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View Full Version : Shugenja: Mostly Harmless?



OverdrivePrime
2007-09-17, 12:07 PM
I never bothered to read up on the Shugenja class before because I took a look at the class breakdown block, shrugged, and moved on. But now that I've read it, I've got to wonder if Wizards of the Coast is just trying to tell us that they hate Oriental Adventures-themed characters. Seriously, this has got to be the spellcaster version of the Samurai. Great pains seem to have been taken to make the Shugenja as ineffective as possible:

Low BAB, low fort save, poor spell selection to go with spontaneous casting, opposed school, d6 hit points, and primary class ability that makes even the Hexblade act smug. Add to that an elemental focus that makes it terribly easy for enemies to prepare for any fight with you, and you've got a class that is worse than a cleric in every single way except skill selection. Oh yeah, and to make up for no armor proficiency, the Shugenja is proficient with short swords. Which is great for all those emo suicidal Shugenja out there, but the ones that want to live longer than one adventure aren't going to go anywhere near melee.

Seriously, what's the deal? Is there anything redeeming about this class?

blue_fenix
2007-09-17, 12:13 PM
Agreed, shugenja is terrible. I am of the opinion that with the exception of PHB2, ToB and Oriental Adventures, WoTC has tried very hard not to make any overpowered base classes. I mean, just look at Tome of Magic, CW Samurai, Hexblade, etc. At the same time, they seem to have no problem making feats and spells that far exceed the power level of PHB. Shock trooper, anyone? Orb spells?

Skyserpent
2007-09-17, 12:14 PM
I actually LIKE playing Shugenjas, thanks very much. They're fairly balanced as far as I can tell, he's a solid healing class that still gets to keep a nuke in his pocket. It's honestly not so bad.

Draz74
2007-09-17, 12:15 PM
Archivist and Artificer being the glaring exceptions. Oh, and maybe the Psion ... though at least the Psion isn't as overpowered as Wizard/Cleric/Druid/Artificer/Archivist/Beguiler.

Kaelik
2007-09-17, 12:15 PM
They can be a better blaster caster then clerics?

In other words, no. But that's what happens. Why would they make another class on par with the Cleric? Why is the Warlock worse then the Wizard? Because Cleric and Wizard are too powerful to be in the same game as most other characters.

PlatinumJester
2007-09-17, 12:18 PM
Archivist and Artificer being the glaring exceptions. Oh, and maybe the Psion ... though at least the Psion isn't as overpowered as Wizard/Cleric/Druid/Artificer/Archivist/Beguiler.

Yeah Shugenja sucks. Play a Wu Jen instead or use a ToB class since the various schools are similar to martial arts (if you want to play an oriental character).

OverdrivePrime
2007-09-17, 12:19 PM
I understand what you're saying, but I think I could play a more versatile and powerful spellcaster by playing a straight-up rogue than I could with a straight-up Shugenja. Maybe something in the same power range as a Bard would be nice.

The Mormegil
2007-09-17, 12:25 PM
I would give them a chance:
being a healer/buffer divine that has access to Invisibility and so is nice. But underpowered, yes.

CASTLEMIKE
2007-09-17, 01:58 PM
The first Oriental Adventures with Shukenja was released in 1985.

Oriental Adventures was released again in 2001 with the updated Shugenja class. It was actually an interesting and viable caster at the time with the mix of spells from arcane and divine spell lists particularly for a group (DM and Players) that was not into a lot of recordkeeping or optimization and just wanted some general utility for PC spellcasting or wanted to get away from the problems of power spellcasting by eliminating the standard problem classes of cleric, druid and wizard since those classes would require DM approval in an Oriental Adventures setting.

Complete Divine republished them later in 2004 the same year as Unearthed Arcana which introduced the Cloistered Cleric Variant.

There has been a lot of mechanical power creep over the last several years so yes the class is mostly harmless in most games.