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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 1252255" data-attributes="member: 13966">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. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> 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.</blockquote>

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