Shaman suggestions / advice / experience


Advice


Hey guys...I am going to be starting Council Of Thieves and I'm super excited. Our party is lacking any divine support, and I decided to go Tiefling to fit the setting. My concept is that he was from a family that used to be a big deal in Westcrown before the whole Asmodeus thing, and since he was born Tiefling, he got abandoned and adopted by a Mwangi, who brought him to the jungle and trained him in the ways of the Shaman.

How do you guys like the class? Do you suggest any Archetypes? The party consists of a Bloodrager, Tanky-Martial Artist Monk, Rogue, and Bard so far. My plan was to more than likely go with the Life Spirit, or possibly Nature.

Any advice on the Shaman would be appreciated...it's my first time playing a Divine Class! Any suggestions for a Tiefling Shaman for Coucil of Thieves will be appreciated!

Sovereign Court

Shaman is nice, but frankly its not new player friendly. You can build a shaman however you want really, some spirits are more suited to melee styles shaman instead of caster styles shaman but well at the end of the day you can go basically do it however you want:

Caster: Wis > Con > Dex > Int > Cha > Str
Warrior: Str > Wis > Con > Int > Cha > Dex

Basically Shaman can be customized heavily, read up on hexes from the witch to choose whatever match your playstyle . With nature for example, you could grab the ability to get summon nature ally like a druid, with life, you could just focus on being a caster shaman etc...


I just don't wanna play a cleric or paladin, and the concept I have fits a Shaman a little better than an Oracle. I have plenty of Pathfinder experience, I just usually play more martial or rogue type characters, and currently play an Investigator and Sandman Bard in other AP's. This is just my first Divine Caster.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Knowledge Spirit for Confusion Hex. Ex, and the clause on mind-affecting is missing. So have fun confusing golems, constructs and animated objects. Pick up Life as your Wandering Spirit and get Channeling later. Early days 1d6 (probably without Selective Channel) a bit marginal.


I do like the Lore Spirit as well...good way to snag a offensive Arcane spell.

The Exchange

If you're using arcane enlightenment you become very mad, as you need int of the level of the arcane enlightenment spell, and cha to qualify more arcane spells. Not to mention all your hex and spell dcs are based off wis.

Dark Archive

I like heavens. The jesters jaunt hex is just amazing.


If you're not sure which spirit there's not a lot of downside to taking Unsworn Shaman. You get the greater/true abilities two levels later.

Grand Lodge

Speaker for the Past is a pretty nifty archetype. Basically, you get to swap out your Spirit Animal for some useful class skills (like Perception), and your Wandering Spirit ability for a handful of Oracle Time/Ancestor revelations. And you can regain a single Wandering Hex, if you like, by taking the Spirit Talker feat.

(Personal note: I hate the whole familiar-as-liability thing, and for some reason the Shaman's familiar is more costly to replace, a whopping 500gp per level, compared to only 200gp per level for the Wizard.)


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
EvilTwinSkippy wrote:

Speaker for the Past is a pretty nifty archetype. Basically, you get to swap out your Spirit Animal for some useful class skills (like Perception), and your Wandering Spirit ability for a handful of Oracle Time/Ancestor revelations. And you can regain a single Wandering Hex, if you like, by taking the Spirit Talker feat.

(Personal note: I hate the whole familiar-as-liability thing, and for some reason the Shaman's familiar is more costly to replace, a whopping 500gp per level, compared to only 200gp per level for the Wizard.)

+1 on Familiar liability. Off-topic. In a new game/group I joined we all started by being auto knocked out by GMNPC boss and teleported to the moon. Any animal companions and familiars did not go with us and so far (2 levels of adventuring) have not been replaceable. I'm just glad I didn't play a witch...our party wizard took some archetype that had a heavy familiar investment so he's suffering quite a bit.

Grand Lodge

Rerednaw wrote:


+1 on Familiar liability. Off-topic. In a new game/group I joined we all started by being auto knocked out by GMNPC boss and teleported to the moon. Any animal companions and familiars did not go with us and so far (2 levels of adventuring) have not been replaceable. I'm just glad I didn't play a witch...our party wizard took some archetype that had a heavy familiar investment so he's suffering quite a bit.

+1 on the Familiar liability as well. It is great if you pick up a super exotic familiar later in the game, such as certain variant Homunculi or the Silvesheen Agothian, but they are generally too weak to survive the kinda punishment some GMs like to dish out.

Side note to the off topic, the GM should really make a free replacement/retrian. It is understandable to do that at the start, but by the next level, they should have been allowed to replace.

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