A Sundered World: Shaman Playbook Draft

We have shown you quite a few locations within A Sundered World, so this time I figured we would change gears and give you a preview draft of the shaman playbook (note that there are level 6-10 moves, but I want to get the initial stuff hammered out first).

Shaman
Before the Sundering spirits inhabited all manner of objects, from rocks to trees to rivers to mountains. When the Sundering hit many of these spirits many went insane when they were not outright destroyed. A number survived, though most were wounded by the event. Shamans discover these weakened spirits and give them a new home: their bodies. In exchange the shaman is empowered by the spirit, able to do things that she could never do otherwise.

Stats
Your maximum HP is 8+Constitution.
Your base damage is d8.

Starting Moves
Choose either dwarf, elf, halfling, or human, then choose a spirit companion.

Spirit Companion
You have made a bond with a spirit companion. It can speak any languages you do. Unlike an animal the spirit is about as intelligent as a human. Normally the spirit dwells within you, offering you its strength and sharing your senses, but it can also manifest itself to act independently. Choose one of the following spirit archetypes:

[ ] Bear
Bear is strong and tough. When your spirit is withheld your Armor increases by 1 and your melee attacks gain the Forceful tag.

[ ] Snake
Snake is fast and slippery. When your spirit is withheld you take +1 to evade danger, slip past someone, or escape from someone’s grasp.

[ ] Tiger
Tiger is swift and ferocious. When your spirit is withheld you can run as fast as a horse, and your melee attacks gain the Messy tag.

[ ] Wolf
Wolf is a stalwart warrior and companion. When your spirit is withheld you take +1 when you stand in defense of a person or you and an ally attack the same enemy.

Your spirit’s aspect determines what sort of benefits it grants while manifested in the world. Choose one aspect:

• Might: When the spirit aids someone in combat, they deal +1 damage.
• Tough: When the spirit protects someone, they gain +1 armor.
• Tracker: When the spirit helps someone track a creature or detect the presence of creatures or objects using its sense of smell, take +1.
• Wise: When the spirit imparts its wisdom, take +1 to Spout Lore.

You start with these moves:

Summon Spirit Companion
You can conjure your spirit companion at any time, causing it to manifest itself nearby. While it is manifested you lose the benefits of your Spirit Companion archetype, but you and others can gain the benefits of its aspect. Due to your spiritual connection you both share the same hit point total.

Spirit Healing
When your spirit invests a bit of its energy to heal you or someone else, roll+CON. *On a 10+ the target regains 1d6 hit points. *On a 7-9 the target regains 1d4 hit points, but your spirit is exhausted. Choose one:

• Take -1 ongoing to use this move until you rest for the night.
• You cannot summon your spirit companion for the next hour or so.
• You take 1d4 damage.
• You draw unwelcome attention or put yourself in a spot. The GM will tell you how.

Speak With Spirits
You are capable of hearing the voices of the spirits that inhabit the Sundered World. When you attempt to communicate with the spirits of the world, roll+CHA. *On a 10+, they are helpful and will provide you with information about the surrounding region that they know. *On a 7-9 they will help you, but want something in return. The GM will tell you what. *On a miss the spirits of the general area are offended; take -1 ongoing to use this move until you leave or you make amends.

Alignment
Choose an alignment:

Lawful
Adhere to the traditions of your clan or the tenet’s of your spirit companion.

Chaotic
Willfully break or violate your clan’s traditions, or disregard your spirit’s teachings.

Neutral
Help an animal or spirit of the wild.

Gear
Your load is 9+STR. You start with dungeon rations (5 uses, 1 weight), and a totem symbolic of your animal spirit, tribe, or clan. Choose your clothing:

• Loose-fitting leathers (0 armor, 1 weight) and 5 coins
• Thick hide armor (1 armor, 1 weight)
• Carved wooden shield (+1 armor, weight)

Choose your armament:

• Rune-carved staff (close, two-handed, 1 weight)
• Massive club (close, +1 damage, two-handed, 2 weight)
• Spear (reach, thrown, near, 1 weight)
• Pair of claw bracers (hand, +1 damage, two-handed, 2 weight)

Choose one:

• Adventuring gear (1 weight)
• Poultices and herbs (2 uses, 1 weight)
• Halfling pipeleaf (0 weight), 3 antitoxin (0 weight)

Bonds
Fill in the name of one of your companions in at least one:
____________ helped me find my spirit, either intentionally or accidentally.
____________ does not get along with my spirit.
____________ could benefit from the spirit’s wisdom.
Your spirit knew one of ____________’s ancestors. Did they have a good or bad relationship?

Advanced Moves
When you gain a level from 2-5, choose from these moves.

Ambush
When you summon your spirit and immediately have it aid someone in combat, that person takes +1 forward.

Chimeric Spirit
Choose another spirit archetype. You can only gain the benefits of one spirit archetype at a time, and it takes a few minutes of meditation to change the archetype.

Cunning Spirit
Choose one move from the ranger class list.

Dual Nature
Choose another aspect for your spirit. It can bestow either benefit to you or your allies.

Heightened Senses
While your spirit is withheld take +1 to Discern Realities made to spot something, and you can see in the dark.

Imposing Spirit
Your spirit gains the Large tag, and your size increases a bit as well. In addition when your spirit is withheld you deal +1 damage, and when it it manifested it deals +1d4 damage.

Improved Aspect
The bonus from one of your spirit’s aspects increases by 1.

Mentor Spirit
Maybe your spirit is encouraging, or maybe it is overly critical of your every move. Regardless when you try to do something and miss, take +1 forward the next time you attempt that action.

Nurturing Spirit
When you use Spirit Healing, on a 10+ it heals 1d8 hit points, otherwise it heals 1d6 hit points (even on a miss).

Restraining Attack
Your spirit’s attacks are capable of pinning enemies down, whether by grabbing, constricting, or tackling. When your manifested spirit aids someone in combat, on a 10+ the target is also restrained until the spirit lets it go or it manages to escape.

Spirit of the Land
Choose one move from the druid class list.

Shielding Spirit
When your spirit surrounds a creature to shield it from harm, the target gains 2 armor and any damage to the target is instead dealt to you.

A big problem was trying to figure out the mechanical benefits of the spirit companion. I wanted it to be different from the ranger’s animal companion and hirelings, as well as not be as complex as another character (one version had the spirit companion able to use basic moves). Obviously there could be more archetypes and aspects, but I want to see if this is something that people even like before adding more.

Essentials: Druid

This re-imagining of the druid, or sentinel as it’s called, somewhat hearkens back to the 3rd Edition druid in that it  can…well, heal, I guess. Skimming the Heroic tier class features there’s no mention of wildshape, which combined with it’s ability summon an animal spirit makes this class more like a hybrid of the druid and shaman. Sentinels get to pick from either bears or wolves, each granting a set of passive bonuses and the spirit you get to summon (obviously); bear sentinels deal a shitload of damage with clubs and staffs, and get a +2 to Athletics to boot. Wolf sentinels, on the other hand, can use scimitars, spears, daggers, sickles, get a +1 to hit with them, and gain a +2 to Heal.

As spirits, the Animal Companion doesn’t impose some ridiculous XP tax when killed, or otherwise penalize you in the long term. Rather, you can use a minor action or wait until you stop for a breather. Both cost a healing surge, but if you wait til combat is over it reappears with all of its hit points instead of just your bloodied value. The spirits come with their own stat blocks, making them more like ranger animal compnaions than shaman spirit companions, and have auras that either cause enemies to grant combat advantage, or grant a defense bonus to allies. The last two features class, er, features, are Primal Guardian and Combined Attack. Primal Guardian lets you use your Constitution instead of Dexterity or Intelligence while in light-or-no armor. Combined attack is their encounter attack that lets both you and your companion attack with the same action.

It’s not nearly enough like a druid from an older edition, but that’s okay because I didn’t like druids from older editions. This looks like a melee-oriented shaman, and that’s also okay because I really like shamans. My only gripe is that like all Essentials classes its not flexible enough to carry my attention for long, and I prefer bear shamans for my bear-summoning primal leader goodness.

Branch, Wilden Shaman

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Branch, level 1
Wilden, Shaman
Companion Spirit: Protector Spirit
Background: Geography – Forest (+2 to Nature)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 18, Dex 11, Int 8, Wis 18, Cha 13.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 16, Dex 11, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 13.

AC: 12 Fort: 15 Reflex: 10 Will: 16
HP: 30 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 7

TRAINED SKILLS
Nature +13, Insight +9, Heal +9, Perception +9

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics, Arcana -1, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Dungeoneering +4, Endurance +4, History -1, Intimidate +1, Religion -1, Stealth +2, Streetwise +1, Thievery, Athletics

FEATS
Level 1: Protector Spirit Adept

POWERS
Shaman at-will 1: Defending Strike
Shaman encounter 1: Thunder Bear’s Warding
Shaman daily 1: Wrath of the Spirit World

ITEMS
Adventurer’s Kit, Leather Armor, Club, Totem
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

Squishy Shamans

I’ve made a couple shamans already, and noticed that both of them had a fairly abysmal Armor Class of about 12-13. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, since I dont recall even wizards having an AC that low, but I realized that its about on par once I stopped and “did the math”. If you assume a 16 Intelligence then your wizard will end up with a starting AC of 13 since cloth armor provides absolutely no AC bonus and you cannot add both Dexterity and Intelligence to the equation.

While this is all well and good for wizards, shaman powers cap out at a paltry range of 5, so they end up being too close for comfort…unless you bring spirit powers into the equation.

A spirit companion can be conjured within 20 squares of the shaman, so long as you have line of sight. This is very, very far. In fact, I have yet to see any single room that extends past 10 squares in any given direction. What this basically means for almost any encounter you can think of is that a shaman is free to drop her spirit anywhere she pleases. There is no range limit on using a power with the Spirit keyword: it just originates from the spirit’s location, fundamentally giving the shaman a range of 20.

Shamans generally come in two flavors: the tough and the smart. Protective shamans are keyed off of Constitution, which gives them quite a leg up on the hit point and Fortitude department. Conversely if you decide to go with a stalker spirit then you’ll want to be smarter than the average bear, which means that your AC actually ends up being not nearly as bad as you thought (I’d say just below Warlord McSmarty-Pants if you dont want to purchase hide armor proficiency).

This sounds bad for a protector shaman, since her AC is going to be in the pits. However a lot of thematic powers grant temporary hit points/regeneration, damage resistance, or AC bonuses if you just hunker down next to your spirit. Spirit’s shield lets you actually heal an ally within 5 squares if a monster tries to run away without shifting, thunder bear’s warding grants resist all (and temp hit points), and spring renewal strike lets an ally burn a healing surge (add your Con modifier).
Many require that allies be adjacent to the spirit, but thats fine since one of the at-wills rolls out a +1 power bonus to AC, and the protector spirit feat gives a passive bonus to defenses, so there is a LOT of incentive to spearhead attacks with this thing.This makes this class feature particularly thematic, since you can envision the spirit shielding you and your allies from harm.

In play, I didnt really notice the AC disparity. I mean, I noticed it on my sheet, but never got hit as the DM was focusing too much on my spirit and the rest of the party to bother trying to get someone to try and tackle my character. Mind you, this was only at level 1, but we’ll be doing more delve runs on Saturdays and I intend to keep up with a shaman and see how it plays out in the long run.

Shaman: Caring for your Spirit

A spirit companion is a class feature of the shaman class. It is a conjuration effect, so in addition to the rules cited under call spirit companion, it also utilizes rules that pertain to the conjuration keyword (PH2, pg 220). Since I’d just started playing one, I wanted to figure out all the mechanical bits that went into it, and realized that others might have similar trouble with it.

It takes a minor action to summon a spirit companion, which appears within 20 squares of you. It lasts until you are dropped, or dismiss it as a minor action. As a conjuration effect, enemies cannot pass through it.

If you take a move action, it can also move up to your Speed. I have houseruled this to allow it to make a shift if you want, as a ranger can with animal companions.

It can only be targeted by melee or ranged attacks. This seems very specific, discounting area bursts and close blast attacks (a ranged attack is not the same as an area burst despite both being ranged). This means that your spirit is effectively immune to a dragon’s breath weapon.
If it takes damage equal to 10 + one-half your level it disappears, but you can summon it again on your next turn. You also take damage equal to 5 + one-half your level. It is otherwise unaffected by the attack. As a conjuration, the spirit uses your Defenses and is not affected by conditions or ongoing damage.
Also if you do not have line of sight to it at the end of your turn, the effect ends.

Unlike most attacks with a conjuration, if you use a power with the Spirit keyword, you draw both line of effect and line of sight from the spirit, not yourself. This is an exception to the normal rule in that you must have line of sight from yourself.