Shaman and Scholar - help needed

[Conclave Webmaster]

Hello folks,

I manage the Creative Conclave world creation project
(http://www.splendour.freeservers.com).

It's inspired by worlds such as Glorantha and Tekumel, and when we started it was agreed that the world would come first, and mechanics second. Well, there's a lot of the world defined now. Time to make it gameworthy.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I'm now looking to work up some D20 rules for it - trying to stay as vanilla as possible so that people can add their own house rules rather than redesign everything from scratch.

Preliminary attempts to convert characters have gone well, but I think we need two new core classes - Shaman and Scholar.

I'm aware of two "official" shaman classes that exist - the one in Oriental Adventures, and the Green Ronin one by Steve Kenson, but before I invest in either of these products I'd thought I'd ask which one people thought was better.

As for the Scholar, I'm thinking of using elements of the B5 Scientist class (Primary area of study), plus a Bardic Knowledge kind of skill. Probably at higher levels I'd like to add in a selection of player-choice skills (like the 10+ rogue abilities where you choose from a list). Probably the ability to cast a few low level spells, but I'd like this to be one of the options rather than a given.

BAB is on the wizard scale, Will save is the good one, Fort and Reflex the lower scale. D6 hit dice. All knowledge-y skills as class skills, including Use Magical Device.

However, any suggestions would be welcome!

 

[willpax]

One thing I do with my scholar class is lower the BAB (to zero progression) and give lots of bonus feats that can be used for skill-oriented things like skill focus, or loremaster-like abilities. I do this to make the class more attractive and flexible.

You might consider expanding the skill list to include some other skills as well--diplomacy, bluff, craft, profession, languages. I assume the goal is to make this class the source of knowledge-- the specific area of knowledge can be up to the player.

 

[Conclave Webmaster]

One thing I do with my scholar class is lower the BAB (to zero progression) and give lots of bonus feats that can be used for skill-oriented things like skill focus, or loremaster-like abilities. I do this to make the class more attractive and flexible.

Yes, Skill Focus is a good one - I'm thinking various per level extras like that, and the Loremaster-style bits. For those who don't know it, the B5 RPG Scientist chooses a Primary Area (i.e. one knowledge skill) at first level, and gets a competency bonus of +Lvl/2 thereafter. At later levels they get to choose Secondary area too. Something like that sounds reasonable.

You might consider expanding the skill list to include some other skills as well--diplomacy, bluff, craft, profession, languages. I assume the goal is to make this class the source of knowledge-- the specific area of knowledge can be up to the player.

Those too - I didn't write a full list of class skills, but those are all good, and what I'd expect.

The game world, or at least the focal nation, has an Imperial China feel, thus the scholar class covers not only purely academic scholars but also those who would be members of the ruling bureaucratic class, lawyers, scribes etc.

So to answer your assumption, yes, I want to give as much player choice and flexibility as possible in how the shcolar develops.

Spell-casters are covered amply by Sorcerer, Wizard and Shaman, so I din't want to give the Scholar any automatic spells (in the fashion of Bard/Ranger/Paladin). However, dabbling in knowledge would give them some magical ability, especially as Imperial magic is more due to complex formulae and ritual than an innate ability.

 

[maransreth]

There are actually about 10 different versions of the Shaman, mostly core classes, but a couple of prestige classes as well.

You can check them all out HERE .

As to scholar, Shadows and Sages used to have a Sage core class that might be what you are looking for. This is now by Khan's Press and is meant to be rereleased soon as a pdf.

 

[Tonguez]

The Shaman from the Dusk setting is the one I use