Spirit Shaman retrieve/spontaneous mechanic - comments?

[DamionW]

I'm wondering if anyone out there has seen the Spirit Shaman's (from Complete Divine) spell mechanic used in play extensively and how it works compared to other classes? The ability to have a different list of spells known everyday and still cast spontaneously is different than all of the other casters I've seen, but I don't like the rest of the classes "spirit world" flavor (satyrs and fire elementals are spirits the same way a ghost is? Nah, not for me).

I am asking because I'm trying to design an elemental cleric build where the cleric can only cast spells of his chosen element and a few general spells (like cures and blesses, etc.). The shugenja's oriental feel and the fact that they can cast adjacent elemental spells doesn't work for me. I was thinking of adapting the spirit shaman's mechanic to give them flexibility, but I wanted to see what practical experience people had with it as written. Comments anyone?

 

[Shallown]

I have played a few at low level. The mechanic itself is pretty easy to deal with and balanced. It is one (Like a wizards) were knowledge is power. Knowing what you will be dealing with on a given day grants a hefty bonus but not too much so.

I made sure that I had the spontaneous summoner and eventually the spontaneous healer feats to add a few spells. Having only 3 spells (which I think is the max listed for every level) to choose from during a day in variety can be rather limiting and balances the ability to choose well.

We did change the basic ability of the spirit shaman from animal empathy to the ability to communicate with spirits which included even those inhabiting buildings trees etc. it was a neat power and mostly a roleplaying thing.

later

 

[Evilhalfling]

The Spirit Shaman seems to work fine, one surived to 6th level in my party. He did quite a bit of melee, (had 1 level of Barbarian) and switched later to battlefield control. He took scribe scroll and carried around 3-5 spells as backups.
It wasn't overpowered, and you should prolly add some advantages to make up for loss of spells.

 

[Shin Okada]

It is somewhat a difficult class to use if your campaign is using point-buy for determining ability scores (unless giving incredibly high total points).

Spirit Shaman need two ability scores (wis and cha) for casting spells. To be a good melee fighter, he needs str. As Spirit Shaman only proficient in light armor and shield, he needs dex. And of course, he needs at least descent con to survive.

Double abilities for spellcasting means, like Favored Soul, DC of the spells are relatively low. That means, while spirit shaman can cast a lot of buffing & summoning spells, he is not that much good for casting offensive spells. And, need of high str and dex in addition to wis and cha means that it is very hard to make him a good warrior. So buffing is better done to others, than to himself. As a result, a Spirit Shaman tends to be a summoner/helper. Maybe fine. But not that much an attractive type of character for me.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

It's the same way all magic works in Arcana Unearthed, and it seems to work fine

I like the spirit shaman. That and the shugenja are the only reasons I'm sad to sell Complete Divine.