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Shaman

I'm just wondering if I'm the only one who is underwhelmed by the shaman class? I was really excited until I saw that it had the sorcerer level progression. I really think it's gimped due to that. Druid spells just don't have that same umph and you don't even get the wisdom bonus spells. Lame...
Noobacca

Comments

  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Shaman is a lot of fun. What's not to love about throwing bees as people at will? The special spells and HLAs are pretty cool too. A druid sorceror that gets some extra weapon types is pretty rad. I'll probably never play a straight Druid again.
    Balrog99JuliusBorisov
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,366
    ThacoBell said:

    Shaman is a lot of fun. What's not to love about throwing bees as people at will? The special spells and HLAs are pretty cool too. A druid sorceror that gets some extra weapon types is pretty rad. I'll probably never play a straight Druid again.

    Don't you think it takes way to long to get the few cool spells though?
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Not really, in vanilla druids start to get good spells at spell level 3. Until then you defeat enemies with the funky power of dance. Granted I'm a roleplayer and not a powergamer.
    Balrog99DJKajuru
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,366
    ThacoBell said:

    Not really, in vanilla druids start to get good spells at spell level 3. Until then you defeat enemies with the funky power of dance. Granted I'm a roleplayer and not a powergamer.

    Well I bought BG2EE ages ago but haven't started any campaigns from it. Maybe starting in BGEE is why I think it's lackluster.
  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    Spell revisions beefs up the druid/shaman quite nicely. The new kits are also done quite well for shamans. My spirit walker shaman was an absolute blast to run and a serious force to be reckoned with. B) It is also the most melee oriented of all.
    Balrog99ronaldoArdul
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,366
    edited December 2017
    My mod days are over for the time being. I haven't even finished BGEE yet. Restartitis is the bane of my existence!
    Zaghoul
  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    Balrog99 said:

    My mod days are over for the time being. I haven't even finished BGEE yet. Restartitis is the bane of my existence!

    My bane as well. ;)
    Balrog99
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    Zaghoul said:

    Spell revisions beefs up the druid/shaman quite nicely. The new kits are also done quite well for shamans. My spirit walker shaman was an absolute blast to run and a serious force to be reckoned with. B) It is also the most melee oriented of all.

    Did a quick research about this spirit walker shaman and I'm glad I did because I was about to announce a kit that was pretty much the same, the main difference is that instead of transforming into an animal, my kit (Channeler) would be imbued with the spirit of one (lion, bear, boar or snake) gaining special abilities accordingly.

    Damn, I'll need to start over now.
  • PantalionPantalion Member Posts: 2,137
    Balrog99 said:

    I'm just wondering if I'm the only one who is underwhelmed by the shaman class? I was really excited until I saw that it had the sorcerer level progression. I really think it's gimped due to that. Druid spells just don't have that same umph and you don't even get the wisdom bonus spells. Lame...

    Eh.

    1: You get short bows. This single class feature makes them competitive with Druids, especially since they have Priest THAC0.

    2: You can be a half orc, which is a far, far better race than Half-Elf or Human.

    3: No bonus spells means no mental stat dependency. Max strength, max Dexterity, everything else into Charisma to dance all sexy like, you'll cast just as well.

    4: Detect Illusions is amazing. Free, infinite, fodder is adequate. Just use a party member to lure enemies towards your shaman's posse.

    5: Slightly less mediocre spell list, with all three actually worthwhile spells easily acquired, and non-summon spells at level 4 and 6 actually worth using.

    6: Sorcerer progression isn't too bad. While they don't get proper bees until SoD, they don't have a 1.5 million experience deadzone in SoA either, and get six level 7 slots before the SoA cap.

    Overall I'd say they're slightly better than the Druid, but that's not really saying much.
    Balrog99JuliusBorisovFardragonRik_Kirtaniya
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,431
    The Shaman class is a great idea, but a lot of potential got lost because of poor implemention or design decisions.

    The sorcerer-like spell selection would be great if there were more useful spells to choose from. The situation is slightly better in IWDEE though.

    The Shamanic Dance tends to lag behind the average power of mobs to fight, so they are usually only good to momentarily distract the enemy. Or they would be good if the summoned spirits could be controlled in some way. You'll still need someone else to lure the enemy to the spirits, since shamans aren't allowed to move while performing their dance.

    The dance is also susceptible to outside influences that makes it hard to prepare beforehand. For example, many greater battles are introduced by cutscenes. However, the dance doesn't work during that time, so spirits will be unsummoned as soon as the cutscene ends. The same effect can be seen with Timestop.

    Shamans are also unable to dual or multi-class, thus rendering another advantage of the druid class void.

    Imo, the class is focused too much on being "balanced", so that none of their features can really shine.

    Btw, some of these flaws inspired me to create the Improved Shamanic Dance mod.
    Balrog99JuliusBorisovRaduzielRik_Kirtaniya
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    Meh, if you give shaman's IWD druid spells there would be no reason to ever play anything else. It's only the limited spell selection that stops them being completely OP.
    Balrog99
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