wotc please consider making elemental shaman a cleric or druid

Quote from GeijerFeyLock >>

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Quote from GeijerFeyLock >>

Pardon me, but in which book is the shaman in all of its options published?

This is a discussion of the way the Shaman class from World of Warcraft has been implemented in the (as yet unreleased) WoW D&D supplement. You can read more about it in this article: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2256-become-a-champion-of-azeroth-with-these-13-world

 Ah ha, World of Warcraft. No wonder I could not find it under the Barbarian class (2014 rules and 2024 rules). My little gaming group has not yet decided whether we want to add that book to our bedside reading or not.

My comments, though, about a raging elemental shaman still hold. A Midwestern supercell thunderstorm is an ugly beast; during the summer, it spawns lightning bolt barrages, massive deluges of hail stones, multiple tornado vortices and massive amounts of rain. During the winter, it also dumps massive amounts of snow and ice as well as lightning blasts. (I have heard and felt thunder snow.)

By the way, that movie "Twister" does not convey the sheer terror of the tornado.

 

 personally I think they should have removed the whole barbarians can't cast/sustain spells while raging bit in 2024. but they didn't so it does not seem to fit on first glance. Though maybe this sub class removes that restriction while casting their spells and they get to be 1/3 casters or something. Still does not fit the vibe of the wow shaman imo which at least with 2 of its 3 specs played closer to a full caster. imo druid would fit best but even warlock would fit better than barbarian for a WoW shaman. not generic elemental shaman abilities but what they are emulating the wow shaman. 

I mean, if they didn't have the restriction, I expect there'd be a lot of gimmick 1 level Barbarian dip builds for casters just to get that resistance to PSB. There's certainly enough talk about "starting" as a Fighter for the heavy armor and Action Surge.

Since a barbarian, as defined by the 2024 PHB, is described as an avatar of primal fury, it would seem logical for there to be a connection between the barbarian, the druid, lycanthropes in general and shamans. Last time I checked, there was some sort of a connection in the Rashemi culture. 

As far as which Forgotten Realms deities would accept an elemental shaman cleric, the choices would be rather sparse: Silvanus (deity of wild, untamed nature), Malar (deity of wild beasts), Umberlee (deity of the open oceans and the storms found there), Talos (deity of storms). Of these deities, only Silvanus would be suitable for a PC.