Building a Skald (Bard-barian)

For all the math involved in Pathfinder, they certainly had their creative character concepts down.  
  When Vigilante dropped, where the player has a literal alter-ego to manage, I was getting excited.  When alternative classes were introduced, like the Antipaladin or the Samurai, I knew we were on to something special.  The third in the latter's introduction is the Ninja.  

The Ninja introduced an interesting concept (at more for me than the others).  Though it was an alternate class for the Rogue (makes sense), its progressive powers were an uneven split between Rogue and Monk through the introduction of Ki, with added Ninja flair in the form of Tricks.  This seemed to open the door for Pathfinder to introduce Hybrid Classes - classes inspired by and borrowing from two main core classes as "parent classes."
  One such that springs to mind for 5E conversion today is that of the Skald.

What IS A Skald?

In Pathfinder, a Skald is a hybrid between the rage-filled Barbarian and the charismatic musical Bard.  A Skald wields music and rage together to bolster her allies with courage and mettle, and crush her enemies with doubt and fear.
  Now, when I present this idea in conversation in 5th Edition, I am too often met with the image of a half-orc barbarian picking up instruments he doesn't know how to play, playing them badly, then smashing them against foes (with the Brawler feat, to boot).  The image ends up being more like:

​Which I must admit, is pretty cool from what it looks like...  But the whole thing's often played for comedy only, unfortunately.  The awesome artistic rendition above serves well in a Battle of the Bards scenario, which is intended to be silly and over the top.

But this concept should be fueled by the power of both classes; not a bard who's bad at barding, or a barbarian who just happens to be (hilariously) a poet.  Take for example this image instead:

Now THAT'S a Skald.  A warrior who fuels their talent with rage and power, spreading that sonic force to its allies.  It fills them inspiration and power, not comedy at its absurdity (which still has its place in certain games, don't worry).  So how do we build this guy?

1) Attributes and Distribution

Something John and I discuss often when we try to build multi-class concepts is the problem of too broad a spectrum of necessary attributes in order to be effective, and this concept does not convert well out of the gate.  We've got three of six (arguably four if we're going strength) that will be essential to our build, and that's Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma (duh).  Normally, I'd say Strength too, but we'll be spreading thin - we're going Dex Barbarian already.
Race: Tiefling (Charisma bump is nice, and I'm sick of the Half-Orc Barbarian trope)
  Standard Array: 15-14-13-12-10-8  
Welp.  You don't need to be smart to sing.
STR: 13
*DEX: 14
*CON: 15
INT: 9 (+1 Racial)
WIS: 10
CHA: 14 (+2 Racial)

This tweaks my nerves a little bit, as I often want one stat at its highest possible run as early as possible (my gut reaction is to put the base 15 in CHA, then +2, for a total of 17...but then we're left with slim pickings for our DEX and CON scores, and we need all three decent to make this work).  Not to mention we won't qualify for Barbarian multi-classing without at least a STR of 13.

2) Class Selection Order

This might feel tricky, but our taking a look at what we get up front makes this decision for us.
Barbarian First: Light and medium armor, shields, Simple and Martial weapons
Barbarian Second: Shields, Simple and Martial weapons
Bard First: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords; THREE skills; THREE instruments
Bard Second: Light armor, ONE skill of your choice, ONE musical instrument

Now, take into account that by going into Barbarian later I STILL get unarmored defense, so as long as I have a Shield (which I will), I'm still fine.  Barbarians get all weapons regardless, so Bard makes sense up front for skill versatility and a plethora of instruments with which I can sing my wrath.

4) The Need For Home-brew 

The most glaring issue up front here is the fact that you cannot cast spells or concentrate on spells while raging, but my solution is pretty simple: ready?  You can cast spells while raging, and you add your Rage damage to your spells (where applicable, like a spell that deals damage).  In order to do this, you must have at least 1 level in both Barbarian and Bard.

Instead of a brand new archetype, or building a new feat structure, sometimes a little flavor swap and rules switch is all you need.  This way, we still support the benefits of both classes.
  
Now, this build REQUIRES a home-brew allowance, which makes it contingent upon your DM's allowance, but since you're not delving into Unearthed Arcana territory, this feels very smooth.  And I don't feel that it is exploitive in any way.
Giant thanks to John Tanaka for helping me streamline my thought process on this one.  

More insanity on the way.
I'll see you at the table.
-Adamus

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