Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 1881329" data-attributes="member: 1465">IMO the Shugenja is basically a highly educated magician, focused on the magic inspired by one signature element.It is a spontaneous caster, like a sorcerer, but while (at least in OA) a sorcerer is mostly someone who learns magic by himself, and often secretly or even living as an outcast, a shugenja is trained in a traditional school and as such is closer to the idea of a wizard rather than a sorcerer.In Rokugan (and maybe in other OA settings) it is very honorable to be a shugenja, possibly second only to be a samurai, and eventually it is seen as the highest form of magic.The association with an element doesn't end with energy spells but goes further into more abstract connections. For example, water magic doesn't just create and control water stuff, but also grants healing powers; air magic doesn't just manipulate air and help movement but also deals with divinations, and so on... A druid's connection with elements is usually more related to their material/natural existence, rather than the phylosophical meanings.It is said to be a divine caster, but it's very unlike a cleric. In OA religion is completely different, as it is not a matter of "which side are you on" (like it mostly is in classic D&D settings) and in fact there are no patron deities for divine casters. The whole divine/arcane separation has little meaning in OA, but of course it retains the in-game differences, most notably regarding ASF.In conclusion, game-wise the shugenja may seem a cross between a cleric or a druid and a sorcerer, but the character concept IMHO is none of the three. If it must be compared to one core class, the closest one in concept is probably the wizard (although its in-game abilities are effectively quite different).</blockquote>

Verification