Shamanism Domain for 5E Cleric: Critique Requested

[CM]

Any thoughts about adding the following (DM's optional) ability to let the shaman continue to wear his hide armor while not losing out on the better stats of chain shirt and breastplate? The only difference between hide, chain shirt, and breastplate are the weight, cost, and AC bonus.

Totem Armor
By spending 100gp worth of rare herbs and other components, you can perform a ritual that imbues your hide armor with the spirit of the animal which gave its life to fashion it. The armor's base AC improves from 12 to 13. If the armor is ever away from your person for more than 24 hours, the spirit departs and the armor reverts to AC 12. This ritual can be performed during a long rest.

By spending another 500gp worth of components, you can improve the armor further from a base AC of 13 to 14. This is the limit of such advancement without magically enchanting the armor.

 

[Piratecat]

Clerics get medium armor and shield, right? I wonder -- would it be appropriate to sub in something like the barbarian or monk ability that grants (for example) +Wis modifier to AC when not wearing any armor? I haven't done any math, but it seems a little less precedent-setting than the totem armor.

 

[CM]

Clerics get medium armor and shield, right? I wonder -- would it be appropriate to sub in something like the barbarian or monk ability that grants (for example) +Wis modifier to AC when not wearing any armor? I haven't done any math, but it seems a little less precedent-setting than the totem armor.

I think Unarmored Defense is currently one of the most frequently mis-interpreted abilities in the game, so I'd rather avoid that. If Totem Armor as an ability is too radical, I'd probably just let people reskin chain shirt and breastplate.

Maybe add a sidebar such as:

Tribal Armor
With your DM's permission, you can augment your hide armor with bone chest protection for 50gp, giving it stats equivalent to a chain shirt. Alternately, you can augment your hide armor with bone chest, head, and limb protection for 400gp, giving it stats equivalent to a breastplate.

 

[Khaalis]

I think Unarmored Defense is currently one of the most frequently mis-interpreted abilities in the game, so I'd rather avoid that.

Ok, I have to ask. How is Unarmored defense mis-interpreted? It seems pretty straight forward to me.

Maybe add a sidebar such as:

Tribal Armor
With your DM's permission, you can augment your hide armor with bone chest protection for 50gp, giving it stats equivalent to a chain shirt. Alternately, you can augment your hide armor with bone chest, head, and limb protection for 400gp, giving it stats equivalent to a breastplate.

Why not just simply make new armor names as reskins?

Hide = as is
Scale = toughened beast scale rather than metal
Chainmail = bone mail
Breastplate = chitin breast plate (or some form of ironwood)
Half Plate = chitin breast plate over scale

 

[Piratecat]

Khaalis, I like that -- nice and straightforward.

 

[CM]

Ok, I have to ask. How is Unarmored defense mis-interpreted? It seems pretty straight forward to me.

There's been a number of threads about it in the last month or so, but it has died down lately.

Why not just simply make new armor names as reskins?

Hide = as is
Scale = toughened beast scale rather than metal
Chainmail = bone mail
Breastplate = chitin breast plate (or some form of ironwood)
Half Plate = chitin breast plate over scale

That works too. I just want to include at least one option as a sidebar to the domain.

 

[Sagiro]

Hey CM, that looks great! My wife, playing a 5e cleric converted from a 4e Shaman, is excited to try it out.

I did spot one small error (I think). For the Stalker Spirit, your have "Your spirit companion can use the Help action." But you already say that spirit companions can take non-attack actions, so can't it do this anyway?

Thanks for putting this together!

 

[CM]

Hey CM, that looks great! My wife, playing a 5e cleric converted from a 4e Shaman, is excited to try it out.

I did spot one small error (I think). For the Stalker Spirit, your have "Your spirit companion can use the Help action." But you already say that spirit companions can take non-attack actions, so can't it do this anyway?

Thanks for putting this together!

Good catch.

I'm going to update with the following under the general spirit traits:

In combat, it rolls its own initiative and takes its own actions on its own turn. It can use the following actions: Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Hide, and Search.​

I'm also going to be adding the Spirit Guardians (level 3) domain spell at 5th level as a bonus spell, because that fits the theme perfectly. It snuck into the PHB without appearing in the playtest and hadn't seen it until yesterday. I'll also be updating Vicious Spirit with similar language from the spell:

The attack deals damage equal to your Wisdom bonus. If you are good or neutral, the attack deals radiant damage. If you are evil, it deals necrotic damage.​

And hey, if you do use this in-game please let us know how it goes! I'd especially like to hear about its survivability.

 

[CM]

This is really good. I'm totally going to grab it for my game. Hey, @CM, could you pop it (and the feat) into the database when you're reasonably happy with it? That'll make it really easy for other folk to find!

Added the domain to the database, but need more time to think about the feat. By the way, do bulleted lists not work in the archetype feature boxes?

 

[Piratecat]

We'll be playtesting the feat using 1 hp/lvl.

Specifying the non-attack actions makes good sense. If the DMG or other books have others, you may not find all of them appropriate.