Building a Better Shugenja

[Morrow]

I'm putting together an Oriental Adventures style one-(or two) shot using pregenerated characters. I'm considering making the shugenja one of the pregens. This is my first time really looking at this class (the Complete Divine version) and I'm having trouble. So their elemental focus gives them an increase to their save DCs with their chosen school. Only fire seems to have a significant number of spells that require a save. The shugenja doesn't have so many great abilities that it seems worthwhile to pick water, earth, or air and just accept that the element focus isn't going to help you much. However, focusing on fire means giving up on water, which includes all the healing type spells. A four person party doesn't really have room for two divine casters (a fire shugenja plus another divine caster who can actually heal).

I've done some searching on this board and Wizards and the general consensus seems to be that the shugenja isn't worth it. Are there any exceptions out there? Has anyone played a fun and useful shugenja?

 

[shilsen]

I'm playing Meiji, a very entertaining shugenja in Mallus' CITY game (see sig - The Chronicle of Burne), but he is significantly house-ruled. Firstly, he gets one spell known per level from the Wu-Jen spell list, and he also gets extra spells known equal to the bonus spells per day from his Charisma. So, for example, a Charisma of 18 would give him an extra spell known of levels 1st through 4th. Mallus also let me use a feat to get the Wu-Jen's Elemental Mastery ability (+2 to caster level for spells of his chosen element) and later he was able to use another feat to gain a Gate magic (a campaign-specific discipline which focuses on teleportation-type magic, which doesn't otherwise exist) spell per level.

So, in short, the PC has significantly more spells known than the regular shugenja. It doesn't really make him more powerful (at least partly since I've intentionally ignored damage-dealing spells, with him having Magic Missile and Wall of Fire as his only damaging spells at 12th level) but it does make him significantly more versatile and fun to play.

Also, admittedly, a lot of the enjoyment comes less from the character's mechanical abilities and more the concept. He's a lying, manipulative, womanizing, cowardly, self-aggrandizing bundle of perfumed foppery, who sticks with the party and functions as their primary utility spellcaster and healer because keeping them alive keeps him alive. Mechanics is low on the scale of things I enjoy about the character. Heck, he has feats in Eschew Materials, Silent Spell and Still Spell so that he can get a girl a drink without raising a finger or pull his pants on when jumping out a window being chased by an irate husband. But the changes to the shugenja do make it possible to play him as a significant contributor in combat and otherwise, which a regular shugenja probably wouldn't.