Talk:Shaman, NW (3.5e Class)
Author's Notes
So. That's the Shaman. And, yes, it's a good deal like the Spirit Shaman, conceptually speaking. Mechanically it borrows more from the Shugenja, Wu Jen, and Binder. It also has the power progression of the Warlock. Not because I think that's particularly correct (I think six levels of powers is probably ideal), but because I barely finished the power listings as-is and there's no goddamn chance I'm writing nine tiers of spirit. The thing that's supposed to tie it together is the resource management system, which is table-based Winds of Fate (meaning a semi-random system like the Crusader has). The Shaman can be thought of has having a table of abilities (each spirit is a column) and each round he has access to one row of the table. The idea is that it keeps the character doing different things, and evokes tapping into a power you can only somewhat control. I think if I were making a new edition of D&D, the Druid would work like this out of Core.
In terms of a balance point, the class is intended to be something you can pick up and play in a party with competent full casters (e.g. Wizards, Dread Necromancers, Clerics) without needing to do a bunch of dumpster-diving. So the offensive abilities are solidly level-appropriate offensive spells, and it has access to a broad suite of utility effects. With that in mind, I've tried to avoid any game-breaking cheese, particularly stuff that breaks the game in new ways (this is why Wall of Stone is a Boon ability rather than a spirit power -- getting that even once every four rounds is setting warping in the extreme).
I'm mostly satisfied with the class abilities. You get some stuff that messes with your resource management (Quick Channeling, Double Channel), and various spirit powers. You don't really get any elemental stuff, but that's supposed to come from the spirit Boons. It's possible they should get some elemental-summoning somewhere (possibly a general Summon Nature's Ally effect). But overall, I think it's solid.
What I'm not as happy with is the spirits themselves. Not the individual ones per se, but there really ought to be more of them. Five isn't really a lot of options, and because they only get five kinds of spirit, I ended up needing to cap them at three spirits channeled to avoid every high-level Shaman just getting all the spirits. I'm not really sure how to square that circle. For a while I had spirits getting four abilities and two of each elemental type. That works (and lets them do better as a mono-element "Waterbender" type), but it's both more actual abilities (36 per tier instead of 30), and less variance which makes the unique resource management less compelling. You could probably add some more spirit types. Air could spin off Storms as its own line and Water could give up the Healing stuff, but any addition requires writing a whole bunch of abilities. There's the possibility of going full freeform with the ability selection, but that kinda wrecks the resourc dynamic too.
There's some rough stuff in the abilities too. It's very much a first draft, and a lot of the abilities are eyeballed at "that seems reasonable". The rough intent is that each spirit grants half abilities that are level-appropriate spells (e.g. 3rd level spells for a Lesser spirit), and then one or two that are lower level, and one or two effects that would normally be higher level. Ideally, that skews low for the Least and Greater spirits (because they come online at the same level as a a new level of spells) and high for the Lesser and Primal spirits (because those come online in the middle of a spell tier). Again, if I was writing for a new edition, people would just get powers on the same schedule, but such is life.
The Primals are particularly bad. The game basically does not work at that level, so it's mostly just random stuff that fits. I assume some of the things in there are insane, and others are totally garbage.
Also, I've aggressively down-leveled a lot of evocations. Chain Lightning, for example, is a Lesser spirit power. I think this is fine for two reasons. First, evocations are over-leveled to begin with. Chain Lightning doesn't need to be the same level as Acid Fog. Second, most evocations deal level-scaling damage to begin with. Chain Lightning at 6th level deals 6th level damage, not 11th level damage. I also down-leveled some healing spells on a similar basis (seriously, what is Regenerate doing at 7th level?).
One thing that's interesting is the arrangement of powers. The first thing is the question of if powers on a given number should be similar or different. I can see arguments both ways. If you make them similar, it amplifies the random aspect. But it also risks making certain powers less useful. If "3" means "AoE debuff", then you're probably only going to end up using the best AoE debuff. But if it gives you an AoE debuff from Air, a BFC from Nature, and a single-target nuke from Fire, then you could potentially end up using any of those depending on the tactical situation. The other issue is that the ordering of the abilities matters. When you're just using level-appropriate spirits, you get what you roll. But if you channel lower level spirits, you get any at or under what you roll. That means that powers that are generally useful should be low numbers and powers that are problematic if spammed (like no-save lockdowns) need to be higher numbers. I have not fully implemented this.
In terms of play pattern, you lean more towards the Wizard than the Cleric. You've got average BAB and a martial weapon, but you're rocking a d6 hit die and you don't get heavy armor or headline offensive buffs like Persistent Divine Power and Wild Shape. So melee is not a great plan for you. At the early levels you hit people with whatever the spirits gave you, or a longbow if it's not any good. By mid levels you should consistently have a useful spirit power to call on, and you have some buff Boons to make your archery plan better (since you're a Wisdom caster, Zen Archery is a good feat too). Outside combat you bring a bunch of divination to the table, and can do pretty well as an item crafter. Plus all the stuff Boons do.
