Help balancing my current party

[Xhavez]

I joined a group of random people and we’re starting the Rise of the Runelords campaign. Unfortunately no one communicated with each other so now we have:

Wizard, Sorcerer, Bard, Skald, and Rogue (my character)

So pretty much I’m the closest one to a fighting class - which isn’t great. We are currently at level 3. I have taken TWF, Finesse, and Weapon Focus with dual-wield short swords.

I was wondering if I should look towards a fighter multi-class to help take some more of the focus? Stick with pure rogue? I want to help the team out as much as I can, but not sure what way I can best do that.

Any advice with the current setup?

[DungeonmasterCal]

I personally would tune every adventure to fit the party makeup. Being a lifelong homebrewing GM I don't enforce the idea that every party should have particular classes for "balance".

But I don't know how your GM handles his end of the game, so you might just talk to him or her. A Rogue is definitely an important character, but I will say something with more muscle would be handy in certain spots.

[Xhavez]

The GM seems pretty flexible and was one of the first ones to point out to me that I was one of the main fighters in the group. Unfortunately we haven’t been a full group yet - he ran a session with just 3 of us - Rogue, Skald, and Bard.

All being level 1 it wasn’t so bad since everyone really sucks at that level — and the dice weren’t on my side anyway. However now at level 3 with all the attack bonuses, I think it should be easier.

I was considering doing 4th level rogue (Uncanny Dodge and Rogue Talent) and the take 2 levels in fighter — for the extra BAB and 2 extra feats?

Level 5 Rogue is kind of stagnate in terms of growth so I thought moving to fighter at that point would help?

[DungeonmasterCal]

I don't think it would hurt, really. Multi-classing is often a good way to get a variety of useful abilities for an "unbalanced" or smaller party. I say go for it and see how it works.

[Syries]

Having the wizard specialize in summon monster would be helpful since you have a bard that buffs all allies, a skald that buffs all allies, and a rogue that needs a flanking buddy. With a wizard summoning as a standard action with acadamae graduate (assuming your GM is allowing 3.5 stuff, or even just that one feat to help out the party comp) and having augment summons, raging song and inspire courage, the summons make for good beatsticks.

If the skald is half-orc, they can pick up the teamwork feat Amplified Rage, then when the wizard summons, they cast coordinated effort, a 3rd level spell. Say your entire party of level 7s do this. Bard starts inspiring, sorc starts blasting, rogue positions a flank, wizard casts SMIV, skald casts coordinated effort (or uses a scroll) and starts raging song. The celestial lion suddenly has +12 str and con (counting augment summons), is flanking with the rogue, and is getting an additional +2 att/dmg from bard song. Net +10 att, +8 dmg.

[Syries]

If your party seems to really be struggling with hard encounters, maybe ask your GM if your rogue can have d10 HD and full BAB. It's hardly game breaking.