D&D 5E Could the Sorcerer get a Shaman subclass

[Cadence]

No. Shaman should be a druid. Shamans commune with nature spirits and are often known to shapeshift into animal form. That's a druid. In fact, in the real world shapeshifting is far more strongly associated with shamanism than with druidism.

Do druids commune with nature (the spirit of nature) or with individual nature spirits individually. They feel like very different things to me, and I'd like each one to be a thing. In some worlds I don't have separate spirits for everything and some I do. And how do they relate with Kami and Dryads/Nymphs/etc.al.?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Do druids commune with nature (the spirit of nature) or with individual nature spirits individually. They feel like very different things to me, and I'd like each one to be a thing. In some worlds I don't have separate spirits for everything and some I do. And how do they relate with Kami and Dryads/Nymphs/etc.al.?

That sounds like setting detail minutiae. But personally I feel it makes more metaphysical sense if there are multiple spirits of nature the druid communes with in animistic way, because if there is just a one universal spirit of the nature, now is that spirit not then the god of nature, and the druid thus a cleric?

 

[cbwjm]

I wouldn't worry too much about the MtG distinction of shaman since that's a recent change to the game where they're trying to codify the colours and spellcasters for each of them. I think it's something like cleric (white), wizard (blue), druid (green), shaman (red), warlock (black), though I could be wrong on those exact distinctions. There used to be plenty of crossover but by making each colour's class somewhat distinct they can probably create cards that interact with them in some way.

As for the shaman subclass, it can fit into plenty of classes: sorcerer, druid, cleric (I actually created a shaman domain a while back), warlock, bard, could probably fit artificer in there somehow (I think the designers even brought that one up). It all depends on how you want the shaman to work.

 

[Cadence]

That sounds like setting detail minutiae. But personally I feel it makes more metaphysical sense if there are multiple spirits of nature the druid communes with in animistic way, because if there is just a one universal spirit of the nature, now is that spirit not then the god of nature, and the druid thus a cleric?

Because its nature of this plane and not outer planes being granted spells.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Because its nature of this plane and not outer planes being granted spells.

I'm not sure I quite follow...

 

[J-H]

I'd probably make it a variant Warlock.

 

[Marandahir]

I'd make Shaman a Warlock subclass, actually.

"The Primal Spirit" Patron.

Invocations to the earth, and all that jazz

 

[Bill Zebub]

On the one hand I feel like making it a Sorcerer Subclass would work fine... but on the other...

Shaman contains just -oodles- of concept. From spirit-speakers to runecasters to tribal priests.

I feel like it could use it's own class with subclasses, rather than just being one Shaman Aspect tied to the Sorcerer Chassis.

And then make the shapechanging Druid one of those subclasses....

 

[Cadence]

I'm not sure I quite follow...

I can imagine something that worships the god of nature that lives on the outer planes and gets powers from there (Cleric), something that communes with and/or summons nature spirits (Shaman), and something that is in tune with nature itself and can draw from it (Druid?). Which doesn't fit with Druids worshipping nature gods, but does have that distinct power source. I can picture a world where any one of those things might be missing (maybe no Gods that answer prayers, maybe no nature spirits, maybe no way to just be attuned with nature and have things happen).

 

[Mordhau]

Just make new classes. Subclasses are really just a big pile of nothing.