This is not a playtest review.
Mongoose Publishing's Shamans sourcebook is the first in their new Encyclopaedia Divine series, a line mirroring their Encyclopaedia Arcane series, already successfuly examining new aspects of the magic-orientated classes. Being released shortly after Green Ronin's Shamans Handbook (SHB), these two sourcebooks are bound to be in direct competition, so I'll be looking at Shamans in direct relation to the Shaman's Handbook.
At $14.95 for 64 pages, Shamans is more expensive per page than the SHB. Shamans' margins are wider and there is more white space, and space usage in general is sightly below average. Shamans, however, does use the inside covers for reproduction of the tables from the main text, in one place. On the whole though, SHB is slightly better value for money than Shamans in terms of amount of content.
The art is pretty good, though lacking the broodiness of the SHB art. The writing style is more loquacious than SHB, which works well for the more descriptive text and less well for the rules information. Some of the rules I had to read two or three times over to fully comprehend them.
Shamans begins with an introduction and some flavour text, and there are a number of sidebars spread throughout the book with further flavour text, some of them taking up to a page.
The first section, 'Shaman Magic - An Overview' introduces the concept of spirits (or animae) in much the same way as SHB, as allies of the shaman. However, Shamans take the concept in two slightly different directions than the SHB. Firstly, whereas SHB concentrates mainly on animal spirits and incorporeal undead, Shamans incorporates a wider understanding of spirits that includes beings such as nature spirits (e.g. river, forest, rain), object/construct spirits (much the same as animated objects), legend spirits (e.g. The Wild Hunt, the Ferryman of the Dead) and other types. Secondly, whereas SHB attempts to fit the world of spirits into the existing D&D cosmology, Shamans sees the spirit world as a new aspect of the cosmology, the antithesis of the Plane of Shadow, i.e. a transitive plane. These two aspects represent real-world Shamanism more effectively but the second issue may be more difficult to integrate with an ongoing campaign.
The next section, 'The Shaman's Path' gives Mongoose's interpretation of the Shaman class. Like the SHB, the Shaman gains spells and domains from his spirit allies, and relies on Charisma to cast his spells, in much the same manner as a Sorcerer. In addition, Shamans introduces the concept of Rites, rituals that require an extended casting time with effects such as warding, summoning and banishing spirits.
Three new prestige classes are given: Touched (a character who is coerced into following the way of the shaman by the influence of the spirits), Spirit Warrior (this class allows the spirits to enhance his battle prowess), and Whisperer Of Ghosts (deals with incorporeal undead in much the same way as the Ghost Guide from the SHB). I felt that the 'Shamans' prestige classes were weaker in concept than the SHB (and half the number), though perhaps more subtle.
The next section 'Secrets Of The Craft', looks at Skills, Feats and Rites. As previously mentioned in my review of the SHB, I felt that some of the existing skills could have been used to replicate the new skills introduced in the SHB. Mongoose have done just that, using Concentration as the basis for entering Trance states, Diplomacy for negotiating with spirits, Knowledge for understanding spirits, the spirit world, and herbs, Perform for performing rituals, and Profession (Apothecary) for concocting non-magical medicines and antidotes. I felt that Profession (Herbalist) would have been more appropriate for the herbal-orientated skills, but was glad to see the lack of new skills here.
In the same way as the SHB, a new type of Feat, Spirit Feats, are introduced, relating to spirit allies. Several other feats are also introduced which could be used to gently begin to introduce the concept of spirits into anexisting campaign, such as The Sight (the ability to see spirits and gain a vague sense of their intentions), and Eerie Presence (fear effect in melee combat, but -2 to social interaction). The most interesting concept is the Bind Spirit feat, which allows the creation of a temporary magic item by binding an agreeable spirit into an item. There are a couple of duds here too. Though with a different emphasis from the focus on spirit familiars that the SHB feats have, the feats here are of a similar quality and usability to the SHB.
Eight rituals, or Rites, are also offered such as Rites of Cursing, Healing and Protection. each Rite takes 10 minutes to perform and uses a Perform skill check to enact. They have spell-like effects similar to such spells as bestow curse and remove disease. The GM is encouraged to design new Rites for his campaign.
The next section, 'Spirit Magic', describes the gaining of new spirit allies, which provide the shaman with her spells and domains, including the summoning process (Perform skill check as per 'Rites'), a pact with the spirit using negotiation (Diplomacy skill check or via roleplaying) and the power that comes as the shaman increases in levels, and accesses new spells the spirit ally has to offer.
The following section, 'Spirit Domains And Spells', introduces 19 new domains with the appropriate types of spirits that are related to each domain, as well as the granted power and spells. Domains include such areas as Art, Memory, Storm, and a domain for each of the Character Classes, as well as the central concept of the Spirit Domain. There are also 20 new spells such as detect spirits, read spirit echo (sense the memories of a location) and power walk (allows the ability to move in the Spirit World in the same manner as 'shadow walk' for the Plane of Shadows). Whereas the shaman in the SHB has a standard spell list like any other character class and only domains are gained from the spirits, the class in 'Shamans' gains both domains and their related spells from their spirit allies. This makes the spirits a much more central concept, but moves the class away from using the same layout and basis as a class from the PHB. 'Shamans' has no information on fetishes, charms and magical tattoos like the SHB, nor any other magical items.
'Shamans' treats spirits in a slightly different way than the SHB - both have a Spirit template, but Shamans also introduces 'Spirit' as a monster type, whereas spirits in the SHB are considered elementals or undead, and given the subtype 'incorporeal'. The Spirit template is otherwise similar in both books, with spirits given the abilities of manifestation, materialization, possession and rejuvenation. As well as giving some examples, 'Shamans' also lists a number of spirit subtypes (e.g. ancestor, animal, elemental, nature) and discusses the spell level of a spirit - the highest spell level in a domain that the spirit can access, which also defines the DC for skill checks against the spirit.
As mentioned before, Mongoose's concept of the Spirit World is significantly different than that of the SHB. It is described as the opposite of the Plane of Shadow, where the senses pick up even more than they do on the Material Plane, a focus for positive energy. Its relationship with the astral, ethereal and material planes is briefly discussed, there is some information for designing your own spirits, and a definition of dormant or active - each spirit is considered linked to a specific location unless enabled by a shaman to move from that location - when in the location the spirit may be active (awake) or dormant (asleep).
The book ends with some notes from the author regarding the thoughts behind the design of the book, with particular regard to why spirits became the central concept in the Shaman class and some brief advice on integrating shamans into an existing campaign.
Conclusion:
Whereas the SHB by Green Ronin introduced a new class in much the same way as previous PHB classes and fit the shamanic cosmology into the existing one, Mongoose's Shamans comes forth with a more original, more true-to-reality presentation of the shaman. What results is a book that takes the concept of the shaman to more subtle depths than the SHB - in particular
the way that spirits and rituals are dealt with is more interesting and effective than the SHB. I also liked the cosmology concept - though a new addition to the D&D cosmology, it is a simpler concept and fits more comfortably with the rest of the shaman/spiritworld concept.
However, it lacks the breadth of the SHB and the concept and presentation of the shaman is more in line with existing classes in the SHB - I found the rules presentation stronger in the SHB, particularly with prestige classes and shamanic abilities (though Mongoose got the skills section right on the whole).
Both the SHB and Shamans have their merits and their weaknesses, but both books are top class in what they have to offer. I wouldn't rate one over the other, but they have different foci - the SHB is a more traditional representation of a class, with rules that aim to integrate with existing structures. Shamans treads its own paths, with more depth and less breadth than the SHB. There is a lot of common ground here, and the differences are subtle. Unless you're a real fan of the concept of the shaman (like me) I'd recommend getting one or the other and you're decision should be based on whether you're looking for a more traditional class structure or a more rounded representation of the shaman. There isn't much to choose between them.
