Bear Shaman tips?

[Angellis_ater]

Hi guys!

I ended up in a "Primals Only" game after a few back and forths and have a Hobgoblin Shaman (don't worry about the race, a few house-rules in effect there) with the following stats:

Str 12
Con 18
Dex 8
Int 12
Wis 18
Cha 10

(Racial mods were +2 to Wis, +2 to Con - houseruled)

I'm playing a Protecting Shaman (aka Bear Shaman) and I was wondering what your suggestions are feat-wise, power-wise and even item-wise.

Right now I have a Totemic Longspear +1, Stanching Leather Armor +1 and a Magic Amulet +1 for items.

Any and all ideas, suggestions, builds, experiences are welcome.

 

[DracoSuave]

Hi guys!

I ended up in a "Primals Only" game after a few back and forths and have a Hobgoblin Shaman (don't worry about the race, a few house-rules in effect there) with the following stats:

Str 12
Con 18
Dex 8
Int 12
Wis 18
Cha 10

(Racial mods were +2 to Wis, +2 to Con - houseruled)

I'm playing a Protecting Shaman (aka Bear Shaman) and I was wondering what your suggestions are feat-wise, power-wise and even item-wise.

Right now I have a Totemic Longspear +1, Stanching Leather Armor +1 and a Magic Amulet +1 for items.

Any and all ideas, suggestions, builds, experiences are welcome.

Hobgoblin with +2 wisdom and +2 con!?!

Um... do they know what a hobgoblin is?

I'd give them +2 strength +2 charisma myself. They're more suited to warlord than bear shaman.

But I digress.

My Primal Power's being borrowed by my druid, so, Immo have to work with just PHB2 here.

Protector Spirit Adept is +1 to NADs adjacent to your spirit. That's stuff you want to do. That's like using a power without using a power. Nice.
I really like me Restful Healing. Outside of combat, being able to huddle around Turducken and have one guy spend his surge to heal surge+Your Con Bonus, and another guy heal 6+their Con Bonus is -really- good efficiency for the healing surges if you have an extra five minutes. Coordinated Explosion is a feat lots of people gloss over. You have a lot of bursts and blasts that target only enemies, but the feat doesn't care if the ally is targetted, only if he's in the area. As well, you can't even claim that allies are uneffected by the power; most of those also include an Effect that buffs the allies in those areas. Take this after Implement Expertise.

Oh, and of course, the usual ImpX, and weapon focus in spear if you have one that counts as a totem.

I remember a feat that gives bonus damage to Spirit Shield (in Primal Power)... not sure if I like it or not, but having a spirit sit there as a buffer isn't always a bad thing. Wrath of Winter is probably the best at-will to use this strategy with.

Thunder Bear's Warding is a swing in combat. You won't use it round one, but you'll use it often to turn the tide of a battle. An -encounter- that is a swing-power is always worth looking at.

Wrath of the Spirit World is also a great daily. Being able to hit -two- AoEs with one power is especially powerful. That said, for Shamans, you really can't go wrong with -any- daily offered. Look at your list, and decide the most fun one. That's probably the best choice.

 

[Destil]

Chain armor should be your first feat at Paragon, and I'd even considering +1 Wis +1 Str at 4th for it. Pretty much every bear shaman needs to do something about their AC by then.

EDIT: Or hide + hide armor expertise.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Ok, I think I need to explain how our racial mods work. Our houserule is that you always get a +2 bonus to the Ability which is primary for your class/build (thus the +2 to Wisdom) and then the 2nd bonus goes to either of the two "racial" bonuses (thus the +2 to Constitution). If you race has a bonus to your primary, you get one additional skill trained instead.

We don't have access to Heavy Armor, Heavy/Light Blades in the campaign - it is effectively "pre-medieval" in timing and the GM has let it slip that any of the above items will count as "magical" even though they'll just be better than our current weapons.

 

[Elric]

Hi guys!

I ended up in a "Primals Only" game after a few back and forths and have a Hobgoblin Shaman (don't worry about the race, a few house-rules in effect there) with the following stats:

Str 12
Con 18
Dex 8
Int 12
Wis 18
Cha 10

(Racial mods were +2 to Wis, +2 to Con - houseruled)

I'm playing a Protecting Shaman (aka Bear Shaman) and I was wondering what your suggestions are feat-wise, power-wise and even item-wise.

Redo your stats to Str 13/Int 11. Take Hide Armor Proficiency and then Hide Armor Expertise (from Primal Power). Your AC will be extremely low until you can acquire these feats.

If you can't switch ability scores, strongly consider adding +1 to Str/Wis at 4th level as has been mentioned. Take Hide Proficiency as your level 4 feat and retrain an earlier feat to Hide Armor. I've seen a Bear Shaman with 15 AC at 4th level and it's not pretty.

 

[Destil]

We don't have access to Heavy Armor, Heavy/Light Blades in the campaign - it is effectively "pre-medieval" in timing and the GM has let it slip that any of the above items will count as "magical" even though they'll just be better than our current weapons.

Did the DM do anything to make up for the fact that some classes' AC will suck without heavy armor? Because you may be able to use that...

 

[Elric]

Did the DM do anything to make up for the fact that some classes' AC will suck without heavy armor? Because you may be able to use that...

Relevant campaign information:

Hi guys!

I ended up in a "Primals Only" game after a few back and forths

 

[Infiniti2000]

So, he's effectively a Beer Shaman?

 

[Destil]

Primals Only

Ah, wasn't sure if this was DM choice or player coincidence.

 

[Angellis_ater]

I talked to the GM about it and he is willing to offer "Leather Armor Expertise" up (essentially HAE but for Leather) so that looks like it's gonna be one of the feats. We just leveled up and I came to the conclusion that by the encounters we had, Winter's Touch was never used - the Spirit Companion was simply too useful to "waste". So I'm looking for a good Spirit power to use.