Shaman Class?
Sixheadeddog
Member Posts: 197
So, without having to comb through the 3,000+ (!!) responses to the main sticky, is there anything a blue-poster can reveal about the details of the Shaman class? I assume that it'll be rendered in the style of a Cleric kit, but I could be wrong; I know that AD&D 2e's Forgotten Realms Shaman (or at least the one that was all spirit-y) was its own class as opposed to a kit.
On the subject of classes/kits, are there any new kits that are in the works in general for the Infinity Engine games? And, related, can we assume that, at some point after SoD's release, IWD will also get access to the Shaman?
On the subject of classes/kits, are there any new kits that are in the works in general for the Infinity Engine games? And, related, can we assume that, at some point after SoD's release, IWD will also get access to the Shaman?
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The only thing I remember (other than did casting) is that it can 'summon am almost unlimited number of ghostly allies, but it's stuck in place when doing so'
You don't have the lore that would prevent Half-Orcs from getting a kind of token caster (as with, say, Dwarves, who are inherently non-magical); in fact, a lot of printed material supports it: from very early on, in 1st and 2nd ed AD&D, both orcs and half-orcs had "witch doctors" who could use wizardly magic. There were even several iterations of a Witch Doctor class/kit in every iteration of D&D, with orcs and half-orcs being among the races that followed such an occupation.
In fact, I posted a suggestion for exactly this quite some time ago: [http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/34512/witch-doctor-kit#latest]
I believe that, with the advent of the Shaman class, the time for a Witch Doctor is ripe! Whaddaya say?
So basically, I'm always in favor of classes not being race-restricted, but if the shaman is, I'd still think half-orcs would be able to be shamans.
Unlike @Jarrakul, I reckon racial restrictions on classes help to add in-game meaning and flavour to the existence of these various sentient species. The Shaman class certainly ought to be open to humans and half-orcs, who clearly produce numerous clans of barbarians or primitives, and maybe it's also an appropriate class for some of the more "maverick" half-elves, but I'm not so sure that it really fits the other races.
And we are talking about CHARNAME here, you know, someone brought up in a library? They are hardly a member of a nomadic culture, whatever their race.
The Shaman "Class" is written within the Faiths and Avatars source book. This one is the closest to the Spirit Shaman and roughly fits the info we currently have on Siege of Dragonspear's Shaman. Reason is it has much to do with summoning various spirits. According to the book, this class is racial restricted to Humans only.
Then there's the Shaman "Kit" of The Complete Book of Humanoids. In contrast to the aforementioned Shaman, this one doesn't have anything to do with spirits. At all. Rather, it's only benefits are healing, herbalism and the ability to cast the Reincarnation spell as a 5th level spell. Other than that it's a gimped cleric with limited magical abilities.
However, the Shaman kit is only available to the following humanoid races: Aarakocras, Alaghi, Bugbears, Bullywugs, Centaurs, Firbolgs, Voadkyns, Gnolls, Flinds, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, Mongrelfolk, Ogres, Half-Ogres, Ogre Mages, Orcs, Half-Orcs, and Wemics.
Of course there's no guarantee that Beamdog follows the old AD&D rules. Or rather, the talk about the upcoming Shaman being a "divine sorcerer" makes it much more likely that it is based on newer editions where racial restrictions doesn't apply.
Still, I thought it would be relevant to the thread to contribute sneakpeeks these old rules here. Especially considering that the Shaman NPC is a Goblin lass.
I'm curious as to what else they'll add on to make the class different from simply 'Divine Sorcerer'. I've heard a lot of people say 'spirit summoning'. Would this work like the Totemic Druid? Or is it possible that we can summon a greater amount of spirits that aren't as powerful. Either way, I'm excited to try it out.
As for the summoning, it sounds like they'll be able to summon a lot more things than the totem druid, but they won't be able to move when they have minions out. I don't think we've heard anything about how powerful the summons are.
However, they haven't finished yet, so perhaps the promised new spells are one of the things not yet implemented.
The last one predates the Book of Humanoids version and presents Shamans as simply lesser/less civilized priests of the various gods presented in Monster Mythology. Here, what you're generally talking about with a Shaman is a less-cool specialty priest of Gods A, B, C or D, and for the most part this applied only to NPC/Monstrous priests (except for the chapters devoted to the gods of the demihuman races, which of course could be rolled as player characters). Actually, there are a few other pretty significant things that make up for the Shaman's limited selection of priest magic in AD&D 2e. The first, and most significant, being that they don't suffer the Cleric class' restriction on using edged or piercing weapons. IIRC, the book states that Shamans can use the weapons of their tribe. Well, suppose you're an Orc, and you're like: "My tribe, uh... uses swords. Yeah, that's it. We use swords, all swords. We're the Sword-User tribe." Well, there you go: Orc shaman with a two-hander. Or maybe you're a centaur, and you (somewhat more realistically) decide your tribe's main weapon is the longbow. Boom! Priest spells *and* long ranged attacks. Consider the further potential for a character who multiclasses (as the book does allow) a Fighter or a Ranger with the Shaman class.
It's also worth noting that the Book of Humanoids shaman is only "gimped" because they can only choose three spheres of priest spells. This is almost no limitation at all: most people I've seen play Clerics really only cast from a few different spheres anyway. Healing, Combat and Protection would be a fairly safe, standard choice. Well, actually, since it grants access to Druidic magic, there's a chance Beamdog will preserve the race restrictions on Druids and give the Shaman class to only Humans or Half-Elves (this is my secret fear... Half-Orcs get shafted yet again!). Very much so!
It also should be worth noting that, between IWD, and the near *endless* pool of printed literature devoted to spells going back as far as 1st and 2nd edition AD&D, there should be absolutely NO problem giving Shaman casters a meaningful selection of low-level Druidic spells to choose from.
Some versions get a "spirit guide" but it's just that - a spirit, with no physical form. It may help the shaman to detect traps in SoD.
They have druid spells of course, so they won't just be summoning.