So Paizo has given us two real options for making a Skald who is a member of a less 'hit things with a big stick' party. The Urban Skald and the Spell Warrior.
If you were to make a Skald who belonged to a party with a ranged character or two and a caster or two alongside your traditional close range fighters which of these archetypes would you see yourself leaning towards? Why?
Or perhaps you would take the route of neither archetype, how would you handle the fact that most of your party wouldn't accept your raging song?
Urban Skald would be my pick. Spell Warrior gives up too much and gets way too little for it. The counter-spell abilities are weak to start with, and even worse when you realize you are trying to do it on a spellcaster that only gets up to 6th level spells.
Spell Warrior can be good for a dip, gain the ability to enchant other weapons with special properties. It is the rest of the powers I don't care for.
Urban Skald has flexibility and doesn't get in the way of skill use. Spell casters are still unlikely to accept the song, but that is to be expected.
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So Paizo has given us two real options for making a Skald who is a member of a less 'hit things with a big stick' party. The Urban Skald and the Spell Warrior.
If you were to make a Skald who belonged to a party with a ranged character or two and a caster or two alongside your traditional close range fighters which of these archetypes would you see yourself leaning towards? Why?
Or perhaps you would take the route of neither archetype, how would you handle the fact that most of your party wouldn't accept your raging song?
This is a hard choice. I'd have to say Urban.
One reason is you do not give up spell keening like on the Spell Warrior. one of the best tools a Skald has is Spell Keening.
Second is you can be boosting other stats like Dex. The Archer will love you, any reach based character is going to love you, and increasing everyone's AC and Reflex saves is always good. There is no one in the group who will turn down increased stats.
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Even a standard skald helps everyone even casters a little. A bump to 2 saves, extra hp help everyone. Even casters like the hp if they go down this alone has saved several in my parties.
I like bardic masterpieces to increase versatility. Triple time is amazing as move speed keep range characters alive and helps people get flank. Symphony of the Elysian Heart is a lifesaver because freedom of movement shuts down grapplers. If you take point blank shot, you qualify for lots of range teamwork feats that will help your range characters (Battle Song of the People's Revolt).
Spirt totem line gives rage characters concealment and does damage when people come near them.
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Even a standard skald helps everyone even casters a little. A bump to 2 saves, extra hp help everyone. Even casters like the hp if they go down this alone has saved several in my parties.
They don't like the AC penalty though, and Dex-to-damage characters will mostly just be annoyed by you, as for them the AC penalty hurts more than the buffs help them.
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Even a standard skald helps everyone even casters a little. A bump to 2 saves, extra hp help everyone. Even casters like the hp if they go down this alone has saved several in my parties.They don't like the AC penalty though, and Dex-to-damage characters will mostly just be annoyed by you, as for them the AC penalty hurts more than the buffs help them.
Different strokes. But for my Dex based characters at mid to high levels +2 or more to Will and Fort, likely my weaker saves, and 2 hp per level, 20% miss chance for ranged attacks is way more defence than 1 AC. Add on to that if you have community minded they can drop the song and get all the moral benefits con, strong, and will for 2 rounds with no ac penalty.