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I am about to hit level 3 on my Spell Warrior and wondering what the best Rage Powers are.
The World Serpent Totem - World Serpent Spirit line looks great since it gives all alignments to weapons.
Lesser Celestial Totem benefits everyone, since it boosts healing, allowing healers to do more with less. The Invisibility Purge that Celestial Totem gives is pretty nice too.
Raging Leaper isn't much to write home about. However, Raging Flier (ACG, not Raging Flyer from UW) uses it as a Rage Power tax a Spell Warrior's Enhance Weapons song doesn't block Spellcasting or cause the Fatigued Condition. Flying is amazing for some scenarios (no spoilers here, if you played it, you know which one I mean).
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The spirit totem line is also extremely popular for skalds, for good reason.
Superstition can be great for a spell warrior, since the entire party can freely drop in or out of the song on a turn-by-turn basis, with no penalty.
I like the idea of cult totem as a skald power, but the lesser power is not great.
Unexpected Strike for the whole party is pretty slick.
A spell warrior with Lesser Elemental Rage and Elemental Rage could add a huge number of elemental bonus dice to every attack, especially with Discordant Voice on top, but they would not be great against enemies with multiple resistances. Still, I think it's pretty cool for the archetype, if not the best.
Of course, while beast totem may not be all great powers for sharing, it's worth a thought in a melee-heavy enough party.
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I am about to hit level 3 on my Spell Warrior and wondering what the best Rage Powers are.
The World Serpent Totem - World Serpent Spirit line looks great since it gives all alignments to weapons.
Lesser Celestial Totem benefits everyone, since it boosts healing, allowing healers to do more with less. The Invisibility Purge that Celestial Totem gives is pretty nice too.
Raging Leaper isn't much to write home about. However, Raging Flier (ACG, not Raging Flyer from UW) uses it as a Rage Power tax a Spell Warrior's Enhance Weapons song doesn't block Spellcasting or cause the Fatigued Condition. Flying is amazing for some scenarios (no spoilers here, if you played it, you know which one I mean).
well I can help some, celestial totem isn't PFS legal. SO that's not an options.
beast totem to get AC is helpful to many since lots of people won't have natural armor.
The spirits one is fun since you'll have a good cha that their spirits will use.
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I'd advise against whatever option gives everyone the extra d4 of untyped damage (is that Spirits? I can't recall). I've seen it listed in several Guides online, but practically it increases the length of combats and IIRC it had some clause that was lengthy to explain.
I've encountered several players that chose that option and it always seemed like there was a collective groan from everyone else at the table. Skalds already have to explain their base abilities so that everyone understands them. Adding something extra IME makes people just say "No" to the whole thing.
I'd recommend something with flat bonuses instead.
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I would advise against Superstitious for Skalds, allies automatically accept the benefits of your song when unconscious, making it very difficult to get them stable or back in the fight when things get clutch.
Nothing feels worse than watching your character bleed out because they have to make a save on a spell or channel positive energy.
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I would advise against Superstitious for Skalds, allies automatically accept the benefits of your song when unconscious, making it very difficult to get them stable or back in the fight when things get clutch.
Nothing feels worse than watching your character bleed out because they have to make a save on a spell or channel positive energy.
To be precise, Superstition gives a bonus on saves against spells, SLAs and Supernatural Abilities, but you're only forced to resist spells and SLAs. Channel Energy is supernatural.
But having to resist wands is problematic...
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Here's the rage power in question:I'd advise against whatever option gives everyone the extra d4 of untyped damage (is that Spirits? I can't recall). I've seen it listed in several Guides online, but practically it increases the length of combats and IIRC it had some clause that was lengthy to explain.
I've encountered several players that chose that option and it always seemed like there was a collective groan from everyone else at the table. Skalds already have to explain their base abilities so that everyone understands them. Adding something extra IME makes people just say "No" to the whole thing.
I'd recommend something with flat bonuses instead.
Benefit: While raging, the barbarian is surrounded by spirit wisps that harass her foes. These spirits make one slam attack each round against a living foe that is adjacent to the barbarian. This slam attack is made using the barbarian’s full base attack bonus, plus the barbarian’s Charisma modifier. The slam deals 1d4 points of negative energy damage, plus the barbarian’s Charisma modifier.
Super straight forward, all the Skald has to let others know is his charisma mod so they know the spirit's to hit bonus. Not sure how that will make things much longer than a wizard casting haste and granting another attack.
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1) conversation about being a Skald
2) conversation about Spirit Totem
3) arguments about whose BAB and Charisma mod to use
4) recipient rolls potentially several attacks
5) recipient gets annoyed that the to-hit and damage rolls aren't worth the effort or time
6) recipient stops accepting Skald song completely
7) Player of Skald encounters this scenario multiple times and retires Skald early.
Seen it happen plenty of times. It's made especially worse when there's kids or players with poor math skills at the table (EDIT: or even worse trying to figure it out in HeroLab).
I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just advising that you don't do it.
Contributor
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At higher levels, the world serpent line of powers is something other players at your table will really enjoy benefiting from. My 11th level Skald/Hellknight Signifer loves those!
If your character is a ranged combatant, one of my local players came up with a neat trick (if you own the correct Additional Resources, that is) - combine the scent rage power with pheromone arrows/bolts.
Superstitious/witch hunter has its merits and its problems, as others above have already stated...if you play with lots of clerics or have supernatural ways of healing unconscious/dying allies, I'd rate it higher than if you didn't.
All of the above is just my opinion, of course.
I've recently built a Skald, and a few caught my eye:
- Lesser Celestial Blood. Make your weapons Good-aligned. Pretty nifty.
- Lesser Fey Blood. Force a confusion effect. Always fun. Since most builds go for crit-fishing, there's a decent chance your allies will have a good crit range.
- Fey Blood. Ignore difficult terrain while charging. Pretty nice if your opponents are spamming things like Black Tentacles. Or create your own.
- Guarded Life. When you go knock out, convert some damage to nonlethal. Prevents you (and party members) from suddenly dying, and they're easier to revive. It takes a while to understand what it does, exactly, though. The Greater version might be worth it as well, but I'm not sure.
- Bestial Leaper. Requires Raging Leaper, but having a ride-by attack is pretty good. Prevents you from ending near an enemy and being open to a full round of attacks. Even better if you have a reach weapon and don't provoke from entering threatened squares (this becomes moot against large creatures, though).
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1) conversation about being a Skald
2) conversation about Spirit Totem
3) arguments about whose BAB and Charisma mod to use
4) recipient rolls potentially several attacks
5) recipient gets annoyed that the to-hit and damage rolls aren't worth the effort or time
6) recipient stops accepting Skald song completely
7) Player of Skald encounters this scenario multiple times and retires Skald early.Seen it happen plenty of times. It's made especially worse when there's kids or players with poor math skills at the table (EDIT: or even worse trying to figure it out in HeroLab).
I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just advising that you don't do it.
"People might be bad at basic math" isn't a convincing argument for someone to not take an option in my opinion.
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I pass out cards that I built in Excel to handle the spirits/song. Never been a problem.
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Now that I'm at my desktop and can put this on Drive, have a link. Customize away!
I'm a fan of sharing Internal Fortitude (immune to sickened and nauseated conditions).
I played wirh a skald using the spirits power last week. It was fiddly, even with the player rolling his own dice/doing his own damage.
Then we met the opposition with negative energy affinity, and all our hard work got reversed until the skald stopped singing. Overall it didn't seem to help much.
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Nefreet, I have never had a problem with Spirit Totem at the table, and most people enjoy the 20% miss chance the next level up gives. But then I am also a spell warrior, so I am usually giving everyone +1+1d6 energy as well (or +1d6+1d6 energy if they have magic weapons.) And since it isn't rage, they aren't limited in what they can do in the mean time. A lot of times the people I have seen refusing rage have been refusing it because they suddenly have a long list of things they cannot do.
It is a bit of a PITA if there are a lot of undead in the scenario. But I can also turn off the spirit rage powers.
So, my shpiel is basically:
Okay, everyone, you get +1 to hit and +1 damage +1d6 fire on all your physical attacks. You also get an extra attack, every round, whether you move or attack or not, that is your BAB + 6, and deals 1d4+6 negative energy. Any attack that targets you from more than 5 feet away takes a 20% miss chance.
At some point here, I plan to make cards to hand out. But I haven't had time yet.
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If your character summons creatures, or if you plan on traveling with a summoner, consider Linnorm Death Curse, Tor for your 9th level rage power. Every time one of the summons dies, the killer must make a save (based on your Charisma) or be permanently staggered. (The rest of the feat is just gravy at that point.)
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I don't think that would work, since Summons merely "disappear" when reduced to 0hp.
If the Summoner was a Half-orc with Ferocious Summons, it might work.
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I don't think that would work, since Summons merely "disappear" when reduced to 0hp.
If the Summoner was a Half-orc with Ferocious Summons, it might work.
So you would not let the Chain Challenge feat work on summons either?
Benefit: When the target of your challenge ability is killed or knocked unconscious, you can declare a new challenge target within 30 feet as an immediate action.
Melee weapons only, not that the power is useless, because of that.
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One that no one seems to bring up is lesser celestial bloodline, as it makes ALL of EVERYONE’S weapons good-aligned. Also makes all attacks deal an extra d6 damage against evil subtype outsiders.
World Serpent does something similar. Level 1+2 gives: +2 AC (insight) vs outsiders & aberrations, +2 to saves (resistance) vs outsiders and aberrations and anything with an alignment descriptor and your weapons (melee and ranged) are counted as good, evil, lawful and chaotic.
I mentioned it up above. While the World Serpent is also very good, I think the prerequisite is a bit meh. +2 AC isn't a lot, especially when some people aren't keeping their AC up to date (real tank builds are uncommon in my area). And it's only against a very specific number of enemies (okay, outsiders are common enough). I'd prefer Celestial bloodline and a different power, rather than double-dip in something that isn't useful all the time. And I can count the number of times I needed anything other than Good on less than one hand, I'll gladly pay the price for that.
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I mentioned it up above. While the World Serpent is also very good, I think the prerequisite is a bit meh. +2 AC isn't a lot, especially when some people aren't keeping their AC up to date (real tank builds are uncommon in my area). And it's only against a very specific number of enemies (okay, outsiders are common enough). I'd prefer Celestial bloodline and a different power, rather than double-dip in something that isn't useful all the time. And I can count the number of times I needed anything other than Good on less than one hand, I'll gladly pay the price for that.
Alexander's world serpent barbarian is extremely effective. Savage Technologist barbarian is silly good at defense.
But yeah, tanks are rare around here because they require the rest of the party to want to stay behind them. And we have a bit of a cult of the offensive going on, with people rushing forward to put maximum pressure on the enemy.
Oh yes, it's certainly good, but I'm just not sure if it's worth it. The no trip clause is super sweet, though.
And yeah, Savage Technologist is silly. I have dipped in it, it's bonkers.