Greetings!
I will be playing in a home brew that takes place well before the current Pathfinder timeline and I think the Shaman class would be a good fit. However, having played a Shaman to level 10 in PFS play I find the class a bit lackluster.
I am hoping for peoples thoughts/ideas/suggestions on how to make the class more viable to have in a party. My play-style would be for him to hex enemies, use poison type spells (maybe have to be acid?) to blast, and then use the Wandering Mystery thing to pick up some healing abilities for those crazy moments. I am not terribly interested in a familiar, so perhaps dropping that feature and picking up more hexes?
Any ideas?
Sadly this is a bit vague. What was your old build? Is your gm allowing homebrew? What level and what point buy? Basically if you want more hex just keep getting the extra hex feat.
My typical go-to advice for a party friendly shaman is the Waves Spirit (Crashing Waves Hex) combined with the Life Spirit Wandering Spirit. Toss in the Witchdoctor archetype if you want to double up on channel energy. Use Benthic Spell Metamagic feat to turn your elemental spells into the water type and have fun forcing enemies to save or fall prone. Bonded Mind feat + Share Spells feat so you can cast personal only spells on a teammate and cherry pick Cleric spells as your favored class bonus.
For Misc hexes, I always encourage Evil Eye, Chant, and Protective Luck. Pick up the Scar hex so you can use your hexes on your party members at any range. If you pick half-elf as your race, you could always pick a spell for favored Class bonus, or +5ft range on a hex.
It may not be the most impressive build out there, but that's not my intention. I favor versatility over pure power any day. The build is FUN and always has something to do.
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Greetings!
I will be playing in a home brew that takes place well before the current Pathfinder timeline and I think the Shaman class would be a good fit. However, having played a Shaman to level 10 in PFS play I find the class a bit lackluster.
I am hoping for peoples thoughts/ideas/suggestions on how to make the class more viable to have in a party. My play-style would be for him to hex enemies, use poison type spells (maybe have to be acid?) to blast, and then use the Wandering Mystery thing to pick up some healing abilities for those crazy moments. I am not terribly interested in a familiar, so perhaps dropping that feature and picking up more hexes?
Any ideas?
Bit Lack luster? honey... i dont think you've been playing a shaman....
Based on what you wish to try to do, being focused on hexing(I Assume you mean by debuffing using evil eye, and slumber and such), using poision based spells, and being flexible for crazy moments.
Be an Unsworn Shaman. You give up capstone abilities, and 2 hexes by the time you are 20th level, but all of your hexes are wandering. this may mean a bit of book keeping on your end, as you are able to switch what you want to do every... single... day.. and with how pathfinder works, versatility is king. For an Unsworn Shaman, i suggest keeping Lore as one of your spirits at all times. this way, you can use one of your wandering hexes for Arcane Enlightenment.. possibly one of the best abilitys in the game... Especially for a wandering hex. It allows you to pick a select few spells from the wizard spell list to add to your own. it does make you a bit mad, but its easily overcome if you take the correct hexes.
Unsworn Shaman 10, Variant Multiclassing Magus of Torag
Str: 7 Dex: 12 Con: 12 Int:14 Wis:16+2 Race +2(level 4, 8 bumps) Cha:14
Feats With Variant Multiclassing: /// Feats without Variant
1: Extra Hex(hair)Diehard ///1: Extra Hex(Hair)Diehard
3:Arcane Pool Level -2 ///3: Weapon Focus(Warhammer)
5: Weapon Focus(Hair) ///5: Blessed Hammer
7: Magus Arcana(Broad Study) ///7: Accursed hex
9: Accursed Hex ///9: Amplified hex
based on what you want to do, imagine this build being a Medusa, with the hair being animated snakes to poision your foes with.
With Lore as one of your spirits, take your pick of 2 spells of the wizard spell list up to 4th level. you can take more if you up your cha or choose a higher level if you up your int. as a half orc, you gain a select best spells from the cleric spells as well from the human favored class bonus. if you took variant magus, at 11th level, you can spell strike with all of your shaman spells(and with you adding spells from 2 different classes to the mix, its a win//win//win) thanks to Broad study. If you didnt, blessed hammer will allow the same functionality with the exception of you have to spend swift actions every round you cast a new spell to channel the spell through the weapon, which you can reskin to be Hair as well(If your gm allows it). As a medusa, you take an eye to fine arts, and the masterwork crafts, thus you made torag as your diety. If you are going paizo only, take the blessed weapon quality(Made by paizo in the rise of the runelords when it was still 3.5, in the official Archives of nethys). this will make you a little less MAD. My favorite spell to use with this is Calcific touch, which does unstoppable dex damage upon hit(unless they are immune)
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I've seen several places recommend 7 STR for a Shaman, and I'm curious if this means you walk around unarmored or just hope you have a DM who doesn't care about encumbrance...
7 str has nothing related to armor. If you take mitheral armor, or take spells that either increase ac or makes enemys miss you, and a handy haversack, you will never have to worry about encumbrance.
7 str has nothing related to armor. If you take mitheral armor, or take spells that either increase ac or makes enemys miss you, and a handy haversack, you will never have to worry about encumbrance.
Some people (most that I know and game with) don't quite enjoy only being able to carry around 23 lbs before they start being slowed down by carry weight. Nor do they want to spend most of their starting gold for a masterwork backpack, or wait till they have enough cash to purchase magic items to offset the consequences of using strength as their dump stat.
Seeing that a chain shirt weighs 25lbs and the Shaman spell list has no real useful 1st level spells to boost your armor (aside from protection from X), low level gameplay is going to be ... interesting. The Lore spirit might help offset that armor issue, but only if you waste a spell known for mage armor/mirror image.
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If your character is wearing armor, use the worse figure (from armor or from load) for each category. Do not stack the penalties
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alignment-description/carrying-capacity/
Nothings stopping someone from wearing medium or heavy armor with a str of 7. It takes the worse of the 2, and even with a str of 7, someone can hold up to 46 lbs and be in medium load. Plenty of wiggle room.