Circle of the Land Druid. Because this sounds shaman-ey to me...
"The Circle of the Land is made up of mystics and sages who safeguard ancient knowledge and rites through a vast oral tradition. These druids meet within sacred circles of trees or standing stones to whisper primal secrets in Druidic. The circle’s wisest members preside as the chief priests of communities that hold to the Old Faith and serve as advisors to the rulers of those folk. As a member of this circle, your magic is influenced by the land where you were initiated into the circle’s mysterious rites."
There's no good way to build a shaman or most other primal character type in 5e. People say "druid", but the druid's only primal/"natural" ability is "I turn into a fuzzy fuzzy critter and waste forty-five minutes of session time playing with a leaf in the tavern for the uguu's".
Vision/dream quests? Nope.
Spirit communion? Nope.
Herbalism and woodslore? Hah you're funny the last time a DM called for a non-thieves tool check or allowed a character to use those proficiencies was one new guy in Louisiana back in '15.
It's closet furry shapeshifting or nada, and One is making it WORSE, not better. This may or may not piss me off just a twitch
People finally figuring out in the OneDnD playtest that trying to squeeze the shapeshifter class and the nature caster class into a single entity just results in both done badly.
Sadly it's far too late to change that. They're not going to completely change the druids identity like that without a full edition change.
My 2cp worth....try multiclass Totem Warrior Barbarian to refelct your connection to the natural world and Lore Bard to pick your favourite non-Bard spells via Magical Secrets and use a drum or two to mimic a shamanistic casting/meditation style, then find a way to get yourself some ability with Alchemy Supplies to brew your potions to go on vision quests. Going Bard would also give you access to the Dream spell for some more "Spirit Walking" style game play and your can focus on either the physical abilities of the Barbarian by taking spells that do not require to hit rolls or saving throws (such as those that buff your allies) or you can focus on being the charismatic elder guiding the rest of your tribe/clan/party etc by focusing on Charisma and having lower physical stats.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Just thinking over the other options and you could also use an Single classed Oath of Ancients Paladin for a Shamanistic style if you are prepared to lean into hide and leather armours for protection and maybe combine it with Outlander or Hermit backgrounds and take Ritual Casting Cleric or Druid for a feat to boost your Shamans abilities.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Comes down to what you think a Shaman does in Orc society. If the shaman represents divine powers invested or available to the Orcs, Cleric. If there are more elemental or of the world / nature magics the shaman is related to, some flavor of druid. If the shaman is more about championing or pushing the power of the people, Barbarian. If more a keeper of faith in the Orc community, some flavor of Bard. And of course, you can mix it up among them as a mulitclass.
I have a Half-Orc spirit shaman character I currently play in my in person group.
it is a fighter primary (half-orcs are born fighters) echo knight, warlock 2 levels Undying patron/ cleric Grave domain.
he will go grave 8 and echo knight 10
“Spirit shaman”
he has GFB and Booming blade cantrip a from warlock and hex, Ray of sickness and unseen servant for spells. As well as devils sight and eyes of the rune keeper.
I have a Half-Orc spirit shaman character I currently play in my in person group.
it is a fighter primary (half-orcs are born fighters) echo knight, warlock 2 levels Undying patron/ cleric Grave domain.
he will go grave 8 and echo knight 10
“Spirit shaman”
he has GFB and Booming blade cantrip a from warlock and hex, Ray of sickness and unseen servant for spells. As well as devils sight and eyes of the rune keeper.
I hadn't thought of warlock as a way to present a "shaman" iteration. That's pretty sharp.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
You can implement with whatever class you want (or, if an NPC, simply not bother), but 'shaman' is clearly a religious role, and as such, the obvious implementation is a cleric of Gruumsh, which means either Tempest or War domain.
Without knowing what Shaman fantasy you're looking for we can't really give you a good answer. If you're looking for a character that closely resembles actual shamanism, I'd say Ancestral Guardian Barbarian if you're down for melee or College of Spirits Bard if you're looking for a caster. Both would be super fun to play as a character that embraces shamanism. Basically you'd want to lean into the communing with spirits. Consult them to divine information and you're basically a shaman!
If you're looking for a more fantasy definition of Shaman, I'd go with warlock. Any subclass would work but Undead is probably my choice because it also has the Speak with Dead spell. Hexblade might also be a good option as it gives you hexblade's curse. Archfey leans into the nature magic side. Hex, Curse, Lightning damage, and raising undead I think are the classic shaman fantasy spells. Sadly, you won't get lightning bolt, call lightning, or chain lightning spells unless your DM is cool with just giving them to the warlock spell list. You do get spirit shroud though, and that spells is great for warlocks that take thirsting blade invocation and also fits the communing with spirits fun.
Cleric gets you a lot of spirit themed spells. Spirit Guardians is an amazing spell and fits shamanism well. Death, tempest, or nature would all fit.
Druid is also a good option to lean into that nature magic feel. Circle of Spores would get you the raising undead fun. You do get call lightning but miss out on hex and curse though.
Wizard wouldn't be awful as it gets you almost all the spells you'd want except hex. It being a first level spell would mean you could get it in a feat pretty easy.
First of all are you looking at shaman for a PC or an NPC? NPC would be easy as you don’t have to fit classes just build it as you want the NPC to be. For a PC it’s harder, as you need nature, spirits and maybe arcane magic. One way to get the spirits is to repurpose the Fey backgrounds etc as spirit backgrounds. Then some mix of nature cleric/Druid and Wizard (summoner)/artificer (alchemist)/warlock (archfey/celestial/other) depending on your vision of the shaman.
Personally I like the college of spirits bard as a shaman. You can use a skull as a spellcasting focus and the entire class revolves around telling inspiring stories to buff the characters
A DM special which can change as needed. Ex Tier 1 Dc 16 save spells from cleric and warlock. Tier 2 DC 16 save spells from cleric, wizard, and warlock. So Shaman becomes a job description.
You can implement with whatever class you want (or, if an NPC, simply not bother), but 'shaman' is clearly a religious role, and as such, the obvious implementation is a cleric of Gruumsh, which means either Tempest or War domain.
Personally I like the college of spirits bard as a shaman. You can use a skull as a spellcasting focus and the entire class revolves around telling inspiring stories to buff the characters
And things like sacred drums and ritual dances are often heavily associated with shamanic practices.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
For my 2 cents I would probably recommend Druid Circle of the Shepherd and just reflavour a bit as a sort of "circle of spirits" or something, maybe give them access to spells like speak with dead or anything else you would feel is thematic for your character with your GM's approval
But that said there are many ways to skin a cat and there are some other good suggestions in this thread that work as well, the great thing about the classes in D&D is that a lot of them are open to interpretation and can be flavoured to suit a lot of different character concepts, it just comes down to the abilities you want your character to have and how you play out your character in game sessions.
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Discuss
I'll start us off!
Circle of the Land Druid. Because this sounds shaman-ey to me...
"The Circle of the Land is made up of mystics and sages who safeguard ancient knowledge and rites through a vast oral tradition. These druids meet within sacred circles of trees or standing stones to whisper primal secrets in Druidic. The circle’s wisest members preside as the chief priests of communities that hold to the Old Faith and serve as advisors to the rulers of those folk. As a member of this circle, your magic is influenced by the land where you were initiated into the circle’s mysterious rites."
https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/druid#CircleoftheLand
Any flavour of druid honestly.
I'd say the druid or maybe nature cleric.
But 5e doesn't fill the shaman niche as well as 4e did.
There's no good way to build a shaman or most other primal character type in 5e. People say "druid", but the druid's only primal/"natural" ability is "I turn into a fuzzy fuzzy critter and waste forty-five minutes of session time playing with a leaf in the tavern for the uguu's".
Vision/dream quests? Nope.
Spirit communion? Nope.
Herbalism and woodslore? Hah you're funny the last time a DM called for a non-thieves tool check or allowed a character to use those proficiencies was one new guy in Louisiana back in '15.
It's closet furry shapeshifting or nada, and One is making it WORSE, not better. This may or may not piss me off just a twitch
Please do not contact or message me.
People finally figuring out in the OneDnD playtest that trying to squeeze the shapeshifter class and the nature caster class into a single entity just results in both done badly.
Sadly it's far too late to change that. They're not going to completely change the druids identity like that without a full edition change.
My 2cp worth....try multiclass Totem Warrior Barbarian to refelct your connection to the natural world and Lore Bard to pick your favourite non-Bard spells via Magical Secrets and use a drum or two to mimic a shamanistic casting/meditation style, then find a way to get yourself some ability with Alchemy Supplies to brew your potions to go on vision quests. Going Bard would also give you access to the Dream spell for some more "Spirit Walking" style game play and your can focus on either the physical abilities of the Barbarian by taking spells that do not require to hit rolls or saving throws (such as those that buff your allies) or you can focus on being the charismatic elder guiding the rest of your tribe/clan/party etc by focusing on Charisma and having lower physical stats.
Brilliant. I like it.
Just thinking over the other options and you could also use an Single classed Oath of Ancients Paladin for a Shamanistic style if you are prepared to lean into hide and leather armours for protection and maybe combine it with Outlander or Hermit backgrounds and take Ritual Casting Cleric or Druid for a feat to boost your Shamans abilities.
Comes down to what you think a Shaman does in Orc society. If the shaman represents divine powers invested or available to the Orcs, Cleric. If there are more elemental or of the world / nature magics the shaman is related to, some flavor of druid. If the shaman is more about championing or pushing the power of the people, Barbarian. If more a keeper of faith in the Orc community, some flavor of Bard. And of course, you can mix it up among them as a mulitclass.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I have a Half-Orc spirit shaman character I currently play in my in person group.
it is a fighter primary (half-orcs are born fighters) echo knight, warlock 2 levels Undying patron/ cleric Grave domain.
he will go grave 8 and echo knight 10
“Spirit shaman”
he has GFB and Booming blade cantrip a from warlock and hex, Ray of sickness and unseen servant for spells. As well as devils sight and eyes of the rune keeper.
Blank
I hadn't thought of warlock as a way to present a "shaman" iteration. That's pretty sharp.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
You can implement with whatever class you want (or, if an NPC, simply not bother), but 'shaman' is clearly a religious role, and as such, the obvious implementation is a cleric of Gruumsh, which means either Tempest or War domain.
Without knowing what Shaman fantasy you're looking for we can't really give you a good answer. If you're looking for a character that closely resembles actual shamanism, I'd say Ancestral Guardian Barbarian if you're down for melee or College of Spirits Bard if you're looking for a caster. Both would be super fun to play as a character that embraces shamanism. Basically you'd want to lean into the communing with spirits. Consult them to divine information and you're basically a shaman!
If you're looking for a more fantasy definition of Shaman, I'd go with warlock. Any subclass would work but Undead is probably my choice because it also has the Speak with Dead spell. Hexblade might also be a good option as it gives you hexblade's curse. Archfey leans into the nature magic side. Hex, Curse, Lightning damage, and raising undead I think are the classic shaman fantasy spells. Sadly, you won't get lightning bolt, call lightning, or chain lightning spells unless your DM is cool with just giving them to the warlock spell list. You do get spirit shroud though, and that spells is great for warlocks that take thirsting blade invocation and also fits the communing with spirits fun.
Cleric gets you a lot of spirit themed spells. Spirit Guardians is an amazing spell and fits shamanism well. Death, tempest, or nature would all fit.
Druid is also a good option to lean into that nature magic feel. Circle of Spores would get you the raising undead fun. You do get call lightning but miss out on hex and curse though.
Wizard wouldn't be awful as it gets you almost all the spells you'd want except hex. It being a first level spell would mean you could get it in a feat pretty easy.
First of all are you looking at shaman for a PC or an NPC? NPC would be easy as you don’t have to fit classes just build it as you want the NPC to be. For a PC it’s harder, as you need nature, spirits and maybe arcane magic. One way to get the spirits is to repurpose the Fey backgrounds etc as spirit backgrounds. Then some mix of nature cleric/Druid and Wizard (summoner)/artificer (alchemist)/warlock (archfey/celestial/other) depending on your vision of the shaman.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Personally I like the college of spirits bard as a shaman. You can use a skull as a spellcasting focus and the entire class revolves around telling inspiring stories to buff the characters
A DM special which can change as needed. Ex Tier 1 Dc 16 save spells from cleric and warlock. Tier 2 DC 16 save spells from cleric, wizard, and warlock. So Shaman becomes a job description.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Very good point
And things like sacred drums and ritual dances are often heavily associated with shamanic practices.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
For my 2 cents I would probably recommend Druid Circle of the Shepherd and just reflavour a bit as a sort of "circle of spirits" or something, maybe give them access to spells like speak with dead or anything else you would feel is thematic for your character with your GM's approval
But that said there are many ways to skin a cat and there are some other good suggestions in this thread that work as well, the great thing about the classes in D&D is that a lot of them are open to interpretation and can be flavoured to suit a lot of different character concepts, it just comes down to the abilities you want your character to have and how you play out your character in game sessions.