The Skald is a Bard like class that is separate from other Bards, because they didn't go to any fancy colleges. The Skald focuses on performing "Songs of Battle" combos. This form of Bardic combat combines song, spell, blade, and arrow into multi-step combinations that culminate in a finishing move.
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BUGFIX - Cross contaminated some settings that broke my Gunslinger mod
Version 1.5.1.0
BUGFIX - Typo in melee Adagio attack
Version 1.5.0.0
CHANGE - General code tidying and optimization.
CHANGE - Songs of Battle range increased from 9m to 12m
CHANGE - Scaling damage on melee and ranged combo abilities now do Thunder damage.
CHANGE - Skaldic Inspiration removed, to simplify things the Skald just uses regular Bardic Inspiration now.
ADD - Level 6 grants Herald of Thunder passive. Attacks that do Thunder damage ignore enemy resistance.
ADD - Sculpt Spells at level 13
ADD - Battle Magic (College of Valor level 14 passive) - When you use your action to cast a bard spell, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.
FIX - Some of the single weapon combo attacks required a bonus action as well as a regular action, this was unintended.
Version 1.4.0.0
CHANGE - Haste song can only be used once per short rest.
CHANGE - Removed advantage from Victorious March
CHANGE - Removed the existing 3 spells from the combo chain and replaced them with 3 new ones.
CHANGE - Various spell VFX and SFX changes.
CHANGE - Combined all Songs of Battle into a single container.
CHANGE - Combined Adagio, Scherzo, and Finale abilities into three separate containers.
CHANGE - Reduced range on Songs of Battle to 9m
ADD - Added new visual indicator to Song of Battle area of effect.
ADD - level 16 and 20 Songs of Battle
Version 1.3.1.0
First balance pass before starting on 13+ content.
CHANGE - Removed Song of Battle: Shield Wall (Blade Ward) replaced with Song of Battle: Prediction of Warfare (Resistance)
CHANGE - All offensive Overtures now have a chance to be resisted or reapplied on each turn.
Version 1.3.0.0
FIX - Another mod (I dont know what one) was causing Action Surge to break, it would always say that you needed to short rest first. I didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out which of my 500+ mods was causing it so I just did this quick workaround fix.
Version 1.1.0.0
FIX - "Again We Rise" (spell combo 3) was unable to target dead allies due to an improper target condition being set.
FIX - Tooltip for Skald Inspiration warhorn (Gods of War Arise) now shows the correct bonus instead of (0).
Version 1.0.0.0
CHANGE - Brought versioning up to full release numbers. FIX - Skald Inspiration warhorn. Gods of War Arise. Was not applying inspiration.
Version 0.0.1.8
FIX - Hand of Doom was sometimes breaking concentration on its own.
Version 0.0.1.7
FIX - Bardic Inspiration was not applying correctly.
Version 0.0.1.6
FIX - Battle Rage was not muting martials as intended.
Version 0.0.1.5
FIX - Removed debug weapons from loot tables. Restricted Skald weapons to Skald's only.
Version 0.0.1.2
FIX - Moved 1st Skald Inspiration action points to level 2 so you can actually use your level 2 abilities.
Possible fix for some edge cases where concentration was breaking for no reason.
Version 0.0.1.1
FIX - Sorry for the oopsie. I was also working on Dirge and accidently pasted Dirge lvl 2 progression into Skald. You may need to load a previous Bard subclass save if you already got started with this one. Removing the Dirge spells will break the save you are on.
Version 0.0.1.0
Initial release of standalone mod.
This mod is no longer being actively maintained. It was last known to work on Patch 6.
So what does a Skald do ?
The Skald has a unique combat system that consists of a song mixed with attacks of different types to form a combo. At level 3 you will get the first two Songs of Battle (which are also known as Overtures) and a selection of melee and ranged attacks and finishers that I call movements. You will also get one war horn ability that is not part of the combo and is used to cast a party wide Bardic Inspiration. Other war horn abilities come later as you level up.
You can choose to use other Bard abilities on your subsequent turns after starting a Song of Battle. It will be a balancing act for you to decide what you want to do each turn. Do you rush through your combo as quickly as possible to apply a finisher? Do you let the song run the full 10 turns while lazily weaving in movements so you can make full use of the 10 turns of passive AoE effects?
I recommend Concentration Failsafe to help you avoid interrupting your own concentration. A lot of Bard spells require concentration and I find that I often end my songs prematurely by using an ability that requires concentration.
This is how the combos work...
Overture: Song of Battle - Choose from many different AoE effects that either hinder enemies or help friends. The song runs for 10 turns or until your concentration breaks or the combo is completed. You must be in combat to start a Song of Battle.
Adagio: Ability 1 - A melee, ranged, or spell attack that usually hits only one target, does additional elemental damage, and/or apply a status effect (prone/daze/fear/etc)
Scherzo: Ability 2 - A melee, ranged, or spell attack that may affect more than one target, do additional elemental damage, and/or apply a status effect (prone/daze/fear/etc)
Finale: The Finisher - A melee, ranged, or spell attack that could be single target or AoE. And could either do big damage or big healing depending on your level and what movements you currently have available.
Progression Level 1
Medium Armor Proficiency
Martial Proficiency
Shield Proficiency
Level 2
Song of Battle: Prediction of Warfare - AoE Resistance
Song of Battle: Hand of Doom - AoE slow
Warhorn: Gods of War Arise - AoE Bardic Inspiration
Level 4
Summon Skald Drum - a special drum with bonuses for the Skald
Action Surge - same as Fighter ability
Level 6
Song of Battle: War Ensemble - AoE Bless
Song of Battle: Gates of Delirium - AoE Bane
Level 7
Runes To My Memory - places a rune on your companions, selectable by role - this works alongside the next ability
Warhorn: A Fury Divine - activates the rune and grants special abilities depending on their role
Level 9
Song of Battle: Built For Speed - 2 turn AoE full haste followed by 8 more turns of enhanced combat abilities.
Song of Battle: Dazed and Confused - AoE Daze
Level 12
Song of Battle: Victorious March - AoE Rally
Song of Battle: Darkness Within - AoE Blindness
I'd like to thank niroz85, munintarn, CYCL0NIC, GGGGGIIIIILL and Fargol who were all especially helpful with their bug reports and ideas. Even though I haven't been able to work all their ideas in, I hope that continued development will bring more great things in the future.
