Anyone played a Spirit Shaman?

[Celebrim]

Another plug for the Green Ronin shaman. I dropped Druid from my list of approved classes even before 3.5 came out on the grounds that it was a class that was too specific in flavor. In my opinion, the cool thing about 3rd edition classes like fighter, cleric, and rogue was that they were now broad enough to cover a number of radically different character types without needing a completely new class. Druid, Paladin, and Ranger just had to much flavor intrinsic to the class. I wanted something more generic that could fill the natural spellcaster role, and the Green Ronin shaman fit the bill. In particular, I wanted something that would fit my world's culture, and not a vague debasement of Celtic culture. Rather than being based off of a class based off of a one particular culture's animist spellcaster, GR's shaman is an attempt to unify all animistic spellcasters under a single principal. If you want to play a greenwitch, druid, medicine man, vodoo doctor or whatever, you can do it as a Shaman simply by choosing domains and taboos appropriate to the particular cultural identity you are going for. In fact, the class is broad enough that if you wanted to you could create diabolists out of it. It's that flexible. And this lets me as the DM fit the class to the sort of cultures I want to create, rather than having to fit my cultures to accomodate a holly-worshiping-mistletoe-wielding-hippy-shaperchanger.

 

[I'm A Banana]

NOT a plug for the GR Shaman. Honest.

In truth, the usefulness of this class will partially depend upon how much your DM wants to play along with it. Because it depends a lot on a monster type (the "spirit"), and that monster type requires the DM to finangle some monsters into it, it does require a DM who is willing to embrace the class fully. And not every DM would be willing to bow to the spirit shaman's will like that.

In comparison to a druid, the spirit shaman will not be as nature-focused. Instead, it's more focused on the unseen world -- something a little ethereal, a little magical. Chastize Spirits is not really any more powerful than Turn Undead, for what that's worth. The spirit shaman will be able to hit things and deal with things that others in the party have difficulty with, and it'll be able to go places that other people in the party can't go. But it's still dependant on a DM who is willing to make use of spirit-type creatures often for it's full effect.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think the SR's chastise spirits is significantly less encounter-ruining than a cleric's turn undead/elementals.

Because
1. It stacks with the party efforts instead of confounding them
2. There's no chance for instant destruction of a powerful foe.

 

[Whimsical]

I have been playing a female dwarven barbarian/spirit shaman who has entered the earth dreamer prestige class. Since she worhips "the rock" I persuaded the DM to let me swap out Animal Empathy for Rebuke Earth/Turn Air class ability. So far, I have been enjoying this class, although I haven't been roleplaying spirit interaction much. The ability to chastise incorporeal undead has been a nice ability for monsters that can harras the party without the party able to defend itself, such as a will o' wisp or dread wraith when they are run with hit & run tactics. It fills a nice niche, such as rogues can "dispel" traps and locks, and clerics are especially effective against undead.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Felon, it just occured to me: except for the spell system, there isn't anything about the Greenbond that is unique to Arcana Unearthed.

So, if you like the Greenbond, just give them the Druid's spell selection & progression. Ignore the AU spell system entirely. I don't think you'll have any problem.

 

[Nightfall]

Danny has a point. I mean other than spells, Greenbond can be a more than decent replacement for Druid.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For the record...I have no affiliation with Monte Cook or his business other than liking the product.