Have Hierophant Progress Chastise Spirits (& SS Religion)

[Flights of Fantasy]

Pardon me if it already does. I didn't know it progressed a Cleric's Turn Undead until I searched the forums. It doesn't state it anywhere in the PrC description. So yeah, if it doesn't already do it, I think it'd be a nice addition for the PrC since Chastise Spirits is the Shaman's version of Turn Undead.

Also, you should probably add Turn Undead progressions to the PrC's description. The only reason I thought to search it on the forums is because I thought it was odd that some of the PrC's special feats use Turn Undead without progressing it.

[Flights of Fantasy]

I figured I'd tack this onto the topic. I was surprised to just now discover that Spirit Shamans can't take points in Religion lore. Although very archaic, I would definitely consider the communication and worship of spirits as a religion. On top of that, there was the ruling that Spirit Shamans must have a deity to be able to cast spells. I'd say that warrants the class being able to study religion.

[Rhifox]

I agree with both of these suggestions.

[Valefort]

For the skill I'll refer to the pnp version : https://dndtools.net/classes/spirit-shaman/

It doesn't have it. For the chastise spirit it shouldn't be an issue, pinging QC about it.

[Flights of Fantasy]

I'm all for following lore, but the lore behind the Shaman has already been changed on this server. It now requires that a Shaman follow a deity to get their spells. I searched the text on that page and the worship of gods is not mentioned anywhere. It's all about bargaining with the spirits. If the server is going to require that Spirit Shamans follow a deity to get their divine spells, it only makes sense to allow them to study religion.

[Valefort]

Wouldn't it be better to remove the deity restriction ?

[Flights of Fantasy]

That would make sense but hasn't the staff already ruled on the issue?

[Valefort]

I don't think so, it's just how it works in vanilla nwn2.

[Rhifox]

If the in-game deity restriction can be removed, then that'd be fantastic. It's not canonical and is just a byproduct of NWN2's coding. I'm not sure if it's possible to fix it, though. We're forced to use the druid spell list, and the god list is directly tied to the spell list.

The 'ultimately get their spells from a deity' thing should not have anything to do with a shaman's choice of patron deity, though. I've certainly never taken it that way. We're not clerics. The ruling itself says that a shaman may not even know what god is granting the spells to them. It's not the patron granting the spells, it's other gods working through the spirits.

[Valefort]

I can remove the check for spirit shaman on the deity changer in the nexus, it's a bit clunky as you'll have to do it after each level up (nwn2 will prompt you to choose a druid deity then you can set it again to whatever you want) but there's at least this possibility.

[Rhifox]

I can remove the check for spirit shaman on the deity changer in the nexus, it's a bit clunky as you'll have to do it after each level up (nwn2 will prompt you to choose a druid deity then you can set it again to whatever you want) but there's at least this possibility.

That would be perfect. <3

[Flights of Fantasy]

My memory must be going with age. I could have sworn a Spirit Shaman never had to select a deity in vanilla NWN2 and I could have sworn there had been some sort of debate about this on BG. I must be confusing it with another server again.

[Rhifox]

My memory must be going with age. I could have sworn a Spirit Shaman never had to select a deity in vanilla NWN2 and I could have sworn there had been some sort of debate about this on BG. I must be confusing it with another server again.

It's a vanilla mechanic. Use druid spell list, get druid gods. Gann in Mask of the Betrayer doesn't follow that rule, but he was made Faithless by brute force programming from the developers (the same thing Valefort will do if he changes it on the deity selector NPC in-game. It's an awkward solution, but works).

BG does have a DM rule that all spirit shaman magic ultimately comes from a deity, you're right about that. Which makes sense, because it is a Forgotten Realm rule that all divine magic comes from deities. But for my part I choose to view that as every spirit by its nature has a divine essence that powers its magic, and as such acts as an intermediary for shamans who call on that spirit. They definitely should not need a patron like druids/clerics/paladins/etc, as that would utterly ruin shamans as a concept. A shaman should be able to be faithless and still get their magic from deities, because of the spirits they interact with.

[Flights of Fantasy]

Another thing to tack onto this topic. As I was taking the Hierophant levels, I discovered a feat that I didn't know existed for the Hierophant: Animal Companion Progression. That needs to be added to the PrC description, too. Anyway, thought I'd ask if that feat also progresses the SS's Telthor Companion or if there is a separate option for the Telthor that becomes available?

[Valefort]

It progresses Telthor.