Spell Warrior (Skald Archetype)
Powerful arcane magic can be the bane of any barbarian or warrior culture’s existence, bringing low the mightiest combatants with a single spell. Certainly they have ways to counter this, learning techniques to disrupt spellcasters and using their beliefs to minimize the effects, but like many things, it is not perfect, often having to rely on spellcasters of their own.
Today’s archetype seeks to help put the power back in the hands of their warrior allies, granting warriors magic of their own as well as defending them against mystical threats. I give you, the Spell Warrior.
This is also our first skald archetype on the blog, so I’d also like to talk about the class in general. The concept of the skald ties heavily into the classical imagery of the bard itself, retelling legends of great heroes, but at the same time, the pathfinder skald also seeks to forge their own legends as well, their voices and blades echoing through the oral traditions of their people, eventually issuing from the lips of another bard or skald someday.
Skalds are great support-combatants, capable of buffing allies with barbarian rage and even barbarian powers, making them perfect for parties with a lot of attack-heavy members, not to mention having the bard spell list allows them to further support and keep their fellow warriors alive.
Countering and negating the magic of fellow spellcasters is a chief concern for these warriors, but knowing the exact spell to do so is often nigh-impossible. As a result, these skalds train to be able to counter magic by countering the fundamental magics of the school in question, albeit requiring a similar spell of higher power.
Rather than inspiring rage in themselves and allies with a song, these combatants can sing magic into their weapons, granting them all enhancements of various types, attuning them to whatever is needed at the time.
As they grow in power, spell warriors need no longer match spells to be countered with their own of the same school, as long as they use double the spell energy or a higher spell, and later, only the same energy becomes required. Finally, their perfection of counterspelling techniques grows so that they can even reflect hostile spells back on their casters.
Blending spell-countering elements into their songs, these skalds can even counter spells without preparing ahead of time, sacrificing some of the special magic that fuels their performance in addition to spell energy to do so.
Finally, these skalds become masters of counter magic, not only reflecting spells right back at foes, but also setting up a dangerous resonance as their foe’s magic unravels, scarring them with destructive magical energy.
Then of course, there are the recommended rage pow-… Wait a sec… the skald class specifically says that their rage powers only function when inciting rage… but this archetype loses that raging song. So why do they still have recommended rage powers? Certainly, the rage powers they gain by level up are not replaced. Are they meant to be used when enchanting the party’s weapons with a performance? Some serious errata is needed here, and I can’t check myself because apparently, the paizo site is down as I write this. Anywho, the rage powers recommended include effects that resist and disrupt magic, channel and resist elemental energies, and generally give enemy casters a bad day.
Errata needs aside, this is a great support archetype, adding buffs to allies in a different and useful way, helping them to deal with magic damage reduction early on and deal extra damage, as well as protecting them from a lot of things a caster might do to neutralize them. Don’t bother picking your spells to provide as much school coverage as possible, since the archetype’s abilities negate that need when counterspelling pretty early on. You should probably take a few extra performance feats since you’ll be spending them to counter as an immediate action, too.
This archetype is interesting, since it implies a phobia of magic, yet it uses magic itself, likely leading to a classic situation of “All magic is bad. Except our magic, because it’s ours and not yours.” That being said, that need not be the case, and in some warrior cultures that respect magic but prefer traditional combat for the most part, these skalds might be trained to level the playing field to a more honorable level in their eyes.
Kukuldaz War-Bellow, of the pyramid-building, jungle-dwelling trolls of Kanchuka, does not hate magic, he adores it, blessing his warriors with spells and sacred songs that turn their war-clubs and greatswords into engines of destruction. What he does hate is the magic of his foes, and delights in turning his envious magic against theirs, silencing the fire and acid that would scorch his people’s flesh while they tear them limb from limb.
Terren Five-Fathoms has come down far from his lofty perch as war-leader of a merfolk barbarian troop. Now stranded on land, he is forced to defile his ancient songs to get by, participating in a scamming scheme by providing accompaniment to mock battles that a merchant uses to promote his “magical” weapons, moving on by the time their customers realize they’ve been had. He would give anything to return to the sea, but could not face his tribe in his shame.
The expense of magic items would have ground the defense of the Wall of Karthod against the magic-warped hordes from the north long ago, had they not hit upon a creative solutions. Taking training from the Myth-Kin tribes to the west, the sergeants of each platoon learn to channel magic through song like the wild gnomes, empowering the weapons of the men under their command against the mutants.