Hoping for some critique on my Totem Shaman Class


Homebrew and House Rules

Grand Lodge

I posted this up in the conversion thread but since it also qualifies as HB I figure I would post it here in the hopes that it gets a bit more traffic.

Totem Shaman

My initial playtests revealed it to be about as powerful as a ranger. Let me know what y'all think.


Excuse my critique, I am directed to approach this from a flavor point of view and thus less focused on mechanical balance than internally consistent theme.

* There is no flavor to go with this, so it appears to be a bunch of unrelated "totemic" elemental combat buffs. Interesting that you have chosen elemental totems instead of animalistic totems.

* Why two-weapon fighting? Seems awfully specific - what if my elemental totem isn't represented by that fighting style?

* Totems feels half finished - are the totems physical? DO they occupy a square adjacent to the Totem Shaman? Do they have other stats? Are they targetable? They seem to have hardness/HP and AC - why? Is this related to the Elemental Ally/elemental summoning at 7th level?

- The Air Shaman's 10 ft step feels overpowered.

* I like the Shock concept - mixes in a bit of Warlock blastforms with the elemental affinity abilities.

* Ghostwolf. Now you have gone all specific. Is this based on some pop-culture lore I am unaware of? Why a wolf? Perhaps Totem Shaman could be renamed if the Ghostwolf thing is a definite must have. I get a disconnect from elemental totem and ghostwolf. Ghost-form (or similar - -slide, -wise, -stance-, -slip) might be better.

* I like Elemental Emmissary. Nice theme (increasing power through more totem allies), but you need to specify the bonus type (morale perhaps?) for this +2 at 8th, +3 at 12th and +4 at 16th level.

* Stormstrike - again this is needlessly specific, and doesn't mesh with all elements. Sounds cool though. ;)

I stopped there for now.

Grand Lodge

Just a heads up, this should have been in my original post but this class is my attempt at recreating an enhancement shaman from world of Warcraft.


London Duke wrote:
Just a heads up, this should have been in my original post but this class is my attempt at recreating an enhancement shaman from world of Warcraft.

Well, there you go. My comments above show that it feels like an emulation of a specific concept. Hope any of my critiques help...

Grand Lodge

It does and thank you. Do you think that the totems should be small or tiny? If they are tiny can they be in the shaman's square when he summons them? I do want them targetable. I agree that the 10ft step is strong but the shaman would be choosing between that and flight. If I changed 10ft step, what would be a good replacement ability?


Woah, just noticed that the Air Shaman's speed increases by 30 ft - at 4th level. A little too much in my opinion.

Same with the fire shaman's doubled crit threat range. WIth the right weapon that would be devastating.

Also, I think for ease of understanding, removing the 1,2,3 from the totems would be good - as it is it feels as though they are progressions rather than three abilities you get at 4th level.

* FIre totem should read - A shaman’s attacks inflict an additional 1d6 fire damage…"

Not sure what to replace the 10' step with. Will think on it...


Tiny totems would work. Do they buzz around like an ioun stone, or are they linked to their element - air buzzes around, fire burns on the ground, earth roils at your feet, water washes around moistening things? I like targetable. What happens if a totem is destroyed? Does it return after an 8 hour rest?

Grand Lodge

Well the thing is a shaman only has 1 totem at 4. So if a shaman grabs air at the beginning, then he is forsaking all the others. But I think the speed bonus could still be inticing at 20ft.

If the are destroyed the shaman just has to resummon but if you noticed, that's a full round action that prevokes, puts quite the damper on a combat focused class.

The only totem which moves is the air totem since its the movement based totem. I do like your imagery doe the totems though!

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