Archivist and/or Spirit Shaman Experiences? What are they like in-game?

[Nyaricus]

I'm likely going to be a player in a PbEM game in the near future, and I'm going to be the main source of divine magics in the party. What are peoples experiences with the Spirit Shaman and the Archivist class?

thanks,
--N

 

[blargney the second]

Haven't seen the SS yet, but Erywin's playing an archivist in the campaign I'm DMing. It's a really cool class! Lots of flavourful and useful abilities.

 

[Thanee]

I've seen both played in games, but havn't played either myself.

The Spirit Shaman is nice and quite flexible, if you are in for the special flavor it comes with.
The Archivist is a very cool class, perfect for that dusty-tomes-type of priest that the cleric doesn't model well.

I think both can work well as the only divine caster of a party.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Drowbane]

I've seen one spirit shamans in play, he was horribly ineffective compared to the party cleric... this could be attributed to the player though

I've yet to see someone try out the Archivist yet. Seems like a cool "white mage" type.

 

[Eldragon]

Played with an Archivist over the weekend for the first time (Not me, another player).

The Archivist is pretty awesome IMHO. When I first read it on paper was was unimpressed. Now I want one in every party I play with.

He was the only "healer" in the party and did a good job of it, but it was the Dark Lore ability that really shines. Want to know the DR on that obscure outsider? Dark Lore check. Need a little extra damage to take down that chimera with 800 hitpoints? Dark Lore for +3d6 per hit. The player had also maxed his Knowledge skills out and was pretty much our own walking library on all things. Very cool.

 

[Pazu]

I played an archivist in a (sadly, now-defunct) nautical campaign. She was the only divine caster in the party, was based heavily on the Raine Sage character from Tales of Symphonia, and was an absolute blast to play. Since the campaign crashed prematurely, I miss her very much.

One thing about the archivist is that it's a pretty wide-open concept--you can focus on being a healer, buffer, loremaster, or even combat monster, but since you have to find most of your spells, it's a little harder to do all of the above than if you're a plain cleric or druid. So it's probably a good idea to have a general direction for your character planned out at the beginning.

 

[stonegod]

Another ++Archivists. I've almost entirely heard positive things about them. I've played two (one live, one PbP) and they were very different. Dark Lore is a very fun ability, and great in horror games.

The only downsides for an Archivist are
- For the Player: In a campaign w/ mostly humanoid enemies, dark lore becomes useless.
- For the DM: The ability for an archivist to learn any domain spell (or any divine spell) assuming they can get their hands on them can be 'sploited for badness if not kept in check. Of course, this can be said about many classes.

All in all, I love the archivist. I wish WoTC would give them more love (as they do with their Complete classes).

 

[Mycanid]

*BUMP!*

 

[smootrk]

- For the DM: The ability for an archivist to learn any domain spell (or any divine spell) assuming they can get their hands on them can be 'sploited for badness if not kept in check. Of course, this can be said about many classes.

Actually, Mousferatu (not the writer of Archivists, but also worked on Heroes of Horror book alongside that writer) has stated that the originator/writer of the Archivist never intended Domain spells or specific Prestige Class Spells be included in this ability to gather spells. Easy enough for me, based on that info, to rule out those options despite the writing/rule oversight by the author. That would limit the Archivist divine spells to Cleric, Druid, Shaman, etc. (base classes with their own lists) which is still very impressive.

Despite reigning them in that way, here is another vote for Archivist... what a 'priest' type should have been from the beginning. See also my Archivist modification class below in my signature - The Biosoph, Archivist of Nature.

 

[szilard]

Actually, Mousferatu (not the writer of Archivists, but also worked on Heroes of Horror book alongside that writer) has stated that the originator/writer of the Archivist never intended Domain spells or specific Prestige Class Spells be included in this ability to gather spells. Easy enough for me, based on that info, to rule out those options despite the writing/rule oversight by the author. That would limit the Archivist divine spells to Cleric, Druid, Shaman, etc. (base classes with their own lists) which is still very impressive.

...don't forget Adept.

Scorching Ray. Lightning Bolt. Polymorph.

-Stuart