Wizard Archetypes

[carrdrivesyou]

I was wondering what people thought about the Spirit Whisperer Archetype? It seems like a mechanically poor choice in most cases, but seems to be bursting with RP flavor. Thoughts?

[Geddy2112]

I think it is probably not as strong as a school, but it is not terrible or weak. Most of the problem with shaman is the poor spell list, but it is still a tier 1 class. A "weak" wizard is still insanely powerful. Depending on the spirit you choose and your build, your spirit is arguably better than a school.

[Florian]

I was wondering what people thought about the Spirit Whisperer Archetype? It seems like a mechanically poor choice in most cases, but seems to be bursting with RP flavor. Thoughts?

It´s one of the cross-class archetypes. As such it is actually pretty good because it expands the Wizard abilities way beyond the original perimeters. What that means, tho, is entirely dependent on the spirit chosen.

[carrdrivesyou]

I'll have to double check the shaman guides if I can find one.

[ElFi]

Here's a Shaman guide for your convenience (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sqtK5PtP_XsU8z521XBhYl8gnS4c36zcetJlEVVHYCM/edit), followed by my take on the archetype:

The loss of bonus feats isn't a huge deal, since unless you're going a feat-intensive route (like crafting or summoning), Wizard isn't a particularly feat-hungry class in the first place. Likewise, I think the utility of a familiar versus the utility of an arcane bond breaks about even, maybe in the familiar's favor with the added bonus of gaining the benefits of spirit animal, so being forced to choose isn't terrible either. The real question here is the loss of arcane school.

Losing your arcane school hurts, a lot, because you're effectively losing one spell per day per level along with some school powers that are potentially relevant to your chosen role in the party in exchange for your spirit's basic and greater abilities (I'm not counting manifestation, because when do we ever count capstones?) and the option to choose hexes in place of your bonus feats starting at 5th level. Most spirit abilities are either A) bad or B) designed for the shaman, a beefier class than your squishy caster chassis. But there are some nice ones sprinkled here and there, like Life's channel energy ability or Slums' teleportation, and it gets nicer once you hit greater abilities and start getting access to stuff like Wood's SLAs or the elemental spirits' on-demand blasting powers. Choose carefully here and know the kind of campaign you're in for, because unlike the Shaman you can't pull in a particular spirit when you want its abilities.

The option of choosing hexes instead of feats seems nice at first, since hexes are all-day options you can call upon whenever you want. But shamans drew the short end of the stick in regards to hexes compared to witches, and you're forced to choose from your spirit's hexes exclusively, andmost spirit hexes run the gamut from "situational" to "borderline useless". You'll also be more MAD than the average wizard since a lot of hexes run off of Charisma, and Spirit Hex does nothing to change that. Keep an eye out for the good ones (like Flame Curse or Lure of the Heavens) and again, choose carefully.

TL;DR, yes, I would say it's weaker than the regular wizard. But it's definitely got a lot of flavor, can do lots of neat tricks that no other wizard can, and can potentially have more all-day stamina depending on your choice of spirit and hexes. I repeat for the third time, choose carefully, because it can be really easy to screw up with this archetype if you pick abilities that don't cater to your playstyle. But overall, have fun with it!