Is the Shaman a Playable Class?
- Thread starter mmadsen
- Start date
You seem to be confusing threads, hong, and subthreads within those. In the "low magic" thread many people wanted extremely subtle magic, the kind you might not even know was cast. That's one style of magic I'd enjoy. Despite its subtlety, it can be quite powerful -- a talisman giving +5 to all Saves, a wizard casting Call Lightning during a storm, etc.
Another style of magic I enjoy is more of a "classic" style, the kind that might fit nicely in, say, Narnia. There, the magic might even be considered "high magic", but the spells aren't Magic Missiles and Fireballs; they're the classics from fairy tales: transforming victims into toads or statues, cursing them, scrying in a crystal ball, etc. In such a world, the combat evocations and healing spells of core D&D might exist, but they'd be rare, high-level spells, the work of powerful witches and wizards.
Anyway, in this thread I'd just like to get a feel for how people have dealt with subtle magic (as represented by the Shaman class) in their own campaigns. Was the Shaman fun? Or was it deathly boring? Could you play a game where the only spellcasting class resembled the Oriental Adventures Shaman -- or at least had a similar spell list?
Last edited:
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
While just about anything I'd post has already been thrashed out by someone here, I just want to add my two cents.
Curtailing magic use in D&D to the type found in fairy tales and legends is an interesting concept, and the Witch in the DMG (more a spell list than a class) touches upon this concept. The main problem is that such spellcasters would likely end up as NPCs, since I can't see a player wanting to game with one, except for someone who greatly prefers roleplaying over any combat whatsoever. Assuming you have a player like that, the adventuring life will become quite dangerous very quickly unless the DM pays a lot of attention to the special needs of that PC. Perhaps someone could run such a spellcaster through, say, through the 1e "Giants" modules as an experiment. I'm guessing that such a spellcaster will end up dead, and will be rather useless to the rest of the party once the storming of the various strongholds begins.
Anyway, the survivability of such a spellcaster in a campaign really depends on the DM. If the DM is running a typical D&D campaign, and makes no provision for such a character, then it'll be tough going. Even if the rest of the party takes up the slack for the spellcaster in pitched battles, and values the character for its subtler abilities, I still think such a spellcaster would end up more of a liability than an asset, in the long run.
Curtailing magic use in D&D to the type found in fairy tales and legends is an interesting concept, and the Witch in the DMG (more a spell list than a class) touches upon this concept. The main problem is that such spellcasters would likely end up as NPCs, since I can't see a player wanting to game with one, except for someone who greatly prefers roleplaying over any combat whatsoever. Assuming you have a player like that, the adventuring life will become quite dangerous very quickly unless the DM pays a lot of attention to the special needs of that PC. Perhaps someone could run such a spellcaster through, say, through the 1e "Giants" modules as an experiment. I'm guessing that such a spellcaster will end up dead, and will be rather useless to the rest of the party once the storming of the various strongholds begins.
Anyway, the survivability of such a spellcaster in a campaign really depends on the DM. If the DM is running a typical D&D campaign, and makes no provision for such a character, then it'll be tough going. Even if the rest of the party takes up the slack for the spellcaster in pitched battles, and values the character for its subtler abilities, I still think such a spellcaster would end up more of a liability than an asset, in the long run.
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