A D20 System Supplement from
Green Ronin Publishing
Rating:
(4 out of 5 hearts)
The Shaman's Handbook proposes a new class and a new approach to divine magic. The shaman finds his or her origin in primitive cultures and protects primitive communities. Somewhat to the cleric what the barbarian is to the fighter, instead of receiving spells from gods, shamans derive their powers from associations with spirit guides who take the form of totems. As well as granting spells to the shaman, totems also give access to domains. With each five levels of experience, shamans get access to an extra domain, but not to its associated granted power. The shaman's spell list includes some new spells that are described in this book, most of which involve interacting with spirits or the spirit world (the planes). Some of the new spells let the shaman go in the spirit world to physically fight curses, diseases and magic spells or items to destroy them.
Shamans get the rebuke spirits special power, as well as access to feats that let them interact with and affect the spirit world in various ways. Just what constitutes a spirit is interesting and reaches across a broad spectrum of creatures. All elementals, outsiders and creatures of the incorporeal subtype are considered spirits, as well as creatures that can be created by applying the new templates provided in this book. What this means is that demons, devils, celestials, elementals, ghosts and a host of other creatures can be rebuked by the shaman and are subject to all the shaman's powers and spells that target spirits.
The new templates are the Spirit template, the Exalted Beast template and the Beast Lord template can be applied to most creatures to create the spirits that make the shaman class most relevant. The Spirit template turns a creature into an incorporeal denizen of the ethereal plane able to manifest and materialize itself into the material plane. Examples of creatures that had this template added to them described in this book are a dire spirit bear and a spirit ogre mage. One can use this template to make anything from spirit rats to spirit dragons. Exalted Beast is a template that can be applied to any animal, beast, magical beast or vermin with an intelligence score of 6 or less. The template gives the creature +8 to its int score and +5 to its cha, among other things, such as granting them speech and the power to dominate other creatures of their base type. The Beast Lord is applied to any creature that has both the Spirit and Exalted Beast templates applied to it. The creature must be advanced to large size and 20 HD. These creatures can make good totems for shaman characters.
Three new types of magic items have been created for this book, as well as the feats that need to be acquired to create them. Charms and fetish are the same thing as potions and scrolls respectively, in that a charm can store any spell of 3rd level or lower and can be activated by anybody, while a fetish can hold any spell that the creator stores in it but can only be used by a character who can cast that spell (i.e. has it on his or her class spell list). The difference is that these items can have any form and shape, such as an animal's paw, a candle or any other item. Fetishes can also be created with charges, making them the shamanic equivalent of wands as well. While the prerequisites for the Craft Charm and the Craft Fetish feats do not indicate it, it can be assumed that these feats are restricted to shaman characters. The other type of item is the Mystic (Magic) Tattoo, something that is becoming more and more popular throughout various publications. The book includes the description of both permanent and temporary tattoos.
Six prestige classes derived from the shaman concept provide variations on the themes described throughout the book. While these classes are most adequate for shaman characters, they are by no means restricted to them and can make interesting complements to many spellcasting classes and even fighting type classes.
The way that the planes are perceived by shamans is a bit different than the "traditional" description. The spirit world is the equivalent of the ethereal plane and contains the Land of the Dead as well as the Dream World. The Dream World could have been developed more deeply here considering its relevance to shamans as suggested throughout the rest of the book. The outer planes are divided in two big areas, the Upperworld (the more good oriented planes) connected by the Sky Realm (astral plane) and the Underworld (the more evil oriented planes) connected by the Dark Realm (plane of shadow).
An overview of shamanic cultures from our world is provided to stimulate players' and DMs' imagination and inspire them if they decide to use this class.
This book adds some very interesting concepts to the d20 line. DMs who want to emphasize planar influence in their game will find original potential within these pages to take their game in new directions.
New Spells: Battle Rage, Blight, Body of Eyes, Confront Curse Spirit, Confront Disease Spirit, Confront Magical Spirit, Curse Turning, Curse Turning, Detect Curse/Taboo, Death Curse, Detect Spirit, Ethereal Banishment, Ethereal Projection, Ghost Touch, Greater Ethereal Projection, Identify Spirit, Invisibility to Spirits, Journey of Healing, Journey of Mass Healing, Journey of Soul Retrieval, Lay to Rest, Lesser Astral Projection, Magic Circle Against Spirits, Mass Ethereal Projection, Materialize, Nature's Bounty, Polymorphic Projection, Protection from Spirits, See Spirits, Shadow Projection, Slay Spirit, Spirit Claws, Spirit Dart, Spirit Spear, Spirit Wall.
New Magic Items: Rod of Animal Command, Staff of Spirits, Staff of Summoning, Amulet of Spirit Storing, Cloak of the Bear, Cloak of the Falcon, Cloak of the Wolf, Dream Catcher, Ghost Shirt, Incense of Journeys, Mantle of Fury, Spirit Drum, Spirit Net, Spirit Shackles, Storm Drum, Token of Summoning, Totem Mask.
