

The Shaman! While there have been many interpretations over the years, I thought I would throw my hat into the mix!

This interpretation of the Shaman is a Constitution based partial caster (unless you soul bond with a powerful mage) with tons of versatility! Options for spellcasting, fighting, and utility! Thank you again Alec for your brilliant contributions! Be sure to look at Communal Healing and Spiritual Reservoir!

Class Features:

Channeling Magic: Channel the mystical energy of the spirits that still linger in the world through your body, and weave them into powerful spells! However, the Shaman knows that a mutual exchange is required for this to happen.

Offering of Essence: Shaman do not take from the spirits and force them to their will. They share part of their life force to gain access to the powerful energy that still resides in the spirits.

Wandering Spirits: Invite powerful spirits to share your body for a brief time! Gain the benefits that it had in life, and let it drink from your life energy in thanks!

Bonded Soul: The pinnacle of every Shaman is to bond with a powerful soul. Will it be an ancient warrior known across the realms, a famous explorer who has seen the world, or a mysterious mage that vanished suddenly.

**Shaman Version 2.0 Updates**

After some awesome input and advice from the reddit user SamuraiHealer, I decided to reorganize and balance the class to be more in line with the 5e class model established by WotC.

*Updated The Shaman feature’s table to fix errors and show correct information.

*Hit Die changed from a d12 to a d10

*Offering of Essence

The additional damage from the proficiency modifier removed for a couple reasons. This was to counteract the lowing of the Hit Die, and it also did not make any sense. Why would you take more damage from something you are becoming more proficient in?

*Spiritual Invitation and Wandering Spirits (Moved from 3rd level feature to 2nd)

I moved the Spiritual Invitation and Wandering Spirits features to 2nd level. I consider this to be the benchmark mechanic of the class, which can allow a player using a Shaman to be extremely versatile both while in and out of combat. The main reason I moved this to 2ndlevel was to allow room for the Bonded Soul feature.

*Bonded Soul (Moved to be a 3rdLevel feature instead of 6th)

This feature allows the Shaman to choose from three different subclass options: The Explorer, The Mage, and The Warrior. To make the Shaman a more playable and uniform class, this feature needed to be available earlier than 6th level. In doing this, I also needed to restructure and balance the subclass features and change what levels they would become available. This will be detailed further below. Additional features gained from Bonded Soul were changed from 6th, 11th, 13th, 15th, and 17th level, to be 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 14th level.

*Strength of Spirit (Moved to level 11 instead of 10 to offset Bonded Soul change)

*Meditative Healing (Second use available at 13th level instead of 14thlevel)

This change was made to offset Bonded Soul feature.

*New Feature: Ethereal Sanctuary

This feature was added to fill a gap left from the change of the Bonded Soul feature at 15th level. The feature is designed to be a unique way to defend yourself when the damage begins piling on.

*New Feature: Into the Ether

This feature was added to fill a gap left from the change of the Bonded Soul feature at 17th level. This feature was designed to be a useful tool that allows the Shaman (and 1 ally) to travel through the Ethereal Plane. This feature could be extremely useful in situations that require stealth.

Bonded Soul Subclasses (The Explorer, The Mage, The Warrior)

The Explorer

After some discussion with SamuraiHealer, he informed me that WotC has tried using Feats as features before, but there was significant backlash from the D&D community. To fix this, the features Of Many Talentsand Relatable were removed. In their place, the features Out of Necessityand Skilled Seeker were added at 6thand 10th level respectively. Stories of Old changed from 15th level to 14thlevel.

The Mage

The Mage was completely changed from what it was originally. While I like the option of a subclass allowing a partial-caster to become a full-caster, this would be too overpowered in relation to other casters.

Arcane Knowledge and Arcane Knowledge Spells added beginning at 3 rd level.

Spiritual Efficiency moved from 3 rd level to 6 th .

Enduring Spirit was taken from The Warrior subclass and moved to The Mage as a 10 th level feature.

Soul Strike was taken from The Warrior subclass and moved to The Mage as a 14thlevel feature.

The features moved from The Warrior to The Mage were done so because they are utilizing spells. I believe that it makes more sense for The Mage to gain access to these features rather than The Warrior.

The Warrior

Warrior Spirits moved to be a 3 rd level ability.

Extra attack removed, and instead replaced with Duel Assault at 6 th level.

Ethereal Ambush moved from a 11 th level ability to a 10 th level ability.

Siphon Attack moved from a 15th level ability to a 14thlevel ability.





Recognition of other work:

I have seen several other authors post their take on the Shaman class to DM’s Guild and elsewhere. While my take on the Shaman class is different from other author(s) creations, and the majority of my work on the class was written before researching other author’s interpretations, I want to be sure that I identify others works that had similar content.

While I did see other authors utilize other class features in the Player’s Handbook, I will reference the Handbook instead of their work that is similar. For example, the Warlock’s Mystic Arcanum mechanic is utilized in my Soul Bonding (The Mage) feature.

Beyond that, I mainly found a few similarities with one author in particular regarding some of the features. I would like to mention Andrew Hartis and Chelsea Dabbs (A Point of Inspiration) for their Gift of Possession and Spiritual Guides feature. The Gift of Possession feature is similar to the central concept of my take on the class. While I would describe it more as a communion than a possession, the Shaman in both instances gains the benefits from the spirits. The boons offered by the Spiritual Guides feature and my Wandering Spirits feature share some similarities. Additionally, their overall theme of the symbiotic relationship between the Shaman and the Spirits is a consistent theme throughout my work as well. Please be sure to check out their work on DM’s Guild. You can find it by searching for “The Shaman,” or by the author “A Point of Inspiration.”