Which Is The Best Spontaneous Divine Casting Class?

[Aus_Snow]

Of those, Shugenja is my favourite by far.

i.e., Elementalist. Nothing much else needs changing.

 

[EditorBFG]

a)Favoured Soul?
b)Mystic? (from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting)
c)Shugenja?
d)Spirit Shaman?
e)Healer?

The mystic is from DLCS, but what products are these other classes from?

 

[Alzrius]

The favored soul, shugenja, and spirit shaman classes are from Complete Divine. The shugenja and the spirit shaman were previously printed in Oriental Adventures, IIRC, but CD is where they were most recently reprinted. The healer is from Miniatures Handbook.

Anyway, I choose the option that wasn't mentioned. Spontaneous Divine Casters from Unearthed Arcana.

 

[Hammerhead]

The Spirit Shaman in CD is very different from the one in Oriental Adventures.

I prefer the Shaman, but most people in my group like the Favored Soul. Interestingly, we tend to get equal number of clerics vs. favored souls.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

There is no spirit shaman in OA. There's just the shaman.

 

[Li Shenron]

Shugenja are cool, with another great concept, but they don't fit that well into a general D&D game.

How does a spontaneous elemental caster not fit well into D&D?

To me a Shugenja is just someone halfway between a druid and a sorcerer (or actually a little bit of each of the 4 major caster classes). It doesn't really have anything "new"...

 

[Li Shenron]

In terms of being an analogue to the Cleric, the way the Sorcerer is the spontaneous analogue to the Wizard.

In that case, it's the one you didn't list:

the UA spontaneous Cleric variant

 

[Kae'Yoss]

How does a spontaneous elemental caster not fit well into D&D?

Note that the elements aren't the same as with, say, an elemental savant: Fire is Destruction and creativity, Water is healing and purity; Earth is protection and resistance, Air is travel and trickery. Lightning Bolt and Ice storm are fire spells for shugenja.

It's the concept itself: the animism concept, reading from sacred (but non-magical) scrolls. Appeasing the often fickle and self-centered kami. It fits into Rokugan, but your average D&D world with its western influences is more at home with churches and gods and beliefs

If you ignore all this, you can call them something else in D&D (elemental priest?) and play them without too much problem.

 

[Klaus]

The favored soul, shugenja, and spirit shaman classes are from Complete Divine. The shugenja and the spirit shaman were previously printed in Oriental Adventures, IIRC, but CD is where they were most recently reprinted. The healer is from Miniatures Handbook.

Anyway, I choose the option that wasn't mentioned. Spontaneous Divine Casters from Unearthed Arcana.

Ditto on Alzirous and Li Shenron.

I'd go one better and apply the Spontaneous variant to the Cloistered Cleric variant.

 

[jcfiala]

I'm fond of the Favored Soul, straight out.

That said, I think I might look at the Shugenja again...