Shaman and Spear

[AbdulAlhazred]

Using a totemic spear also gives her the advantage of being able to add the weapon focus (spear) damage bonus to all of her implement attacks - which likely isn't that big of deal, but it is something.

Eh, that's actually a pretty decent advantage. Not huge but its one of the easiest ways to drop a few extra points of damage onto every attack you make. Its good enough that a lot of optimizers are willing to take the feat on top of whatever other feat they often need just to get a weaplement (though admittedly there are other advantages to weaplements in general).

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Yeah, my "not so great" comments weren't so much because an extra few points of damage aren't good (they are), but that as a leader the Shaman may not care so much about damage.

And actually, there is another good reason to go spear - the twin hafted defence feat, which basically gives the wielder the benefit of light shield when using a spear with two hands. It has no attribute pre-reqs, so for a shaman who is looking for extra AC and Ref and who likely doesn't have the Str to go for the light shield feat, its a good buy.

 

[chitzk0i]

There's also the melee 1 at-will from primal power. It's pretty decent.

 

[Aulirophile]

There's also the melee 1 at-will from primal power. It's pretty decent.

Shaman have zero melee powers. They have Melee Spirit powers, which are made with a range of Melee one with the Spirit as the Origin square. Not the same thing.

 

[chitzk0i]

Shaman have zero melee powers. They have Melee Spirit powers, which are made with a range of Melee one with the Spirit as the Origin square. Not the same thing.

After playing a shaman for several levels, I know the difference. Look at spirit of the tempest from Primal Power. It is range "Melee 1". It is the sole bone tossed to shamans who want to make melee attacks.

Edit: Note, however, that "melee spirit 1" is still "melee", so iron armbands make a fine way to punch up your damage.

 

[Spatula]

A player of mine has just created an elven shaman PC. She wants to give the PC a spear or long spear, mainly for RP reason and character's looks.

Now, Totemic spear is perfect for her character concept. It is a spear and also one of the strongest shaman implement.

But there is almost no weapon power for a shaman right? Will there be any opportunity for her to use Totemic Spear actually as a spear?

My experience playing a stalker shaman (and one with ridiculously good rolled stats) was that the character was very fragile, even with spending a feat on hide armor, and should avoid melee as much as possible. Also, after the first few levels, the increasing difference between the weapon attack and monster ACs made weapon attacks very impracticable. I wouldn't spend the feat on melee training for a normal shaman, myself.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

My experience playing a stalker shaman (and one with ridiculously good rolled stats) was that the character was very fragile, even with spending a feat on hide armor, and should avoid melee as much as possible. Also, after the first few levels, the increasing difference between the weapon attack and monster ACs made weapon attacks very impracticable. I wouldn't spend the feat on melee training for a normal shaman, myself.

I don't really understand what you mean. If the spear you use is enchanted and whatever stat you apply to Melee Training then your to-hit should advance at the same pace as with any other power. Using Versatile Expertise, Weapon Focus, etc should all apply to those attacks as well.

Granted I agree, on the whole there's not much motivation for a shaman to actually make melee attacks. I probably wouldn't bother with Melee Training either, but it should at least result in a viable MBA.

 

[Lostdwarf]

I play a great bow wielding bard who has an entirely ranged build. Most of the time it works great, but the last session we had an encounter where we were ambushed at very short range on a small map, and my character spend the entire enounter trying and failing to get out of melee range. I think he got maybe one shot off with his bow the entire combat. Sometimes you end up in melee range if you want to or not. 4th ed characters have a ton of feets available, spending one on a backup melee ability is not unreasonable. Perhaps not optimal, but not unreasonable.