Greyfox Spirit Shaman

[finneas]

I am attempting to put together some sort of spirit shaman to RP with the Greyfox barbarian tribe and being super unfamiliar with magic, casting and the new changes I figured I should beseech the knowledgeable folks in this forum for assistance. Essentially the character is a grizzled middle aged (40's-50's) spiritual advisor. I would consider both melee and caster options for the character. Some restrictions are that the character needs to take either spirit shaman or barbarian for its first level, have 10 levels of spirit shaman or barbarian by level 30 and they must be distributed somewhat throughout the 30 levels. I assume there is some leniency but those are the general guidelines. The tribe tends toward neutral and chaotic though I would be open to alignments ranging from NG,CG,CN,N,NE. Thanks in advance.

[Theodore01]

With the 'new dispel fix' any build with such a low casterlevel is not worth going for, as you will be dispeled very much.
The talks is - one needs a casterlevel < 26+ to be valueable.

(I had a monk7/sshaman7 going, but that has become unplayable now.)

[Dawrf]

I presume that these are the rules you are required to follow: http://bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t= ... it=Greyfox

Barbarian 10/Spirit Shaman 20 or Barbarian 11/Sprit Shaman 19: would have been alright enough prior to the dispel fix. Now, it would be stuck at caster level of 24 or 23. Perhaps little too prone for dispels.

Thus, I have to wonder if that tribe would be willing to require 18~ or so in Strength instead of 10 levels of Barbarian.

[Rhifox]

I presume that these are the rules you are required to follow: http://bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t= ... it=Greyfox

Barbarian 10/Spirit Shaman 20 or Barbarian 11/Sprit Shaman 19: would have been alright enough prior to the dispel fix. Now, it would be stuck at caster level of 24 or 23. Perhaps little too prone for dispels.

Actually that gets a caster level of 28 if you're willing to use Blood Magic (+4 CL from Practiced Spellcaster, +4 CL from Blood Magic). Blood Magic of course has RP issues, though less so in a tribal society.

Adding Hierophant there (if possible) can also get you another 2-3 caster levels.

It should be noted though that as a spontaneous caster, shaman is actually not hurt very much by dispels even without Blood Magic. You have plenty of spell slots and can freely reapply buffs as needed. Just be sure to pick up some metamagic (to make more use of your slots) and, if you plan on buffing groups then you'll want to pick up at least Mass Bull's and Mass Cat's to save even more slots.


One thing to keep in mind is that such a build shouldn't pick up telthor. Telthor companion needs near-full shaman levels.

[chad878262]

Good points by Rhifox. Also, dispel mobs being reduced means you may only get hit with 1-3 dispels in a given adventure so you can make do with lower cl as a spontaneous caster just fine so long as you are mindful of what buffs you lost after a dispel. Spirit shaman can access Heirophant so long as you are willing to cross class with druid, cleric, favored soul or some other class to get lore: religion as a class skill. Unfortunately you won't be able to take any barbarian levels as you also need to access level 7 spells which requires 14 spirit shaman levels (+3 druid +3 Heirophant=20).

Still might be a worthwhile if you want a spirit shaman caster since with psc you could hit CL 33, 37 with blood magic and if you take cleric and use advanced divine spell power you could even hit cl 41 (if blood magic and advanced divine spell power can be used together, I see no reason they couldn't be). You would need to be SS19/C3/H8 to get 3 spell powers and advanced divine spell power and with such low cleric levels your turn undead roll won't always give you the full benefit without a really good roll so you might want to do the math before going this route.you could stop Heirophant at 4 and just grab 2 spell powers for cl 32, 36 with blood magic.

[Rhifox]

Spirit shaman already gets lore religion as a class skill. Druid is the one that isn't supposed to have lore religion (though BG devs gave it lore religion anyway). No need for druid levels, so you can squeeze in 3 barbarian + 3 hierophant before 20.

[chad878262]

really? DM Golem had specifically stated last week to me that Spirit Shaman did not get Lore: Religion... Guess they changed their minds, all the better for this character concept!

[mrm3ntalist]

The +4CL that you get from blood magic does not count towards Bonus DC. It helps with spell duratin and dispels though.

[Dawrf]

really? DM Golem had specifically stated last week to me that Spirit Shaman did not get Lore: Religion... Guess they changed their minds, all the better for this character concept!

DM Golem is correct though, in PnP, Spirit Shamans do not gain Knowledge: Religion as class skill. But if they did remove it, then that would force Druids and Shamans to multi-class into a class that does provide it and probably get the Able Learner feat on top, which in turn would delay their primary spell-casting progression...

Thus, I feel everyone is happier if they do not have to do all that to get that PRC.

[Rhifox]

I might be mistaken. I could have sworn Lore: Religion was a class skill for shamans, but I did just double-check Complete Divine and apparently it isn't. So it might require Able Learner/cross-classing to get it, yes. Sorry for the mixup.

I probably misremembered since I got Religion as a class skill when I take Thaumaturge levels.

[Duster47]

What, a Karth 2.0?!

Actually, the Greyfox Tribe thread and lore is here.

This was the state of the Tribe about a year ago. There is a link to Lore summary.

Meanwhile, in the north near Secomber...

The unified tribes now all call themselves Greyfox. The warriors of the Tribe assist Trasker Selarn’s local militia patrolling the Delimbiyr Route, Secomber Trail and raiding the savage wild things in nearby High Moor. This is their work honoring Shaundakul to protect and aid travelers and traders. They do not accept coin payment for this service, but instead they keep for trade anything of value they recover from those defeated in battle. They also trade meats and furs with the locals.

Around the camp there are perhaps 50 adults, give or take. There is great pressure on the younger members of the tribe to begin re-populating the tribe. Pairing off is greatly encouraged. Lone males are taking spear wives from the local areas. A recent raid against slavers freed several women who decided to stay with the tribe.

A few others wander far with Shaundakul's wind at their back.

//// Updated Lore and History File ////

//// Updated the OP to reflect this update ////

You can go full SS just fine. Just need to keep him/her "barbaric", follow Shaundakul, and be inclined towards air/wind feywild spirits theme. Going 26ss-4barb or 27-3barb is not lore breaking. Read more on page 12 of the above linked GF lore pdf.

[Dawrf]

Going 26ss-4barb or 27-3barb is not lore breaking.

With Blood Magic that +4 Constitution stacked +4 from Bear's Endurance does give your character 120 extra Hit Points to spare.

[Duster47]

BTW, the last update also granted SS Simple Weapon Proficiency. Now that pesky cannot-use-fishingpole-and-gauntlets should be behind us.

Does not help much with using RP-ish appropriate greatsword (Shuandakul's favorite weapon). But the barb-levels will do that.