It Takes Class – Skald Barbarian

Class archetypes are hideously underutilized. They are a powerful tool to tailor classes to specific playstyles, or to give them powerful abilities while making those abilities inaccessible to other classes that may be able to exploit them though multiclass archetypes.

With this in mind, welcome to It Takes Class, wherein I bring you class archetypes to do anything from granting classes more flexibility to trading that flexibility to specialize greater than any have before.

This time, we look at the barbarian. “Barbarian?” I hear you ask, “But I thought skalds were bards!” Right you are, they usually are! I decided to take a look at the archetype from a different direction, looking at how to inject some of the bard into the barbarian, instead of injecting the barbarian into the bard.

It Takes Class – Skald includes…

• Warsinging replaces rage as your core mechanic. Surround yourself with an aura that bolsters you and your allies alike as you recite myths and legends.

• Ominous familiars to caw fear into the bones of your enemies, and a new specific familiar, the runecarved, a familiar who lives on your skin.

• Options to gain an animal companion to make war at your side, and special feats that let you use them to aid your allie.

• 3 new backgrounds for those who want to be the skaldiest skalds who ever skalded.

• Over 50 new feats, including:

• 13 sagas, each changing the effect of your Warsong. Use the damage-increasing Saga of the Rough Beast, the Saga of , or even the Saga of Lastwall that makes your allies much more powerful when facing undead!

• 10 stanza actions and activities, new actions that you can take once per round, allowing you to act in cooperation with your allies or increase the effectiveness of your sagas on an ally.

• Almost 10 new skill feats, including 6 building on a skill action unique to the skald: flyting! Insult your foes so harshly that they find it harder to focus on attacking your allies.