Which Is The Best Spontaneous Divine Casting Class?

[Li Shenron]

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.

But I don't see where is the incompatibility... in typical D&D the elementalism is actually already twofold.

On one side there's Fire/Water/Earth/Air, in the elemental creatures and the clerical domains.
Shugenja's magic is just the same, with only an extension of these elements to things which are less material and more symbolical, like those you mention.

On the other side there's the more-arcane version with Fire/Electricity/Cold/Acid/(Sonic) which basically is about the destructive ENERGIES and not really elements, but then only some characters follow this schema. The attempt to tie energies with elements is always somewhat flawed, like in the Elemental Savant case which associates Earth with Acid because there's nothing better left

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 monks can fit, shugenjas can just as well.

Animism is actually very similar with the druids, since druids are divine casters by default, the only difference is that when you play a druid you don't think in terms of "kami". But have you ever been asked by your players where does a druid get her spells from?

 

[Klaus]

In Eberron, Shugenja are priests of the dragons (common among the Seren barbarians). Wu Jen are druidic wizards (very common in the Eldeen Reaches).

 

[Psion]

Shaman from Green Ronin's Shaman's Handbook or Ancestral Speaker from Corwyl.

I prefer it mainly for the shaman flavor vice being a strictly mechanical construct.

 

[Razz]

Um, the Spirit Shaman is not a reprint of the OA Shaman. Both have a completely different set of abilities and ways of casting their spells. The only similarities between the two are the fact that they deal with spirits.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

But have you ever been asked by your players where does a druid get her spells from?

Nah, because when I play vanilla D&D, I do so in the Realms (where every divine caster must have a patron deity)

 

[EditorBFG]

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.

Ah, okay, that explains why I hadn't heard of them. I keep track of most of the d20 Fantasy products out there, except those from WotC, whom I stopped paying attention to around 2003/04.

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

That would be my choice, too, as that is the one I am familiar with, or the Green Ronin Shaman, which is a great class for any game.

 

[Mercule]

Animism is actually very similar with the druids, since druids are divine casters by default, the only difference is that when you play a druid you don't think in terms of "kami". But have you ever been asked by your players where does a druid get her spells from?

IMC, druids are animists and are expressly known to not draw their spells from deities.

 

[Defender_X]

In Eberron, Shugenja are priests of the dragons (common among the Seren barbarians). Wu Jen are druidic wizards (very common in the Eldeen Reaches).

Klaus, is that your idea or is it from somewhere else? I like it, Wu Jens as wizards that seek arcane power through greater understanding of the elements and nature. Something else to add to the debate, the spirt shaman came across as the spontaneous caster varient for the druid to me, like the favored soul is to the cleric. And I see the Shugenja as a divine sorceror. Just my two cents on this.

 

[Ravellion]

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

the UA spontaneous Cleric variant

ditto. It doesn't have all kinds of flavour baggage, like the favoured soul.

 

[Klaus]

Klaus, is that your idea or is it from somewhere else? I like it, Wu Jens as wizards that seek arcane power through greater understanding of the elements and nature. Something else to add to the debate, the spirt shaman came across as the spontaneous caster varient for the druid to me, like the favored soul is to the cleric. And I see the Shugenja as a divine sorceror. Just my two cents on this.

I wish. That came from Player's Guide to Eberron. They added sidebars like these for all the "Complete" classes.