Shamans
Mongoose's Encyclopaedia Arcane series introduced a variety of new options for arcane spellcasters in d20 fantasy games. It would only stand to reason that should such a volume cover divine magic, it would be called the Encyclopaedia Divine. And so it is. Encyclopaedia Divine: Shamans is the first such book, covering the topic of shamanism in the d20 System.
Of course, the astute shopper will be aware of the fact that there is already one book out there that covers shamanism as a variant of divine magic: Green Ronin's Shaman's Handbook. Some comparisons to that volume are unavoidable.
A First Look
Mongoose's Shamans is a 64-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $14.95US. This is in line with the Encyclopaedia Arcane series.
The cover is color, with grey Celtic knot patterns as a border. The front cover depicts a man in Native American looking garb and a drum dancing near rune covered stones.
The interior is black and white and has overall fairly good illustrations. Danilo Moretti, Marcio Fiorito, and Renato Guedes seem to be the standout artists in this book.
The book uses the mid-sized body text and large header fonts typical of Mongoose products.
A Deeper Look
The central aspect of Shamans is the shaman core class. The shaman is a divine spellcaster, but like the sorcerer casts spells spontaneously and uses Charisma as the casting ability score. Yet the shaman does not have a spell list per se.
Instead, the shaman has a number of spirit allies, starting at 1st-level with 3 allies plus the character's Charisma modifier. Each spirit ally is associated with a domain, much like a clerical domain. In addition, each spirit can have a number of additional spells. The shaman can cast spells made available by the spirit allies.
Unlike clerics, a shaman does not get extra domain spells and has limited access to domain abilities. Each day, the shaman may select a number of domains equal to her Wisdom modifier from those made available by her spirit allies. The shaman, however, may attempt to invoke abilities of other spirits, but this takes a skill check based on her Perform (rituals) skill.
As the shaman gains levels, she may gain additional spirit allies by performing rites. There is a maximum amount of allies dictated by the shaman's level.
In addition to the shaman's spirit allies, the shaman receives a guardian spirit. The guardian spirit is in many ways like the spirit allies, but similar to familiars in that it grants a bonus and advances much like a sorcerer or wizard's familiar. The guardian spirit eventually gains the ability to bestow a number of boons on the shaman, including use of skills and even the ability to take the spirit's form similar to wild shape.
As the shaman gains level, she learns additional feats and the ability to perform certain rites. The rites are all based on the shaman's Perform (rituals) skill. These rituals allow the shaman to gain new spirit allies as well as emulate certain spells. For example, a rite to apologize to the spirits acts much like an atonement spell, and rites can be used to curse one's enemies.
There are three new prestige classes detailed in the book.
The touched is a character who did not willingly answer the call of the spirits. The touched gains spellcasting similar to a shaman, is subject to geases from his spirit allies, and has difficulty gaining levels in other classes. The touched character, though, can see spirits, receive guidance from the spirits, and receive bestowed abilities similar to a shaman's guardian spirit.
The spirit warrior is a more combative character that speaks with the spirits. The spirit warrior receives some shaman abilities such as spellcasting, but in combat can receive inspiration that guides his weapon in combat, allowing him to ignore some concealment penalties.
The whisperer of ghosts is a shaman that deals with undead. She helps guide the restless dead to their proper place. The whisperer of ghosts can turn or rebuke undead similar to clerics, can see spirits on the ethereal plane, and can call back memories of an undead creature's life with varying effects.
A section entitled Secrets of the Craft describe feats and skills for shamans. The section provides some new uses for old skills, such as using Concentration to enter a trance or using Diplomacy to deal with spirits. The section also introduces new Knowledge skills (spirits, spirit world, and herbalism), a new Perform specialty (rituals), and a new Profession (apothecary).
Many of the new feats are spirit feats, which require the character to have the ability to see into the spirit world. Spirit feats include Additional Favour (allows extra uses of spirit domain abilities) and Ritemaster (allows the shaman to perform additional rites each day). There are also item creation feats, metamagic feats, and general feats.
As mentioned earlier, all spirits are associated with one domain. This domain can be one of those outlined in the PHB. Shamans, however, introduces a number of new domains that can reflect the nature of the spirit. New domains include Spirit (which all guardian spirits have), Art, Craft, Haunting, Memory, Nourishment, Predator, and Storm, as well as a number of ancestor domains. There is one ancestor domain for each core class in the PHB; e.g., there is a barbarian domain, a bard domain, and so on.
There are a number of new spells. Some are part of the new domains, while some are not part of any domain, but are cross listed with existing classes, and presumably a shaman would be able to learn such a spell if the spirit has access to it.
The last major section is Spirits. There are a number of sample spirits provided, complete with spell lists. There is also a spirit template that can be used to make new spirits out of existing creatures. All spirits have the spells that they can grant as spell-like abilities. Rules are also provided to allow for a spirit advancing.
The Help for GMs section includes some ideas on what the spirit world may look like in comparison to the core D&D cosmology. Basically, the author sees the spirit world as being a "positive" reflection of the Plane of Shadow, through which positive energy flows into the world in the same way that negative energy flows into the Plane of Shadow.
Conclusion
Shamans is a very interesting book and presents a character type with a lot of possibilities. It does a good job of adapting the system to emulate shamanism while avoiding common pratfalls some designers do when stretching the system.
It is hard to comment on this book without comparing it to Green Ronin's Shaman's Handbook. Both books are well done and have approaches that are somewhat similar. Both model the shaman as a divine spellcaster that casts spells like a sorcerer, and both model the powers of spirits with domains.
Where the books differ is in their approaches. It seems that Green Ronin's Shaman's Handbook tries to fit the shaman to the d20 System, while Mongoose's Shamans fits the system to the concept of the shaman. That is, the Shaman's Handbook shaman is very similar to existing divine spellcasting classes, and it addresses how creatures that already exist in the system fit into the worldview of the shaman. Shamans' shaman is a bit more unique. It is probably a more faithful adaptation, but probably won't fit quite as neatly alongside a normal party in a standard D&D world.
In addition, Shamans is a smaller, cheaper book. Shaman's Handbook is larger and covers more topics and includes such nice sections as a primer on shamanic traditions in the real world and a larger selection of prestige classes, as well as details on dream realms, vision quests, and the spirit cosmology as it fits into the standard D&D cosmology.
Addendum: Playtest Notes
Since I wrote this review, I had the chance to implement a Shaman character from this book. I ran an Oriental Adventures campaign and made renamd the character an "animist" (to distinguish it from the OA Shaman.
Designing the shaman was an interesting exercise. The nature of the Shaman's spirit allies means that they can vary widely in character and capabilities, making them rather distinctive. That said, designing spirits can be a somewhat tedious task if you don't just use the samples in the book.
Designing spirits exposed a few weaknesses in the approach of the book. For example, the book only temporarily grants domain abilities. This make the shaman domain ability useless for domains that only grant access to skills. I decided that domain abilities phrased this way granted a 2 bonus to the listed skills instead.
Overall, I consider the experiment a success. The player enjoyed the character and the character was rather distinctive. Further, the character was an interesting and useful addition to the party.
-Alan D. Kohler
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