The Shaman

[NigelWalmsley]

Shaman
"The spirits have alredy passed judgement upon you. It falls to me to carry out their sentence."

The world is full of spirits. Spirits of earth, spirits of fire, spirits of nature or the land itself. The shaman is someone who has a connection to those spirits and uses it to solve problems. Sometimes their problems, sometimes the spirits' problems. These people are known as shaman.

Different cultures have different shamanic traditions. For example, dwarven stoneshaman consider the spirits of earth and stone to be more important than other kinds of spirits. Some shamanic orders view themselves as charged with carrying out particular tasks given them by the spirits, while others feel that their powers are given to them as a way of bending the spirits to the service of their people. Shaman are typically treated roughly similarly to clerics or druids, with the average person viewing the classes as interchangable.

Alignment: The spirits don't seem to care very much about the moral concerns of mortals. Shaman need not be of any particular alignment.

Races: Shamanic traditions are present among all races, though they tend to me more common among cultures that live in the wilderness.

Religion: The shaman's connections to the spirits tend to draw them towards animist traditions rather than the worship of a specific god. Some engage in various syncretistic traditions where both gods and spirits are revered.

Hit Die: d6

Class Skills
The shaman's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, geography, history, nature, religion, the planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier (x4 at 1st level).

The Shaman


Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Spirits Channeled


1
+0
+0
+0
+2
Channel Spirits, Compel the Spirits (3 rounds), Detect Magic
1


2
+1
+0
+0
+3
Spirit Servant
1


3
+2
+1
+1
+3
Spirit Visions (augury)
1


4
+3
+1
+1
+4
Rapid Channeling 1/day
2


5
+3
+1
+1
+4
Totem Carving
2


6
+4
+2
+2
+5
Lesser Spirits
2


7
+5
+2
+2
+5
Spirit Attendants
2


8
+6/+1
+2
+2
+6
Spirit Visions (divination)
3


9
+6/+1
+3
+3
+6
Spirit Binding
3


10
+7/+2
+3
+3
+7
Rapid Channeling 2/day, Compel the Spirits (full round)
3


11
+8/+3
+3
+3
+7
Greater Spirits, Spirit Passage
3


12
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Shared Boons
3


13
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Spirit Visions (commune)
3


14
+10/+5
+4
+4
+9
Spirits of the Land
3


15
+11/+6/+1
+5
+5
+9
Dual Channel
3


16
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Rapid Channeling 3/day, Primal Spirits
3


17
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Improved Boons
3


18
+13/+8/+3
+6
+6
+11
Improved Spirit Binding
3


19
+14/+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
Banishment
3


20
+15/+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Apothesis, Compel the Spirits (swift action)
3



Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The shaman is proficient with light and medium armor, shields, all simple weapons, and one martial weapon of his choosing.

Channel Spirits: Rather than preparing spells, the shaman calls upon the powers of various spirits. Similarly to traditional spellcasters, he must be well rested to do so. Attuning himself to the spirits takes a 15 minute ritual, and allows him to choose new channeled spirits from the ones available to him. Completing this ritual also resets his uses of any his abilities that have a listed number of uses per day.

Spirits are fickle, and the shaman is not always able to determine what powers he will be granted at any given time. Each spirit has powers numbered from 1 to 6, and each round the shaman rolls a spirit die (1d6) to determine which set of powers he has access to. This result applies across all the shaman's channeled spirits. In addition to its four primary abilities, each spirit grants a bonus for channeling it at all, which is available to the shaman regardless of the result of the spirit die.

However, the shaman is not wholly at the whims of the spirits. By spending three rounds meditating, he can compel the spirits towards a particular course of action, allowing him to choose the result for the next spirit die roll. At 10th level, this takes only a full-round action. At 20th level, it takes a swift action and modifies the roll for the round in which it is used.

As the shaman's power grows, he is able to channel both more spirits and more powerful spirits. At 1st level, he can channel one spirit. At 4th level, he can channel two spirits. At 8th level, he can channel three. At 6th level, he may channel lesser spirits. At 11th level, he may channel greater spirits. At 16th level he may channel primal spirits. If he opts to channel a spirit of a tier lower than the highest one available to him, he may use any of the abilities that spirit grants whose associated value is lower than the value of the spirit die for the round.

The shaman's caster level for the abilities of his spirits and other abilities granted by his class is equal to his shaman level. The DCs of a shaman's abilities (both those from spirits and those from his class features), where applicable, are 10 + 1/2 his caster level + his Wisdom modifier.

Detect Magic (Sp): The shaman can use detect magic at will.

Spirit Servant (Sp): At 2nd level, the shaman may call up the spirits around him to perform basic tasks. Spirits directed in this way have the stats of an unseen servant, though they are permanent once summoned. The shaman may summon a number of such spirits equal to one half his caster level.

Spirit Visions (Sp): At 3rd level, the shamna can turn to the spirits for answers to his questions. He may ask a number of questions per day equal to his wisdom modifier. Questioning the spirits takes a minute, but he may recieve as many answers as he wishes in a single session. At 3rd level, the spirits answer questions as if he had cast augury. At 8th level this improves to divination. At 13th level this improves to commune. If he wishes, he may have spirits answer based on any of the spells he has access to, though he does not gain any additional uses of this ability for doing so.

Rapid Channeling (Su): At 4th level, the shaman gains the ability to rapidly alter his connections to the spirits. Once per day, he may replace one of his channeled spirits with another channeled spirit. He may instead referesh the uses of any boon granted by a spirit (effectively replacing that spirit with the same spirit). He gains an additional use of this ability at 10th level then again at 16th level.

Totem Carving (Su): At 5th level, the shaman gains the ability to imbue magical objects with the power of spirits. He gains Craft Wondrous Item as a bonus feat. In addition to using the powers granted by various spirits to create items, he is also treated as knowing any spell that appears on the cleric, druid, or sorcerer/wizard spell lists at a level less than one third his shaman level (round down). If it matters, he has to emulate it at a level it appears on one of those lists.

Spirit Attendants (Sp): At 7th level, the shaman's spirit servants more adept, and are able to operate withour his oversight. Servants summoned by his Spirit Servants ability are unseen crafters instead of unseen servants. If he passes outside the area of the spell, the spirits continue doing whatever he instructed them to do until he returns to give them new instructions.

Spirit Binding (Sp): At 9th level, the shaman gains the ability to call on more powerful spirits to do more complicated tasks for him. This ability summons the same set of creatures as spirit binding, but rather than a HD limit he is limited to creatures with CR no greater than four less than his level. He may use this ability once per day, but can only bind a single spirit at a time.

Spirit Passage (Sp): At 11th level, the shaman gains the ability to travel through the spirit world. This ability is equivalent to shadow walk, but he travels through the Ethereal Plane instead of the Plane of Shadow.

Shared Boons (Su): At 12th level, the shaman can share the gifts granted to him with his allies. When he channels the spirits (including when he uses his Quick Channeling ability) he may designate a number of other creatures equal to his wisdom modifier. These creatures gain the benefits of any Boons he has selected which do not require an action to activate.

Memories of the Land (Sp): At 14th level, the shaman gains the ability to speak to the spirits of the land to learn of ancient events. He can use hindsight at will.

Dual Channel (Su): At 16th level, the shaman becomes more in tune with the energies of the spirits. He rolls 2d6 instead of 1d6 for the spirit die, and may use abilities associated with either result. If both dice come up the same, he has access to only one set of abilities that round.

Improved Boons (Su): At 17th level, the Boons granted to the shaman become more effective. He gains an additional daily use of each Boon he chooses with a limited number of daily uses.

Improved Spirit Binding (Sp): At 18th level, the shaman's ability to bind spirits improves. He may summon spirit creatures with a CR two less than his level (instead of four), and has no limit to the number of spirits he can summon.

Banishment (Sp): At 19th level, the shaman can use banishment at will.

Apothesis: At 20th level, the shaman becomes one with the spirits. His type changes to his choice of Fey or Elemental. He can still be brought back from the dead as if he were a member of his previous creature type.

Shaman And Other Rules

While the shaman class is capable of operating on its own, there are obviously parts of the system with which shamans might like to interact. Some of these interactions (such as creating and activating magic items) have been discussed above. But there are some other things that should be cleared up.

Shamans and Prerequisites

The shaman's spell knowledge for the purpose of activating magic items also applies for meeting prerequisites. He may treat his spellcasting as either arcane or divine to meet prerequisites. If something cares about casting spells of a specific level, the shaman is treated as being able to cast spells of a level equal to one half his own (rounded up). The shaman's Totem Carving ability does not allow him to meet prerequisites.

Shamans and Prestige Classes

A shaman can advance his spellcasting as either arcane or divine spellcasting. He cannot advance it multiple times at a single level, even if he enters a prestige class such as Mystic Theurge that advances both types of casting. If the shaman enters a prestige class that advances his spellcasting his caster level increases, he gains access to new grades of spirit, and he gains the ability to channel additional spirits as if he had gained a level in shaman. His other abilities (such as Spirit Visions or Quick Channeling) do not progress.

Shamans and Metamagic Feats

The shaman does not benefit from traditional metamagic feats. He can take Sudden metamagic feats and apply them to his spirit powers.

So. That's the Shaman. And, yes, it's a good deal like the Spirit Shaman, conceptually speaking. Mechanically it borrows more from the Shugenja, Wu Jen, and Binder. It also has the power progression of the Warlock. Not because I think that's particularly correct (I think six levels of powers is probably ideal), but because I barely finished the power listings as-is and there's no goddamn chance I'm writing nine tiers of spirit. The thing that's supposed to tie it together is the resource management system, which is table-based Winds of Fate (meaning a semi-random system like the Crusader has). The Shaman can be thought of has having a table of abilities (each spirit is a column) and each round he has access to one row of the table. The idea is that it keeps the character doing different things, and evokes tapping into a power you can only somewhat control. I think if I were making a new edition of D&D, the Druid would work like this out of Core.

In terms of a balance point, the class is intended to be something you can pick up and play in a party with competent full casters (e.g. Wizards, Dread Necromancers, Clerics) without needing to do a bunch of dumpster-diving. So the offensive abilities are solidly level-appropriate offensive spells, and it has access to a broad suite of utility effects. With that in mind, I've tried to avoid any game-breaking cheese, particularly stuff that breaks the game in new ways (this is why Wall of Stone is a Boon ability rather than a spirit power -- getting that even once every four rounds is setting warping in the extreme).

I'm mostly satisfied with the class abilities. You get some stuff that messes with your resource management (Quick Channeling, Double Channel), and various spirit powers. You don't really get any elemental stuff, but that's supposed to come from the spirit Boons. It's possible they should get some elemental-summoning somewhere (possibly a general Summon Nature's Ally effect). But overall, I think it's solid.

What I'm not as happy with is the spirits themselves. Not the individual ones per se, but there really ought to be more of them. Five isn't really a lot of options, and because they only get five kinds of spirit, I ended up needing to cap them at three spirits channeled to avoid every high-level Shaman just getting all the spirits. I'm not really sure how to square that circle. For a while I had spirits getting four abilities and two of each elemental type. That works (and lets them do better as a mono-element "Waterbender" type), but it's both more actual abilities (36 per tier instead of 30), and less variance which makes the unique resource management less compelling. You could probably add some more spirit types. Air could spin off Storms as its own line and Water could give up the Healing stuff, but any addition requires writing a whole bunch of abilities. There's the possibility of going full freeform with the ability selection, but that kinda wrecks the resourc dynamic too.

There's some rough stuff in the abilities too. It's very much a first draft, and a lot of the abilities are eyeballed at "that seems reasonable". The rough intent is that each spirit grants half abilities that are level-appropriate spells (e.g. 3rd level spells for a Lesser spirit), and then one or two that are lower level, and one or two effects that would normally be higher level. Ideally, that skews low for the Least and Greater spirits (because they come online at the same level as a a new level of spells) and high for the Lesser and Primal spirits (because those come online in the middle of a spell tier). Again, if I was writing for a new edition, people would just get powers on the same schedule, but such is life.

The Primals are particularly bad. The game basically does not work at that level, so it's mostly just random stuff that fits. I assume some of the things in there are insane, and others are totally garbage.

Also, I've aggressively down-leveled a lot of evocations. Chain Lightning, for example, is a Lesser spirit power. I think this is fine for two reasons. First, evocations are over-leveled to begin with. Chain Lightning doesn't need to be the same level as Acid Fog. Second, most evocations deal level-scaling damage to begin with. Chain Lightning at 6th level deals 6th level damage, not 11th level damage. I also down-leveled some healing spells on a similar basis (seriously, what is Regenerate doing at 7th level?).

One thing that's interesting is the arrangement of powers. The first thing is the question of if powers on a given number should be similar or different. I can see arguments both ways. If you make them similar, it amplifies the random aspect. But it also risks making certain powers less useful. If "3" means "AoE debuff", then you're probably only going to end up using the best AoE debuff. But if it gives you an AoE debuff from Air, a BFC from Nature, and a single-target nuke from Fire, then you could potentially end up using any of those depending on the tactical situation. The other issue is that the ordering of the abilities matters. When you're just using level-appropriate spirits, you get what you roll. But if you channel lower level spirits, you get any at or under what you roll. That means that powers that are generally useful should be low numbers and powers that are problematic if spammed (like no-save lockdowns) need to be higher numbers. I have not fully implemented this.

In terms of play pattern, you lean more towards the Wizard than the Cleric. You've got average BAB and a martial weapon, but you're rocking a d6 hit die and you don't get heavy armor or headline offensive buffs like Persistent Divine Power and Wild Shape. So melee is not a great plan for you. At the early levels you hit people with whatever the spirits gave you, or a longbow if it's not any good. By mid levels you should consistently have a useful spirit power to call on, and you have som buff Boons to make your archery plan better (since you're a Wisdom caster, Zen Archery is a good feat too). Outside combat you bring a bunch of divination to the table, and can do pretty well as an item crafter. Plus all the stuff Boons do.

[NigelWalmsley]

Spirits
The shaman draws his powers from the spirits he channels. Each spirit grants him a selection of powers, as well as a Boon. The powers granted by a spirit are fixed by its grade and type. The Boon granted by a spirit is choosen when the shaman channels it. For example, all Lesser Water Spirits grant the same powers, but one shaman who channeled the Lesser Water Spirit could gain the power of Dowsing while another could call upon Improved Cleansing Waters. Different shaman have differing stances on whether different Boons correspond to different types of spirit, or simply to different ways of attuning to a spirit.

Each spirit has a type (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, or Nature). The boon a spirit grants must match its type. For example, a shaman who channeled the Least Earth Spirit could gain the Tongue of Stone, but not Sense the Unnatural. A spirit cannot grant a boon of a higher grade than it has, even if the shaman can bind spirits of that grade. At his option, the shaman may gain two boons of lower grades (they must still be of the same type). This cannot be chained, so a shaman channeling a Greater Air Spirit could gain two Lesser Air Boons, or a Lesser Air Boon and a Least Air Boon, but could not gain a Lesser Air Boon and two Least Air Boons.

The powers granted by a spirit are always spell-like abilities. Boons are spell-like abilities if they require an action to activate and supernatural abilities otherwise.

If a shaman ability calls for a save, the DC of that save is 10 + 1/2 the shaman's caster level + the shaman's Wisdom modifier.

Each round, the abilities available to the shaman are determined by the result of the spirit die (1d6).The die is rolled at the start of the shaman's turn, and the result remains until the start of his next turn. Multiple shaman use different dice. Normally, the shaman can only use the power of a channeled spirit if it matches the result of the die. However, if the shaman is channeling a spirit of a lower grade than the highest he can channel (for example, an 8th level shaman channeling a Least spirit), he may use any ability corresponding to that value or a lower value.

By default, the shaman's abilities take a standard action to activate. If the ability emulates a specific spell, it takes the action type of that spell instead. If the ability specifies an action type, it takes that action type instead.

If a shaman ability emulates a specific spell, it is treated as being the level of that spell for the purposes of effects that care about spell level. Otherwise, Least effects are treated as 1st level spells, Lesser effects as 3rd level spells, Greater effects as 6th level spells, and Primal effects as 8th level spells.

For the purposes of creating magic items and activating spell trigger or spell completion items, the shaman is treated as knowing every spell that is granted by a spirit as either a Boon or a power.



Force of Personality (Fire): The shaman gains a competence bonus to Intimidate and Diplomacy checks equal to his caster level.
Flamecrafting (Fire): The shaman can use continual flame once, and can create normal flames without needing any equipment.
Master Craftsman (Earth): The shaman gains a competence bonus to an Craft skill in which he has at least one rank equal to his caster level.
Tongue of Stone (Earth): The shaman can speak to earth and stones as if he hand cast stone tell.
Healing Arts: The shaman gains a competence bonus equal to his caster level to Swim and Heal checks.
Cleansing Waters (Water): The shaman can use lesser restoration once.
Revealing Winds (Air): The shaman gains a competence bonus to Spot and Listen equal to his caster level.
Whispering Wind (Air): The shaman can use whispering wind once.
Natural Lore (Nature): The shaman gains a competence bonus to Survival and Knowledge (Nature) equal to his caster level.
Sense the Unnatural (Nature): The shaman can detect Aberrations, Undead, Constructs, and Vermin as if he was casting detect evil and they were Evil Outsiders.
Least Spirit Ally (Nature): The shaman can use summon nature's ally I once. Unlike the spell, the duration lasts as long as the boon is active.


Haste (Fire): The shaman gains the benefits of haste.
Charm Person (Fire): The shaman can use charm person three times.
Unseen Architech (Earth): The shaman may reproduce the construction effect of a Lyre of Building for one hour.
Spiritual Armaments (Earth): Any weapon or armor the shaman wields recieves an an enhancement bonus equal to one quarter his caster level (round down).
Improved Cleansing Waters (Water): The shaman can use any combination of restoration, remove disease, and regenerate twice.
Dowsing (Water): The shaman can use locate object twice. The range increases by a factor of 10 if the shaman searches for a general kind of item.
Spirit's Sight (Air): The shaman gains the benefits of Arcane Sight.
Walking on the Sky (Air): The shaman gains a flight speed equal to his base land speed (good maneuverability).
Locate Creature (Nature): The shaman can use locate creature once.
Plant Growth (Nature): The shaman can use plant growth once.
Lesser Spirit Ally (Nature): The shaman can use summon nature's ally III once. Unlike the spell, the duration lasts as long as the boon is active.


Flaming Shield (Fire): Melee attacks agains you deal 2d6 + 1/caster level fire damage to the attacker.
Raging Fire (Fire): The shaman can use snake's swiftness at will as a swift action.
Wall of Stone (Earth): The shaman can use wall of stone twice.
Fabricate (Earth): The shaman can use fabricate twice.
Reincarnate (Water): The shaman can use reincarnate once. Unlike a normal reincarnate, this does not cause level loss.
Frozen Blades (Water): The shaman's attacks deal an extra 3d6 + 1/caster level cold damage.
Mantle of the Storm (Air): The shaman is immune to electricity, sound, and the effects of wind.
Phantom Flicker (Air): The shaman can create illusory duplicates of his allies. As an immediate action, he can create an image (as the spell mirror image) of any target within medium range. The image lasts one round.
Eyes of the Beasts (Nature): The shaman gains the ability to see through the eyes of animals. He can use this ability on Animals with CR no greater than eight less than his level, and it takes a standard action to do so. This effect lasts as long as the animal remains within 1 mile per caster level. While it is active, he can see, hear, smell, or otherwise sense anything the animal can. He can also direct the movement of animals linked in this way, though this control is limited to simple instructions like "move north" or "follow those creatures". His control is not precise enough to command specific actions.
Natural Bounty (Nature): The shaman can use major creation twice.
Greater Spirit Ally (Nature): The shaman can use summon nature's ally VI once. Unlike the spell, the duration lasts as long as the boon is active.


Mindblank (Fire): The shaman is gains the benefits of mindblank.
Lashing Flames (Fire): The shaman can launch a blast of fire as an immediate action. This is a ranged touch attack that deals 1d6 points of fire damage per three caster levels. The shaman may do this at will.
Seal Away (Earth): The shaman may use imprisoment three times. He can also target objects with this effect (which do not recieve a save). The shaman may specify a ritual that releases whatever has been imprisoned. This ritual can be anything the shaman desires, but freedom is always sufficient to release anything that has been sealed in this way.
Skin of the Earth (Earth): The shaman gains DR/adamantine equal to his caster level.
Reclaim Life (Water): The shaman may use true resurrection once. Should he die with this ability available, it is applied to him 1d4 days later, provided he has not already be returned to life or prevented from doing so.
Flowing Health (Water): The shaman gains 1 point of regeneration per caster level. Fire damage deals normal damage.
Fade From Sight (Air): The shaman gains the benefits of greater invisibility.
True Seeing (Air): The shaman gains the benefits of true seeing.
Improved Natural Bounty (Nature): The shaman can use major creation once.
Animal Form (Nature): The shaman's shape changes (as by animal shapes). Any character this effect is shared with may choose a different form.
Primal Spirit Ally (Nature): The shaman can use summon nature's ally IX once. Unlike the spell, the duration lasts as long as the boon is active.


Least Air

ResultPower
1Silent Image
2Baleful Transposition
3Snake's Swiftness
4Gust of Wind
5Obscuring Mist
6Peal of Thunder


Silent Image: The shaman can use silent image.
Baleful Transposition: The shaman can use baleful transposition (SpC).
Snake's Swiftness: The shaman can use snake's swiftness (SpC).
Gust of Wind: The shaman can use gust of wind. At 10th level, the wind generated increases to wind storm levels. At 15th level, it improves again to hurricane levels.
Obscuring Mist: The shaman can use obscuring mist.
Shocking Grasp: The shaman can use shocking grasp[I]. If he gets iterative attacks, he may make multiple touch attacks for the same damage.
Peal of Thunder: The shaman can create a blast of sonic energy. This deals 1d6 + 1/caster level sonic damage in a 5ft burst at close range. Targets who fail a fortitude save are deafened.

Least Earth

ResultPower
1Sandblast
2Hail of Stone
3Earthen Grasp
4Seismic Shot
5Ironskin
6Shatter


Sandblast: The shaman can use [I]sandblast (SpC).
Hail of Stone: The shaman can use hail of stone (SpC).
Earthen Grasp: The shaman can use earthen grasp (SpC).
Seismic Shot: The shaman launches a ripple through the ground which damages and disrupts footing. It deals 1d6 + 1/caster level bludgeoning damage to a single target within close range and makes a trip attempt against it with a bonus equal to the shaman's wisdom modifier plus his caster level. The ripple is treated as a creatue of the shaman's size. At 10th level, it is treated as one size category larger. At 15th level, it is treated as two size categories larger.
Ironskin: The shaman strengthens the defenses of an ally. For the next round, one target within close range gains DR/adamantine equal to one plust the shaman's caster level.
Shatter: The shaman can use shatter.

Least Fire

ResultPower
1Sleep
2Cause Fear
3Fire Bolt
4Fireburst
5Burning Blades
6Pyrotechnics


Sleep: The shaman can use sleep. The limit to the number of hit dice of creatures effected is 2 plus twice the shaman's caster level.
Cause Fear: The shaman can use cause fear.
Fire Bolt: The shaman launches a flaming missle at a target within close range. This is a ranged touch attack that deals 1d6 fire damage plus 1d6 fire damage per two caster levels. This can be used as an attack action, so a higher level shaman can launch multiple bolts.
Fireburst: The shaman can use fireburst (CArc).
Burning Blades: A number of targets equal to the shaman's level within close range deal an extra 1d6 + 1/caster level fire damage with their attacks for the next round.
Pyrotechnics: The shaman can use pyrotechnics.

Least Water

ResultPower
1Ice Slick
2Water Jet
3Cure Light Wounds
4Lesser Orb of Cold
5Chill Touch
6Ice Dagger


Ice Slick: The shaman creates an area of slippery ice. This is equivalent to grease.
Water Jet: The shaman conjures a blast of water that barrels his opponents over. This deals 1d6 + 1/caster level bludgeoning damage to a single target within close range and makes a bull rush against it with a bonus equal to the shaman's wisdom modifier plus his caster level. The movement from the bull rush is not capped. The jet is treated as a creatue of the shaman's size. At 10th level, it is treated as one size category larger. At 15th level, it is treated as two size categories larger.
Cure Light Wounds: The shaman can use cure light wounds.
Lesser Orb of Cold: The shaman can use lesser orb of cold.
Chill Touch: The shaman can use chill touch.
Ice Dagger: The shaman can use ice dagger (SpC). The splash damage is 1 point of cold damage per caster level.

Least Nature

ResultPower
1Acid Arrow
2Entangle
3Wood Shape
4Coiling Thorns
5Splinter Bolt
6Summon Tree


Acid Arrow: The shaman can use acid arrow.
Entangle: The shaman can use entangle.
Entangle: The shaman can use entangle.
Wood Shape: The shaman can use wood shape.
Coiling Thorns: The shaman cloaks a number of creatures equal to his caster level within close range in thorns. For the next round, they gain a natural armor bonus equal to one half his caster level, and anyone who attacks them in melee takes 1d6 + 1/caster level points of piercing damage.
Splinter Bolt: The shaman launches a bolt of splintered wood. This is a ranged attack that can be used as an attack action and deals 1d6 piercing damage per two shaman levels with a critical threat range of 18-20.
Summon Tree: The shaman causes a great oak to spring into being (5-foot diameter trunk, 60-foot height, 40-foot top diameter). It lasts for one round per caster level.

Lesser Air

ResultPower
1Chain Lightning
2Great Thunderclap
3Orb of Sound
4Major Image
5Wind Wall
6Mass Snake's Swiftness


Chain Lightning: The shaman can use chain lightning.
Great Thunderclap: The shaman can use great thunderclap (SpC).
Orb of Sound: The shaman can use orb of sound (CArc).
Major Image: The shaman can use major image.
Wind Wall: The shaman can use wind wall.
Mass Snake's Swiftness: The shaman can use mass snake's swiftness (SpC).

Lesser Fire

ResultPower
1Fear
2Wall of Fire
3Fireball
4Suggestion
5Flaming Burst
6Enrage


Fear: The shaman can use fear.
Wall of Fire: The shaman can use wall of fire.
Fireball: The shaman can use fireball.
Suggestion: The shaman can use suggestion.
Flaming Burst: The shaman launches a series of bursts of fire. As an attack action, the shaman can create a 5ft burst of flame dealing 1d6 fire damage per caster level at medium range. Targets are entitled to a reflex save for half damage, and overlapping bursts do not stack.
Enrage: The shaman inspires a great fury in a single target within close range. For one round they gain a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and will saves equal to the shaman's caster level, and they may make an additional attack as part of a full attack (as if under the effect of haste).

Lesser Earth

ResultPower
1Grasping Stones
2Spike Stones
3Earthbolt
4Stone Shape
5Chasm
6Dust Storm


Grasping Stones: The shaman calls up hundreds of stone hands from the earth to hamper his foes. This is equivalent to evard's black tentacles.
Spike Stones: The shaman can use spike stones.
Earthbolt: The shaman can use earthbolt (CArc).
Stone Shape: The shaman can use stone shape.
Chasm: The shaman rips open the ground, dropping his foes into a deep pit. The shaman creates a 10ft by 10ft pit that is 10ft deep per two caster levels. Creatures in the area recieve a reflex save to avoid falling in. On a successful save they move to any square adjacent to the pit. The sides of the pit are a natural rock wall (DC 25 to climb).
Dust Storm: The shaman fills the air with cloying dust. The dust storm is a 20ft radius spread centered at a point within medium range. It lasts one round per caster level, is immobile once created, and obscures vision as an obscuring mist does. It attacks as a swarm, dealing 1d6 points of damage per three shaman levels and nauseating any target who fails a fortitude save for one round.

Lesser Nature

ResultPower
1Nature's Judgement
2Bestow Curse
3Splinterblast
4Stinking Cloud
5Venom Darts
6Kelpstrand


Nature's Judgement: The spirits of nature lash out at a target, crushing it in vines and roots. One target within close range must make a will save or be dazed for one round and must make a reflex save or be trapped by the vines. Trapped targets are entangled and take 1d6 bludgeoning damage per two caster levels for a number of rounds equal to the shaman's caster level.
Bestow Curse: The shaman can use bestow curse.
Splinterblast: The shaman unleashes a burst of splinters and branches damaging enemies. The shaman makes a single ranged attack roll which is compared to the AC of each creature in a 30ft cone. Miss chances are resolved individually. Targets that are hit take 1d6 piercing damage per shaman level. A splinterblast has a critical threat range of 18-20, and uses a single critical confirmation roll.
Stinking Cloud: The shaman can use stinking cloud.
Venom Darts: The shaman launches projectiles of venemous acid. As an attack action, he can make a ranged touch attack. On a hit, it deals 1d6 acid damage per two caster levels and inflicts a poison (fortitute negates) that 1d6/1d6 damage to a physical ability score of his choice.
Kelpstrand: The shaman can use kelpstrand (SpC).

Lesser Water

ResultPower
1Cure Critical Wounds
2Ice Storm
3Dispel Magic
4Slow
5Ice Ray
6Mass Cure Light Wounds


Cure Critical Wounds: The shaman can use cure critical wounds.
Ice Storm: The shaman can use ice storm.
Dispel Magic: The shaman can use dispel magic.
Slow: The shaman can use slow.
Ice Ray: The shaman launches a ray of pure ice at an enemy. This is equivalent to polar ray, except that the target must make a reflex save or be immobilized for one round per caster level.
Mass Cure Light Wounds: The shaman can use mass cure light wounds.

Greater Air

ResultPower
1Storm's Judgement
2Telekinesis
3Portal
4Persistent Image
5Wind's Swiftness
6Wall of Force


Storm's Judgement: The shaman lashes out with lightning. This is equivalent to call lightning, except that it does full damage to secondary targets and all targets must make a Fortitute save or be stunned for one round.
Telekinesis: The shaman can use telekinesis.
Portal: The shaman can open a portal between two locations. This is equivalent to dimension door, except that at his option it leaves a portal that lasts for a number of rounds equal to his caster level.
Persistent Image: The shaman can use persistent image.
Wind's Swiftness: As a swift action, the shaman may grant any ally within close range an immediate move, standard, or full attack action.
Wall of Force: The shaman can use wall of force.

Greater Earth

ResultPower
1Flesh to Stone
2Mudslide
3Reshape Earth
4Bombard
5Maw of the Earth
6Earthen Armor


Flesh to Stone: The shaman can use flesh to stone.
Mudslide: The shaman can use mudslide (S).
Reshape Earth: The shaman can use either transmute mud to rock or transmute rock to mud.
Bombard: The shaman unleashes a barrage of rocks. He launches a number of rocks equal to his caster level out to medium range. Each deals 1d8 bludgeoning damage per caster level in a 5ft burst (overlapping bursts do not increase damage). Targets are entitled to a reflex save for half damage. Any creature that takes damage from this effect must make a reflex save or be knocked prone.
Maw of the Earth: The ground itself opens up to devour the shaman's foes. The target is swallowed as if by the Swallow Whole ability of a Purple Worm.
Earthen Armor: Earth rises up to encase the shaman and his allies, protecting them from attacks. A number of target creatures up to the shaman's caster level within close range gain a bonus equal to his caster level to AC and immunity to critical hits for one round.

Greater Fire

ResultPower
1Disintegrate
2Firebrand
3Immolate
4Erruption
5Feeblemind
6Mass Suggestion


Disintegrate: The shaman can use disintegrate.
Firebrand: The shaman can use firebrand (SpC).
Immolate: The shaman lights a single target on fire. The target takes 1d6 fire damage per caster level for a number of rounds equal to the shaman's caster level. At the end of each round, the target is entitled to a fortitude save to end the effect.
Erruption: Lava bursts forth from the earth in an area of the shaman's choosing. Targets in a 10ft burst centered on a point within medium range take 1d6 fire damage per caster level (reflex half). Next round, targets in a 20ft burst centered on the same point take the same damage. The round after that, targets in a 40ft burst centered on that point take the damage. Any target who fails their save is entangled for one round.
Feeblemind: The shaman can use feeblemind.
Mass Suggestion: The shaman can use mass suggestion[/B].

Greater Nature

ResultPower
1Acid Fog
2Grasping Vines
3Acidic Armor
4Wall of Thorns
5Baleful Polymorph
6Cloudkill


Acid Fog: The shaman can use [I]acid fog.
Grasping Vines: Vines spring up around a target, preventing them from moving and slowly strangling them. A target within medium range is entangled, unable to move, and takes 2d6 points of nonlethal damage per round. The target can escape with a strength check (DC 20 + the shaman's caster level), an Escape Artist check (DC 25 + the shaman's caster level), or by destroying the vines (the vines have 5 HP per caster level, DR 10/magic, and are automatically hit by attacks).
Acidic Armor: The shaman cloaks their allies in acid, damaging attackers. This effects a number of creatures up to the shaman's caster level within close range and lasts one round. Any creature making a melee attack agains an effected creature takes 3 points of acid damage per caster level. Reach weapons (though not attacks from creatures with reach) avoid the damage.
Wall of Thorns: The shaman can use wall of thorns.
Baleful Polymorph: The shaman can use baleful polymorph.
Cloudkill: The shaman can use cloudkill.

Greater Water

ResultPower
1Heal
2Drown
3Antimagic Field
4Mass Cure Critical Wounds
5Raging Wave
6Revivify


Heal: The shaman can use heal.
Drown: The shaman can use drown (SpC).
Antimagic Field: The shaman can use antimagic field.
Mass Cure Critical Wounds: The shaman can use mass cure critical wounds.
Raging Wave: The shaman washes a large area with water. The area is a 20ft by 90ft line, and can appear anywhere at up to medium range. Each creature in the area is subject to a bull rush by a Colossal creature, with a bonus of the shaman's caster level plus his wisdom modifier. Creatures that fall this check are pushed to the end of the area (all creatures are pushed in a single direction of the shaman's choosing) and take 1d6 bludgeoning damage per square moved.
Revivify: The shaman can use revivify. Unlike the spell, this ability can return a creature that died up to one round per caster level ago to life.

Primal Air

ResultPower
1Reverse Gravity
2Whirlwind
3Forcecage
4Mass Wind's Swiftness
5Wail of the Banshee
6Sound and Fury


Reverse Gravity: The shaman can use reverse gravity.
Whirlwind: The shaman can use whirlwind.
Forcecage: The shaman can use forcecage.
Mass Wind's Swiftness: A number of target creatures up to the shaman's caster level other than the shaman within close range may take an immediate move, standard, or full attack action.
Wail of the Banshee: The shaman can use wail of the banshee.
Sound and Fury: The shaman scours an area with the fury of the storm. This effects a 40ft radius spread out to long range. Creatures in the area take 1d6 electricity damage and 1d6 sonic damage per caster level (reflex half). Creatures are deafened (no save) and are stunned for one round per caster level (fortitude negates).

Primal Earth

ResultPower
1Earthquake
2Maze
3Rockform
4Stone Clone
5Fissure
6Mass Flesh to Stone


Earthquake: The shaman can use earthquake.
Maze: The shaman can use maze.
Rockform: The shaman grants their allies the durability of the earth itself. A number of targets equal to the shaman's caster level within close range may negate all damage from the first attack to strike them in the next round.
Stone Clone: The shaman rips forth a duplicate of their opponent from the ground. The duplicate loses all the special attacks and special qualities of the creature it duplicates. It attacks the creature it duplicates relentlessly (taking no action other than to attack it or move to do so). If not destroyed, it dissipates after one round per caster level, or when the creature it duplicates is destroyed.
Fissure: The shaman rips open a great rent in the earth. The fissure may be created anywhere within medium range, is 20ft wide by 60ft long, and is 10ft deep per caster level. The bottom and walls are spiked (as spike stones). The DC to climb the walls is 35. Targets in the area recieve a reflex save to move to the edge of the area.
Mass Flesh to Stone: As flesh to stone, but a number of targets equal to the shaman's caster level.

Primal Fire

ResultPower
1Meteor Swarm
2Incendiary Cloud
3Ash Thrall
4Fear and Flame
5Detonate
6Mindfire


Meteor Swarm: The shaman can use meteor swarm.
Incendiary Cloud: The shaman can use incendiary cloud.
Ash Thrall: The shaman burns away a target's mind, leaving only a consuming rage. A single target within close range makes a will save. If they fail, they fall under the shaman's mental control (as dominate monster) for one round per caster level. At the end of the duration, the target dies.
Fear and Flame: The shaman unleashes a blast of fire that inspires terror in those it strikes. The fires are a 20ft burst and can be launched anywhere in medium range. All targets in the area take 1d6 points of fire damage per caster level (reflex half). Targets must also make a will save or be Panicked for one round per caster level. On a successful save, they are Frightened for a single round instead.
Detonate: The shaman can use detonate (PHBII).
Mindfire: The shaman creates a fire that burns in the target's mind. This effects one target within close range, and lasts one round per four caster levels. Each round, the subject takes 2d6 fire damage and 1d6 damage to each mental ability score. Each round it is entitled to a will save. A successful save reduces the fire damage by half and negates the ability damage for that round, but does not end the effect.

Primal Nature

ResultPower
1Greater Bestow Curse
2Deadfall
3Unyielding Roots
4Poison Fog
5Clinging Acid
6Impaling Roots


Greater Bestow Curse: The shaman can use greater bestow curse (SpC).
Deadfall: The shaman can use deadfall (SpC).
Unyielding Roots: The shaman can use unyielding roots (SpC).
Poison Fog: The shaman creates a billowing cloud of poison. This is equivalent to cloudkill except that the fog obscures sight and slows movement as solid fog, and moves at the shaman's direction rather than moving away from him (it still moves at 10ft per round). He can hold the fog stationary if he wishes.
Clinging Acid: The shaman launches a blast of acid at an enemy which damages and distracts them. This is a ranged touch attack out to medium range. The acid deals 1d4 damage per caster level for one round per three caster levels. Additionally, while effected by the acid the target must make a Concentration check to take any standard action, using the DC for being damaged while casting a spell.
Impaling Roots: Roots sprint from the ground, damaging and trapping the shaman's enemies. The roots attack a number of targets up to the shaman's caster level within medium range. Targets take 1d6 piercing damage per caster level and must make a reflex save to avoid being immobilized.

Primal Water

ResultPower
1Reaving Dispel
2Mass Heal
3Mass Drown
4Frostfell
5Blood to Water
6Waterspout


Reaving Dispel: The shaman can use reaving dispel (SpC).
Mass Heal: The shaman can use mass heal.
Mass Drown: The shaman can use mass drown (SpC).
Frostfell: The shaman can use frostfell (FB).
Blood to Water: The shaman can use blood to water (SpC).
Waterspout: The shaman can use waterspout (SpC).


Source Abbreviations:
CArc: Complete Arcane
FB: Frostburn
S: Stormwrack
SpC: Spell Compendium
PHBII: Player's Handbook II

[Elves]

The basic mechanic is fantastic, what made you think of it?

Having set SLA lists for the spirits is definitely the right choice.

Fey doesn't seem to fit with the capstone. Would make it only elemental.

Honestly, very clean work. It seems like your major concern is the actual spell lists, I don't have time to look at that right now but may later. Skimming the boons, Raging Fire seems out of place because it's the only at will active boon.


Thematically, the thing that feels missing is ancestor spirits. Could add Ancestor spirits as a new category, possibly replacing Nature which may step on toes of druid too much.

Since you have "totem carving", totem theme could be added too. An idea that could make their summoning stick out is if you have to place a totem effigy of the spirit you want to summon and they have to remain within x feet of that effigy. Or totems could modify boons. Mechanically the class has a great structure, but to make it feel like a shaman thematically more emphasis on implements like masks, totems, and effigies might help.

Another idea for how to do their summoning - temporarily sacrifice access to one spirit's spells to manifest the spirit as a corresponding elemental of size category corresponding to tier (if you voluntarily channeled lower tier spirit, manifest multiple elementals of that size category).

[NigelWalmsley]

The basic mechanic is fantastic, what made you think of it?

There was a discussion somewhere that I read some time ago. I assume it's still out there somewhere, but I haven't found it again.


Fey doesn't seem to fit with the capstone. Would make it only elemental.

When D&D has defined "spirits", it's typically included Fey. The Complete Divine writeup for the Spirit Shaman does, and I was pretty sure the definition in Complete Arcane's Spirit Binding did too, but I can't actually find out where the hell that definition is, so I might be misremembering (the spell itself just says "spirit creature").


Honestly, very clean work. It seems like your major concern is the actual spell lists, I don't have time to look at that right now but may later. Skimming the boons, Raging Fire seems out of place because it's the only at will active boon.

Yeah. The issue is it's really hard to figure out stuff for Fire to be doing. I guess you could give it some kind of Apocalypse From The Sky type wide-area blast. Something for breaking armies. Or maybe another Enchantment effect.


Thematically, the thing that feels missing is ancestor spirits. Could add Ancestor spirits as a new category, possibly replacing Nature which may step on toes of druid too much.

Nature spirits do borrow from Druid, but so do all the others. The class has some Druid spells, but it's missing key Druid staples like "turn into a bear" and "pet bear". I expect that it ends up playing fairly differently as a result. That said, Ancestor Spirits are definitely something you could do. You'd just have to figure out the 30-odd powers they got.


Since you have "totem carving", totem theme could be added too. An idea that could make their summoning stick out is if you have to place a totem effigy of the spirit you want to summon and they have to remain within x feet of that effigy. Or totems could modify boons. Mechanically the class has a great structure, but to make it feel like a shaman thematically more emphasis on implements like masks, totems, and effigies might help.

Totems is definitely an angle for a class to have (and a class that you could reasonably end up calling "Shaman"), but it seems like it probably works fairly differently from this one. Your Totem Mage wants to have a selection of totems that can be thrown down for area control or buff effects, with managing that being the primary resource management mechanic.


Another idea for how to do their summoning - temporarily sacrifice access to one spirit's spells to manifest the spirit as a corresponding elemental of size category corresponding to tier (if you voluntarily channeled lower tier spirit, manifest multiple elementals of that size category).

The problem with tying it directly to the spirits is that you end up needing something for Nature, and plant monsters don't scale as effectively. It also makes adding new spirit types even more obnoxious.

[Elves]

Rereading, not sure I like the at will swift action compel spirits at 17th. Maybe either 3/day or make it be the capstone? Yes a swift action is valuable, but it still seems like it removes the excitement from the class.

I also wonder about the class's swift/immediate actions. There seems to be only 1 SLA and 3 boons that use them, and all the boons are at will. Those 3 boons are going to be disproportionately valuable if they're the class's main native access to those actions. Giving at will swift/immediate boons to earth and water would help. That creates a situation where taking 1 of those boons is mandatory and then the rest become comparatively devalued. I wonder if there's room for a separate ability track that grants you you an at-will swift/immediate action ability. Those could be your "totems". Actually, those 3 swift/immediate boon effects that exist now would all work as WoW-style drop totems with a range limit.


Totems is definitely an angle for a class to have (and a class that you could reasonably end up calling "Shaman"), but it seems like it probably works fairly differently from this one. Your Totem Mage wants to have a selection of totems that can be thrown down for area control or buff effects, with managing that being the primary resource management mechanic.
The Warcraft style drop totems are just one way of doing it. My general point is that the class is a mechanically good simple caster, but I'm not sure it screams shaman as loud as it could. Including shamanistic paraphernalia is one way of adding flavor, instead of just abstracting that as magic items.


Yeah. The issue is it's really hard to figure out stuff for Fire to be doing. I guess you could give it some kind of Apocalypse From The Sky type wide-area blast. Something for breaking armies. Or maybe another Enchantment effect.
Fire does look all over the place, especially when the other snake swiftness effects are Air.


The problem with tying it directly to the spirits is that you end up needing something for Nature, and plant monsters don't scale as effectively. It also makes adding new spirit types even more obnoxious.

Looks like there was a nature elemental in 2e, you could update that. It's not excessive to add a new creature to work with a new class. Or it could be an animal from the SNA list.

Scalability concerns seem theoretical at this point.

I find the elemental substitution a neat idea for giving them some summoning ability in a simple way. I guess if you want them to go toe to toe with t1s you want to give them planar binding, but it seems like this class would be just fine as a 2.5.

IMO the spell call out in Spirit Binding creates compression but not usability. It's an obscure spell and no one knows the CArc definition of spirit creatures.

[Herbert_W]

I love the core mechanic here. It effectively converse that the shaman is actively dealing with forces that have a mind of their own - but not a mind amenable to persuasion in the same way as a person would be - while giving shamans a good reason to do something different every round. It's great.

It's occurred to me that there's an element of design synergy that you could take advantage of here. If any two spirits have abilities which are functionally similar on the same die rolls then simultaneously channeling those spirits would allow less versatility than channeling two spirits that have different effects on different die rolls. This could be used to create "groups" of spirits where players are incentivized to channel from many different groups, ideally with each of their spirits coming from a different group.

For example, group #1 could have the following effects on a die roll:


Single-target damage
AOE damage
Single-target debuff
AOE debuff or BFC
Situational ability (e.g. dispel magic)
Utility or movement

While group #2 could have their powers shifted by one:


Utility or movement
Single-target damage
AOE damage
Single-target debuff
AOE debuff or BFC
Situational ability (e.g. dispel magic)

. . . and likewise for the remaining groups.

If you were to make each group correspond to a tier of spirit, then this would provide a subtle way to encourage shamans to channel multiple tiers rather than just channeling several spirits of the highest tier they can.

[NigelWalmsley]

Rereading, not sure I like the at will swift action compel spirits at 17th. Maybe either 3/day or make it be the capstone? Yes a swift action is valuable, but it still seems like it removes the excitement from the class.

I had it like that originally. I changed it at one point, but I don't think there was any particularly good reason. I've swapped it back, and gave them a new feature at 17th (extra uses of their Boons).


I also wonder about the class's swift/immediate actions. There seems to be only 1 SLA and 3 boons that use them, and all the boons are at will. Those 3 boons are going to be disproportionately valuable if they're the class's main native access to those actions.

Probably, yeah. Any ideas? They could also get some swift/immediates from the spirit SLAs.


Fire does look all over the place, especially when the other snake swiftness effects are Air.

Yeah. They were originally Animal, back when there was an Animal spirit, but that's also not Fire.


Looks like there was a nature elemental in 2e, you could update that. It's not excessive to add a new creature to work with a new class. Or it could be an animal from the SNA list.

I added Summon Nature's Ally as a Nature boon. It's set up to be effectively permanent, but the minions you get from those spells are pretty weak.


IMO the spell call out in Spirit Binding creates compression but not usability. It's an obscure spell and no one knows the CArc definition of spirit creatures.

Does it work better if I just say "use the definition from Spirit Shaman in Complete Divine, page XX"? I definitely don't want to define a third meaning, and I equally don't want to just copy/paste it.


I love the core mechanic here. It effectively converse that the shaman is actively dealing with forces that have a mind of their own - but not a mind amenable to persuasion in the same way as a person would be - while giving shamans a good reason to do something different every round. It's great.

Thanks. I think the mechanic is a really strong fit for the class.


It's occurred to me that there's an element of design synergy that you could take advantage of here. If any two spirits have abilities which are functionally similar on the same die rolls then simultaneously channeling those spirits would allow less versatility than channeling two spirits that have different effects on different die rolls. This could be used to create "groups" of spirits where players are incentivized to channel from many different groups, ideally with each of their spirits coming from a different group.

There's a lot of potential depth from the mechanic. The idea of using the ordering to push cross-tier channeling is interesting, but I think given the big gap between tiers, it might be a little rough with how the class is set up. I could see it being a good idea to have each type have its own order, though there is a degree to which effects are appropriate change between tiers.

[Elves]

Probably, yeah. Any ideas? They could also get some swift/immediates from the spirit SLAs.

You could imagine a scheme where there are 6 spirit categories, they get all of them, and each category has 1 swift and 1 immediate (eg earth spirits always have a swift SLA on the 1 and an immediate on the 6), staggered so that whatever the player's roll, they have 1 swift and 1 immediate that turn. But the class as written doesn't get all 6 so it doesn't work.

I see 3 options

- "Fudge it" by haphazardly adding more swift SLAs. I don't like this because it's messy, + IMO the consistency of the spirit abilities being standard or FRA is beneficial (might even change the one swift action SLA that exists to standard).

- Add swift/immediate greater boons for earth and water and accept that the meta is taking one. Fine but leaves their swifts vacant until they get greater boons, and as with any "tax" begs question of why not give for free.

- Add a class feature that gives them a swift/immediate ability early on. Preferable, but adds complexity. Possibly a permanent choice because spirits/boons already give you dynamic choices. Could be some simple baseline thing that you want to use relatively frequently, though not every round. I just think you should give them something to do with those actions by default.

(This is why I kind of like the swift action potions houserule -- gives all classes a baseline use for their swift actions, but with GP cost so not blatantly spammable.)



Does it work better if I just say "use the definition from Spirit Shaman in Complete Divine, page XX"? I definitely don't want to define a third meaning, and I equally don't want to just copy/paste it.
Maybe just put the definition of spirit so people only have to look up the spell. (Personally, prefer bespoke abilities in situations like this.)

Readability -- with the spirits I'd do "Spirit abilities are as the spell unless noted otherwise."



There's a lot of potential depth from the mechanic.
Another fun use for it could be a chaos mage where the player gets to load the ability busses themselves, giving them control over what different ability configurations they can receive (I have two spells that work together so I put them both in the "3" slot). Could also give an interesting tradeoff -- put my best spells together and hope for a lucky roll, or spread them out?

An interesting variant for this class would be if the spells for each spirit are set, but when you choose your spirits each day the order is randomly determined for that day (roll for whether you get earthquake on 1 or 3) -- then you get an ability that lets you swap one, etc.
If not doing that, the row design is important, so I assume you've paid some attention to it...



This class makes me reflect that I'm not certain on how shaman and druid should be thematically partitioned. In essence, druid is nature themed and shaman is spirit themed, but they have aspects that overlap or could be different classes entirely. Should the shaman's elemental theme be offloaded onto a separate elementalist class? Or should it go to druid, since druids are in touch with the land and the elements of nature? Should the druid's shapeshifting be offloaded onto a separate shapechanger/skinwalker class? Should its animal companion be offloaded to ranger exclusively? It's muddy because in real folklore of course there aren't strict distinctions.

[Herbert_W]

This class makes me reflect that I'm not certain on how shaman and druid should be thematically partitioned. . . It's muddy because in real folklore of course there aren't strict distinctions.

I don’t think that’s a question with an objectively right answer. A game where shamans have an elementalist theme would be different from a game where druids have that theme and likewise for the other class features. Both would be consistent and accessible and fun to play - it’s simply a matter of choosing which game you’d like to make.

But yes - even when acknowledged as a choice rather than a decision, it’s still a tricky one.

More broadly, this is a manifestation of a fundamental limitation of class-based character creation systems. Classes represent bundles of abilities, and making classes requires making decisions about what abilities should go in each bundle. That necessarily introduces the possibility of conflict between what the game says and what a player feels that a certain type of character should be able to do.

Overcoming this problem would require reworking the game to such an extent that you’d basically not be playing DnD. You could either use a non-class-based character creation and progression system, or have a system that is friendly to multiclassing. (DnD sorta does both, but not well enough to fix this problem. Ability scores and feats exist outside of classes but generally do not replicate class features. Multiclassing is possible of course but many thematically cool combinations are underpowered due to lack of synergy between classes.)

Bringing this abstract discussion back to the shaman:

The shaman doesn’t multiclass well. Let’s fix that.

Thematically, the shaman and the druid have a lot in common. They really ought to multiclass well into each other, with any combination of levels in each class being a viable character. The same holds true for clerics, especially clerics of a nature deity. A ranger or barbarian who dabbles in shamanism is a thematically cool concept that ought to be a viable character. The idea of an arcane caster who also works with spirits is an interesting one . . . heck, we may as well just say that this class ought to multiclass decently with everything.

There’s a few way that this could be done. The first and most obvious would be to make the maximum level of spirit that a shaman can bind be dependant on character level rather than shaman level. Powerful spirits should respect powerful characters even if those characters don’t have much experience as a shaman.

Secondly, you could add boons that would specifically be useful for multiclass characters of different non-shaman classes. Adding your shaman level to your caster level for other classes would be a nice boon - although you’d need to specify that, if these classes’ caster levels stack with each other, e.g. if one is a prestige class, your shaman level is only added once. A greater version of that boon could allow a shaman to exchange a spell slot from another class for one of a higher level - say, with the maximum resulting spell level depending on character level and the maximum number of steps by which the spell level is increased depending on the grade of the boon. (This would mean that a high-level shaman who dabbles in e.g. druidism could obtain a few high-level druid spells from the spirits without obtaining the many lower-level spells that a character would normally need to get first. This is nifty in terms of both mechanics and lore, and should be balanced as this will never grant a character access to high-level spells early relative to their total level.)

It might be tempting to dismiss martial characters because a shaman is squishy - but gishes have been made before, and a shaman gish is a cool enough idea that it deserves to be viable. A fixed bonus to attacks or damage as a boon would be nice. You already have this in the frozen blades boon, but lower-level shamans have little that could help if they make a full attack every round. Options for swift actions would also be nice, and that’s something that this class could already benefit from having more of.

If you’re looking for more ideas for boons, then continuing this process would be a good way to find them. You could look through existing classes, and for each, identify a boost that’d allow a multiclass-shaman member to stand on even footing, albeit temporarily or in a limited role, with a character of the same total level in only that class.

The shaman could be made into a very versatile class for multiclassing with the right array of optional boons.

[aimlessPolymath]

There are a number of things that could be scaled; initator level adds half your level in non-initiating classes to your initiator level, and you could do a similar thing with 'caster level' for boons.

[NigelWalmsley]

- "Fudge it" by haphazardly adding more swift SLAs. I don't like this because it's messy, + IMO the consistency of the spirit abilities being standard or FRA is beneficial (might even change the one swift action SLA that exists to standard).

I think this is fine, really. If you look at something like the Warblade or the Wizard, they don't always necessarily have a swift or immediate action. Sometimes the Warblade will have popped all the Boosts or Counters they readied (Swordsage or Crusader might be better, considering the Warblade's recovery mechanic). Sometimes the Wizard will have cast their quickened spells. Having the Shaman sometimes get a swift/immediate ability seems basically okay. That said, the class does need more abilities with the relevant action types if I go that direction. The ability list is a lot more rough draft than the rest of the class.


This class makes me reflect that I'm not certain on how shaman and druid should be thematically partitioned. In essence, druid is nature themed and shaman is spirit themed, but they have aspects that overlap or could be different classes entirely.

It's arbitrary to a pretty large degree. The Shaman and the Druid (and the Spirit Shaman, and to a degree the Mystic Ranger and even some Clerics) are all pulling from the same broad set of themes. And obviously you could dice up those themes in different or additional ways. You could have an Elementalist (who got a richer set of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire powers, but not the divinations, spirit servants, or Nature spirits), or a Beastmaster (who got a bunch of animal powers and animal companions), or a Shifter (who got shapeshifting, but no spellcasting-type abilities). And you could write all kinds of ACFs where you were a Vermin Lord (which is like a Beastmaster, except you have a pet scorpion instead of a pet wolf) or Blighter (which is like a Druid, except you get necromancy and decay magic). My view is that a class should represent a coherent concept, and if that concept happens to overlap with other concepts, that's completely fine. That's certainly the model that a game with Sorcerer, Wizard, and Wu Jen as separate classes is operating on.


The shaman doesn’t multiclass well. Let’s fix that.

Multiclassing doesn't work well, period. At least, 3e-style Open Multiclassing doesn't work well. What does work pretty well in the context of 3e are the various theurge PrCs. They have some holes (only being ten levels, expecting you to get in slightly too late), but broadly speaking they work. And the Shaman can qualify for those reasonably well. If you want to make a Shaman/Fighter, you can take Eldritch Knight (or whichever of the ten million Gish PrCs that exist because none of the core base classes make a good Gish you like). And that will work about as well as a Wizard/Fighter/Eldritch Knight.

I could see the argument for some kind of goodies for multiclassed Shamans, but that runs into scaling issues pretty quickly. In core, the Cleric, Druid, Ranger, and Barbarian all have good claims on some kind of multiclass Shaman goodies, and you can make the case for giving them to Monks or Sorcerers too. Outside Core, there are plenty of other classes that should get something too. Scout, Spirit Shaman (though it is perhaps better for everyone if the two classes pretend the other does not exist), Shugenja, Wu Jen, Totemist, and possibly Binder (the similarities between Spirits and Vestiges seem like something that someone would be tempted to rant about) or something from Tome of Battle (Tiger Claw, Stone Dragon, Devoted Spirit, and Desert Wind all have potential). And that's just the stuff that fits obviously and cleanly. There's no particular thematic reason why you ought to play a Shaman/Rogue or Shaman/Warlock, but should you really lose out for doing so?

[Elves]

That said, the class does need more abilities with the relevant action types if I go that direction.
That's another issue with it, because then they eat into the class's limited number of abilities.

Whether or not you add any swift action abilities, I would give them some form of swift action functionality as a class feature. But it's your call.


My view is that a class should represent a coherent concept, and if that concept happens to overlap with other concepts, that's completely fine.
I agree with the idea of a large number of thematically specific classes. But shaman and druid seem fairly basic and general. You probably want the classes in the basic book to cover different ground.

My answer for druid would be to fold its shapeshifting and its animal minions into its spellcasting, with the class feature versions of those abilities reserved for focused classes.

(Though you could see a no-Natural Spell druid rewrite that's supposed to alternate spell and wild shape on a round by round basis.)


Multiclassing doesn't work well, period. At least, 3e-style Open Multiclassing doesn't work well.
A major draw I see in no free multiclassing is that the need to make classes with dips in mind can be limiting. The argument I don't find persuasive is the large number of level combinations that don't work, that's just the price of complexity.

[Elves]

On second look, worried about the dippability. (As always, 3e's multiclass rules make it hard to give a class a working playstyle from the get go.) Mostly you did a good job making sure the Least effects are based on CL, but least air has 3 valuable effects that aren't (mist, swiftness, transpose when used on willing targets) -- IMO, OP.

Also to consider:
-least water grants infinite out of combat healing plus occasional grease
-entangle lasts 1 min even at CL 1, has repeating save checks, and halves speed even on save
-pyrotechnics fireworks has large range, blind lasts 1d4+1 rds even at CL 1.

The last 2 don't make it an OP dip but may be best to "smooth out".


Suggestions:
- reduce duration of entangle and mist to 1 round/CL. Move mist to water
- reduce pyrotechnics range
- baleful transpose can't be used on willing targets except yourself


How much attention have you paid to making sure each roll gives an interesting set of choices once you have more than one spirit? Seems like the next step in polishing this. Not so important for least, but eg least "1" has no direct damage.

[Elves]

Sorry to spam the thread. Another thing the class lacks is permanent choices like warlock pact, monk bonus feats or wizard specialization. The level 1-3 gameplay is also fairly dull, so maybe there's space to add a subclass choice at level 2 or 3. That could be the swift action I mentioned earlier.

Options could include the "trade out spirit to summon elemental/SNA animal" I mentioned upthread, a "spirit guide" who lets you roll an extra spirit die for one of your spirits, and...maybe something based on a rage-like drug trance?

[PairO'Dice Lost]

As others have already mentioned, the Shaman is nice and solid both mechanically and conceptually. A few comments/suggestions:


Totem Carving (Su): At 5th level, the shaman gains the ability to imbue magical objects with the power of spirits. He gains Craft Wondrous Item as a bonus feat. In addition to using the powers granted by various spirits to create items, he is also treated as knowing any spell that appears on the cleric, druid, or sorcerer/wizard spell lists at a level less than one third his shaman level (round down). If it matters, he has to emulate it at a level it appears on one of those lists.

It's already kinda weird that the Warlock suddenly becomes a better item crafter (in terms of spell access) than any full caster in the game at 12th level, and the Shaman getting to do the same thing 7 levels earlier with no checks (and getting a bonus crafting feat besides!) comes right out of left field. I'd suggest limiting this to druid spells and any spells with an elemental descriptor to keep it in-theme without restricting it too heavily.


Spirit Passage (Sp): At 11th level, the shaman gains the ability to travel through the spirit world. This ability is equivalent to shadow walk, but he travels through the Ethereal Plane instead of the Plane of Shadow.

I assume this is usable at will, but it could use the clarification regardless. Also, you may want to consider letting the Shaman plane shift to or from an elemental plane 1/day as well, like a genie-lite, to go with the "visiting the planes where the spirits live" theme.


What I'm not as happy with is the spirits themselves. Not the individual ones per se, but there really ought to be more of them. Five isn't really a lot of options, and because they only get five kinds of spirit, I ended up needing to cap them at three spirits channeled to avoid every high-level Shaman just getting all the spirits. I'm not really sure how to square that circle. For a while I had spirits getting four abilities and two of each elemental type. That works (and lets them do better as a mono-element "Waterbender" type), but it's both more actual abilities (36 per tier instead of 30), and less variance which makes the unique resource management less compelling. You could probably add some more spirit types. Air could spin off Storms as its own line and Water could give up the Healing stuff, but any addition requires writing a whole bunch of abilities. There's the possibility of going full freeform with the ability selection, but that kinda wrecks the resourc dynamic too.

Fax Celestis did a similar druid-meets-warlock/-binder setup for his d20r Druid (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?164574-d20r-Class-The-Druid) class a few years back. Its spirits branched out from animal and plant themes for 1st- and 2nd-level spirits to elements at 3rd, terrains at 4th, natural disasters at 5th, seasons at 6th, and specific named spirits at 7th. You could do something similar here, splitting up each spirit into two related spirits at the same tier (and doing so in different ways for each tier) so that there's more variance within each element but they still have a unifying theme.

Also, I did something similar to this for a variant divine casting system in my last campaign, where spells were assigned to "spheres" of themed-spells-plus-boons with names like Animal Skin, Arctic Cold, Crushing Waves, Endless Caverns, Hidden Forest, Smiting Storm, and so forth. The writeup is on a private wiki, but I'd be happy to PM you a copy for inspiration if you'd like.


There was a discussion somewhere that I read some time ago. I assume it's still out there somewhere, but I haven't found it again.

Since you mentioned Winds of Fate, I assume you saw it at the Gaming Den. There are a few threads where the idea was hashed out, but the main ones that discussed it are here (http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=52150) and here (http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=52398).


When D&D has defined "spirits", it's typically included Fey. The Complete Divine writeup for the Spirit Shaman does, and I was pretty sure the definition in Complete Arcane's Spirit Binding did too, but I can't actually find out where the hell that definition is, so I might be misremembering (the spell itself just says "spirit creature").

The definition was actually left out of Complete Arcane, because all the spirit-related spells were copy-pasted directly from Oriental Adventures and they didn't give those spells an editing pass for things like that. It shows up in the errata, thusly:


Page 101, 123: Spirit Creatures
For the purposes of the commune with greater spirit, commune with lesser spirit, greater spirit binding, lesser spirit binding, spirit binding, spirit needle, and spirit self spells, a “spirit” or “spirit creature” includes any of the following creatures: all incorporeal undead, all fey, all elementals, creatures in astral form or with astral bodies (but not a creature physically present on the Astral Plane), all creatures of the spirit subtype (see Oriental Adventures), spirit folk and telthors (see Unapproachable East), and spirit creatures created by spells such as dream sight or wood wose (see Complete Divine).


Yeah. The issue is it's really hard to figure out stuff for Fire to be doing. I guess you could give it some kind of Apocalypse From The Sky type wide-area blast. Something for breaking armies. Or maybe another Enchantment effect.

The "fires of passion" emotional angle is a good one since there's not much overlap there with the other elements, so I'd lean into that.

[NigelWalmsley]

Sorry for not replying for a while, but I'm back now.


That's another issue with it, because then they eat into the class's limited number of abilities.

I think if I were to do this (which I might) I would add at least one extra type of Spirit, then give the different Spirits their swift action options on different rows. That way you still have a reasonable selection of standard-action options as well, regardless of what you roll (Least and possibly Lesser Spirits would just not get swifts).


(Though you could see a no-Natural Spell druid rewrite that's supposed to alternate spell and wild shape on a round by round basis.)

I think if you wanted a shapeshifter/animal Druid, the place to go would be something like WoW's Druid where different forms had different abilities. Each form gets some passive bonuses (like a ToB stance) and some active abilities (like ToB maneuvers), except that the "maneuvers" only refresh when you chance stance. Alternatively, I've been toying with the idea of a class that has "Aspects" that grant a passive bonus, with the ability to choose a single set of active abilities at a time. That works reasonably well for a Druid-type.


A major draw I see in no free multiclassing is that the need to make classes with dips in mind can be limiting. The argument I don't find persuasive is the large number of level combinations that don't work, that's just the price of complexity.

The issue is that "a large number of combinations" is the whole thing Open Multiclassing is supposed to offer. It's not just that there are a bunch of crappy builds out there where you're like a Binder 2/Rogue 1/Psion 3/Fighter 1 and can't do anything level-appropriate, it's that the multiclass builds that are level-appropriate aren't particularly specific to Open Multiclassing. The kinds of multiclass builds people use basically fall into three categories: "dip another class for 1 level to make your build work", "combine a bunch of martial classes because they're front-loaded", and "theurge". That suggests to me that people don't really care about Open Multiclassing in-and-of-itself, as all of those can be handled more elegantly in other ways. The first is looking for either a better background system or some kind of subclassing mechanic, the second is Open Multiclassing failing but having those failings mitigated by the failures of martial classes and ending up somewhere okay, and the third should be fixed by making the popular theurges base classes (e.g. the next edition of D&D should have a Gish base class) and/or adding a subclassing system so that you can be a Ninja/Cleric without needing a Priest of Ninjax PrC to be printed somewhere.


On second look, worried about the dippability. (As always, 3e's multiclass rules make it hard to give a class a working playstyle from the get go.) Mostly you did a good job making sure the Least effects are based on CL, but least air has 3 valuable effects that aren't (mist, swiftness, transpose when used on willing targets) -- IMO, OP.

Honestly I don't really care about dipping. It's shooting yourself in the foot in the long run for more power at low level, and I don't think it's worth fixing if it means making the class worse when played straight through.


-least water grants infinite out of combat healing plus occasional grease

Yeah. That probably is a little OP, but I'm not sure how much I care about 1st level. You basically can't give the class any healing without making it infinite, and there are infinite healing options at that level (e.g. Crusader).


-entangle lasts 1 min even at CL 1, has repeating save checks, and halves speed even on save

I think if you want to throw around Entangle, you're better off with a Druid dip, because the possibility of infinite Entangles is probably not better than the certainty of getting two when you want them.


-pyrotechnics fireworks has large range, blind lasts 1d4+1 rds even at CL 1.

I think the times you'll be able to leverage the range are rare enough that I'm not super concerned.


- reduce duration of entangle and mist to 1 round/CL. Move mist to water

1 round/CL is too low at 1st level. I would support that under a general houserule that changes 1 round/CL to "3 rounds + 1 round/CL" or something, but I'm not going to put that in a class.


How much attention have you paid to making sure each roll gives an interesting set of choices once you have more than one spirit? Seems like the next step in polishing this. Not so important for least, but eg least "1" has no direct damage.

I think if I did an editing pass, I'd probably give each type defined effects for each number (though there's potential problems with enforcing the same set of effects at 1st and 16th).


Sorry to spam the thread. Another thing the class lacks is permanent choices like warlock pact, monk bonus feats or wizard specialization. The level 1-3 gameplay is also fairly dull, so maybe there's space to add a subclass choice at level 2 or 3. That could be the swift action I mentioned earlier.

I kind of view the Boons as doing that. I suppose I could give them some kind of Archetype with some progression. Would have to math out what those would be.


It's already kinda weird that the Warlock suddenly becomes a better item crafter (in terms of spell access) than any full caster in the game at 12th level, and the Shaman getting to do the same thing 7 levels earlier with no checks (and getting a bonus crafting feat besides!) comes right out of left field. I'd suggest limiting this to druid spells and any spells with an elemental descriptor to keep it in-theme without restricting it too heavily.

That seems like a reasonable restriction. Though in that case, I'd probably drop the spell level restriction.


I assume this is usable at will, but it could use the clarification regardless. Also, you may want to consider letting the Shaman plane shift to or from an elemental plane 1/day as well, like a genie-lite, to go with the "visiting the planes where the spirits live" theme.

I forget my D&D cosmology, but shouldn't it be possible to go from the Ethereal to the Elemental Planes directly? I'd probably just change the ability to allow that.


Fax Celestis did a similar druid-meets-warlock/-binder setup for his d20r Druid (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?164574-d20r-Class-The-Druid) class a few years back. Its spirits branched out from animal and plant themes for 1st- and 2nd-level spirits to elements at 3rd, terrains at 4th, natural disasters at 5th, seasons at 6th, and specific named spirits at 7th. You could do something similar here, splitting up each spirit into two related spirits at the same tier (and doing so in different ways for each tier) so that there's more variance within each element but they still have a unifying theme.

Oh, good find. I'll keep it in mind for ideas.


Since you mentioned Winds of Fate, I assume you saw it at the Gaming Den. There are a few threads where the idea was hashed out, but the main ones that discussed it are here (http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=52150) and here (http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=52398).

Yup, that's the place.


The definition was actually left out of Complete Arcane, because all the spirit-related spells were copy-pasted directly from Oriental Adventures and they didn't give those spells an editing pass for things like that. It shows up in the errata, thusly:

Again, that's the one. I'll give it another go of figuring out a cleaner definition sometime.

[Elves]

I think if I were to do this (which I might) I would add at least one extra type of Spirit, then give the different Spirits their swift action options on different rows. That way you still have a reasonable selection of standard-action options as well, regardless of what you roll (Least and possibly Lesser Spirits would just not get swifts).
With a 1d6 roll it makes sense to have 6 spirit types so you can do symmetries like this.
Here are some possible Ancestor spirit powers I wrote down back when this was posted:

Least
spirit worm

Lesser
spiritual charger (HoB)
spiritual weapon (only 1 active at time? shortened duration?)

Greater
spiritual cavalry (HoB)
spiritual guardian (CCh)
spirit self (CArc)
spiritwall (SpC) - except that the wall vanishes if you create another

Primal
?

Possible boons
watchful ancestors (MoE)
Ancient Tongues: as comprehend languages
raise dead
death ward (or short duration death ward as power)
deathwatch
helping hand


I think if you wanted a shapeshifter/animal Druid, the place to go would be something like WoW's Druid where different forms had different abilities. Each form gets some passive bonuses (like a ToB stance) and some active abilities (like ToB maneuvers), except that the "maneuvers" only refresh when you chance stance. Alternatively, I've been toying with the idea of a class that has "Aspects" that grant a passive bonus, with the ability to choose a single set of active abilities at a time. That works reasonably well for a Druid-type.

This is actually what I was considering for a rewrite of the TOB classes themselves. In order to use a maneuver from a certain discipline, you have to be in a stance of that discipline. Then there a number of "basic" maneuvers that can be used regardless of stance. This would give a reason for disciplines to actually be a coherent set of powers that work in tandem with each other, and would encourage you to focus your maneuver choices on 2-3 disciplines.

For the Druid, one idea I had is that instead of getting daily uses of wild shape, you pick a certain number of wild shape forms at the start of the day and then can shift between them freely throughout the day. (Then maybe you get Spontaneous Wild Shape x/day as class feature.)

Getting rid of Natural Spell solves a huge amount of the problem with druid, since that naturally creates a play dynamic where you have to choose between being an animal and a spellcaster. Combine with the above to let you make that choice in a more fluid way round-to round.

And spontaneous SNA is, IMO, simply unnecessary.


The kinds of multiclass builds people use basically fall into three categories: "dip another class for 1 level to make your build work", "combine a bunch of martial classes because they're front-loaded", and "theurge". That suggests to me that people don't really care about Open Multiclassing in-and-of-itself, as all of those can be handled more elegantly in other ways.
That's a strong point. I see what you mean now -- free multiclassing doesn't really let you add varying amounts of different classes together. Relatively even splits mean you end up with two sets of abilities of a character half your level, so to make it effective it has to become about dipping frontloaded classes.


Yeah. That probably is a little OP, but I'm not sure how much I care about 1st level. You basically can't give the class any healing without making it infinite, and there are infinite healing options at that level (e.g. Crusader).
Crusader has to attack an enemy in combat to do that though.

No infinite out of combat healing is probably a sacred cow that should be slaughtered, but removing it does shift the game's risk toward individual encounters rather than attrition. I guess it's ok if the attrition risk in all classes becomes centered around supplemental abilities (boons, cleric's turn undead) and items (per-day charges) rather than primary abilities. Plus, once vigor wands become affordable, that attrition risk is reduced to a ~1.5 gp WBL tax per hp lost.


I think if I did an editing pass, I'd probably give each type defined effects for each number (though there's potential problems with enforcing the same set of effects at 1st and 16th).
The effect equivalencies don't have to be the exact same between tiers since if you bind a lower tier you automatically get more options for your roll.


I kind of view the Boons as doing that. I suppose I could give them some kind of Archetype with some progression. Would have to math out what those would be.
They're a form of floating variety but there's something to be said for permanent variety to distinguish different members of the class in an essential way. Even in core the only classes that don't have this are barbarian, druid and paladin, though rogue's come in a bit late.