Name: Durak
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Race: Half Orc(Sacred Tattoo, Shaman's Apprentice)
Level: 1
Class: Shaman (favored class extra Skill Point)
HP: 10
Abilities:(Rolled stats of 18,16,14,14,13,10)
Str: 16 +3
Dex: 13 +1
Con: 14 +2
Int: 14 +2
Wis: 20 +5
Cha: 10 +0
Background Trait: Spirit Sense
Shaman Abilities
Spirit: Heaven
Familiar: +2 will saves
Spirit Magic
Familiar
Spirit Animal
Spirit Ability: Stardust
Darkvision
Weapon Familiarity
Orc Blood
Sacred Tattoo
Shaman's Apprentice
Feats:
Eschew Materials
Weapon Prof: Simple
Armor Prof: Light, Medium
Endurance
Skills assigned
Diplomacy +4
Knowledge Geo +3
Knowledge Nat +6
Perception +6
Sense Motive +6
Survival +9
Use Magic Device +1
Weapons and armor
Warhammer
Attack -1
Damage 1d8=3 (20/x3)
Agile Breastplate
AC 17 (+6 armor +1 Dex 25% spell failure)
Spells
Orisons:
Create Water
Detect Magic
Know Direction
Level 1
Bane
Burning Hands
Produce Flame
Spirit Magic: Color Spray
Thoughts?
After looking somemore into Weapons I think I am going to Change the Warhammer into a Waraxe since he has proficiency with it and its an intimidation factor to make people not want to get into mellee with him.
Looks pretty good. Note that you're not an arcane caster, so you don't have that 25% spell failure from your armor.
I wouldn't spend a feat on Eschew Materials. Improved Initiative, Toughness, or Combat Reflexes are all good investments since you can't take Power Attack yet.
Have you thought about your familiar? You might want to look the the Speaker for the Past archetype if you don't want to deal with it.
You'd really like to get a +1 Charisma bonus so you can eventually pick up Arcane Enlightenment as a wandering spirit (if you don't go Speaker for the Past.)
What is it that you like about Heavens? It's a cool spirit if you want to go for a Darkness build, in which case maybe Eclipsed Spell for your first feat (or an Eclipsed metamagic rod.) But if you're investing that much in Strength, you might think about Battle spirit which is great for melee. If you don't want to be in melee (which your second post sounds like?) then I would consider swapping Str and Cha, or possibly to Str 10 Dex 16 Cha 13.
The high Strength is a Role Play choice, due to him being Part Orc.
Speaker for the Past looks good except for it giving up wandering spirit which I like.
I also went with Heavens because of the spirit magic it can learn as well as the Hexes and Spirit Abilities it gains. I also wanted to make this character as a master of the elements, which Heavens fit into because of chain lightning, Prismatic Spray, sunburst, and meteor Swarm being some of the spirit magic it has, and then using different wandering spirits to pick up other elements when he feels that they are needed. which speaker for the past kind of messes with.
I could drop his str down to either a 14 or 13 still want him to be somewhat strong do to the orc side that he heavily favors (around 7 feet tall and weighing more than 300 pounds)
Edit: I thought Arcane Enlightenment was a Hex that went off your Int not your Charisma, or is it both?
Arcane enlightenment gives you (Cha mod) different sorcerer/wiz spells you can prepare, with the save DCs and minimum required ability being off Int. It's not for someone who wants all good physical abilities and a high wisdom too.
Shamans don't make the best blasters, if that's what you're going for. They don't get that many of the best blasting spels, they don't get extra damage (the flame spirit hex giving fire vulnerability can actually cost damage due to actions taken), they don't get bonuses with metamagic. They can do save or suck/battlefield control fairly well including some ways of adding debuff riders to blasts.
If I Changed the Abbilities to a
Str: 14 +2
Dex: 13 +1
Con: 10 +0
Int: 16 +3
Wis: 20 +5
Cha: 14 +2
would that give him a better set up?
Arcane Enlightenment gives you a number of spell = Charisma bonus, but the spell level is limited by your Int, so you need both.
If you don't want to active bash heads, I'd definitely swap Str to 13 or 14 and bump something else (I'd go Int or Cha, but Dex is fine too.) 16Str is also fine, but I would try to invest a bit more in melee if you're going that way (just a Long Spear and Power Attack with a couple of buffs do a lot.
If you really like Wandering Spirit/Hex (and I agree, they're hard to give up,) look at the Unsworn Shaman too. It gives you a ton of flexibility if you want to go for an elemental theme each dayinstead of being locked into Heavens.
Make sure you know about the Human Favored Class bonus. Starting at level 3, you're going to want to pick up cleric spells. Divine Favor, Fallback Strategy, Shield Other, Holy Ice Weapon (if you're ever planning on going Waves), Communal Resist Energy, Invisibility Purge, Freedom of Movement, Blessing of Fervor, etc.
@avr the spell DC is still Wisdom based, the Int is just required to cast.
@xemnas that looks reasonable, but a 10 Con is rough. I'd go 10 Dex 13 Con before 13 Dex 10 Con. If you do go 10 Con, I'd definitely take Toughness at first level (assuming you expect to play past 6th level. If not, take Tribal Scars instead. Maybe even take Tribal Scars anyway if one of the tribes looks cool/Orc-y to you.)
Has the GM stunted the number of Traits you get? By all accounts, you get two Traits. Shaman's Apprentice/Sacred Tattoo are both Alternate racial trait- so unless your GM nerfed traits, you still have two to choose.
Shamans are Divine Casters, they prepare their spells- so you really don't need a spell list. Having a proper list of spells you're likely to use is a good idea- that said, Shamans have access to Cure Light Wounds. :p
Consider every level you get access to higher level spells, taking the Half-Orc FCB of a Cleric Spell. There are some spells on the Cleric list that aren't on the Shaman list.
My shaman took Sun Metal and it saved the party.
If you want to me a psuedo-Warpriest [read: melee Shaman], getting Divine Favor is a Must.
Taking Extra Hex at various points wouldn't be a bad thing.
Strong advice from Markov (a Shaman expert!) and Selvaxri.
I am currently running a Shoanti Shaman with the Battle spirit and the Speaker for the Past archetype in Rise of the Runelords, and he has been a very solid addition to the party, offering a solid offensive punch in melee (using a reach weapon), while also providing buffs, condition removal and utility spells.
My build actually favours STR over WIS (starting with a 17 in STR and 14 in WIS, using point buy), as his spellcasting is not meant for offense, and so does not rely on having high DCs for saving throws. Because I went with a melee-oriented reach build, his feats have included things like Combat Reflexes and Power Attack, though he has also taken Extra Hex, and soon, Divine Interference.
With Speaker for the Past, you would get access to some really nice revelations, particularly from the Time mystery. Stuff like a major boost to your initiative (plus always acting in the surprise round), the ability to hop around the battlefield without provoking (also great for out of combat), amongst other things.
You'll see many people recommend using Wandering Hex with Arcane Enlightenment, because of the high degree of flexibility it offers. And if you wanted to focus on a pure caster, neglecting melee, it is a very strong and viable option. However, as has been pointed out, it requires a heavy investment in all of WIS, INT and CHA. That doesn't leave much room for physical stats.
If you're interesting in taking a more melee-oriented focus, I would recommend the following (with the option of either swapping STR and WIS, or applying the +2 to WIS to give you an 18 in both) -- this assumes you won't be leveraging Arcane Enlightenment:
STR 20 | DEX 14 | CON 14 | INT 10 | WIS 16 | CHA 13
For a caster-focused build, intending to use Arcane Enlightenment via Wandering Hex, I would suggest the following (keeping the high STR, high CON flavour you want), with the intention of applying one or more of your level-based ability score boosts to INT (so that you can add higher level spells from the Hex as you get access to appropriate spell slots):
STR 14 | DEX 10 | CON 14 | INT 13 | WIS 20 | CHA 16
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