Shaman vs Druid?

[Greywolf]

What is the difference?

[Shinno]

Shaman = Elements and Spirits.

Druids = Nature all that hippie stuff.

Shamans use the elements as a force, but they work together, kinda like bff or partners. Druids are servants to nature a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶i̶m̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶d̶.

[Greywolf]

Guess that kind of makes sense with the talking to the dead thing but just comparing the class options in Pathfinder to 5E it just feels like there are a lot of superfluous classes, seems like Shaman could easily fit within the druid archetype with a subclass that allows you to speak to the dead and communicate with spirits.

[Loquitran]

Druids can also shapeshift.

[lemurs2]

I want to love the Shaman class but I cannot; I think it was a low effort class by Paizo and all in all is not terribly good at anything. They had one (1) good archetype... which was nerfed.
Their spell book and abilities are just a blend of other classes, and they may be the most MAD class in the game.

[Lemming]

Originally posted by lemurs2:

I want to love the Shaman class but I cannot; I think it was a low effort class by Paizo and all in all is not terribly good at anything. They had one (1) good archetype... which was nerfed.
Their spell book and abilities are just a blend of other classes, and they may be the most MAD class in the game.

If you like temp hit points, they can do work in the rpg. In this game, their options are more restricted. They are suppose to be a mix of Oracle and Witch, but they don't really feel like either class beyond getting access to hexes. Their "spirits" function sort of like an Oracle Mystery but with all the options picked for you while their spellcasting and dcs tend to be lackluster. They are better at fighting than a Witch in general but not to such a degree that they should be confused for a martial class. Think of them as a more flexible caster than Inquisitor but not quite as good in combat, since you can use Wandering Spirit to switch which spells you have available each day.

[Frostfeather]

In CotW with PK, it's Flame Curse that makes Shaman pretty awesome. Any bombing Alchemist, Fire Kineticist, AT, etc will make great use of it. And with Font of Spirit Magic, you can help stack up your casters' Fireball DC even before debuffing enemies.

But there were also shockingly few fire immune enemies in PK. I'm waiting for release now to play WotR, but I imagine similar things could work well, but slightly worse thanks to enemies with Fire resistance. A main character Grenadier, Fire Kineticist, etc with the ability to ignore Fire resistance will still like having Flame Curse in the group, I'll bet.

Oh, and Bones or Heavens (CotW) spirits give some very nice spells, too. Though with any of Flame/Bone/Heaven, you'd wa nt the Fluid Magic wandering hex to use your spirit spells in regular slots... and last I checked, that's not going to be in Wrath by default. Waiting for Wrath-CotW or another mod is probably a good idea since Fluid Magic is so important for many Shaman. And also for Draconic Shaman, which is pretty damn good too.