Starting Serpent's Skull - Need character advice

[Spastic Puma]

I'm about to start serpent's skull and I'm quite torn between playing an Alchemist or a Skald from the Advanced Class Guide. They both seem to provide great roleplaying opportunities and offer their own brand of support to the party. Which do you recommend?

The rest of the party consists of a Gunslinger (Mysterious Stranger), a Swashbuckler, and a Druid (Saurian Shaman).

[justaworm]

Why I would play an Alchemist:
Having a druid healer and no arcane is going to be rough, and this class will add a good mix of both.

Why I would play a Skald:
Who wants to sit around and throw bombs all the time? Plus, you still get add some help with the arcane.

[Cussune]

I would say a Skald. Gunslinger will lock down ranged fairly well, and the others would make bombing a bit more tactical and frustrating to make sure you don't hit them (I assume, I don't pay too much attention to Alchemists). Plus, a Skald I feel would mesh better in this adventure than the Alchemist - it could work too, but a Skald's abilities, skills, and flavor would just feel better for this AP. It seems to shore up the arcane/knowledge gap of the party more, depending on how you like to play.

[mechaPoet]

The thing I'd be concerned about as far as the skald goes is that if you go with the standard raging song, the strength bonus will be useless to both the gunslinger and the swashbuckler (assuming the latter is the standard finesse weapon fighter using one of the myriad options to get Dex to damage). The druid may or may not want to accept the song, depending on how focused they are on casting versus melee combat. If they have a dinosaur animal companion, it might be useful for that, but I don't know if they can benefit from the raging song?

So that means that 2/3 out of 4/5 members (including yourself and the druid's animal companion, if they have one) will use the song most effectively, and none of those seem to be the primary damage dealers.

Of course, the ranging song's not the ONLY thing the skald does, but as far as supporting the team goes, that seems like a biggie.

[Cussune]

That's a very good point, mechaPoet, but the alchemist's support would mostly be the potions/infusions or throwing bombs, right? So any defensive support would be putting the "casting" actions on the party.

A skald would still have bard spells, and if the party isn't optimized for strength, a raging song at the right point could be vital, and there may be rage powers they could find useful.

I guess the type of support you'll want to give depends on the group's playstyle, Puma. Alchemist seems more offensive, and there'd be more interaction among all of you to decide on infusions and deciding to drink them. Skald's main support is less useful in the main, but the bardic spells are a strong backup.