Song of the Beast (Totemic Skald)


Rules Questions


The Totemic Skald archetype gets a unique rage power:

Song of the Beast:
Song of the Beast (Su): The totemic skald grants the animal focus abilities of his totem animal (as the hunter’s animal focus ability) to all allies affected by his raging song. He treats his skald level as his hunter level for determining the abilities of the animal focus (such as the improvements gained at 8th and 15th level). This ability replaces the rage power gained at 3rd level.

I noticed it doesn't say the rage power is granted to all allies affected by Inspired Rage but to those affected by Raging Song. I know rage powers are supposed to only work with Inspired Rage, but this one seems to broaden that scope. Is this a case of intended "specific beats general" or a slip of the pen that might be errata-ed if errata were still being done? There is at least one more rage power that intentionally works without rage active (Flight Response) so the situation isn't unique.

Some of the totem powers would be a nice perk to have during Song of Marching or Song of Strength. RAW, I think it should work. Opinions?


Unless I am missing something, rage powers can only be granted via inspired rage. So while in theory Song of the Beast would work with those other songs, the other songs don't give the allies Song of the Beast rage power to use with it.

Flight Response is specifically noted as not being able to be granted to allies by a skald for exactly this reason.


The Totemic Skald gains Song of the Beast in place of a rage power. This song applies whenever the Skald sings their Raging Song. The Song of Strength grants a strength bonus to checks for allies. The Song of the Fallen grants a large bonus: they live (for a bit). Clearly, stuff is granted for songs other than Inspired Rage.

The fact that the Song of Marching only takes 1 round of Raging Song per hour means that they will get the animal aspect for the entire hour. Some might be great for exploring like: Bat (darkvision/blindsense), Mouse (evasion/improved evasion), Stag (+5/+10/+20 speed), and wolf (scent 10/20/30 feet). [However, the Owl, with a bonus to stealth, is offset by the song itself.] The ones that give +2 to a stat won't stack with magic items likely held by a character. When I switch to Inspired Rage for combat, the benefits from the Song of the Beast would still continue, allowing a party without darkvision to see if I have the Bat.

/cevah


Totemic Skald -> Totem wrote:
He gains the following rage power.
Skald -> Rage Power wrote:

At 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, a skald learns a rage power that affects the skald and any allies under the influence of his inspired rage. This cannot be a rage power that requires the creature to spend a standard action or rounds of rage to activate it. For example, the skald cannot choose terrifying howl (which requires a standard action to activate), but can choose knockback (which is made in place of a melee attack).

Unless otherwise noted, a skald cannot select an individual rage power more than once.

When starting an inspired rage, the skald chooses which rage powers (if any) to add to the song, and all affected allies gain the benefit of these rage powers, using the skald’s level as their effective barbarian level. The skald uses his skald level as his barbarian level for the purpose of selecting rage powers that require a minimum barbarian level. If the rage power’s effects depend on the skald’s ability modifier (such as lesser spirit totem), affected allies use the skald’s ability modifier instead of their own for the purposes of this effect.

If a rage power requires another rage power (such as disruptive, which requires superstition), the skald cannot grant that rage power to allies unless he can also grant that power’s prerequisite. He may add multiple rage powers to an inspired rage at the same time using this ability (such as granting superstition and disruptive simultaneously).

If a rage power can only be used a certain number of times per day or per rage (such as renewed vigor), each ally affected by the inspired rage song is subject to that limit (with once per rage abilities limited to once per inspired rage).

If the skald has rage powers from another source, he (but not his allies) can use those rage powers during an inspired rage. He cannot select a duplicate rage power, unless that rage power can be taken multiple times.

If the skald has the ability to rage from another source, he can use his skald rage powers during that rage as well.

A skald's rage powers only affect allies when they are under the influence of that skald's inspired rage. Other skald performances do not grant rage powers. Since song of the beast is a rage power, it can only be applied to allies during inspired rage.


Ohh, I think I see the weirdness. Technically the rage power itself only needs to be in effect for the skald for allies to benefit from it. Still, the skald needs to be raging for the rage power to activate. I suppose a barbarian/skald could activate both barbarian rage and some non-rage-inducing raging song and grant song of the beast's benefits to their allies. Is that what you were wondering about?


That is why I pointed out the Song of Marching. This lets you "rage" all day. With Song of the Beast, this grants your totem to everyone all day.

/cevah

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