Shaman or Spirit Shaman? Share stories.

[Scarlet-Devil]

So say I want to play a spirit medium, but in a Shinto-y, miko-esque sort of way. Which class better serves this role; in this case a traveling, monk-like shaman who drives away or destroys evil spirits, while helping others by serving as a medium between goodly, misunderstood spirits and humans, and warding people/places from malevolent spirits.

How well do each of these classes work mechanically (has the Shaman (OA) been updated to 3.5 anywhere/is it playable in 3.5 as it is?), and how well do their abilities fit the theme? To me, the spirit shaman seems a little more Native American/Africanish as opposed to Shinto-y, but maybe I'm an idiot .

Personally I really like them both: I like the Spirit Shaman's abilities better because of their definition of 'spirits'; the shaman class just gets turn undead, while the spirit shaman gets chastise spirits, but I like the Shaman's whole patron spirit thing represented by their domains, and their martial arts bonus feats. Gaarh! I just can't decide, someone help me!

BQ: Any idea how to represent 'ofuda', or other talismans? (Like with actual statisitics).

[Urpriest]

In terms of interacting with spirits, remember that the OA shaman has essentially the same definition of spirits but primarily interacts with them through spirit-specific spells (Spirit Ally and the like). I think OA Shaman is closer to your concept. It got a bit of an update in, IIRC, Dragon 318, where it was given a faster unarmed strike progression. They forgot to update its animal companion, but you should do that as well. It's more powerful than the Spirit Shaman, but since it does the martial arts stuff it's probably closer to what you want.

[Scarlet-Devil]

Moar plz?