*UPDATE* Reworked spirit shaman.
Today we cover my least favorite book of all the 'complete' series, the Complete Divine. The complete divine is a really bipolar book. The core classes are all really under powered, and the prestige classes are all over the place, some are really really good, (Divine oracle, Radiant Servant of Pelor, Stormlord...) some seem purely meant as enemies, (Black Flame Zealot, Blighter) While others are not bad just... I don't know, entire purpose is to change a cleric or fighter into a paladin. (Hospitaler, Holy Liberator.)
The three new classes are quite the conundrum. The first class, the Favored Soul, is the attempt at a sorcerer style cleric, and while it is a good idea, it is really under powered. (Even before my buffs to the other classes.) The next class is the shugenja, the oriental adventures cleric. The idea and style behind the class is interesting, but it is in my opinion the weakest class in the game, (yes, even worse then the bard I argue.) and the final class, the spirit shaman, is the most balanced of the new classes, with a truly unique style of casting, but it is still really out classed by the druid, which it is attempting to rival.
The problem for this is actually quite simple, it is hard to improve upon perfection. The cleric and druid are the classes I did the least changes too, (essentially more flexibility with domains and weapons) because they are really really good classes, that are exceptional in gestalt play. (There are many people who claim on DnD forums that the Lawful Neutral gestalt monk/druid is the most powerful class combination around.... flurry of blows in wild shape is awesome.) This puts the new classes at a disadvantage, as they really can't compete.
We will start with the favored soul. This sorcerer version of the cleric, as written, is a really funky class. They look pretty cool, they innately channel divine power, knowing spells like a sorcerer, drawn from the cleric list. They also gain combat abilities as they level that are really good, but it is all based around the deities favored weapon, which really limits your selection of gods, as most of them have really crappy weapons. (Heavy pick...) They also do gain energy resistance, wings, and eventual damage reduction. The issue there? most of those abilities don't show up until after 10, which means you can't branch out into prestige classes... which is another major advantage of clerics. Another massive advantage of clerics? Only 1 casting stat, everything is based on wisdom. Favored soul? Charisma for bonus spells, wisdom for DCs, and you need some physical stats since all the other class abilities are based around deity weapons... so you end up with a really statistically demanding class, that doesn't reward you that much for it. The class does have some good things, all good saves are nice, and so are the energy resistance and the other passive abilities... but comparing the favored soul to the cleric or paladin? Paladin's are way better warriors, and a cleric can be just as good of a fighter, (as a favored soul) have turning/rebuking undead, domains, and significantly better casting ability. This puts the favored soul into a tough place, if you enhance their fighting ability too much, they are better than paladins, but you can't really alter the spell casting much without changing the class around a lot. My changes to the class are 4 fold... the first is the same change as the cleric with regards to deity and favored weapons, meaning if you can make a good argument for it, you can have it. (example, I worship a sun god and want longsword as my favored weapon... the longsword represents the piercing ray of the sun) The second change is to the primary casting stat, it is now a choice between wisdom or charisma. The 3rd change is increasing the HD to d10, and the final change is giving them the lay on hands ability, just like a paladin. The hope with these changes are to give more of a niche for the favored soul, an effective healer/buff/support warrior. The thing is, even with these 4 pretty major changes, I feel like the cleric is still the better class, domains, spontaneous conversion, and the best spell casting set up of any class is hard to match.
Simplified: Flexible deity chosen weapons, charisma or wisdom* mod for all casting abilities, HD to d10, and lay on hands like a paladin.
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| (Innately channeling divine energy, the favored soul is a unique blend of warrior and cleric.) |
Shugenja: The oriental adventures cleric is, in my opinion, the weakest core class in any book. The basis of the class is an unarmored elemental cleric, who draws power from her chosen element. As far as gameplay goes, they are a strange mix of sorcerer and druid. The shugenja starts his adventure by picking a primary element, and this is the single most important choice a shugenja makes. If you pick water, you can heal and get a few attacks, but you can't cast fire spells, which really hampers your damage. If you pick earth, you can still get fire and water, but you lose air, which has the wonderfully useful spells like fly and levitate. Picking air and losing earth will cost you an enormous amount of buffing spells. (bull's strength and the like) This, right off the bat, is a big disadvantage. Clerics have spell limitations, but that is based on alignment, being good and not being able to cast 'evil' spells, isn't a giant deal, there are so many other options on the cleric list that you can find things that will work. The shugenja list is unique, and has spells from the cleric, druid, and wizard spell lists, it is just a really small list still, and the shugenja gets very few spells known. Give them wizard BAB, no armor proficiency, really crappy weapon proficiency, and a d6 for HD, and you have a class that is pretty much worse than the cleric, druid, or wizard in every way.
This led me to the internet, and to many DnD forums, (which I mentioned very briefly earlier.) with many asking the question, "how do I make Shugenja's not suck?" The responses were all over the place, and while things like my changes to the favored soul were pretty consistent, it was obvious that few people have figured out what to do with this class. The very loose consensus was to change the spell list around... and that is way more work than I'm willing to do right now. The problem with this class is, if you tweak it too much, the spirit of the class gets lost and we'll pretty much have another cleric type. Making changes to this class then is really just educated guessing on my part. I'm making two major changes to the class, first I'm giving the shugenja an advanced learning ability every 4 levels. (4,8,12, etc.) This is an extra spell, that must be of the shugenja's chosen element. However, it can be chosen from the Cleric, Druid, Shugenja, or Wu Jen list. This should hopefully enhance the shugenja versatility with spell selection. The other change I'm making is subtle, but very important. When you pick a favored element, you lose access to the opposing element. Pick fire? No healing spells for you. Pick earth? No flying for you. Ever. I'm making 1 change to this. You may now have 1 spell on your list per spell level, (1 level 1, 1 level 2, etc.) of the opposing element. These two changes should increase the spell casting capability of the shugenja, without compromising the style of the class itself. To further enhance this class, I'm adding Shugenja's Edge, which means they add their wisdom mod to damage on spells, like wizards or warmages do. I am also giving then a bonus feat every 5 levels, this must be chosen from the wizard list.
*UPDATE!* Artherian shugenja, over the last 1000 years, have learned some from their more warrior oriented brethren. They have been practicing Iaijutsu with their chosen wakizashi. They now gain this ability exactly like a ninja, starting with +2 at level 1, and increasing every 7 levels. (+4 at 7, +6 at 14, +8 at 21, etc.) This stacks with ninja or samurai Iaijutsu.
*UPDATE!* Artherian shugenja, over the last 1000 years, have learned some from their more warrior oriented brethren. They have been practicing Iaijutsu with their chosen wakizashi. They now gain this ability exactly like a ninja, starting with +2 at level 1, and increasing every 7 levels. (+4 at 7, +6 at 14, +8 at 21, etc.) This stacks with ninja or samurai Iaijutsu.
Simplified: Bonus spell (of chosen element) from Druid, cleric, shugenja, or wujen list every 4 levels. Allowed 1 forbidden element spell known per spell level. Shugenja's Edge, wisdom bonus to damage, and bonus feat every 5 levels. Iaijutsu every 7 levels.
*Update, reworked.*
The final class in the Complete Divine is the spirit shaman, in my opinion the best of the new classes... and still under powered compared to the druid. The spirit shaman is a druid like class with very unique abilities. Every class ability they have affects 'spirits,' which, since I'm not using the Oriental Adventures book, means incorporeal undead, fey, and elementals. And while there is nothing wrong with that, comparing those abilities to things like wild shape, and the spirit shaman can't cut it. The spirit shaman to me, almost feels like a prestige class. The abilities are really specialized, so your character will either really shine in a situation or be pretty worthless.
Let us start with what they got right with the spirit shaman, the casting type. It is a clever mix of sorcerer and cleric. You have access to all the spells, like a cleric or druid, but each day, you select so many that you know for the day. You then get to cast those however you desire, like a sorcerer would. It takes a little bit to get used to, but they are the only class that casts spells like this, and it is really neat and unique. Also, a lot of the abilities, like chastise spirit, are really good. This doesn't make up for the versatility of wild shape or elemental shape, but it is great when you're against fey, elementals, or undead. A lot of the abilities are pretty nice against those opponents.
I made a 5th level spirit shaman and a 5th level druid, and had them face off. I had a wood element wolf against a druid with a bear, (not upgraded) and the druid took it pretty easily. Then I made a few encounters with the shaman and druid on the same side against some monsters, and while the fights against elementals were definitely better as the spirit shaman, the druid was still effective in that battle, and was far better in the normal fights. This means I need to change some things around. First off, the spirit companion is now at level 1, and is decided on a 1d4 roll, (see below.) I'm also increasing the base usage of chastise spirit from 3 + casting mod to 5 + casting mod. I'm also giving spirit shaman the ability to turn or rebuke all spirits. This takes a use of the chastise spirits ability. I'm also giving the spirit shaman a flexible casting stat, chosen at character creation, they can choose either charisma or wisdom. The final bonus is bonus feats every 5 levels, 5,10, 15, etc. Hopefully the feats will enhance the versatility, while the increased abilities and spirit companion make it more comparable to the druid.
Spirit companion: roll 1d4
1-2: Spirit animal (Animal companion with elemental template from manual of the planes)
3. Small Elemental (Dependent on spirit guide, a bird will give an air elemental for example.)
4. Tiny Fey creature, (Pixie for example)
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| (Unique elemental priests, the Shugenja is one of the more unique casters in the game.) |
The final class in the Complete Divine is the spirit shaman, in my opinion the best of the new classes... and still under powered compared to the druid. The spirit shaman is a druid like class with very unique abilities. Every class ability they have affects 'spirits,' which, since I'm not using the Oriental Adventures book, means incorporeal undead, fey, and elementals. And while there is nothing wrong with that, comparing those abilities to things like wild shape, and the spirit shaman can't cut it. The spirit shaman to me, almost feels like a prestige class. The abilities are really specialized, so your character will either really shine in a situation or be pretty worthless.
Let us start with what they got right with the spirit shaman, the casting type. It is a clever mix of sorcerer and cleric. You have access to all the spells, like a cleric or druid, but each day, you select so many that you know for the day. You then get to cast those however you desire, like a sorcerer would. It takes a little bit to get used to, but they are the only class that casts spells like this, and it is really neat and unique. Also, a lot of the abilities, like chastise spirit, are really good. This doesn't make up for the versatility of wild shape or elemental shape, but it is great when you're against fey, elementals, or undead. A lot of the abilities are pretty nice against those opponents.
I made a 5th level spirit shaman and a 5th level druid, and had them face off. I had a wood element wolf against a druid with a bear, (not upgraded) and the druid took it pretty easily. Then I made a few encounters with the shaman and druid on the same side against some monsters, and while the fights against elementals were definitely better as the spirit shaman, the druid was still effective in that battle, and was far better in the normal fights. This means I need to change some things around. First off, the spirit companion is now at level 1, and is decided on a 1d4 roll, (see below.) I'm also increasing the base usage of chastise spirit from 3 + casting mod to 5 + casting mod. I'm also giving spirit shaman the ability to turn or rebuke all spirits. This takes a use of the chastise spirits ability. I'm also giving the spirit shaman a flexible casting stat, chosen at character creation, they can choose either charisma or wisdom. The final bonus is bonus feats every 5 levels, 5,10, 15, etc. Hopefully the feats will enhance the versatility, while the increased abilities and spirit companion make it more comparable to the druid.
Spirit companion: roll 1d4
1-2: Spirit animal (Animal companion with elemental template from manual of the planes)
3. Small Elemental (Dependent on spirit guide, a bird will give an air elemental for example.)
4. Tiny Fey creature, (Pixie for example)
Simplified: Spirit companion at level 1, increased ability uses, 5+casting mod per day, turn/rebuke spirits, like a cleric of the spirit shamans level, can choose wisdom or charisma for casting stat, and bonus feats every 5 levels.
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| (A spirit shaman communing with the dead.) |
That concludes the complete divine... the book that has been the most work of the 'complete' series. Currently, only the favored soul has been tested... and I've found that even with the nice upgrades I gave it, that I still prefer the standard cleric. I think my changes to the shugenja will work, and now I think the reworked spirit shaman is much better.
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