 16 eventually, and at low levels, starting with the extra 2 points in Cha and using the level up points elsewhere if need be to start out with that extra round of raging song isn't exactly a bad move. In my mind, Spirit Totem is good enough to seal the deal and make Cha a clear prime stat for a Skald built around it. YMMV.

I suppose that makes sense. Could also be quite good with a summon or two laid down. I had always overlooked the ability. How is it getting a second attack at level 9? The Lesser feat specifies 1 attack.

[LessPopMoreFizz]

My bad, 12 not 9.

Greater Spirit Totem:

Quote:

Benefit: While raging, the spirits that surround the barbarian become dangerous to any enemy adjacent to the barbarian. Living enemies adjacent to the barbarian at the start of her turn take 1d8 points of negative energy damage. In addition, the spirit wisps can now attack foes that are up to 15 feet away from the barbarian and the slam attack deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage.

So you have a spirit wisp from every party member, that can now deal 1d6+Cha as a reach attack, and every party member also has an aura that deals 1d8 dmg to anyone adjacent to them at the start of each turn, no attack roll required.

[blackbloodtroll]

Spirit Totem never receives bonuses, and the allies must have a positive charisma to really benefit.

[LessPopMoreFizz]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Spirit Totem never receives bonuses, and the allies must have a positive charisma to really benefit.

Uhhhh... What?

Quote:

If the rage power's effects depend on the skald's ability modifier (such as lesser spirit totem), affected allies use the skald's ability modifier instead of their own for the purposes of this effect.

[blackbloodtroll]

How did I miss that?

[Serisan]

Don't worry, BBT, I've been missing things left and right on this ability. It spans 2 pages and 3 columns, so we can use that as a defense.

I'm coming around to your logic, LessPopMoreFizz. I wish I had a dedicated summoner to play with to leverage the Spirit line better, but you can't win 'em all.