Shamans

[frdnwsm]

I was looking back, and realized that, while I have tried out a number of builds and various skill combinations, I have never used a Shaman type. Also, I don't see many forum topics related to playing a Shaman; is it one of the less popular professions?

Looking over the class description, it seems like it would be a bit expensive. If I want to actually summon one (or worse yet, more than one!) elemental every mission, I'm going to be spending a lot of cash on summoning tokens. Also, elementals don't stay around long before the risk of losing control becomes too high. It would be like playing a rigger whose drones self destruct after a few combat rounds. I would either have to get a secondary attack mode, or spend the majority of the mission acting in a support role, buffing up the other crew members with my spells.

A Shaman will probably be my next project, but in the meanwhile, anyone out there have experience with the profession?

[frdnwsm]

Oooh! I know! I could build one of those mythical beasts, the cyber shaman! Get a bunch of cyber affinity, train in ranged weapons and use the mono whip in combat!

[frdnwsm]

Well, I have a Shaman-in-training. Interesting; I was given acid bolt as an intrinsic attack spell, just like mages get powerbolt. I didn't realize that was part of the package, but it does provide an attack venue. My hit % is awful, but I'm going to assume it gets better with more conjuring ranks, just like mages with their attack spells.

[di eshor ribly]

Just like mages or other classes, shaman can specialize too. If you're more interested in spirits, pick Dove totem. It lowers the escape chance to 0 for a few turns. Buffbots would probably benefit from HK's version of Bull/Eagle (aoe heal, aim buff). Conjurers could probably use Scorpion or something that increases damage, etc.

Pretty much the only difference between Acid and Mana bolt is the base damage and that Acid has a small DoT.

Glad to see some of my other posts about my cybershaman are making you think of interesting character builds! Spirit Mistress was pretty fun to play, and the whip does have some good synergy for spirit work, removing enemies from cover helps out a ton. Most spirits have bad aim.

[frdnwsm]

Unfortnately, I did some Karma requirement projections, and I won't be able to go heavy on ranged skill without cutting something else out. I am assuming that skill ranks of 8 in Charisma, Conjuring, Spirit Summoning and Spirit Control are good to have as end goals. Also that Quickness and Ranged of at least 7 would be needed to be able to use the whip well, not to mention 6 ranks in cyber affinity. I'll have to see if perhaps I can't skimp on something a bit to scrape up some spare Karma.

Too bad; I had a mental image of my Shaman snapping his whip to bring his spirits to heel, but it looks like the whip is probably out. Oh well.

[di eshor ribly]

A little neat hint for you about scraping up your spare karma:

If you pick Dove, you don't need any points in Spirit Control. The Summoning line controls power, Spirit Control is all about keeping them in check, which Dove is a dirty work around for.

Edit: Yeah, if you can't tell I love the Dove totem. Worked really well with my cybershaman, or as I called her, my "shamurai".

[frdnwsm]

Oh, I can imagine the training path for a Shaman, although I am not conversant with all of the subtlties and ramifications. That, I imagine, will come with experience. Using Dietrich and Gobbet doesn't quite give you the same feel for the profession as constructing one yourself.

But I really wanted my whip!
::pouts and goes off to sulk::

[frdnwsm]

Well, it looks like my shaman is basically a support role character. At Conjuring 6, his only attack is acid bolt 3, which, even when he's buffed with aim, has a terrible hit %. The barrier spells, which look superficially decent, are really pretty poor in practice. Gobbet's acid fog covers almost 2x as much area. A decent summoning fetish costs like 600 NuYen, for a one situation combat.

I can work with a support chatacter; if I have Duncan, Geichu and Is0bel I can just stay in the back and buff them up, and we'll do fine. Sort of boring though. If I have enough karma later on, maybe I'll try getting some thrown weapon skill.

[ErzPaladin]

I played through Shadowrun Returns, The Deep One Campaign for SRR and Dragonfall as Shaman and starting now the Hongkong campaign as Shaman, too.

Shaman was worst in Shadowrun Returns, due to the lack of controlability of the spirits and cause the Shaman grows with the lvl and money. Still, if you rationate your money then the shaman grows quite powerful in SRR.

In Dragonfall the Shaman is mega powerful, cause of the creator's idol. You can even keep the spirit of your partymember Dietrich by that under control. It's just, as Shaman you always start with almost nothing, cause you have no offensive qualities in the early game.
In Dragonfall I compensated that by starting my char with 3 quickness and 3 ranged combat.

In Hongkong I'm unsure whether I should start a similar startup, cause in Dragonfall I later on skipped ranged combat and weaponry completely for acid bolt lvl 3-4.

I'd like to make a mixed built with mage spells, but idk whether I split my karma too much upon that, cause I want at least get summoning to lvl 5 later on and Shadow, Slo-Mo and Haste lvl 4 via Conjurer path.

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Btw.

In terms of Dragonfall and Barrier skills:

Except for one single mission the barrier skills were almost useless in Dragonfall. Reason for that is the map design with way too many wide openings which forces you to spread the barriers over a way to broad aeria so that no real "choke points" can be generated for the enemies.

And in case of Hongkong idk what awaits me, so i'm a bit unsure about the barrier skills either.

[frdnwsm]

Since the time I wrote that first post, I have taken 3 shaman characters as far as Prosperity Tower; one of them finished the extended game as well. The thing is, this class does quite well as a support class, and poorly at their supposed specialty, summoning elemental spirits. This is purely due to financial considerations.

My first shaman, I didn't realize fully how spirit summoning and control worked, and I foolishly did NOT take Dove as my totem. As a result, spirits almost always broke away after 2-3 rounds of combat, even with 8 ranks of charisma/spirit control. So, he was mainly used as a buffer for the others. Acid Bolt is actually quite a decent attack form at high level, but it took me until almost the end of the basic game ... and getting the Alpha Eye cybergear ... to bring the accuracy up to around 85% for most attacks. Early on, this attack form just sucks.

Second time around, I got it right, and took Dove as my totem. Used correctly, this totally prevents a summoned spirit from breaking out of control for an entire combat. Unfortunately, the expense of high level summoning fetishes prevents routine usage of such spirits. 1200 NuYen for one Force VI fetish?? That's 1200 NuYen cost per mission if you want to use even one per run. There is no way to use this routinely; you will have to be satisfied with far weaker spirits. Poor game design, from a financial point of view. I bought exactly 1 Force VI fetish for all of the basic game, and one more in the extended one.

I had no karma left over for getting another attack form; I was, however, quite valuable buffing up the rest of the party with Wild AIm and Haste 3, and containing enemies with things like lightning barrier and Blind spells. As mentioned, Acid Bolt IV finally became a viable attack form, but only quite late in the game.

The third time around, I created a total abortion: the mythical cyber shaman. I again took Dove as my totem, and took Charisma and Spirit Summoning up to 7; I took no spirit control whatsoever, and only 4 ranks of conjuring. By sinking almost no karma into magic, I was able to get 7 ranks of quickness and ranged combat, plus 6 of cyber affinity. I got the monowhip and a bunch of other cyber, like the Mark 2 Alpha leg, Jolt Alert, the Alpha eye, cross dermal sheaths and reflex trigger.

What I ended up with was basically a totally cybered up street samurai who could summon local shrine spirits and use a summoning fetish as an emergency measure. I did have 2 spell slots left; I took Haste 2 and Lightning barrier. The cooldown was huge, of course, but I did get to use each of them at least once per combat.

I really can't classify this build as a true shaman, obviously; it's a cyber warrior with a sideline in spirit control and a dab of spells. I could have played him more shaman like, if the cost of fetishes had been less. Again, money restricted this part of his combat role.