The warpriest's intended role, as I understood it, is to be the holy warrior of the faith. Killing enemies and healing followers.
The class tries to archieve that through 3/4 BAB, feats and special abilities that buff the weapon and/or armor.
The Shaman is 3/4, by taking the battle spirit and the Battle Master hex he gets a couple of neat feats including weapon specialization.
And the spirit ability to cast maximised cure spells at +2 CL.
Later he can give his weapon the bane ability a couple of times per day as a swift action.
Via wandering spirit and wandering hex he is very versatile.
Level 10 human Shaman
Point buy 20
Str: 20 (+2 racial, +2 level increase)
Dex: 10
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 14
Cha: 10
Spirit: Battle
Hexes:Battle master, Battle ward
Spirit ability: Healing Spirit
Greater spirit: Enemie's bane
Wandering Spirit: Life
Wandering hex: Enhanced cures or life link
Spirit ability: Channel energy
Bonus feats:
Weapon Specialization, greater weapon focus, Alertness (through familiar)
I did not spend the standard feats or the gold because every pc would have them. One drawback of the shaman is that he has only simple weapon proficiency and only medium armor proficiency.
Two 14's and the rest 10. Those can't be 20 points.
Of course depending on the war priest they may only have simple too.
There is a 20 which is a 16+2 racial +2 level as well. Two 14s and a 16 rest 10 is 20 point buy.
Nothing stopping you from just taking heavy armor prof, but that'd put you a feat behind the warpriest.
What might even be better than life as the wandering spirit might be flame with cinder dance as wandering hex. But flame's main spirit benefit only comes into play at level 11 (flaming for every melee weapon).
But as you can change your wandering spirit each day that's no problem.
Any opinion on how this guy compares to the warpriest in the latter's role?
Imo, the best warpriest is actually a cleric or oracle. Divine caster who hits things is 4 classes at the moment without the ACG(6 if you include druid/ranger), and until the warpriest gets a little more oomph or specialness I'd rather take the full casting or specialized spell list personally.
That the cleric/oracle are better is clear. But what I wanted to say is that even one of the new classes can fill the warpriest's role. Perhaps even better.
What might even be better than life as the wandering spirit might be flame with cinder dance as wandering hex. But flame's main spirit benefit only comes into play at level 11 (flaming for every melee weapon).
But as you can change your wandering spirit each day that's no problem.Any opinion on how this guy compares to the warpriest in the latter's role?
Keep in mind that Spirit Magic also adds the bonus spells to the ones you can prepare. So you could prepare a bunch of a fireballs and cast one spontaneously as well. Spirit Magic is wayyyy better than Domains.
Part of the problem is that the 3/4 BAB divine spellcaster club is getting a bit crowded. This was already one of the better-developed class groups to begin with (cleric, druid, oracle, inquisitor) and now the ACG is adding three more such classes. The Warpriest would probably be fine if it weren't for the fact that his niche is already overcrowded, and he's competing with some of the most powerful classes in the game. This means that for almost any build, there's someone else who does the job better.
Unless he's seriously reworked, the Warpriest seems destined to be an upgrade to the Adept for an NPC rather than an alternate to the Cleric for a PC.
I think so. I read the battle shaman and I cant wait to play one now. The warpriest is not impressive at all.