[3.5] The Homebrew Spirit Shaman Handbook

[Mephibosheth]

The regular spirit shaman doesn't have its own class list; it uses the druid list. Did you plan on creating a separate list for spirit shamans, or is this a simple typo?

Thanks for reminding me. I had initially decided to make a new spirit shaman list but must have forgotten to do so. I'll try to toss that together in the next few days and add it to the write-up. Thanks for the catch!

A grig (with fiddle) would be a nice addition to the 2nd- or possibly 3rd-level list. It could also be possible to add some creatures from other books, although if I recall correctly there are exceedingly few low-level spirits. Also, can a spirit shaman use this spell to summon any elemental (for example, a shadow elemental from Tome of Magic), or just the "classic" ones described in the Monster Manual?

Good call. Maybe I'll add the grig + fiddle combo to the 3rd level list. I'm a little hesitant with some of these sprites because their equipment-based SLAs can be pretty powerful for PCs. You're right, though. There aren't too many low-low level spirits. If I weren't trying to make this stuff as accessible as possible, I'd definitely look through other Monster Manuals for new spirits. As it is though, I'm trying to stick as close to OGL content as possible.

I would say that spirit shaman can summon any creature of the elemental type. All of them are, at least in theory, physical manifestations of the spirits of their respective planes.

Some much needed love for the Spirit Shaman, I've always liked the idea of the class but there wasn't enough support for it to really work well. That and I always felt that they filled a too well-defined niche to be played well, but hopefully with these new feats/PrC's that will be easier.

On the one hand, I agree that the spirit shaman has a very well-defined and narrow role. However, I think there are a lot of ways to tweak that role and work within its confines. I also think that, within certain social contexts, spirit shamans can be powerful and rather common. If anything, they can always say that the spirits told them to go adventuring.