Last PF1 campaign - Skald Front Line Help

[Ariantar]

I know! Skald's are not necessarily optimal! I know! They are not necessarily suited to a front line "anvil!" But it's likely going to be my last PF1 campaign (the forums helped with my PF2 build and its going awesome), and I've wanted to play a skald for years and finally have the chance, so I'm going to take it. I love the imagery of a powerful Maori or Viking warrior chanting before battle to urge his companions on to extreme violence. I will never be top tier, but I'd like to be competent and NOT die.

I'm struggling with my mid tier feats and rage powers because Im trying to balance survivability with functionality. I suspect i will be eating a LOT of hits over the course of the campaign. Basically, what should I do with feats 3, 5, 7, 9, when I really dont want to die, I need to be able to cast spells while using armor and shield, and I can't be super focused on "this one niche weapon" because I dont have guaranteed access to it?

Can you guys help me optimize these levels so I hopefully survive?

It's a huge sprawling dungeon crawl - we were told explicitly that it will be very hard to come by items, shop, or obtain specific items. Maybe a few hours of crafting per day is possible, but it will be slow going.

Party:
Skald (Me)
Rogue
Hunter with Alligator Animal Companion
Arcanist Summoner
Healer Cleric

I'm the main "front liner" with the companions and summons. I have utmost confidence in my teammates' abilities - we are a few sessions in and they are all showing their experience. It's been really fun watching good players.

Current Build:
Totemic Skald (Tiger Hunter for free scaling Dex bonus)
Half Orc:
STR - 15 +2 racial
Dex - 14
Con - 14
Int - 10
Wis - 8
Cha - 14

Sacred Tattoo, Shadow Hunter, Shaman's Apprentice as racials.
Traits: Maestro of the Society and Fate's Favored

Im switching between a warhammer and longsword, plus a heavy shield for the AC, depending on what we are fighting.

Feats:
lvl 1 - Skald's Vigor
lvl 3 - Shield Focus? Alternatively, starting the gauntlet shield style chain? (At this level I get totemic raging song, so the +dex negates my -1 AC from raging song
lvl 5 - Shielded Mage?
lvl 6 rage power - Elemental stance (scaling elemental damage for melee, including the summons)
lvl 7 - Extra Rage power -> Lesser beast? Or lesser spirit? Or lesser daemon?? Beast adds some survivability, lesser spirit adds small plinks of damage, but with so many bodies on the floor it will add up, and when I get to daemon the negative levels on crits has amazing potential for BBEGs (but luck based).

At level 9 I am very strongly considering dipping into Dragon Disciple for 4 levels. I lose very little for big gains (more HP, +1 natural armor that does not stack, and then +2 natural armor that stacks with everything, +4 str, free feat (improved initiative or toughness). I lose 1 spell caster level and delay a few scaling skils, but they are more than overcome by the benefits.

lvl 9 - ?? Extra Rage -> Beast Totem? Or finish the shielded gauntlet chain?

lvl 11 - Discordant voice or greater skalds vigor, TBD)

Not concerned about higher levels. I likely wont survive that long anyway.

Any and all advice or suggestions, or out-side-the-box ideas are appreciated! Skalds have amazing fort gain, so I even looked at item mastery feats, armor mastery feats, weapon mastery, etc. etc. I could put eldritch heritages in there, or whatever. There are SO MANY OPTIONS!

Help?

[Firebug]

A common level dip for Half-orc Skalds is 1 level in Bloodrager. Inspired Rage says you can use the bonuses from another rage class feature instead of the bonuses you normally give out. This gets you rage at +4 str/con, +2 will -2 AC, and allows you to trade your 1st level bloodrager power for a familiar (bloodline familiar). I like Celestial just to help out early game for a little extra healing. Since you now have a familiar, you should really make sure its a Valet familiar, so you can share Amplified Rage with it. I like Community-Minded for a Trait as its a partial Lingering Peformance, though only allowing morale bonuses (and not penalties) to linger. The feat would allow the enhancement bonus to linger as well.

My Totemic(Tiger) Skald also went Red Tongue and Urban. Urban to double up on the +Dex from Totemic. So, you start Raging Song and give everyone Dex, on your next round you choose to use the Bloodrager rage bonuses on yourself instead of +Dex, but the +Dex (morale bonuses) stick around for another 2 rounds due to Community-Minded, negating some/all of the -2 AC from Bloodrager. And since you have Amplified Rage and your familiar is in a carrier at your side, your rage is actually +8 Str/Con +2 Dex (Enhancement and Morale, more at higher levels), +2 Will, -2 AC. Since Skalds Vigor is based on the bonus Strength (not Strength Bonus) that you are receiving from Raging Song, and Raging Song allows you to use the stats from other Rages, you should be Fast Healing 8. And I mean everyone accepts your +Dex song, even casters. Because at the start of their turn they choose not to accept but the Morale bonus lingers for another 2 rounds. Of course, if they have Immediate Action spells they want to cast before they make the choice they may not want to accept.

Tack on the Defensive Rage Powers like Guarded Life(and greater) to convert damage that would reduce you below 0 to nonlethal, the Fercious Action and Flagellant feats to act normally while below 0 and when you have non-lethal while below 0, and double dip the fast healing because all healing heals both non-lethal and lethal at the same time. Basically you can go to your -Con (which is buffed from song) acting normally and healing '16' /round with no actions on your part.

I went Red Tongue because at 7 you can share a Rogue Talent with your party, and I picked Combat Trick for a teamwork feat... I think it was Paired Opportunist, or Outflank I can't remember.

At higher levels, since you can be a tiger almost all day (note that Totemic doesn't remove the larger size options from Wild Shape, just the other forms), I also planned on picking up Planar Wild Shape for some DR. Though I think I needed to pick up the Druid's Vestment for another use of Wild Shape to get it earlier than level 12. If you go the Wild Shape route, make sure to pick up Natural Spell so you can basically do everything in death-pounce-kitty-form.

All in all, I think most of my feats were spoken for until about 13, but most of the main shtick was online about 7ish (operate normally while below 0), mostly wild shaped with natural spell by 9 (7 hours a use, 2 uses with Vestment), and celestial/fiendish by 11 (for 9 hours/day). Only real 'you need this' type items would be appropriate sized Barding (armor) and the Vestment, and maybe Amulet of Mighty Fists. All else is gravy.

Though you would have to give up Sacred Tattoo to do the below 0 shenanigans because you need to keep Ferocity for a prereq. I also played this character in PFS, so it trades out Scribe Scroll for Extra Performance, so your mileage may vary. You would also need 13 Wisdom for Natural Spell. Personally (on 20 PB) I went with 15+2 Str, 14 Dex, 12 Con, 8 Int, 11 Wis, 15 Cha with the intention of getting an ioun stone of +2 Wisdom (slotted into a wayfinder for Blind Fight) to meet the Wis requirement and then advancing Str most levels. I also took Skilled in place of Darkvision to help with skill points, and Dusksight instead of Weapon Familiarity to get Low-Light Vision. Since I didn't really care about orc weapons because Wild Shape.

[Melkiador]

I don't know why you're so down on skalds. It's a pretty good class. It's maybe not full-caster strong, but what else is? The only real issue is that not everyone can freely benefit from raging song, but it sounds like your party is well suited to take advantage of it.

I don't think you need shielded mage. Just use a light shield and hold your weapon in your shield hand while casting. Moving the weapon from one hand to the other is a free action.