Shamans are the spiritual leaders and healers of many primitive societies. They relate to clerics in a fashion similar to the sorcerer's relation to wizards. Shamans are priests without traditional deities. They instead worship the spirits of animals of particular importance to their tribe, tribal ancestors or even nature as a whole. They view the spiritual and material worlds as fully entwined and inseparable. Shamans attach particular importance to the activities of the planes beyond the prime material and seek out spells that reflect this interest. In effect they have a domain of spirit and outer plane related spells. After undergoing a lengthy and grueling apprenticeship at the hands of the tribe's senior shaman the aspiring shaman begins to acquire clerical spells and may call his fetch.
Shamans are strongly attached to the tribe of their origin and only rarely part from them. However, some shamans will adventure to obtain items or experiences of particular use to their community. Some will also adventure as part of a personal journey of self-discovery or vision quest. If a shaman's tribe is destroy or disbands for some reason the shaman becomes rootless and will wander endlessly seeking a lost sense of purpose.
Shamans are casters of divine magic with many similarities to clerics. They do not have the cleric's ability to turn the undead and are more limited in their combat abilities. The shaman is compensated for these drawbacks with special abilities and spells and their fetch.
A shaman's alignment is dictated by the alignment of their tribe. As tribal societies run the gamut of structures a shaman can be any alignment.
Shamans practice animism. Which is the worship of the spiritual elements of nature. This is either practiced directly in the form of reverence of a totem animal of importance to the tribe usually as a food source or through worship of the tribe's ancestors. Alternately a shaman's belief system may be a belief in the fundamental spiritual nature of all creation. In either case the shaman lives in constant communication with the spirits of the dead and the world around them. They attempt to expand their understanding to encompass all the planes of existence.
Most shamans are identified as a likely candidate for shamanhood as children. They are removed from their parents and raised by an adopting shaman. The child's life is lengthy and demanding education requiring a strong mind and body. Given the peculiarities of each individual shaman's methods it is rare for shamans to cooperate with others of their class.
Most shamans are human. However, more primitive elven groups have shamans as well. In areas where wild elves and primitive humans mix there are half elf shamans. Many humanoids have shamans as part of their tribal structure. Other races only very rarely become shamans.
Shamans get along with other classes as a general rule. Druids and shamans often get along very well as they share similar views of the natural world. For the opposite reason they sometimes conflict with clerics. Priests often regard shamans as heretical rejecters of deism. Conversely shamans often think clerics are deluded slaves of individual powerful spirits.
Wisdom determines the power of the divine spells a shaman may cast. A shaman can cast a spell if it is equal to or less than 10 plus the wisdom bonus of the shaman.
Animal Empathy, Heal, Knowledge Religion, Scry, Spell Craft, Wilderness Lore, Intimidate, Craft
| Skill Points at first level: (2+ int mod)x4 | |
| At each level: 2+ Int mod |
Shamans are proficient with all simple weapons and weapons common to their tribe. Shamans are proficient with light armor only.
d8
A shaman as the final test of their apprenticeship must summon their fetch. The fetch is a spirit that takes on the form of an animal significant to the tribe. The shaman's fetch is an intelligent and devoted companion. The fetch is in most ways similar to the familiar of sorcerers and wizards. The fetch special abilities are identical to those of the familiar. The familiar basics also apply to the fetch.
The shaman has no choice over the species of his fetch and is a matter that must be settled by the dungeon master. The choice should be consistent with the lifestyle of the shaman's tribe. An appropriate choice would include animals hunted by the tribe for food, creatures featured in the legends of the tribe, or creatures carrying specific cultural meaning. For game balance purposes the dungeon master should avoid making the fetch a particularly powerful or dangerous animal.
A shaman can never dismiss his fetch but if the fetch is killed a Fortitude saving throw (DC 17) must be made. If the saving throw is failed the shaman will lose 300 experience points per class level. Naturally, experience can never go below zero. A slain fetch can not be raised from the dead as it a creature only loosely attached to the material world. If a shaman's fetch is slain the shaman's only thought must be to replace it which can be done in any isolated location with the casting of the shaman's special Call Fetch spell.
| Level | BaseAttack | FortSave | RefSave | WillSave | Abilities |
| 1 | 0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | See Invisibility |
| 2 | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | |
| 3 | +2 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Speak with Dead |
| 4 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | |
| 5 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Charm Spirit |
| 6 | +4 | +5 | +2 | +5 | |
| 7 | +5 | +5 | +2 | +5 | |
| 8 | +6/+1 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Speak to Ancestors |
| 9 | +6/+1 | +6 | +3 | +6 | |
| 10 | +7/+2 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Command Spirit |
| 11 | +8/+3 | +7 | +3 | +7 | |
| 12 | +9/+4 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Summon Ancestor |
| 13 | +9/+4 | +8 | +4 | +8 | |
| 14 | +10/+5 | +9 | +4 | +9 | |
| 15 | +11/+6/+1 | +9 | +5 | +9 | Dominate Spirit |
| 16 | +12/+7/+2 | +10 | +5 | +10 | |
| 17 | +12/+7/+2 | +10 | +6 | +10 | |
| 18 | +13/+8/+3 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Bind Spirit |
| 19 | +14/+9/+4 | +11 | +6 | +11 | |
| 20 | +15/+10/+5 | +12 | +6 | +12 |
| Spells per Day | ||||||||||
| Level | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 1 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||
| 2 | 4 | 2 | ||||||||
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | |||||||
| 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| 6 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||||||
| 7 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |||||
| 9 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 10 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| 11 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||
| 12 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |||
| 13 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 14 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 15 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| 16 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| 17 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 18 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 19 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 20 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
See Invisibility: 1st level - The shaman can see the invisible world as per the spell See Invisibility
Speak with Dead: 3rd level - The shaman can speak with the dead as per the spell once a day for every two levels.
Charm Spirit: 5th level - The Shaman may charm a spirit. Works like the Charm Monster spell but only for spirits.
Speak to Ancestors: 8th level - By speaking their ancestors Shamans gain a +4 to Scry.
Command Spirit: 10th level - The shaman gains the ability to command a spirit 1 time per day per 3 levels above 10 as per the command spell.
Summon Ancestor: 12th level - The shaman may summon an ancestor to aid him/her.
Dominate Spirit: 15th level - The shaman is able to dominate a spirit as per the spell dominate twice a day.
Bind Spirit: 18th - level - Bind spirit is the most powerful of Shamanic ability. The shaman is able to bind a spirit in a fashion similar to the bind spell - the spirit is confined to a totem and is dominated by the shaman. The spirit will do the Shamans bidding and remain bound and dominated for up to one year per level of the shaman. The shaman may bind up to one spirit per 5 levels. Bind Spirit is energy intensive and may only be performed once per month.
0-level
Call Fetch
Cure Minor Wounds
Dancing Lights
Detect Magic
Inflict Minor Wounds
Light
Prestidigitation
1st-level
Animal Friendship
Bless
Calm Animal
Cause Fear
Command
Cure Light Wounds
Death Watch
Detect Animal or Plant
Detect Undead
Doom
Faerie Fire
Inflict Light Wounds
Protection from Good
Protection from Evil
Summon Monster I
2nd-level
Aid
Animal Messenger
Animal Trance
Augury
Bane
Cure Moderate Wounds
Darkness
Delay Poison
Desecrate
Detect Good
Detect Evil
Endure Element
Enthrall
Ghoul Touch
Hold Animal
Hypnotism
Inflict Moderate Wounds
Magic Mouth
Remove Paralysis
Resist Elements
Scare
See Invisibility
Speak with Animals
Summon Monster II
Undetectable Alignment
3rd-level
Bestow Curse
Cure Serious Wounds
Daylight
Discern Lie
Dispel Magic
Dominate Animal
Glyph of Warding
Helping Hand
Inflict Serious Wounds
Invisibility Purge
Magic Circle vs Good
Magic Circle vs Evil
Negative Energy Protection
Protection from Elements
Remove Disease
Speak with Dead
Summon Monster III
4th-level
Airwalk
Deathward
Detect Scrying
Dimensional Anchor
Dismissal
Fly
Inflict Critical Wounds
Legend Lore
Lesser Geas
Lesser Planar Ally
Lesser Planar Binding
Neutralize Poison
Nondetection
Phantasmal Killer
Remove Curse
Shadow Conjuration
Summon Monster IV
Tongues
5th-level
Animal Growth
Arcane Eye
Break Enchantment
Commune
Contact Other Plane
Cure Critical Wounds
Dispel Good
Dispel Evil
Dream
False Vision
Greater Command
Greater Shadow Conjuration
Hallow
Healing Circle
Nightmare
Plane Shift
Polymorph Self
Reincarnate
Scrying
Shadow Evocation
Spell Resistance
Summon Monster V
Unhallow
6th-level
Antimagic Field
Banishment
Ethereal Jaunt
Forbiddance
Geas/Quest
Greater Dispelling
Greater Glyph of Warding
Heal
Planar Ally
Planar Binding
Shades
Summon Monster VI
7th-level
Animal Shapes
Binding
Blasphemy
Dictum
Etherealness
Greater Scrying
Regenerate
Repulsion
Shadow Walk
Monster Summon VII
Vision
Wind Walk
8th-level
Antipathy
Greater Planar Ally
Greater Planar Binding
Protection from Spells
Summon Monster VIII
Trap the Soul
9th-level
Astral Projection
Elemental Swarm
Foresight
Gate
Mass Heal
Soul Bind
Monster Summon IX
Time Stop
Weird