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Just wanted to throw some love at the Unsworn Shaman archetype. I think its raw power level is lower than the vanilla Shaman (assuming you lose the level 2 and 10 hexes) but in my opinion the sheer flexibility makes for a unique play experience.
The base Shaman picks a spirit at level one and sticks with that as their main spirit for the duration. They get a wandering spirit at level four that allows them to swap out spells and spirit powers, and a wandering hex at six that lets them swap out the one hex.
By contrast, the Unsworn Shaman gets:
Minor Spirit: At 1st level, the unsworn shaman also forms a temporary bond with a minor spirit each day, granting her access to a shaman or witch hex of her choosing, but not a major hex or a grand hex. She must make this selection each day when she prepares her spells for the day. Until she changes the minor spirit, she continues to have access to the shaman or witch hex. At 2nd level, she can instead select a hex from one of her wandering spirits selected for that day. If she selects a shaman or witch hex, she treats her shaman level as her witch level, and uses her Wisdom in place of her Intelligence for the purpose of that hex.
She can make temporary bonds with two minor spirits (thus gaining two hexes) at 4th level, and with one additional minor spirit (and hex) every 4 levels thereafter.
This ability replaces spirit and alters hex.
Wandering Spirit: At 2nd level, the unsworn shaman gains access to the wandering spirit class feature. At 10th level, she gains the abilities listed in the greater version of her wandering spirit. At 18th level, she gains the abilities listed in the true version of her wandering spirit.
Additionally, at 6th level, she also gains a second wandering spirit, gaining the abilities listed in the greater version of that spirit at 14th level, and the abilities listed in the true version at 20th level.
This ability alters wandering spirit and replaces wandering hex.
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So, in exchange for delayed access to some class features you get a lot of flexibility. One flex hex at level 1, a wandering spirit at level 2, another flex hex at 4, and another wandering spirit at six.
The writing is a little unclear about the number of hexes you end up with. Basically the question is when it says "alters hex" does it mean that the entire hex feature is replaced with the wandering spirit hexes (so you only get hexes at 1, 4, 8, etc) or does it only alter the levels mentioned (so you get flex hexes at 1, 4, 8, etc, and static hexes at 2 and 10). I think it could legitimately go either way but it's not something I would press a GM over. Just flag the ambiguity and live with the ruling.
The Plan
The goal here is build a character that is fun to play and mechanically viable without tapping into any of the flexible resources. This allows you to freely engage in daily rebuilds to match your party's needs and/or your whims. My own personal sense of fun is that it's more fun to be stabbing enemies in the face than not, so I like a framework like this one.
STR: 18 (racial +2)
DEX: 12
CON: 12
INT: 11
WIS: 14
CHA: 10
Feats:
1: Extra Hex (Chant)
human: Extra Hex (Fortune)
Traits and Familiars: personal preference. I'd have a hard time turning down +6 to initiative, myself.
Weapon: Longspear
Armor: Breastplate (eventually)
If you want the stats for melee you're going to have a hard time with the save or suck hexes. Fortunately you can focus on buffing your party and not have to worry about saves. The basic idea is to get everybody in your party on the fortune reroll train while you do your best reach cleric impersonation. Most GMs will let you chant until a cutscene, and it's actually a little uncommon to have fight -> cutscene -> fight within the same day.
If you're giving everybody constant rerolls and also personally spearing bad guys, I'd say you're pulling your weight.
You will be able to pursue this basic strategy while also enjoying complete flexibility as to your third hex and (at level two) spirit patron. At level four you get another hex to play with. I'll run through a few of the possibilities.
There are of course some solid witch hexes. Evil Eye obviously works well with the all-chanting strategy. Soothsayer can promote action economy by allowing you to pre-buff your party with Fortune. Flight is always good. Slumber isn't being optimized for here, but it's still a free save or die.
The base shaman gets a nice buff in Fury (+2 morale bonus on attack rolls and a +2 resistance bonus on saving throws against fear, extends with Chant). If you're really going all in on buffing you could do a lot worse.
The wandering spirit will open up the world of spirit hexes:
Water Sight: The shaman sees through fog and mist without penalty as long as there is enough light to otherwise allow her to see normally.
Obscuring Mist is on your spell list. If you wake up feeling like getting your Batman on, all you have to do is tell your GM. Just don't forget to go down to the market and pick up some Gravelly Tonic before combat starts.
Arcane Enlightenment: The shaman's native intelligence grants her the ability to tap into arcane lore. The shaman can add a number of spells from the sorcerer/wizard spell list equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 1) to the list of shaman spells she can prepare. To cast these spells she must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell's level, but the saving throw DCs of these spells are based on her Wisdom rather than Intelligence. When she casts these spells, they are treated as divine rather than arcane. Each time the shaman gains a level after taking this hex, she can choose to replace one of these spells for a new spell on the wizard/sorcerer spell list.
Feel like playing god for the day? Yoink the tool you need off the wizard's spell list. Taking the Lore Spirit also gets you access to an off brand Studied Target in Monstrous Insight (standard action to do a knowledge check and get +2 to hit and AC against a particular creature for one minute). Hitting things is good.
Heaven's Leap: The shaman is adept at creating tiny tears in the fabric of space, and temporarily stitching them together to reach other locations through a limited, one-way wormhole. As a standard action, the shaman can designate herself or a single ally that she can see who is within 30 feet of her. She can move that creature as if it were subject to jester's jaunt. Once targeted by this hex, the ally cannot be the target of this hex again for 24 hours.
Teleport your barbarian friend into position for a full attack, or blip your wizard buddy out of danger.
Mammoth's Hide: The shaman can touch a willing ally and cause its skin to thicken and sprout thick, shaggy fur. The creature gains a +2 enhancement bonus to natural armor and resistance 5 to cold for 10 minutes.
If you are truly committed to buffing your pals this could be on your list. Doesn't get extended with chant but does last a good long time.
Crystal Sight: The shaman sees through stone, earth, or sand as easily as if it were transparent crystal. Her gaze can penetrate a number of feet equal to her shaman level (or 1/12th this thickness of metal). The shaman can use this ability a number of rounds per day equal to her shaman level, but these rounds do not need to be consecutive.
Could be handy if you're adventuring somewhere with stone walls. This hex illustrates the power of the Unsworn Shaman early on--the vanilla shaman can't flex into this hex until level 6. If he wants to get it before then he has to commit to the otherwise underwhelming Stone Spirit.
Cauldron and Fetish are available if your campaign allows for crafting to allow you to make potions and wondrous items in exchange for a total investment of zero (0) feats.
You are also of course customizing your spell list by changing out wandering spirits every day. You can use the human FCB to get spells off of the cleric list as needed.
Alternative Plan
If you want to go in a more casty direction, you could do a witch-like load out of 7/14/12/12/18/14 and go on a grand tour of the available save or suck hexes. The Unsworn Shaman can go way deeper into witch hexes (one through extra hex, then one in each of your flex hexes) compared to the normal shaman. This kind of stat array would also make it a lot more viable to flex into the healer role as needed.
Bottom Line
A vanilla shaman who focuses on exploiting any particular Spirit will do a better job of it than the Unsworn Shaman. However, the Unsworn Shaman can be built into a reasonably capable framework that retains a unique level of flexibility. You can practically rebuild your character every time they go to sleep.
You might not ever be the most optimized shaman for any particular situation, but you'll pretty much always be able to find a way to contribute to any given party in any given situation.
Did I miss any good Shaman tricks? Is there a vanilla Shaman build that blows the Unsworn Shaman out of the water in every possible situation? I'd love to see more discussion of the archetype that goes beyond counting the total number of hexes available.
Marking this thread for interest. Definitely starting to become more interested in Shaman now. Almost seems like Unsworn Shaman needs its own guide separate from the regular Shaman guide.
Don't forget to take Spirit Talker and use it for Water's Fluid Magic hex - Spirit Talker takes 10 minutes to use and lasts an hour, and preparing spells takes exactly one hour. With a single feat you can prepare any spirit spell in any level-appropriate slot. That's a lot of flexibility.
@LuniasM, that doesn't work. Even if you've prepared the spell, you can't cast it if it stops being on your spell list.
You can leave open slots, use Spirit Talker, spend 15 minutes filling the empty slots, and cast them over the next 45 minutes.New Spells Known: If I gain the ability to add a spell that is not on my spell list to my list of spells known, without adding it to my spell list, can I cast it?
No. Adding a spell to your list of spells known does not add it to the spell list of that class unless they are added by a class feature of that same class. For example, sorcerers add their bloodline spells to their sorcerer spell list and oracles add their mystery spells to their oracle spell list. The spell slots of a class can only be used to cast spells that appear on the spell list of that class.
Wow. That's an errata I didn't know about and never would've expected. That seems to be happening way more often lately.