HWU: Age of Conan's Bear Shaman

[Schwann145]

Wondering how to build this in 5e and would appreciate tips!

The class is a primary healer, but contributes in combat with strong self-buffs, poison/nature based poison effects, debuffs, and smashing things with a two-handed blunt weapon exclusively. (In fact, many of its heals and debuffs are melee attack riders.)
They're strength-based and tend to wear medium armor.

Honestly, if you could combine a totem barb with a nature cleric, that's the best 5e comparison I can think of, but that mix is mechanically so problematic to build that you'd have to gestalt and homebrew to make it work.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[Hairfish]

Wondering how to build this in 5e and would appreciate tips!

The class is a primary healer, but contributes in combat with strong self-buffs, poison/nature based poison effects, debuffs, and smashing things with a two-handed blunt weapon exclusively. (In fact, many of its heals and debuffs are melee attack riders.)
They're strength-based and tend to wear medium armor.

Honestly, if you could combine a totem barb with a nature cleric, that's the best 5e comparison I can think of, but that mix is mechanically so problematic to build that you'd have to gestalt and homebrew to make it work.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Sounds like a druid with proficiency in the maul and a STR focus?

[Willowhelm]

I have absolutely no context for the actual build inspiration but just saying the smash things with blunt weapon works fine with shillelagh so you don’t need to be too MAD.

[thoroughlyS]

Do you have a race in mind for your character?

[Theodoxus]

That's a lot of specificity... Since there aren't any class or subclasses in 5E that have heals on attacks, you're either going to need to homebrew it, or have magic items/spells do the work for you.

When you talk about healing through smashing, are you healing your character, or is this like an AOE heal or otherwise ranged and directed? Just trying to pin-point if it's like a Fistweaving monk from WoW (only using mauls instead of fists) or like an AL character I played along side that was a Lizardman necromancer who liked to cast Vampiric Touch and then bite fools...

Obviously, healing yourself will be easier to build/get approved than any version where you can heal others. Debuffs are much easier through weapon enchants (either permanent, or as a spell).

I think something like a homebrew shaman that was based on the Druid, but instead of getting wildshapes, gets Invocation-like boons (totems?) that allow them to infuse their mauls with magic. Sort of a Druid/Rune Knight/Warlock mishmash that doesn't get too high of magic, but is almost a Nature Gish, that channels their spells into weapon attacks that debuff and heal...

Yeah, that's pure homebrew.

[Schwann145]

When you talk about healing through smashing, are you healing your character, or is this like an AOE heal or otherwise ranged and directed? Just trying to pin-point if it's like a Fistweaving monk from WoW (only using mauls instead of fists) or like an AL character I played along side that was a Lizardman necromancer who liked to cast Vampiric Touch and then bite fools...

That specific heal is a forward facing cone aoe. You queue it up, and on your next melee attack it goes off - so I suppose more like a Fistweaver than a life drinker.
I'm less concerned with making the game match the mechanics of an MMO (ie: I wouldn't care about how it heals, just that healing spells are a necessity for the theme of the class), I just mentioned it to give an idea of the flavor.

Though the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking it's just a nature cleric-based CoDzilla... and 5e killed those, so probably just not doable.

[thoroughlyS]

Since you didn't answer my question, I'll just assume a race that gets +2 and +1, like those found in MotM.

After doing some research and tooling with some concepts, I have some recommendations for your build.

Satyr Witherbloom Student
Glory Paladin 5 / Twilight Cleric +
STR 16 (14 + 2)
DEX 8
CON 12
INT 8
WIS 16 (15 + 1)
CHA 14


For your first few levels you play pretty much like any other paladin. You swing your maul, you lay on hands, and you use your spell slots to smite (and maybe heal). At 3rd level, inspiring smite allows you to give the party temp hp after you smite a creature. You also get heroism as an oath spell. At 5th level, you get extra attack right on time and can cast aid, which is an AoE heal that can pick up multiple party members. You can also cast wither and bloom, thanks to your background. From here, it's on to cleric for pretty much the rest of the build. At 7th level, you get twilight sanctuary, which can grant a massive amount of temp hp. At 10th level, you get mass healing word, aura of vitality as a domain spell, as well as vampiric touch from your background. At 11th level, you can use your channel divinities twice per short rest. And if you make it to 14th level, you get mass cure wounds. You also always have the option to take paladin 6 for the aura.

This build gets you extra attack as early as possible, the ability to heal after an attack or by using an AoE spell, multi-target healing, and some life drain. Not to mention smiting and the buffs and debuffs from cleric.

If you're fine without extra attack, you can leave paladin after 3rd level. This pushes back when you get aid, but brings your other spells on-line sooner.

If you're feeling spicy, you can also take two levels in shepard druid for spirit totem, but unless your DM is willing to give nonmetal heavy armor (which isn't impossible, but is not really represented in official material) you'll probably need a starting array like this (making sure to bump DEX and CON at 4th level):
STR 16 (14 + 2)
DEX 13
CON 11
INT 8
WIS 14 (13 + 1)
CHA 14

[Yspoch]

Honestly, if you could combine a totem barb with a nature cleric, that's the best 5e comparison I can think of, but that mix is mechanically so problematic to build that you'd have to gestalt and homebrew to make it work.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Without knowing what restrictions apply for the campaign this is for or what the starting level is, i would suggest a mix between Barbarian (Totem), Druid (depends) and maybe Cleric (Life). I don't believe homebrew is necessary.

Race could be Dragonborn (Green) - would provide Poison Breath

Starting abilities (Tasha Stat Rules)
STR 17 (15 + 2)
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 8
WIS 15 (14 + 1)
CHA 8

1st ASI: STR/WIS +1
2nd ASI: WIS +2

(You could ease up on STR - especially for a primary healer. Reckless attack would compensate the lower attack bonus)

Levels:
Barbarian: 3 or 5
Druid: 2 - gives (Sheperd for Spirit Totem)
Cleric: additional levels

Primary healer: Druid/Cleric Spells
strong self-buffs: Rage, Spells
poison/nature based poison effects: Infestation, Poison Spray, Breath Weapon
debuffs: Spells
smashing things with a two-handed blunt weapon: Barbarian
They're strength-based and tend to wear medium armor: Barbarian

Character is certainly playable - would maybe be better, if the synergy between Wild Shape and Rage Resistance is used.

[thoroughlyS]

STR 17 (15 + 2)
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 8
WIS 15 (14 + 1)
CHA 8

1st ASI: STR/WIS +1
Starting with 16 STR and 16 WIS instead gives you the same STR mod, but ups your WIS mod to +3. Then you can just do +2 STR at 4th level.

[Schwann145]

Since you didn't answer my question...

My bad! I meant to but it got lost in the formatting I guess.

I don't have any particular race (or even game) in mind. This is just a "class type" that I find very enjoyable in it's native game and was interested in trying to port it over to 5e.

[thoroughlyS]

Well in that case, what do you think of the suggestions?

[Schwann145]

The more I think on it, the more I think Barbarian doesn't really serve any purpose. Rage is only okay and 5 levels to get a 2nd attack is a big investment alone.

Druid seems the easiest fit thematically but you'd have to deal with too many sub-optimal choices (the lack of AC would seriously hurt, though you could sidestep the Str requirements with shillelagh). Reflavored Circle of Spores would be quite good, methinks.

Cleric would be the next best bet, but not quite as "on theme." It wouldn't have the same AC problems and could properly rely on Strength, but getting Heavy Armor prof is too easy here and this is supposed to be a "medium armor" class if we doing it right.

Both Druid and Cleric will have access to the right type of spells, but 5e's concentration mechanic puts a *serious* dampener on the self-buff playstyle.

Paladin *could* work, technically, but it's really just not properly themed here. It's obviously the best combatant of the three but the spell list and armor options are all wrong. Even doing the "nature" subclass doesn't really fit as it's more "fey" than "nature."

[thoroughlyS]

What is my build suggestion missing thematically?

[Schwann145]

What is my build suggestion missing thematically?

Mechanically it works fine. It would just need a ton of reskinning to match the flavor properly.

Here is a wiki link for the mmo class (https://aoc.fandom.com/wiki/Bear_Shaman), to get a basic idea.

[thoroughlyS]

Yeah, I read that. It was how I knew to include vampiric touch, and that the bear spirit totem is a thing in Age of Conan too.