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Legend
The Shaman - Spirit Domain
A tribal healer and intermediary with the spiritual world, the shaman is able to call upon the aid of ancestral, animal, and land spirits.
Shaman Domain Spells
I tried to give the shaman spells to help them deal with the spiritual world but also a small selection of spells that grant the shaman greater endurance. Spirit guardians represents straight up summoning spirits to aid you.
[TABLE="width: 500, align: left"]
[TR]
[TD]Cleric Level
[/TD]
[TD]Spells
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1st
[/TD]
[TD]absorb elements, speak with animals[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3rd
[/TD]
[TD]animal messenger, enhance ability[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5th
[/TD]
[TD]spirit guardians, speak with dead[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7th
[/TD]
[TD]death ward, locate creature[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]9th
[/TD]
[TD]awaken, commune with nature[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Commune with the Spirits
At level one, after a long rest you can commune with an ancestor, animal, or land spirit which grant you proficiency with two skills. You have advantage on skill checks involving these skills as long as you are aligned with the spirits which grant the skills.
Ancestor: History, Insight
Animal: Athletics, Perception
Land: Nature, Survival
I chose to grant advantage on these skills instead of expertise for no other reason than that I wanted to use advantage instead of expertise.
Channel Divinity: Invoke Aid
Starting at level two, you can use your Channel Divinity to invoke the aid of the spirits to protect yourself or another. As an Action, you grant yourself or one creature within 30 feet the ability to endure great adversity. The target gains resistance to all damage and advantage on saving throws until the start of your next turn.
A strong defensive ability hindered by only being for a single round. It will require foresight which could be little more than the party fighter saying that they are going to charge through a crowd of enemies. I have no idea if this is balanced against the other channel divinity abilities. I need to read up on them some more. If underpowered, then I may make it last until the end of the shaman's next turn.
Spiritual Guidance
At 6th level, your ties to the spirits becomes even greater. While attuned to the spirits, you gain additional benefits dependent on the type of spirit you are attuned to with your Commune with the Spirits ability.
Ancestor: Your ancestors guide your weapon strikes. You can use your spellcasting modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for attack rolls with melee weapons.
Animal: You gain animal like reflexes. While aligned with the animal spirits, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.
Land: You draw life sustaining energy from the land, when you spend hit dice during a short rest, for each hit die you spend, you roll two dice and add your Constitution modifier to determine your regained hit points.
I like abilities that build upon earlier abilities. This turns the bonus skills from Commune with the Spirits into an additional effect providing further mechanical bonuses over and above the bonus skills.
Divine Strike
At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can deal an extra 1d8 damage of the same type dea;th by the weapon to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
When writing up the spirits domain, I was originally going to make them a potent cantrip caster cleric. As the class developed I felt that it leaned a little closer to a divine strike cleric. Note that it doesn't receive any additional weapon or armour proficiencies.
Spirit’s Wrath
At level 17 you can call upon the spirits to bring their wrath, aiding you and your allies. When you invoke the spirits and as an action over the next two rounds you can command one of the spirits to grant you and your allies aid. Each spirit can be called upon only once. They can be called upon in any order.
Ancestors: Grant you and up to 5 creatures within 60 feet advantage on attack rolls until the start of your next turn.
Animals: Deal 10d8 magical slashing damage to up to 3 enemies within 30 feet that you can see. A successful Dexterity check halves the damage.
Land: Heal you and up to 5 creatures within 60 feet each regain 2 x your level in hit points. This cannot exceed the target’s maximum hit points.
Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.
I couldn't think of anything for the level 17 ability for quite a while. After adding in notes of ideas I ended up with a 3 round ability which allows the shaman to gain three separate effects useable one after the other. It is possible that the shaman won't be able to unleash each effect if their action is required for something else. I may change this to a 1 minute ability with each effect able to be called up once during that time.
Constructive criticism welcome. I know many will think this should be a druid subclass, but it isn't.
A tribal healer and intermediary with the spiritual world, the shaman is able to call upon the aid of ancestral, animal, and land spirits.
Shaman Domain Spells
I tried to give the shaman spells to help them deal with the spiritual world but also a small selection of spells that grant the shaman greater endurance. Spirit guardians represents straight up summoning spirits to aid you.
[TABLE="width: 500, align: left"]
[TR]
[TD]Cleric Level
[/TD]
[TD]Spells
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1st
[/TD]
[TD]absorb elements, speak with animals[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3rd
[/TD]
[TD]animal messenger, enhance ability[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5th
[/TD]
[TD]spirit guardians, speak with dead[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7th
[/TD]
[TD]death ward, locate creature[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]9th
[/TD]
[TD]awaken, commune with nature[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Commune with the Spirits
At level one, after a long rest you can commune with an ancestor, animal, or land spirit which grant you proficiency with two skills. You have advantage on skill checks involving these skills as long as you are aligned with the spirits which grant the skills.
Ancestor: History, Insight
Animal: Athletics, Perception
Land: Nature, Survival
I chose to grant advantage on these skills instead of expertise for no other reason than that I wanted to use advantage instead of expertise.
Channel Divinity: Invoke Aid
Starting at level two, you can use your Channel Divinity to invoke the aid of the spirits to protect yourself or another. As an Action, you grant yourself or one creature within 30 feet the ability to endure great adversity. The target gains resistance to all damage and advantage on saving throws until the start of your next turn.
A strong defensive ability hindered by only being for a single round. It will require foresight which could be little more than the party fighter saying that they are going to charge through a crowd of enemies. I have no idea if this is balanced against the other channel divinity abilities. I need to read up on them some more. If underpowered, then I may make it last until the end of the shaman's next turn.
Spiritual Guidance
At 6th level, your ties to the spirits becomes even greater. While attuned to the spirits, you gain additional benefits dependent on the type of spirit you are attuned to with your Commune with the Spirits ability.
Ancestor: Your ancestors guide your weapon strikes. You can use your spellcasting modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for attack rolls with melee weapons.
Animal: You gain animal like reflexes. While aligned with the animal spirits, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.
Land: You draw life sustaining energy from the land, when you spend hit dice during a short rest, for each hit die you spend, you roll two dice and add your Constitution modifier to determine your regained hit points.
I like abilities that build upon earlier abilities. This turns the bonus skills from Commune with the Spirits into an additional effect providing further mechanical bonuses over and above the bonus skills.
Divine Strike
At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can deal an extra 1d8 damage of the same type dea;th by the weapon to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
When writing up the spirits domain, I was originally going to make them a potent cantrip caster cleric. As the class developed I felt that it leaned a little closer to a divine strike cleric. Note that it doesn't receive any additional weapon or armour proficiencies.
Spirit’s Wrath
At level 17 you can call upon the spirits to bring their wrath, aiding you and your allies. When you invoke the spirits and as an action over the next two rounds you can command one of the spirits to grant you and your allies aid. Each spirit can be called upon only once. They can be called upon in any order.
Ancestors: Grant you and up to 5 creatures within 60 feet advantage on attack rolls until the start of your next turn.
Animals: Deal 10d8 magical slashing damage to up to 3 enemies within 30 feet that you can see. A successful Dexterity check halves the damage.
Land: Heal you and up to 5 creatures within 60 feet each regain 2 x your level in hit points. This cannot exceed the target’s maximum hit points.
Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.
I couldn't think of anything for the level 17 ability for quite a while. After adding in notes of ideas I ended up with a 3 round ability which allows the shaman to gain three separate effects useable one after the other. It is possible that the shaman won't be able to unleash each effect if their action is required for something else. I may change this to a 1 minute ability with each effect able to be called up once during that time.
Constructive criticism welcome. I know many will think this should be a druid subclass, but it isn't.
