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I see, you phrased it in a confusing manner earlier on, but now that you clarify I understand. You are arguing that summoning is cheap to acquire because you already have charsima from when you bought conjuring.
The problem is that this doesn't add up.
No matter how you fight your baseline character should have some points in the following abilities:
Body - HP
Quickness - Dodging
Dodge - More Dodging
Charisma - 4 recommended, gives you some social options.
Conjuration - 6 points for haste 4, requires cha to be raised to 6 as well.
Putting 6 levels in each of the above is a good idea. Naturally you won't get all of it at character creation. for char creation I would go with 4 points in body, 4 in cha, 1 in dodge, and the rest in your choice of offensive ability.
At some point (after getting haste!) you want to dip 5KP into spellcasting (willpower 2 + spellcasting 2) for arcane healing spell. And later on spend a mere 6KP to get shamanism 3 for a totem (bear or eagle). With 0 in spirit control it means 100% chance for a spirit to break free.
So what does offense cost you?
To add summoning to the above you need to buy up 2 different skills: Shamanism + Spirit control. -6kp (eventually, much later) because you were gonna get a totem anyways
To add spellcasting to it you ALSO need to buy up 2 skills: Willpowers + Spellcasting. -5KP for that dip you were gonna make anyways.
To add ranged combat to it you need to buy up 2 skills: Ranged combat + Specific Weapon skill... until the point where others stop spending on quickness at which point you have to spend extra, but its totally worth it for that extra dodge.
To add rigging you need to buy 3 skills: Int + Rigging + Drone control.
However, a rigger without drone control is potentially better than a shaman while with drone control he is massively overwhelmingly better
To add melee you need 3 skills: Strength + Close Combat + Melee weapons
To add unarmed you need 3 skills: Strength + Close combat + unarmed
+2 individual KP to buy level 1 of chi casting which is absolutely a must for unarmed.
You should never get decking in the main campaign. In UGCs decking is something a rigger does on the side so it only costs 1 skill (don't bother with ESP control).
The only time you should ever bother with chi casting is when you have already maxed out everything else, and only so that you can get magic resistance.
We are talking 500+ KP character here. For such a character I would recommend ranged combat, an eagle totem (does not take up a spell slot). arcane heal spell, 2 stun spells, fireball 2, haste 4, and for the last slot, spell resistance 2, naturally as I said you only bother with chi once everything else is maxed
However, such characters are extremely rare and unnatural. What you would NORMALLY do is start out buying out 4 body, 4 cha, 1 dodge, and the rest fully focused on one of the combat methods above.
Ranged combat (choose ONE weapon) and spellcasting are the sensible choices. Rigging is more expensive in terms of KP but worthwhile. Unarmed, summoning, and melee are not recommended.
Str - 3 (I don't use Str at all)
Qui - 5/ Range - 5/ Shotgun - 5/ Dodge - 4
Int - 5/ Biotech - 5/ Decking - 5/ Esp - 1 (I shouldn't have put one into this as I didn't really want to deck but use the text options with Decking)/ Drone Control - 4/ Drone Combat - 4
Will - 5/ Spellcasting - 5 (I used Mage Armor which increased both of these to 6 and too look cool too)
Cha - 5 (Bear Totem)(Etiquettes: Security, Corporate)/ Summoning - 5/ Spirit Control - 5
Body -5
I went into this build thinking you could use one drone and summon one spirit. I found out that you can do one or the other but not both. I have played a Rigger character and know Drones are super sweet but I've found that with my playstyle, I like the Shaman over the Rigger due to the healing ability of the Bear Totem and the various points where you can summon spirits to help you even out of combat to get pass locked places. If you noticed, I don't play with any Conjuring spells. I know the extra AP is good with Haste but I seriously didn't need it. I also used his Mage spells for crowd control with my ending spells being Mind Wipe, Blind, Glue, and Flamethrower lvl 3.
So if you played the Shaman class and didn't like it, then don't play it again but also don't complain about it cause it doesn't fit your playstyle. I think Harebrain Schemes did a great job with this game.
Playstyle arguments are bull. We are complaining about shamans because they are horrible compared to other classes. Not because they cannot win. The main campaign is so freaking easy that the most gimped of characters can beat it, even something as pathetic as a shaman.
It is also total bull because anyone who isn't a total failure at strategy would adjust their playstyle to match. Unless you are confusing fluff with playstyle
We are complaining because we WANT To be able to roleplay a shaman but it sucks that we are punished for it with silly rules that don't exist in the PnP that were invented for the sole reason of making the class suck (for example, in the PnP the spirits get ONE chance to break free and thats it, they don't get to reattempt it every round)
Finally, you didn't play a shaman you played a jack of all trades
They are not horrible compared to other classes. That is YOUR opinion of the class. Saying playstyle arguements are bull is an ignorant statement. My point of stating with my jack of all trades character is I tended to play the shamanic role instead of using drones because I liked playing a Shaman more. The PnP version of the game are not rules set in stone, they are guidelines. The Gamemaster can have it so that a Shaman does have to make a successful control check every turn if he/she so chooses. The developers aka the Gamemasters here have chosen to do just that. Since you are complaining about spirit control, then why not complain about about the choice of totems then too. Why can't I play a bug shaman or a shark shaman etc.? You want to complain about the Shaman class because it doesn't fit YOUR version of the class in YOUR PnP world. So Have a Good Game and don't be soo MAD BRO?!
No, saying "oh your playstyle is just different" is an ignorant statement.
I adjusted the way I played when I was melee, when I was gunner, when I was spellcaster, when I was rigger and when I was shaman.
And you managed to survive the uber easy main campaign despite playing a cripple.
You even managed to survive the biggest crippling of them all, choosing to not use haste.
And while I believe you enjoyed doing occasional shamaning, you were not surviving on it. You were surviving because you were a jack of all trades who occasionally shamaned.
True, the PnP rules are not set in stone. But the rule changes made the utterly neuter shamans were completely uncalled for.
Reread what I said. I said that was an example of one of the unnecessary nerfs shamans were given in this game, not the ONLY nerf.
When properly supported.
Their Barrier spells creates choke points and deadly kill zones.
Haste is amazing.
Slow cuts down on the range of movement of the enemy making the harder to reach you or escape you.
Their movement spells makes it easier to move tactically throughout the game.
Shadow + Haste is simply amazing.. Create a shadow zone for cover. Have the hasted character pop out blast something and pop right back in.
Their Totems are pretty useful.
I always have a shaman with my build.
This is an excerpt for my strategy guide for my Combat Techno Master build:
Shaman (Best Shaman you can find based on skills and spell selection)
A Shaman can turn your team into a force to reckon with. Their Barrier spells tend to make excellent choke points and kill zones. The Silence spells seems to turn your close combatant into a stealthy assassin while the Quiet Bomb will make all your characters stealthy. Slow-mo and Mana Static are are also quite useful for crowd control as they increase AP usage for actions or magic respectively this punishing their usage. Cover + Fog makes it that much harder to hit you. And the Shadow + Haste combo can be quite lethal. Use Shadow, have a Hasted character at the edge. Use 1 AP to pop out. 1-2 AP to shred/blast something within range and final AP to pop back into Shadow cover. Their +Movement and -Movement spells are very good for controlling maneuverability of allies and enemies. Do NOT use your fetishes just like that. Wait for strategic moments were the maps are large and there are many enemies. Stick to feeding them 2-3 AP only as it makes them last quite a long time. Also keep an eye out for free summons that look like small skull icons.
Level 1 100
Level 2 200
Level 3 300
Level 4 400
Level 5 500
That way you can keep a healthy stock of Fetishes.
The next thing I suggest as a fix is that although I find the Shaman spells great they could use some offensive spells and DoTs based on their Totems. At least one or two attack per Totems would be nice as well as some specialization Totem spells.
The next thing is I know the spirits are supposed to be the offensive part so strengthen it a bit. Make them deal slightly more damage and lower the ratio percentage based on Spirit Control. The higher the Spirit Control the longer they can keep them around with low escape percentages and the more damage they do with their attacks.
However with the current system I treat Shaman as a support Class. If I play Shaman I'll probably used a version of my Techno Master having spells from Shaman, Spirits, and some more control spells from Mage. And have a shotgun.
Grant invulnerability by Shadow
Grant up to 2 AP via Haste
Punish AP Usage of enemies via Mana Static and Slow-Mo
Gran additional cover via Fog
Make an area devoid of sound so I can trigger happy and have my Sam slice and dice going to town.
Capable of summoning a meat shield that can also cast spells adding another member to the party
Capable of unleashing free summons in the environment
Capable of creating Barriers that make excellent choke points and kill zones
Kind of ranks high in my support class list.
We had a big huge discussion about whether it's appropriate to call both conjuring and summoning shamans because they are completely different things, like how spellcraft and chicasting are different things based on willpower, like how drone control and decking are different things based on int. Yes they are both cha based, but they are different things based on cha. The OP was clearly discussing summoners.
You might then argue "because they are both cha based, than its cheaper for someone to mix them". not so. Everyone will need some cha for conversation, and summoning requires both the summoning skill AND the summon control skill to be effective, making it more costly. As such, dipping into conjuration on the side (max out at conj 6) while focusing most of your karma on an offensive skill of choice is the way to go, the offensive skill can be a ranged weapon, spellcraft, summoning. They all cost the same and the summoning is far worse of the bunch.
Also, its incorrect to call them a support class because of the cooldown on haste. Haste can be kept "always on" on one person only, and its rather a waste to do it on other people.
Haste 3 on self works like that
Turn 1: 2AP (start with 3 Haste self, -3AP +2AP, total AP this turn 2.)
Turn 2: 5AP
Turn 3: 5AP
Turn 4: 4AP (5AP to start & old haste expired, rehaste self -3 +2)
repeat turns 2 through 4 for as long as you want.
Effectively you are constantly fighting with 5 or 4 AP per turn, every turn. All at the cost of 1AP on the first round.
At which point, if you took something effective like spellcraft or a gun then you will be mowing down the enemies and there is no point to waste your AP on slow, shadow, and barriers.