Well in that case you can take Skill Focus any Knowledge and Eldritch Heritage: Arcane, and get a familiar that way.. Or from the sounds of things the Familiar Folio will let everyone have one, one way or another.
You can't use Shared Spells to get the familiar to count as the caster of Shield Other.
Is there a reason you say that?
EDIT: Found it, it's because share spell only works on spells with the target of "You" and shield other targets "one creature"
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I played the pre-gen skald once in silverhex. I though he was fun but I had a few issues. I liked him in combat, but his spells were really metagamey and required me to interrupt the GM's flow to be all wait don't tell me, I have to decide to use this spell before I learn the results of the action you haven't announced yet. It really threw us off as often GM's don't bother stating the action sequences of NPC's because they aren't used to being interrupted like they were playing a card game rather than being a GM. Can't remember the spells, but I really wanted more useful ones like say Cure Light Wounds and Feather Step.
Saving Finale comes to mind. I actually like that one, save for the fact that I have to spend a standard action afterwards to restart the song.
I'm playing my Skald as a support character that focuses on giving rerolls to the party. My greatest DPS increases have been from Spirit Totem, Lesser, which gives everybody a spare slam attack that they don't spend an action to make. I'm still waiting to play with that alongside a summoner-type character. I may start picking up summons myself to support it.
If only we could get a skald that specialized in summoning.
But then again, that could be a little too much for most people.
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@Jodokai: That's a useful option. And it would really give him a huge boost in one knowledge skill.
I just had a quick look through the bloodlines. He could bolster one of several knowledge skills as a prerequisite for several interesting bloodlines for Eldritch Heritage (like Div, Djinn, Efreet, or others).
Another one I thought might be helpful was Skill Focus (Survival). It's a useful skill. But it's not a class skill. But with that Skill focus he could get Boreal bloodline for Eldritch heritage to help a bit in the combat end of things.
But the Arcane bloodline would be the most versatile of the lot, I suppose, because of the familiar. Would a Bonded Object be much use instead? Nobody seems to want to take that option in lieu of a familiar.
Oh! Oh! I just had a Cunning Plan! Not so cunning that you could clean your teeth with it, but it is thematic:
- Totemic Skald; Snake
- Skill Focus (Know, any one)
- Eldritch Heritage (Arcane); Viper familiar
May not be too useful. Unless you were trying to lie through your teeth. A lot. And have allies largely on the defensive with abundant Attacks of Opportunity. But it would be thematic!
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@Gregory Connolly: I didn't take a close look at the iconic skald spells until just now. They didn't look especially useful for the sorts of spells I like for bard-types. I to like having Cure Wound spells on hand. You can never have too few of those in the adventuring career path!
One reason I like to play Half-Orcs as bard types is to be able to use the FCB of getting extra spells known from time to time. Never hurts when you're limited with the number of spells you can know.
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@Serisan: That Lesser Spirit Totem is cool. I like it! In time, I wanted to build on that with Spirit Totem and Greater Spirit Totem. It would all add up with enough allies. Provided there aren't too many undead foes among the opposition, of course.
A couple of things just occurred to me. The Spirit Totem rage powers would also work nicely if you had allies handy with ranged weapons. And hampering the opposition with things like the Grease spell or caltrops would allow the Spirit Totem slam attacks to be even more troublesome for your enemies.
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@Deadkitten: a Totemic Skald taking the Lesser Beast Totem, Animal Fury, Beast Totem, and Greater Beast Totem rage powers (in that order) would be the next closest thing to being a summoning skald. At least I think so. The Skald's allies would effectively become natural attack machines. Useful if disarmed or otherwise lacking weapons.
Mind you, it would take you to level 15 to build up to that!
I've been looking for ways to make Amplified Rage work early on for quite some time now. This is very nice...very nice indeed. All I need now is to find a way to get claw claw bite from the start to capitalize on that crazy STR score.
I'm more partial to the tusked race trait from Orcs of Golarion myself . Sadly looks like there is no way to get Claws/Amplified Rage and a familiar as of level 1. If you don't pick up claws from bloodrager 1 you have to wait until level 4 to get them via rage power, this does have the advantage of granting them to your familiar and your party.
The cavalier level lets you share your teamwork feat, but only for 3 plus cav lvl rds per day. Is there a way you were planning on extending this?
The cavalier level lets you share your teamwork feat, but only for 3 plus cav lvl rds per day. Is there a way you were planning on extending this?
Valet familiar template shares all teamwork feats.
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@Ray-gun: I was wanting to stick to single class as much as possible (partly because the paperwork is easier). I'm trying to have a skald that's quite combative. Not as combative as a fighter or barbarian, but way more combative than a bard would normally be.
In that context, the Amplified Rage, cool as it is, is a bit too situational if my skald does not multiclass. I like the idea of the Totemic Skald as an alternate to multiclassing and taking Amplified Rage. The Bull focus would increase the Strength for more hitting power, or the Bear focus would increase the Constitution bonus for more staying power, or the Tiger would increase Dexterity for better AC and ranged attacks. Decisions, decisions!
I would say to avoid the bear, the extra HP is nice but it can outright kill you if your not carefull.Also, if your allies are benefiting from your raging song they have to worry about their HP as well.
I would say to avoid the bear, the extra HP is nice but it can outright kill you if your not carefull.Also, if your allies are benefiting from your raging song they have to worry about their HP as well.
I would say Bull is the only great choice if you are taking skalds vigor.
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@Deadkitten: I was thinking the Bear was a bit too situational. It would probably only be handy as a temporary buff to keep someone from dying. So not too handy for a Skald's allies most of the time.
@Lastoth: No question that the Bull Totem ramps up the Skald's Vigor and Greater Skald's Vigor. A lot. Also makes a big difference to everyone's hitting power in melee.
@Markov: I like the idea of Tiger partly because that DEX boost would help everyone's AC a bit, as well as their ranged hit bonuses. I guess the final choice between Bull or Tiger would depend largely on what kind stats the Skald actually has. Myself, I would go for the Tiger if the Skald in question had more or equal DEX to STR. But if the STR was 2 or more higher than DEX, I think Bull would be better.
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I also thought the Snake choice would be good if most of your allies use AoO a lot more than most.
Savage Dirty Tricks is a perfectly ideal rage power if you're stacking bull totem on an amplified rage skald. The save is strength based and you get to stagger/daze nauseate someone once a round. This gives you a good amount of control for a melee character. Sadly none of those conditions actually makes the target easier to hit. I know in my build I'm looking at hurtful/cornugan smash though, so the loss of an attack each round isn't quite as bad.
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@Lastoth: I'll make a note of that. Debuffing the enemy is always cool.
@Markov: I'm sure some errata will come out to sort that one out at some point if enough players pester Paizo about that. I'd be inclined to go for the average size of a natural version of the totemic animal in question. But I'm not a GM, of course...
TL;DR is too long, didn't read.
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@heyyon & Chess Pwn: I'll make a note of that "TL;DR". There's just so many of those acronym things to keep track of!
@heyyon: I'll check out those snake properties. Sounds cool. Good climb and swim speed, amongst other things, never hurts either.
This skald character has only been through one PFS module, so he's still wet behind the ears sort of thing. Lots of time to make decisions when he levels up some.
Where is this familiar coming from with the 1 level dip into bloodrager?
The Familiar Folio has that option for bloodragers
I really like the skald. He's great for team buffs. My character usually start a raging song and sets up haste first turn. I took rage power that grants an extra natural attack like horns. And skalds vigor and the improved skalds vigor feat granting fast healing is amazing. Greatest class feature is spell kenning and I can't stress that enough. Feat drops for the feats in advanced class origin that expand your spell kenning list can be worth it if you have the feats
In regards of the Skald, would you say that Combat Reflexes + Reach is worthwhile?
PROS:
#1 It seems like a neat way of ensuring that performance is up and squeezing as many attacks as possible out of the Raging Song bonuses
#2 Multiple AoOs is anywhere from "amazing" to "neat" depending on the scenario
#3 Helps early game survival, not that the Skald isn't a tough cookie regardless, but still
CONS:
#1 The value seems questionable on a class that gains Uncanny Dodge, and thus double dips on the "can make AoO's while flatfooted"
#2 With the MAD the Skald is facing it is likely not to have the greatest dexterity modifier regardless.
#3 The Skald also has a lot of feats that it wants, which might make it difficult to make room. (Power Attack, Amplified Rage, Skald's Vigor, Arcane Strike, Discordant Voice, Greater Skald's Vigor, Extra Rage Power...)
I'm really torn.
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Being a little more specific, if you have a bloodline, you can forgo your first level bloodline ability to get a bloodline familiar. Also, you'll get your bloodline spells a level lower. Or, you can always get the aberrant bloodline and take the aberrant tumor feat. That gives you a tumor familiar.
Say. So I was reading skald's vigor... If your rage song gives a total of 6 STR, you get 6 fast healing? So... If you convince your GM that your rage powers, like the Bull Totem one from Totemic Skald, count as part of the rage song, which there's some language suggesting such... Basically what I'm asking is, wow, is it really possible to get over fast healing 20 on all your allies that can hear your song?
Yes, a Skald would get that fast healing rate using Skald's Vigour. The only snag is that it won't start until the second consecutive round of Raging Song. But it's obviously a real life-saver for a skald!
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I really like the skald. He's great for team buffs. My character usually start a raging song and sets up haste first turn. I took rage power that grants an extra natural attack like horns. And skalds vigor and the improved skalds vigor feat granting fast healing is amazing. Greatest class feature is spell kenning and I can't stress that enough. Feat drops for the feats in advanced class origin that expand your spell kenning list can be worth it if you have the feats
I think the Skald is totally cool too. That Spell Kenning does look pretty sweet!
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@Pounce: I hadn't thought of the dexterity thing for a Snake totem becoming sort of redundant with Uncanny Dodge. I was looking at the way improved dexterity improves both AC and gives you more AoO with Combat Reflexes.
Well, the Totem Skald trades away Uncanny Dodge anyway, so it doesn't have that issue. :) That, and you are entirely correct in the usefulness of Dexterity, it'd probably depend on your build. If you are grabbing Snake Totem you are probably going to focus on AoO's regardless, so Combat Reflexes would be a no brainer feat. I'm just curious as to whether it would be worth it on a vanilla skald.
With that said, I'm playing a Skald (Fated Champion) 4 / Bloodrager 1 right now, and the trait Shoanti Spirit-Singer has done wonders for getting Skald's Vigor active when really needed, and in addition it has great flavour with one of the better rage powers to grant to the party - Lesser Spirit Totem.
With the Valet familiar applying cheap L1 oils on occasion when needed, he has already left quite an impression on the game. Specifically, a half-orc that suddenly grows large, and the following turn has a movement speed at 70' while singing jolly orcish war songs about chasing his foes makes for a /really/ fun character to play - and he can carry around a couple of oils of Moment of Greatness if he really needs it in a pinch. Nothing like deciding to Kaio-ken and hit a foe with +16 strength for one attack.
I, for one, have found my favourite class in Pathfinder. :>
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Pounce, are you rocking Amplified Rage with your Valet?
Community Minded is another solid trait for the Skald, since all the rage bonuses are morale bonuses. It's almost as good as Lingering Performance, and prevents you from Rage-killing yourself when you're knocked unconscious.
Is there any other way? :) Reliably getting Amplified Rage is half the fun of playing a Skald, I think. In fact it made the party Barbarian pick it up as well, so now we are TWO super-raging crazies running around..
What I'm debating now is more whether it is worth it to go for Flagbearer or Battle Cry on a Skald - and despite the defensive benefits of Battle Cry, I'm leaning towards Flagbearer. At least to me, it seems to have better upgrade potential with Courageous enchantments and the Banner of the Ancient Kings, as well as being constant. On the other hand, free save rerolls to the party (outside of Saving Finale) is pretty great..
(FYI: Already grabbed Skald's Vigor & Amplified Rage, so this is my 5th level feat we're talking about - and funnily enough when I did a bit of number crunching in a DPR calc, it concluded that Flagbearer gives equal DPR to Power Attack at my level when enlarged. So, it just seems like a more solid (and fun) choice to buff the party and still be effective)
Yeah, I've talked to my GM, and he seems also to be of the impression that Flagbearer requires one hand (despite logical fallacies..), and that it is the Banner that specifically "breaks" the way the feat works, being the exception rather than an example. So, no flags for this group for the time being. I guess I'll revert back to Power Attack and save up for a Furious weapon. Decisions...
Improved Familiar looks pretty good. Especially with the Earth Elemental, as it would still get other teamwork feats, so stuff like Paired Opportunists would be fun with Combat Reflexes.. but these are feats that I don't have. Truth be told though, an Earth Elemental would probably cause a bigger damage increase than any other feat. Only problem is that I don't have the Magical Knack trait, so I'm still CL 4, hah. Definitely seeing the appeal though!
An idea for you pounce is taking a level of cavalier or the like that can grant teamwork feats to your allies, that way everyone has amplified rage.
courageous doesn't do as much if you don't have a bigger +X on your weapon. So a +2 furious courageous weapon makes a +4 weapon allowing courageous to be a +2 bonus instead of a +1