What class for an Orc Shaman?

[wancow]

Okay, friend has the PHB2 and finally let me hold it long enough to find out that they used Hiawatha as the model for the Shamen...

Joy... now I'm going to have to have an Orc named Dances With Wolves who's dating Pocahantas if I use that template for an Orc Shamen...

Sorry, not happening.

I need ideas, folks! I need to know do I have to come up with my own custom class for an Orc Shamen or does anyone have any ideas as to how to cobble together something out of what's in the PHB?

 

[Mort_Q]

I need ideas, folks! I need to know do I have to come up with my own custom class for an Orc Shamen or does anyone have any ideas as to how to cobble together something out of what's in the PHB?

What flavour are you looking for? What role?

 

[wancow]

Basically something somewhere between a sorc and a cleric. I'm fearing more and more I'll have to come up with something on my own...

Orcs, at least the classic ones, used to be regarded as stupid but powerful, which is a dangerous combination. IMHO, an Orc Shamen should be doubly, or triply so... he wields magic (or prayers) and can be a bit of a loose cannon.

 

[Mort_Q]

Stiker with Healing, or Leader with Ranged? You may want to take a closer look at the PH2, as there are a few Divine classes introduced.

 

[Mort_Q]

Okay, friend has the PHB2 and finally let me hold it long enough to find out that they used Hiawatha as the model for the Shamen...

I am curious, however, what part of new Shaman disagrees with you? Is it mechanical, or flavour?

 

[wancow]

It's American Indian Flavour. Not that that's a bad thing, I just think it's out of place in most Medievel style settings in the same way the monk was completely out of place in the 1E PHB.

 

[ST]

It's kind of hard to answer the question because, well, I've read the shaman class, and it seems in-flavor for an Orc Shaman to me. We need to know a little more specifically why it doesn't work for you apart from a reference that I would have never thought applied to the class just from reading it's power writeups. Seriously, I guess maybe an animal companion could come across as Native American or something, but I'm not seeing it myself.

There's enough straight primal 'bad things happen if you mess with me' in the power list that I wouldn't think of a Shaman as having to be a Native American kind of character in any way, which is what I... think you're getting at? At its heart it just means "They're technologically primitive and use shamanism", which seems to fit orcs even if those orcs aren't portrayed as Native American in any way.

Are you maybe looking for something more like an Invoker? That class with primal flavor instead of divine could pull off 'mysterious and dangerous tribal shaman', I think. Really any number of classes can do that especially MCed with some Leader.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think you may be a bit too hung up on the default shaman fluff. Remember, fluff is totally mutable. Something along these lines might work for a PC orc shaman:

Use the Stalker Spirit build. Describe the spirit as a fearsome animal like a slavering giant wolf. The Spirit's Fangs power is cool, it basically gives the spirit an OA and you get Stalker's Strike which is nice and orcish since it does bonus damage to bloodied foes. Use one of the other at-wills which does damage like Haunting Spirits or Wrath of Winter. Twin Panthers would make a pretty good encounter power. Wrath of the Spirit World seems like it would be cool for a level 1 daily.

I'm sure most of the other powers can easily work out as interesting too. I could also just as easily see an orc shaman with a more defensive build.

 

[wancow]

I'm sorry, I didn't realize I needed to be specific.

The Original Orc appeared in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

The only critter they were associated with were Wolves, which they rode.

There were no mention of Bears or Big Cats associated with them, and they were, basically, the original perverted elves. (Similar to the way the Drow were, except moreso).

They were all about battle, and hurting things. They're the kind of "intelligent" character that would bury a cat up to it's neck and run a lawnmower over it. They're about issuing pain and suffering toward their own benefit.

An Orc shamen, therefore, would not be a likely candidate for empathy.

Empathy is a key ingredient involved in having a Spirit Guide... donchathink? Or maybe I'm mistaken.

Empathetic Orc... IMHO = oxymoron.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

It's American Indian Flavour.

So ignore the flavor in the books and use some that is more amenable to you. You don't have to play them as Nativ eamerican in any way. Any being with a semi-real companion could be a 4e shaman, from a dwarf haunted by his deceased grandfather's ghost to a githzerai that projects a psionic duplicate of himself.


Alternately: look at cleric, druid and Invoker. All of these also can hit a caster with a bit of Leader and a bit of Striker, to varying degrees.