Need help with a Skald build

[Pixie Barbarian]

Hey all,

I'm trying to construct a half-orc skald character of 5th level with the following rolled abilities (before any racial modifiers):

17, 17, 15, 14, 13, 8.

My initial thought was to distribute the abilities as follows (with racial modifiers):

Str 17, Dex 14, Con 18 (including 4th level ability point), Int 11, Wis 8, Cha 15

I would take level 1 as bard for the skills and alternate between barbarian and bard every level after. I would add his 8th and 12th level ability points to Cha and Str respectively.

I would like some input on which skills besides Perform I should take, which feats, which prestige class (even homebrew if its balanced) would you recommend, and any other advice or changes you can think of.

I see the character as a warrior-poet from a Nordic kingdom that will recite epic battle poems (half the fun of playing a bard ) to inspire his allies and pick up his sword and shield and enter the fray.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Felix]

Even though it might be redundant with your Bardic Knowledge ability, you might want to take some ranks in Know(history), Know(local), or Know(something else). That might represent your skald's focus in his information gathering... especially helpful as you will have diluted your Bardic Knowledge check with Barbarian levels.

Survival and Listen are two good skills for Skalds, both for wilderness survivability and flavor.

Climb might like a few ranks so you could scale a lot of things out of hand...

Intimidate, to take advantage of a Charasmatic focus, and to be slightly more effective at convincing people. (or Diplomacy if you want to be the nice guy)

Intimidating Rage is a feat you might want to think about [Masters of the Wild, Complete Warrior], since as a performing type, you would want to scare those enemies listening to you.

Green Ear [MotW] would allow you to affect plants with your bardic music abilities, and if you're a wilderness boy, that would help.

War Chanter is a PrC you should check out. [Complete Warrior] It allows a more martial bard.

I'll try to think of some more...

By the way, would you be a braggart? Bold? Cowardly? Reserved? Often raging? What are you thinking about for a personality?

 

[Pixie Barbarian]

By the way, would you be a braggart? Bold? Cowardly? Reserved? Often raging? What are you thinking about for a personality?

First, thanks a lot for the suggestions!

The character will definitely a very bold and uncultured character. He will have a strong force of personality and a gregarious attitude, but will not be aware of (or care about) the proper rules of society.

As for raging, he will rage sometimes, but not every time (I'm not aware of a feat that allows bardic music while raging). Whenever possible, he will open the combat up with a few rounds of rattling off battle poems in a booming voice to inspire his allies. Then he will draw his sword and shield and charge into the fray. He will use his spells sparingly (usually in an out-of-combat buffing/healing capacity or when opportune moments arise during combat (e.g., grease on an incline)).

Because of his average intelligence and the loss of 2 skill points for each barbarian level, he will have to pick and choose his skills carefully. The only skill I plan to max out every level is Perform. I'll take a few ranks in several knowledge skills, but leave them all pretty low (probably the same with survival). I'm up in the air on which skill I will take between Intimidate or Diplomacy. It depends on whether I want him to be a bully or a negotiator. Listen is also a good suggestion as a shared bard/barbarian class skill, especially since he won't be able to reliably detect things with his low wisdom.

I don't have Complete Warrior (it's on my X-mas list from my wife ), but I'll check out the prestige class this weekend, when I can borrow a friend's copy.

Thanks again! Keep the suggestion coming!

 

[Zaruthustran]

Hey all,

I'm trying to construct a half-orc skald character of 5th level with the following rolled abilities (before any racial modifiers):

17, 17, 15, 14, 13, 8.

How important to you are the Bard class abilities?

If you just want a warrior-poet and, as you say, homebrew is open to you, then just swap out a Barbarian skill for Perform. How about Craft?

Now you have a singing Barbarian.

Or, better yet, take 2 or more levels in the Marshal base class (from the Miniatures Handbook. They get Perform as a class skill, as well as Bluff, Diplomacy, Speak Language, Sense Motive, "Knowledge" (unspecified), Intimidate, Survival, and more. Perfect skill list for a skald.

You'll also get cool auras (bonuses equal to your Cha mod) that affect yourself and all your allies, the effects of the aura last as long as your allies can hear you, and you can adjust the auras as the situation demands: start with an aura that gives a bonus to Dex checks (including Init), then switch to the aura that gives a bonus to Charge damage after init is rolled, then switch to the aura that gives a bonus to attack rolls once battle is joined. Take ranks in Perform and you can say your Marshal abilities come from inspiring poetics.

After level 4 Take the prestige class Warchief (also from the Miniatures Handbook). The only requirements are +3 BAB and "must have led a tribe in battle." The first level Warchief ability is "Frenzy (Str +2)" which gives everyone in your trive +2 Str as a free action--at a cost of 1 hp per hd to each frenzied warrior. The second level ability is +2 to your Charisma. This will boost your Marshal auras. The ability increases go up as you gain levels.

The only reason to take Bard is for Bardic Knowledge and spells. If you want that type of skald then yeah, go Bard/Barbarian. But if you want an inspiring, intimidating war-leader then go Marshal 9/Warchief 10/Barb 1

Str 19, Dex 8, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 15


I'd play these stats as an old (thus the Dex) but very tough and wily (the other stats) badass half orc. You need the Wisdom so you can be tough-minded and so your perception skills are decent (spot, listen, sense motive, survival).

Feats:
1. Improved Initiative
3. Daunting Presence
6. Leadership
9. Danger Sense
12. Battlefield Inspiration
15. Goad
18. Power Attack

Take "Motivate Dexterity" as your 1st level aura.

At first level with these stats, aura, and feat you'll have:
10 hit points, +3 initiative (+5 with aura up, which it will be every waking moment), Fort +4, Ref -1, Will +3, AC 15 (scale mail and heavy shield). Use a battle axe or longsword at first level, then switch to greatsword or longspear once you've got more hit points.

At 20th level you charisma will be 26, not counting items. That's a +8 modifer to any of your 5 minor auras (such as Determined Caster, which gives a bonus to to rolls to overcome Spell Resistance, or Master of Tactics, which gives a bonus on damage rolls when flanking, or Art of War, which gives a bonus to disarm, bull rush, trip, and sunder attempts). The +8 bonus will likely be increased since you'll have Cha-boosting items. You'll also have three Major auras at +2 (such as Hardy Soldiers, which gives DR 2/-, or Motivate Ardor, for +2 to all damage rolls). When you inspire frenzy your allies will gain +10 to Str at the cost of 1 hp per hd per round.

1st level skill rank allocation:
Perform (battle chants) 4
Intimidate 4
Bluff 4
Diplomacy 2
Knowledge (History) 2
Survival 1
Sense Motive 1
Spot 1
Listen 1

Languages: Orc, Common

If leading a tribe of half-orcs isn't your thing then go marshal/barbarian. You'll be a killing machine.

-z

 

[Arkhandus]

I would switch around a few of your ability scores, for one thing. Make them: Str 13 (16 after racial +2 and 4th-level +1), Dex 14, Con 17, Int 15 (13 after racial -2), Wis 8, Cha 17 (15 after racial -2). This will only slightly diminish your resilience, but improve your Intelligence so you can have more skill points, better Knowledge/Spellcraft, and better Bardic Knowledge. Use the ability increases from 12th and 16th level to boost your Strength up to 18, and if you reach 20th level, use that ability increase to boost Charisma to 16 (you won't be able to cast upper-level bard spells anyway, so won't need it anytime early).

I'm assuming you're using 3.5 for now, so getting a base of 6 skill points per bard level and 4 per barbarian level. Your 1st-level skill points (28) should be spent to maximize Climb, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Perform, and Swim, while putting 1 or 2 points each into Jump, Listen, Spellcraft, and Knowledge (any 2-3, likely chosen from amongst Arcana, Nature, History, and Local) to supplement your lessened Bardic Knowledge. You may want to swap out Climb or Escape Artist for Use Magic Device, since Climb is also a barbarian skill so you can increase it on those levels (same with Jump, Listen, and Swim). Escape Artist might help though if you get into grapples, or if you get captured by authorities for your barbarian behaviour, or if something tries to, y'know, swallow ya.

You'll probably want some good mobility, but I dunno how much of a wilderness fellow your skald might be, so I'm not sure how much focus you should put into Climb, Jump, and Swim (though extra mobility never hurts). With your later bard levels, increase any of the aforementioned skills as desired with your 7 points per level (don't bother to improve Perform at barbarian levels, just sink 2 points into it with each bard level, maybe). On barbarian levels, put your 5 skill points per level into something like Climb, Jump, Swim, Wilderness Lore, Listen, Intimidate, or Ride. I'd reccomend Intimidate, Listen, Jump, Swim, and Climb, to help your presence and survivability (you'll wanna be able to leap small chasms and gaps when being chased by nasties, and climbing is helpful to escape some foes as well, plus it's just darned useful). If your skald ends up as a woodsy type, swap out Intimidate and Jump for Wilderness Lore and maybe Ride. You might want to put 2 points per barbarian level into Listen, since your bard skill points will be more useful if spent on other skills.

I suggest you use a large/heavy shield and a longsword (appropriately Viking-esque, just call it a broadsword) wear some good medium armor, like a breastplate, so you can retain Fast Movement and not lose the effectiveness of Uncanny Dodge. For feats, in no particular order, you might look at Still Spell (for casting spells in combat while armored, like the occasional opportunistic Grease or something as was mentioned), Quick Draw, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot (for rapidly hurling throwing axes or hammers when combined with Quick Draw), Weapon Focus (longsword), maybe Skill Focus (in Intimidate or Use Magic Device), and Improved Initiative. Since your spells will generally be used outside of combat, don't bother with Combat Casting (nor any ranks in Concentration). Some feats from Sword And Fist, Song And Silence, or Masters Of The Wild may help too.

On a final note, you may want to mix in levels of fighter or ranger at some points in place of barbarian levels, since you won't be raging very often anyway and won't be able to use Bardic Music while raging either.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Just so you know, there's a 10-level Warrior Skald prestige class in Races of Faerun for FR. Pre-reqs are Concentration: 6 ranks, Perform (poetry, and any others): 9 ranks, Power Attack and Cleave. Basically, a militant bard who sacrifices spellcasting for good BAB, and uses poetry instead of music. They get more martial kinds of bardic music abilities, like Demoralize and Words of Fury.

Sounds exactly like what you're looking for, and despite being found in an FR book is pretty setting-neutral.

 

[Darklone]

I'd go (and did it) Bbn2/BardX. Power Attack & Cleave.

High Con is a good idea, Improved Toughness a must.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

As for raging, he will rage sometimes, but not every time (I'm not aware of a feat that allows bardic music while raging).

There is no rule against using bardic music while raging, you just can`t spells and rage or cast spells and sing. (or more precisely: you can`t cast spells while raging. if you use bardic music and cast a spell, the bardic music ends - but most music abilities linger for 5 rounds thereafter, so it doesn`t really matter)
Considering this, Extra Rage and maybe Extended Rage might seem a good feat choice, too.

I am not sure what you think is the best archetypical skald weapon, but you might consider reducing either strength or dexterity dependendly. (I played an OA Barbarian/Ranger with a Dex of 12 and a light armor: his armor class sukced - only many barbarian levels and his good - but not extraordinary - constitution of 14 kept him alive, especially since most the time, there was no cleric/healerguy. Maybe I should be grateful that these stupid samurais all loved to sunder his "Sang Kauw" - instead of him. Anyway, don`t fear some weaknesses - it makes your character more interestingly to play)

You probably need to have some "combat modes" for your character in mind, like:
a) Warrior Mode:
Inspire Courage -> Rage -> kill kill kill
b) "Caster" Mode
Inspire Courage -> aid (cure spells, cat`s grace, haste) or hinder (grease, glitterdust) or kill kill kill (bows)
From these modes, you might consider the spells you need.

Since you are an half-orc, and thus more predermined to be a warrior type character, you should probably concentrate on getting barbarian levels.

If you want to compensate for the lack of skill points, consider taking some skill enhancing items (especially "Circlet of Persuasion" might be useful in this case), and look at the synergy rules (5 ranks of bluff equal to a +9 to +13 modifier distributed among several skills ).
Remember that maxing out skills is not always necessary, especially if you are not expected to be the best in these skills.
If you want a better bardic knowledge ability, check if you are allowed to use the Obscure Knowledge Feat from Song & Silence (I don`t think there is a 3.5 version out yet) - it grants you +3 to your bardic knowledge checks.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Mystery Man]

You should check out the warrior skald PRC from the Races of Faerun book, if you havent already. Threre may be some good ideas in there for you.

 

[Pixie Barbarian]

How important to you are the Bard class abilities?

If you just want a warrior-poet and, as you say, homebrew is open to you, then just swap out a Barbarian skill for Perform. How about Craft?

Now you have a singing Barbarian.

Or, better yet, take 2 or more levels in the Marshal base class (from the Miniatures Handbook. They get Perform as a class skill, as well as Bluff, Diplomacy, Speak Language, Sense Motive, "Knowledge" (unspecified), Intimidate, Survival, and more. Perfect skill list for a skald.

Zaruthustran,

Thanks for the suggestions. However, let me clarify the "homebrew" comment earlier. Homebrew prestige classes are okay as long as they are balanced, but the core classes have to be taken from the 3.5 PHB (which rules out the Marshall too unfortunately).

Arkhandus,

I'm definitely considering your stat shuffling suggestion to gain some more skill points, though I probably won't take Escape Artist (other skills I can think of that I'd prefer) or Gather Information (seems too city-based).

Tarrasque Wrangler & Mystery Man,

I'll track down Races of Faerun later after I find my way out of this accursed dungeon I call "my job".

Mustrum_Ridcully,

I don't think you can use Bardic Music while raging, because you can't use the Cha-based Perform skill while raging. From the SRD: "While raging, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills..." I will check out some of the feats you've recommended though.