Class Review: Spirit Shaman

[Dragor]

Class Review: Spirit Shaman

NWN Definition: “Master of the spirit world, the spirit shaman follows a different divine tradition than the cleric or druid. Her world is filled with powerful, living spirits, some helpful and some malign. By bargaining with these spirits, the spirit shaman gains power over the natural world and mighty divine magic with which to aid her comrades or smite her enemies. Creatures that are considered spirits include fey, elementals, and incorporeal undead such as wraiths and shadows.”

FRwiki Definition: “A shaman, sometimes called a spirit shaman, is a powerful primal leader who calls upon nature spirits for aid or guidance. Shamans, much like clerics or warlords, are often leaders or healers, though they lead most often by example and through wisdom than through inspiration or charisma. Shamans are also more durable than their divine or martial equivalents, gaining through their connection to the wild a powerful capacity for enduring pain.”

http://www.sundren.org/wiki/index.php?title=Spirit_Shaman
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Shaman

MY VIEW

SS’s are people who see and hear things other people cannot see or hear, fortunately for them, the things that they can see or hear can manipulate the natural world.

This class opens up some very deep back story potential for a character, especially considering there are no alignment restrictions.

I’ve decided to risk creating a firestorm by doing a short review like this on all the base and PrC classes available on Sundren and ask for the communities input on anything related to that class such as RP tactics, personal views, lore tidbits, and character build strategies.
Keep it clean, thanks

[Thief Of Navarre]

Ahh the spontanious druid! They seem like a class that could be very well roleplayed if people use them more often. I remember one about a year back - He was a dwarf who roleplayed his power as being able to commune with the spirits of his dead clansmen who had died in the tundra on the spine and spent most of his time rebuking the spirits up there trying to cleanse the place of all the bad blood.

Cant remember which player it was but im pretty sure it was one we still have with us! Good times.

[Mournas]

I feel they did this class slightly wrong they should have more arcane spells mingled into their spell list. They should also get some sort of wild shaping, perhaps like a spirit animal that represents the shaman. I dunno I see them as more mystical than they are represented by the current class.

[Zoberraz]

I think they do a good job of what they are, though that's largely more due to their class features than their spell list and spellcasting method.

As nature casters, the druid does it better and has more contextual connection with his spell list. I kind of agree with Mournas that the Spirit Shamans could've used their own list of spells.

[Mournas]

I think they do a good job of what they are, though that's largely more due to their class features than their spell list and spellcasting method.

As nature casters, the druid does it better and has more contextual connection with his spell list. I kind of agree with Mournas that the Spirit Shamans could've used their own list of spells.

I do like that they get a lot of spiritual abilities and they deal with ghosts etc. That is pretty cool. I just feel that Shamans are of a different variety of spells than just the druid spell list.

In Second Edition they could gain the ability to cast a few arcane spells though it really all depended on the spirits they communed with. Although they were actually more like Warlocks in a sense that they could commune with spirits and gain abilities from them. These spirits came in Minor, Major, Greater and different types such as Animal, Nature, and The Dead.

As with my suggestion on Sorcs/FVS most of the abilities granted by these spirits were actually subject to what ever the DM gave them.

Yeah, I'm old school I just can't get over how D&D became a Roll-playing game with 3rd edition and up.

[Root]

I dunno I see them as more mystical than they are represented by the current class.

To be honest, I think even if they had a summoned Spirit Creature, a spirit-mystery-woOoooh spell for every level, and a progressive damage-when-hit ghost shield thing that became visible at later levels, you'd still see a lot of Spirit Shamen wandering around without any trace of mystery or spirituality.

Oh, and they'd still suck, sadly.

[Thief Of Navarre]

I do like that they get a lot of spiritual abilities and they deal with ghosts etc. That is pretty cool. I just feel that Shamans are of a different variety of spells than just the druid spell list.

In Second Edition they could gain the ability to cast a few arcane spells though it really all depended on the spirits they communed with. Although they were actually more like Warlocks in a sense that they could commune with spirits and gain abilities from them. These spirits came in Minor, Major, Greater and different types such as Animal, Nature, and The Dead.

As with my suggestion on Sorcs/FVS most of the abilities granted by these spirits were actually subject to what ever the DM gave them.

Yeah, I'm old school I just can't get over how D&D became a Roll-playing game with 3rd edition and up.

I didnt even know there was such a class in 2E untill I looked it up. They must have been introduced fairly late for me to have missed it! Sounds like a weird mix of the Avenger and Totemic druid kits from BGII..

[Torgar]

As the Epic SS player around, I think that them having just the druid spell list is pretty OK to me. With their classes innate abilities to endure a beat down combined with the druid lists powerful defensive buffs, many of my enemies can attest to how long it takes to kill that damned elf. I remember one time, being death attacked by an assassin, and it took him most of the duration of his paralysis effect on me to kill me. Now, that's one durable class, and that was unbuffed. As an example, unbuffed at level 21, Tigen effectively has 356 HP. 216 from class levels, and 150 from his contingent heal effect that is replaced every time he rests. He basically has more HP then most Barbarians do, and he's a caster. That's just pretty awesome.

Admittedly, and I'll be first to say it, Tigen is a jerk. To a lot of people. He's extremely arrogant, thinks he's right all the time, and usually he just resorts to violence to solve most of his problems. At least, he'll use the threat of violence to do so. That's just how he is though, I tried to play him off as having a very violent spirit guide, and that often directs him to not solve his problems in necessarily the BEST way. Also, he's an elf, and we all know they're jerks just on principle, so it's a double whammy with him.

All in all though, I was extremely happy with playing a SS for as long as I did. I originally created him just to RP around a bit with a few other players as a group of elven siblings, and I just couldn't get enough of playing him. I've gotten to be part of a lot of the major happenings event-wise over the last year+ I've played him, and been the literal punching bag of some of the scariest villains the server has ever seen. I take that as a compliment, as a caster, that I'm seen as strong enough that the really tough BAMF villains use me as an illustration of their power. It's like being told "You're so strong, that if I kill you fast enough, the other PC's will stop trying to turn this into a fight and just stand there and talk the rest of the event out so that they don't ALL end up dead."

So....yea, surprisingly awesome class to play, shame that there never was another one for very long. Just me, and occasionally that dwarven one. We met, a few times. Dwarven SS, Elven SS. Went better then you'd think, fun guy. You know, for a smelly dwarf. :P

[greypawn]

As the Epic SS player around, I think that them having just the druid spell list is pretty OK to me. With their classes innate abilities to endure a beat down combined with the druid lists powerful defensive buffs, many of my enemies can attest to how long it takes to kill that damned elf. I remember one time, being death attacked by an assassin, and it took him most of the duration of his paralysis effect on me to kill me. Now, that's one durable class, and that was unbuffed. As an example, unbuffed at level 21, Tigen effectively has 356 HP. 216 from class levels, and 150 from his contingent heal effect that is replaced every time he rests. He basically has more HP then most Barbarians do, and he's a caster. That's just pretty awesome.

lol. I think I remember emoting something like *stabs, continues to stab, stab stab stab, stabs some more* "Why wont you die?!"

I've always considered playing this class. Maybe I'll give it a go sooner than later.

[Urithrand]

I have to say, my most powerful character to date was my Spirit Shaman Leck. He could quite literally rain all hell down on everything around him while buffed to the eyeballs with an insane AC and quite frankly, kick the CRAP out of everything. He could quite happily solo 90% of Mossdale back when it was harder.

[Thief Of Navarre]

I have to say, my most powerful character to date was my Spirit Shaman Leck. He could quite literally rain all hell down on everything around him while buffed to the eyeballs with an insane AC and quite frankly, kick the CRAP out of everything. He could quite happily solo 90% of Mossdale back when it was harder.

I remember Leck. You started him about the same time I started playing Falmari my druid. The only two things that irk me are their lack of armour options for a MAD class (FS gets medium armour) and the fact that about least a third of the druid spell book is geared towards animal companions and wildshape.