Shaman advice.

[Blackstorm]

Ok, time to build up something. I'd like to do the witch, but dm asked me if I can cover the divine caster role, so I'll go for the shaman. There's still a chance I can finally got the witch, but in the meantime I need a huge amount of advices, as the shaman is really hard to build. So, go on:

Premise: my dm allow the Aasimar's Scion of Humanity trait as go for racial alternative favored class bonus of the humans, so I can use it.

Now, the big question time:

1) Human's FCB: I read in a guide (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=15637.0) that the human FCB apply only to the spirit magic spells, and that it doesn't apply to the shaman spell list. But the fcb says "Add one spell from the cleric spell list that isn’t on the shaman spell list to the list of spells the shaman knows". Can I have something official? In the New Divine Spell section, it says:

Quote:

New Divine Spells

Divine spellcasters gain new spells as follows.

Spells Gained at a New Level

Characters who can cast divine spells undertake a certain amount of study between adventures. Each time such a character receives a new level of divine spells, she learns all of the spells from that level automatically.

Emphasis mine. So if she learns them, she should know them, it seems, or not? In addition, the FCB clearly speak of the Shaman's spell list, not her spirit magic list. I can't see how to read it in other ways. So, something official would be appreciated, because I can't find anything official about it.

2) What about the speaker from the past? Yes, it cut off the wandering spirit, but it gives me 2 oracles mysteries, with al their spells and choosing the revelation from them without touching the hexes. I could use, with some care, Spirit talker feat to hijack the sorc/wiz spell with the lore spirit.

3) Speaking of spirits, considering I'll be the main healer and buffer, what is the best fixed spirit I could take? I really think of Life spirit, but that's because the other seems rather weak, except for the Arcane Enlightment of the Lore spirit and the Fluid Magic of the Waves spirit, but them should be hijacked via wandering spirit or spirit talker.

4) Air Barrier hex/ Spirit Shield revelation: how does interact with my armor? Same bonus types doesn't stack, but wat if the hex give me a +6 and I wear a leather+1 medium fortification armor? Does the medium fortification works? And the +1 enhancement?

Sorry for the lenght, but the shaman is a really hard class to build up :)

[Melkiador]

The fixed spirit depends on how focused on healing you actually want to be. If you plan to heal in combat, then you should be using channel, so you will need the life spirit. If you plan to channel in combat, then you need to take feats to make it work better in combat.

However, if your idea of playing the healer is just handling the status recovery magics, then you can easily handle that out of combat by leaving some spell slots open every day. And lots of spirits can be good at that job.

[Blackstorm]

Healing spirit seems to have the best overall spell list, anyway.

[Melkiador]

Personally, I like lore for the main spirit, so I always have access to arcane enlightenment as a wandering hex. Otherwise, your secondary spirit is basically stuck on lore anyway, so you don't gain the flexibility of choosing a spirit for the situation.

But if you want to go combat healer, life is still the nearly required choice of main spirit.

[ekibus]

A witch with healing patron would really cover most of it. Worst case do a hex channeler.

Not to seem bitter towards the shaman.. I keep trying to get it to work but it is very rough.... Go solid life.. bump your wis to max, cha decent along with int and con...str is sadly your only dump stat dex you probably want something...get ant haul asap to lift your armor.

Spirit talker was torched to the ground...only works for a hour after you spend time on it. So wandering lore you can pick up the arcane spells you might need. On the bright side life link works like the oracle now (hence why you might want a decent con)

[Blackstorm]

Isn't wandering hex bounded to wandering spirit, not with the main spirit?

And what about the speaker for the past archetype? Does it worth?

I'm seeing that the shaman is a really hard class to build, good news are that maybe I can do my beloved witch c instead, but still unsure, so I still need clarification and advices.

[Melkiador]

Wandering hex can be chosen from your main spirit or you wandering spirit. Having lore as your main spirit means that you can pick arcane enlightenment every day as your wandering hex no matter what wandering spirit you decide to use that day.

[Markov Spiked Chain]

1) I doubt you'll get something official, but IMHO that guide is clearly wrong. There is nothing in spirit magic that says anything about "Spells Known" or being able to use those slots to cast anything other than spells from your spirit's list(s.)

The issue is the "Spells Known" FAQ and whether the FCB counts as a "Class Feature." The two options are:
No, so the FCB literally does nothing.
Yes, so the FCB does what it was clearly intended to do.
Only one of these readings is coherent, so unless someone says otherwise, I would play it as clearly intended.

2) Speaker for the Past has potential, but the loss of Life Link, Channel, and Protector Familiar didn't seem to make up for the extra Revelations.

3) If you want to be Heal/Buff focused, Life/Lore is your best bet. Lore primary doesn't let you swap your Arcane Enlightenment spells as needed.

4) This is a grey area. Fortification should still work. But I've always interpreted the Enhancement bonus as increasing the armor/shield bonus. So YMMV.

I've played a Life/Lore build focused on Fateful Channel, with the Witch Doctor archetype for *lots* of channels and had great fun. You can also do a similar build with Hopeful Channel.