Totem Shaman: WoW's Enhancement Shaman


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London Duke wrote:


I was originally thinking of having the Air Shaman's blast Stagger the opponent but was afraid that could be too strong. Perhaps not... what do you think?

I am not sure. I am not as familiar with the status ailments (we look them up EVERYTIME, I should just make it a point to memorize them). For whatever reason the swarm "distraction" ability keeps coming to mind. I have read it, and it seems a little OP for this but I am wondering if a lesser version: sickened, might be more appropriate. My reasoning being that the shock literally- knocks the wind out of you- and it takes a while to regain composure.

Though... maybe nauseated is more along those lines?

Grand Lodge

I would say nausiated is more what you are talking about but that is Very Powerful! I think staggered would be a good compromise because its very much "you got the wind knocked out of you" and stays effective for a long time. With staggered, the enemy can only take a move or a standard action but no full round actions. They can still take swift, immediate, and free actions. That means that a wind TS can shut down a martial or caster pretty effectively,minimum 1 round.


Yes, I would definitely not apply something like that for the Fatigue duration. Lol... otherwise that is some powerful wind

Grand Lodge

I changed the Air TS's shock to:
Shock modifier: In addition to interrupting spellcasting, your air shock also staggers the target for a number of rounds equal to your Dexterity modifier regardless of whether the target makes his save against the interrupt.

What do you think?

It actually makes an Air TS probably one of the best shutdown options in the game. They can force a spell-caster to SoS and melee don't even get a save against sucking.


I like it. I don't know how balanced it is, but I like it.


I built an Air Shaman, we start playing on the 21st. I will let you know how it goes.

I was surprised by the lack of firepower (we are starting at level 7... so like ONE level away from getting a 2nd totem!) air gets. Possibly it will not matter once we are playing but I noticed during building that air seems to lack the umph that fire and earth have and the healing of water.

How would you suggest play to go for Air TS? Between levitate, strong winds and the 5' to 10' movement?

(if it helps I am playing a small character with a STR of 16)

Grand Lodge

Interesting that you went with a strength based Air TS, How high is your dex? Air was always the totem that I had the hardest time building and is definately lacking on firepower BUT their debuffs are oh so sweet. Also they are the only TS that can throw pretty well out of the box with 2wf baked into the class.

I would probably build an Air TS as a debuff nightmare. I always tend to look at a classes strengths and build off that. I would probably use your 10ft step aspect most of the time to help you get within reach and to close when someone tries to move away to deny your full attacks. I would totally build using Starknifes and grab a blinkback belt ASAP.

I would be comfortable switching an air totem aspect for Haste... but I think an advanced totem feat to add it as an option could also make sense... especially balance wise.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Hmm...I like this.
Have you considered having the element set daily kinda like preparing spells, instead of being locked in at 1st level to a specific element?
Or, borrowing from the paizo shaman, have a set element, then have a secondary element, similar to the wandering spirit class feature?


My DEX is a 17 which is basically the same as my 16 STR. I thought about the Starknife at first, but the world is a Zelda based environment so I got boomerangs instead (for thrown weapon) and use a quarterstaff for melee.

By debuffs are you referring to the Shock? That will be great, but how do I manage that when dealing with more than one opponent?


Finally have him built. He is ADORABLE! :) I even made a mask prop for him... We play on the 22nd so I will let you know how it goes.

I supplemented him with some Spheres of Power stuff (he has some control over plants) but that was mostly for flavor. When looking at everything written down he looks pretty good.

He is a small character so I think things might get interesting when he starts using the Wind effects of his totem (particularly at 8th level when they can lift him off the ground). Per his character he will be delighted that he can "ride on the wind" but I think he might be a little upset at the whole winds hurting him...

OH! I am excited about the role-play options there.


I quite like the new Shaman class and the 'Speaker For The Past' archetype. 3/4 BAB, full caster progression. Pick the Battle spirit and there's your enhancement shaman.

Better than a Rage Prophet which I felt was the best PF equivalent to an Enhancement shaman (even the half-orc axe wielding savage reminded me of an Enhancement shaman).

Ancestral Weapon, Blood of Heroes, Spirit of the Warrior, hexes too - the archetype is chock full of goodies.

Grand Lodge

What's in the box? wrote:

Finally have him built. He is ADORABLE! :) I even made a mask prop for him... We play on the 22nd so I will let you know how it goes.

I supplemented him with some Spheres of Power stuff (he has some control over plants) but that was mostly for flavor. When looking at everything written down he looks pretty good.

He is a small character so I think things might get interesting when he starts using the Wind effects of his totem (particularly at 8th level when they can lift him off the ground). Per his character he will be delighted that he can "ride on the wind" but I think he might be a little upset at the whole winds hurting him...

OH! I am excited about the role-play options there.

How did things go with your shaman? Sorry I havent been around to give feedback and updates. Planning a wedding takes up alot of time.


It was good. We played in a Zelda-inspired campaign and I was a skull-kid themed as "the spirit of the forest" who sorta protected the kokori forest.

I liked the class though in retrospect found my 'wind' (it was a toss up between wind and water as to which was MORE forest-y and water was mostly about the heals) powers were situational for things that didn't come up very often. I levitated one of our squishier party members out of the reach of some mummies, but our party was HEAVY with archers effectively ruining my wind wall (which sucked because our enemies were heavy with archers too... GRRR!!! I could have been awesome!)

Overall I LOVED the class and would totally use it again.

I have a preference for magic classes that aren't anchored overly by spell use (I TOTALLY think those classes are powerful and awesome I just don't like the cross referencing and looking up spells and trying to tactically plan out one of my MANY different options- spells add too much bulk for me as a player) so having a few key magic abilities REALLY appeals to me.

Also... I used multiple attacks and a staff (I had never actually FOUGHT with a staff before this campaign lol) and made the VAST majority of my hits and did significant damage (I imagine at later levels when enemy DR is more common I would have been held back more significantly- of course that is the same with any multi-strike character).

I am trying to remember more... We played about 5 sessions with this character (I had named him Spook but since all I did was whistle and pantomime- no actual talking- the other party members just called me Whistle) and that was several months ago, so I am trying to remember more about how things worked out.

I also took a couple of feats from the Spheres of Power 3PP books so some of what I did still LOOKED and FELT like a Shaman (or spirit of the forest) but was not related to my class features (I took control of a tree some guy was sniping from and used it to smack him around... good times!)

All in all I was a fan of the class... It probably didn't mesh well with the setting (it was hard to justify WoW-Shaman powers in a LoZ setting and my character felt slightly out of place- not really the fault of anything but the player lol) but I enjoyed it and made my own prop (I wore this creepy featureless wood-esque mask with blacked out eyes and mouth and just whistled and gestured a lot for communication). It adequately kept me from over using player knowledge and since we were indoctrinating two newer players (and a new GM) I felt it would adequately keep me in check from taking over party decisions and metagaming (it helped, but it was also exhausting... whistling takes a toll).


Hope the wedding went well :)


Thanks for the bump, this is right up my alley. Shaman was my second-favorite class back in my WoW days and Enhancement was THE best spec IMO.

Grand Lodge

Hey What's in the Box, Thanks for the review and playtest! Sucks that so many of your powers ended up being situational. Do you have any recommendations for alterations for Wind to make you feel less useless.

Here is the most recent version of the Totem Shaman I have built. It is more spell-casting focused and incorporates Maelstorm but is not overly involved. --- Totem Shaman + Casting ---

And here is the updated original Totem Shaman


I like the non-casting one better. But generally I am not a HUGE fan of spellcasting (too many things to look-up and figure out and remember)

I re-looked at abilities and honestly I don't think there is anything WRONG with them. They are appropriately thematic and balanced, I think it just happened that the air totem had less utility with my party (too many ranged people so 1/3 of my powers were debilitating to our allies) I did not find a lot of use for the 10' step, but in another campaign I might have. I used the levitate power (we didn't make it to Air Step) but it wasn't the most optimal use of my action economy (which is neither here nor there), it saved our squishier party member from some mummies.

I will say the Air shield NEVER mattered and was TOTALLY annoying. I would spark that out but the 20% never made a difference (and I REMEMBERED to use it every time!). So that was frustrating, but also just dice-rolling. I don't think upping the percentage would keep it balanced since that was pretty standard math.

Grand Lodge

Thanks What's in the Box for info! I also prefer the non-casting one but in a couple of my playtests I ran into lacking in versatility (was grouped with an Inquisitor, Wizard, Ranger, and Alchemist) so I added the limited spell casting to ease that up a bit. He is actually somewhat unique having Arcanist style spell casting but with a very restricted spell list. I found having some spell access added to the versatility and made me REALLY question which totem I would select first and second since you only gain access to the Elementalist Wizard spells corresponding to your elemental totem. That being said, I love my water and earth shamans.... sooooo much.

That really sucks that Air Shield didnt work out for your. I agree that looking at the other shields, it is probably the oddman out and increasing to 50% miss chance is possibly OP...
What do you think of this:

Air Shield:
An air shaman is treated as if he possessed the Deflect Arrows feat and can use this feat without having a free hand. At 12th level he can deflect rays and massive projectiles, such as boulders, using this feat.

You lose out on the general miss chance but in exchange gain 1 auto deflect a round. Hope you save it for Disentigrate.


Oh... I kinda like that air shield. As a big Wonder Woman and Xena fan (there was an animated movie where Xena WAS Wonder Woman... it was true fan service) I have ALWAYS like the Deflect Arrows feat.

I kinda wish there was an even MORE advanced form of deflect arrows (Snatch Arrows is NOT an enhancement) that allowed for multiple deflections (because... then I could PLAY as Wonder Woman)... sadly... there is not...

But that may be more in theme with the Air element anyway... I would vote for the change.

Grand Lodge

Cool then I think we will go with that. Unless you think the no-roll deflection is too strong.

The other option would be to grant Cut from the Air at 7th with Air Shield then allowing it to improve to Smash from the Air at 12th. This is possibly more balanced and would be very rewarding for a AoO focused Air Shaman given they are already dex based.


but then what would you get along those lines before level 7?

I like the idea of those feats. They are just predicated on someone strong and not dexterous using them. Which is counter to the build of an Air shaman.

(but does give GOOD ideas for a Wonder Woman build- lol)

Grand Lodge

Well... a TS gets his affinity shield at lvl 7... so before lvl 7 you have other class features I suppose. :-P

I agree that they dont feel quite right for the air shaman. I think that we will go with the deflect arrows route with progression to deflecting massive/rays later.


Bah! My bad. We started at level 7 lol. And only made it to level 8 :(

An under realized campaign.

Grand Lodge

What did you think of Ghost Wolf Form? Did you find that it increased your combat manuvablity?

Also do you think that it makes more sense to just give the TS general Martial Weapon Prof rather than the specialized version that we have atm?


I used Ghost Wolf for long distance travel, I didn't utilize it much for combat movement.

I also remember that I was in Ghost Wolf form when a cave-in trap thing was triggered and everyone freaked out but I was like: Meh... less damage AND I am not trapped under this rubble. So I found the Blink aspect was WAY better than the mobility (though it did save me on horses- WOOT WOOT!)

Weapon proficiency was never really a concern for me. I went into the character knowing I was going to use a quarterstaff (because I had never played a character that used one before... IT IS FREE! Crazy how I never considered it before)

And from my perspective it seems like pretty much everyone knows what weapon they are going to use and it never really changes from that. I haven't met a lot of multi-weapon users in my gaming days and probably because feats tend to be very weapon specific so you aren't gonna drop your Dervishing Scimitar for the Greatsword because 3 of your feats become useless.

Also there are enough options (traits/racial stuff/etc.) for people to get their preferred weapons fairly easily.

So... I don't have much of an opinion. It didn't seem out of place to have the proficiencies to be specific like they were and it wouldn't be extraordinary to replace those with blanket martial.


At least from my perspective


London Duke wrote:
Well the lack of response is a bit disappointing.

I will say after reviewing the class I am disappointed that you only gain 1 master element. I would say do it as a level progress 1 at first 2nd at 8 or 10 and say 3rd and 16 and so on if they go epic levels then they gain access to all four elements. again my opinion. other than that i enjoyed the class build I tweaked it a little but only a little for flavor for my world.


What's in the box? wrote:

I used Ghost Wolf for long distance travel, I didn't utilize it much for combat movement.

I also remember that I was in Ghost Wolf form when a cave-in trap thing was triggered and everyone freaked out but I was like: Meh... less damage AND I am not trapped under this rubble. So I found the Blink aspect was WAY better than the mobility (though it did save me on horses- WOOT WOOT!)

Weapon proficiency was never really a concern for me. I went into the character knowing I was going to use a quarterstaff (because I had never played a character that used one before... IT IS FREE! Crazy how I never considered it before)

And from my perspective it seems like pretty much everyone knows what weapon they are going to use and it never really changes from that. I haven't met a lot of multi-weapon users in my gaming days and probably because feats tend to be very weapon specific so you aren't gonna drop your Dervishing Scimitar for the Greatsword because 3 of your feats become useless.

Also there are enough options (traits/racial stuff/etc.) for people to get their preferred weapons fairly easily.

So... I don't have much of an opinion. It didn't seem out of place to have the proficiencies to be specific like they were and it wouldn't be extraordinary to replace those with blanket martial.

I would say just make the ghost wolf form an ethereal concept. but my opinion

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