Table of Contents:
This guide will cover the Shaman class from the Advanced Class Guide for the Pathfinder RPG. It will only cover options published by Paizo, but aims to cover all such options.
The Shaman is listed as a mix of the Oracle and Witch classes, which is fairly accurate. You inherit a modified version of the Witch’s hexes and familiar, while you gain access to a modified Mystery/Revelation class feature from the Oracle in a slightly different way.
After many late-night hours spent building a shaman for my weekly Pathfinder game (and nearly making one for Gen Con 2014 using my GM credit), I realized no guide for the class had been posted. Since I feel I owe a lot to the community generally, I decided to put together this guide.
One word: versatility.
Yes, you’ll probably be focused on a particular role, and for your first few levels, you’ll be mostly doing that. But after you get your Wandering Spirit and Wandering Hex class features, you get to choose what else you want to do that day.
You can be a great healer who can debuff when healing is not needed, or a blaster who can spontaneously cast Summon Nature’s Ally if their prepared spells aren’t good options. You can build a debuffer capable of throwing out Channel Positive Energy to either top off their allies or hurting undead. You can be a melee shaman who makes their enemy vulnerable to fire and throws a Fireball before wading into the melee with a flaming weapon.
And, the next day, you can decide that you want to change your secondary role to better fit the needs of the party.
There’s a ton of possibilities with this class and you can get access to basically all of the Spirit Hexes if you want, which is one of the reasons that I find it so intriguing.
As with any class that has versatility, knowledge is power. If you know what you’re going up against, you can prepare for it. You want to consider your choices carefully when you prepare your spells each day.
My hope is that this guide will show you some of the possibilities that the class offers, so that you can build something that you’ll have fun playing and find some of the better options when you prepare your spells and your Wandering Spirit.
Rankings
To help you determine my opinion on a class feature or option at a glance, I’ll be using the following ranking system, common in the RPG guide community:
Red: An extremely poor choice, extremely situational, or generally not recommended.
Orange: Below-average choice, somewhat situational, but may have a place in niche builds or for certain situations..
Green: A good choice, useful or recommended for many builds.
Blue: A great choice, extremely useful for many builds.
The name of the Shaman game is versatility, but most will likely have a primary focus. Given the diversity of available spirits, a Shaman can fill a number of primary roles.
Debuffer: Although shaman never gain access to Major and Grand Hexes, and don’t qualify for feats like Split Hex, they can still make for potent debuffers. They get Evil Eye, and in the right setup can amplify their party’s damage significantly. They can also gain access to one Witch Hex - Slumber is a great candidate for debuffers. Many spells on the Shaman list help with debuffing, as well.
Healer: A shaman using the Life Spirit can be an extremely effective healer through the addition of Channel Energy, and there’s an archetype (Witch Doctor) that gives them another pool of channels, admittedly at Shaman level minus three. Certain races of Shaman can add Cleric spells to their list using their favored class bonus. All of the above can be accomplished without sacrificing too much debuffing or buffing capability, so they have options if healing isn’t needed. Using Channel Energy to heal in combat is feat-intensive, however.
Buffer: A shaman is capable of buffing her allies, especially through the use of hexes. The downside to being a primary shaman buffer is that the Spirit-specific buffs are pretty situational, and arguably the best buffing Spirit ability, Battle Spirit, is extremely unclear about how it is activated/maintained and is a common bonus type. Your spell list does have a number of good buff spells, but some of the best ones are on the Cleric spell list and will have to be acquired using a favored class bonus. This just isn’t the Shaman’s best focus area by default, but this role can be blue with support from the Cleric list via FCB.
Blaster: A shaman can be built to blast, but you lose some versatility in doing so. The upside is that the standard shaman blasting setup, which uses Flame spirit, brings its own vulnerability debuff to the party, and fire damage is pretty common among player characters. On the other hand, having most of your effective blasting arsenal come from one element means problems with resistances unless you spring for an elemental metamagic rod or utilize Lore spirit as your wandering spirit. At low levels, blasting is very rough.
Melee fighter: A shaman can be built to fight in melee, although they will likely need to get their weapon proficiencies from somewhere. The Mammoth and Battle spirits offer a number of options for getting into the mix, and you already have medium armor proficiency. On top of that, many of the Spirit Abilities grant melee touch attacks, which a melee character can safely take advantage of. Still, you don’t have as many feats as a fighter, you have a medium BAB progression, and your physical saves are bad. At best, you’re still a support melee character, not a primary damage dealer.
Minion master / Necromancer: The Bones spirit offers support for it, but there are better options in other classes if this is your primary focus. There’s no way to channel negative energy in-class, either, so that further complicates things.
Under construction
Strength can normally be your dump stat, except if you plan to make use of melee touch attacks granted by spirits, or if you’re going the melee fighter route. Just watch your carrying capacity!
Dexterity is mostly for AC, Reflex saves and initiative here, unless you’re going the blasting route. Even then, there aren’t a ton of ranged touch attack spells on the Shaman list by default.
Constitution’s importance depends greatly on what you’ll be doing. If you picked up Shield Other from the Cleric spell list, or you fight in melee a lot you won’t want to skimp on HP. On the other hand, if you spend a lot of time flying above the ground...
Intelligence is another stat that you either need, or you don’t. One of the hexes from Lore spirit (Arcane Enlightenment) lets you grab spells from the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list, but you need Int to cast them still (even though they use Wisdom for DC and whatnot). On the other hand, the Shaman class skills aren’t great, and another Lore spirit hex lets you use Wisdom for Int-based skills.
Wisdom is the primary spellcasting attribute for Shaman and also determines most Hex DCs, so it will be the primary attribute for many builds. Melee shaman can tone this back a bit.
Charisma affects the duration, frequency or effectiveness of many spirit-specific hexes. Shaman acting as primary healers will likely consider this blue and will compromise on their Wisdom score slightly. Melee shaman may decide to compromise on this as well.
As of the writing of this guide, there are no Paizo race-specific archetypes for Shaman.
Human: It likely comes as a surprise to no one, but humans make great shaman. The extra feat is pretty useful, you get to put your +2 bonus where you want, and the extra skill point will make you feel better about dumping your Intelligence, if you go that route. You can also add Cleric spells to your spell list via your favored class bonus, which is a great option to diversify or specialize your character.
Aasimar: You get bonuses to the class’s (likely) two primary scores, you get good resistances and a very-useful spell-like ability, you get Darkvision 60ft, good skill bonuses... I could go on. The best part is that you can still qualify for the Human favored class bonus via the Scion of Humanity alternate racial trait. If you don’t need the human bonus feat and this is an option, you should strongly consider it. Melee shaman should consider the Angel- or Archon-blooded alternate racial heritages.
Half-Orc: Has the same favored class bonus and flexible +2 attribute bonus as Human, along with Darkvision, which is good. Orc Ferocity can be useful (especially if you can heal yourself), but the weapon proficiencies and the skill bonus to Intimidate are underwhelming for most Shaman. Thematically appropriate for many Shaman, perhaps, but not your best choice. A decent melee shaman choice. Taking alternate racial traits and the Fate’s Favored traits can net you +2 to all saves, however, potentially pushing this into blue territory.
Tiefling: The basic attribute bonuses are terrible, but the alternate racial heritages can give you some good options (Foulspawn, Pitborn and Motherless are good, depending on your focus), but none of the attribute options are perfect or anything. They don’t have a race-specific favored class bonus, so that’s a minus. The resistances are good, the Darkvision is good, and the spell-like abilities and skill modifiers vary from useful to worthless.
Gnome: A bonus to Constitution and Charisma is pretty solid, and as long as you’re not planning on hitting anyone with a weapon, small size is a largely a boon. Some of the alternate racial traits are potentially useful, but not mind-blowing. The penalty to strength puts you into potential “I can’t carry anything at all” territory, and the movement speed reduction is painful. The favored class bonus is decent.
Half-Elf: Has the same favored class bonus and flexible +2 attribute bonus as Human. Skill focus can be useful, but let’s be honest, you’re probably putting it in Perception. The alternate racial trait that turns skill focus into weapon proficiency is an option for melee shaman.
Dwarf: The penalty to Charisma hurts, but isn’t necessarily fatal, as you get bonuses to Wisdom and Con. Dwarves have a great array of racial traits. The favored class bonus is probably the worst one as of this writing, but the weapon proficiencies are decent for a melee shaman.
Halfling: Bonus to Charisma is good, Dexterity is not amazing. The favored class bonus is pretty sub-par and many of the racial traits aren’t useful. Again, penalty to Strength can put you into “wet noodle” territory. They have generally solid racial traits and can pick up another debuff via Halfling Jinx.
Tengu: Penalty to Con hurts, but you do get a bonus to Wisdom and Dexterity. A potential option for a Dex-based melee shaman, since you get proficiencies baked into the race.
Nagaji: Maybe not a bad idea for a melee shaman, but you could do better elsewhere.
Elf: No bonus to primary stats, the weapon proficiencies are largely wasted, and a penalty to CON. Ouch. Elven Magic is numerically equivalent to a free Spell Penetration feat, which might be good for some Shaman. The favored class bonus is actually interesting, but it doesn’t salvage the rest of this mess.
Kitsune: Same stat arrangement as halfling but without the small size or solid racial traits, no unique favored class bonus. Kitsune Magic could potentially be useful if you find yourself casting a lot of enchantment spells, I guess?
Wayang: Bonuses to Dex and Int, penalty to Wisdom, irrelevant racial traits. Pass.
BAB: You get medium base attack bonus progression, which means you do have melee potential.
d8 Hit Die: You get the “good” caster hit die.
Good will save, bad fort and reflex saves: Your will save was likely already going to be okay because of your Wisdom - this pushes it higher. Your other saves are bad, and if you plan to fight in melee often, you may want to compensate.
4+Int skill points: Not a bad amount, but your class skills are limited. The good news is that you get the three best of the five skills used to identify enemies in-class.
Proficient with Simple Weapons, Light and Medium Armor: Getting medium armor for free is pretty great for all shaman.
Craft: You could get Alchemy, I guess, if you wanted to go that route.
Diplomacy: You probably have a good Charisma, so you can play the role of party face.
Fly: It depends on how often you want to utilize flight, but you have the spells (and possible Witch Hex) to do it.
Handle Animal: This seldom comes up. Your spirit animal doesn’t have to be trained. You may want to drop one point in here, just in case, but you can otherwise ignore it.
Heal: Not the most exciting skill, granted, but it’s worth picking up.
Knowledge (Nature): Used for identifying monsters, so it’s a good one to get.
Knowledge (Planes): More monster identification? Nice.
Knowledge (Religion): Yep, yet more monster identification. Also a prerequisite for Quick Channel, if you’re building a healer.
Profession: Typically not very useful, but if you’re playing Pathfinder Society, this is probably your best option for day job checks without spending prestige.
Ride: I prefer to fly, but your mileage may (literally) vary.
Spellcraft: Max this. You’re going to want to identify magic items, spells as they’re being cast, etc.
Survival: This is a decent skill, and many Shaman will want to pick this up. Note that being trained lets you know where true north is in relation to yourself.
Other skills to consider:
Bluff: If you want to lie to people...
Intimidate: If you want to frighten people...
Knowledge (Dungeoneering): If you want to complete the monster-identification set, it’s an option. This is the most situational of the five, though.
Knowledge (Arcana): You’ll probably use this more than Dungeoneering, unless you’re in an Darklands campaign or something.
Perception: A no-brainer. You already have a great Wisdom score, too.
Perform (Dance): Don’t be that guy.
Sense Motive: If you’re doing all the talking, it could be good to know if you’re being deceived.
Use Magic Device: You have a generally-poor spell list, and this can help you compensate.
Spell list: It’s not great. Thankfully, you can get spells from one of the best lists in the game via the human, half-orc or half-elf favored class bonus, or you can get spells from the best list (Wizard/Sorcerer) in the game via the Lore Spirit.
Spellcasting progression: You get the full nine levels of spellcasting.
Spells per day: Same as the major prepared spellcasters, once you factor in Spirit Magic.
Because Shaman are capable of filling many different roles both in-combat and out, ranking spells is different than it would be for, say, a wizard. I’ve tried to point out when a spell is a lot better for one strategy than another, especially if it isn’t obvious to the reader.
Additionally, because Shaman can bring their own debuffs with Evil Eye and Misfortune, they have a better chance than most other casters (besides Witch) at landing “save-or-suck/die” spells.
Finally, it’s worth keeping in mind that the Shaman spell list is pretty limited in terms of depth, but not necessarily in terms of variety. They get a lot of situational druid spells and they get spells like Charm Person and Enthrall for dealing with diplomatic situations. They get some rudimentary buff spells as well as rudimentary battlefield control. They get spells to help scout.
Once you decide what your role will be, if you have access to the Human, Half-Orc or Half-Elf favored class bonus, you can flesh out your spell list by selecting Cleric spells. While I may point to specific options in the future, I recommend looking at one of the many Cleric guides for recommendation on spell selection from their list as many Clerics will fill similar roles to some Shaman (with the likely exception of Blasters, whom are likely easier to do in the Shaman class).
Arcane Mark: Actually kinda weird that Shaman get this spell. Seems like the only divine caster that has it on their list.
Bleed
Create Water
Dancing Lights
Daze: Can be a huge help at low levels, but quickly becomes irrelevant.
Detect Magic: Even with another spellcaster in the party, you want this as an option.
Detect Poison
Guidance: Nothing wrong with tossing out +1s for skill checks.
Know Direction
Light
Mending
Purify Food and Drink
Read Magic
Resistance: Great at low levels, not useful once you have resistance bonuses via cloaks.
Stabilize
Touch of Fatigue
Virtue
Alleviate Addiction
Aspect of the Nightingale
Bane
Barbed Chains: Surprisingly decent for debuff builds! Tripping enemies and giving them the shaken condition can turn the tide of a combat. With a low Wisdom, however, this may not work too well.
Blend
Blend with Surroundings
Bless
Burning Hands: This is one of the only blasting spells on our list at this level.
Calm Animals
Cause Fear
Charm Animal
Charm Person: Shaman are the only divine caster with this on their spell list by default.
Cheetah’s Sprint: It isn’t every day that you need to run really quickly, but if you do, consider this spell.
Chill Touch
Comprehend Languages
Coward’s Cowl
Cure Light Wounds: Unlike other divine spellcasters, Shaman can’t spontaneously cast Cure spells. That means that preparing them if you want to use them.
Dancing Darkness: This spell has potential in certain situations, like a group with tons of Darkvision. Unfortunately, a lot of critters tend to have ways around it.
Dancing Lantern
Darting Duplicate: Interesting possibilities here but not sure this is worth a spell slot.
Detect Animals or Plants
Detect Chaos
Detect Evil
Detect Good
Detect Law
Detect the Faithful
Detect Undead: Situationally useful.
Discern Next of Kin
Doom: Just roll an intimidate check to demoralize instead of wasting a spell slot on this. Or use Evil Eye.
Dream Feast
Ears of the City: Could buy you some time, whether or not that is valuable is really case-dependent.
Endothermic Touch
Endure Elements
Entangle: Your go-to control spell at this level. Sadly only usable in areas with plants.
Frostbite
Gentle Breeze
Goodberry
Gorum's Armor
Grasping Corpse: This has the evil descriptor, and you’re probably better off using Barbed Chains. However, if your Charisma is substantially higher than your Wisdom, you could consider this.
Hairline Fractures
Haze of Dreams
Heightened Awareness: If you’re in a dungeon, this isn’t a bad spell to keep active.
Hex Vulnerability: Used to work on beneficial hexes but no longer does. For a debuffer, this can still hold value.
Hex Ward
Hide from Animals
Hydraulic Push
Illusory Crowd
Inflict Light Wounds
Magic Stone
Magic Weapon
Monkey Fish: A decent catch-all solution for swim/climb applications.
Nature’s Paths: If your campaign features a lot of overland travel, this could be something to keep on hand every day. Otherwise, skip.
Obscure Poison
Obscuring Mist
Pass without Trace
Peace Bond: An interesting way for a Blaster to exclude allies, but usually you’d prefer to spend your first turn throwing out some kind of offensive spell.
Pesh Vigor: Just say no to drugs.
Poisoned Egg
Produce Flame
Protection from Evil/Good/Law/Chaos: Good to have, but a scroll should suffice.
Punishing Armor: If you need a spell to protect you from nonlethal damage regularly, I don’t know what to say.
Read Weather
Remove Fear
Rite of Bodily Purity: In a situation where you know you will encounter drugs, diseases and poisons, this is probably worth preparing.
Rite of Centered Mind: Feels a lot more situational than bodily purity and it is unlikely that an intelligent opponet will target the strong Will save caster, but hey...
Sense Spirit Magic
Shadow Trap: Honestly not terrible, because if it hits, having them spend a full-round action to clear it is usually decent action economy for your side.
Skin Tag
Sleep: Good early on, and then outclassed. If you picked up Slumber Hex using your Witch Hex, you get to experience the fun for your entire career.
Spiked Armor
Spirit Call: This works best when you can coordinate spell selection with your party. Consider that Flame spirit has a lot of common blast spells on it, and you can see this causing a lot of extra damage.
Stone Shield: Decent defensive option, but sadly Oread-only.
Summon Nature’s Ally: They added it to our spell list! Honestly not a bad idea to have one around, just to put another body in the fight, unless you’re a melee Shaman.
Tears to Wine: Notably not PFS legal, and it doesn’t say how much each person has to drink really, but handing out free mental stat buffs on skills is decent. How good exactly depends on your party, but at a minimum you’re handing out Knowledge and Perception bonuses. We get this earlier than Clerics and Wizards.
Thorn Javelin
Touch of Blindness: With a familiar capable of landing these reliably, this could be a good option for debuffing. Fort save kinda sucks.
Twisted Futures
Unbreakable Heart
Underbrush Decoy: Interesting potential, but the fact that identifying the spell can essentially negate the effect and combined with the fact that it needs to target a plant, basically not that great.
Wave Shield
Aid: If you’ve already got a morale bonus from Bless going, this is less valuable.
Alter Self: Could be useful as part of a melee shaman’s buff routine, or to acquire some of the listed abilities. Can be shared with your spirit animal via share spells.
Amplify Stench
Animal Messenger
Animal Purpose Training
Animate Dead, Lesser: Entry-level necromancy, if that’s your thing.
Augury: If you’re playing the support caster role, you could do worse than this.
Barkskin: A classic, and a solid defensive buff that scales with level.
Bear's Endurance: Extra HP is good, but this is eventually eclipsed by belts. If you grabbed Shield Other from the Cleric spell list, you will want the HP, especially if you don’t have a belt.
Beastspeak: If you routinely make use of Shapeshift Hex this could be valuable.
Beloved of the Forge
Blessing of Liberty: Really situational, but the effect is good in those situations.
Bone Fists: Feels weird marking this as green, but in a party with natural weapons (think animal companions also) this is pretty good. At minimum you’re handing out some AC.
Bull's Strength
Buoyancy
Burdened Thoughts: There are better save or suck spells against a lot of opponents, but against high Dex ones this debuff (Heavy Encumbrance is +1 max Dex, -6 to physical checks, and move speed reduction) can be good. Probably too situational unless you know your opponent’s tactics in advance.
Burning Gaze: Sadly, one of the only blaster spells at this level.
Calm Emotions
Calm Spirit: If you know you’re fighting ghosts/haunts this can be good.
Commune with Birds
Contact Entity: Too dependent on your GM’s benevolence (heh) for me to recommend it.
Cure Moderate Wounds
Curse of Keeping
Curse Terrain, Lesser
Darkness: With Heavens Spirit, you could potentially cripple some enemies - just be sure your party is on board with your plan.
Delay Poison
Detect Magic, Greater
Dream Shield
Eagle Eye: Combine with Winds Spirit for maximum effect.
Eagle's Splendor
Enthrall
False Life: Good for melee shaman, healer shaman using Shield Other, and anyone who generally abhors dying.
Fear the Sun: Yes, you can create the bright light yourself, but then you’re spending resources to set up a combo that the opponent can easily save against...
Flame Blade: Note that you do not need scimitar proficiency for this spell (source). This wasn’t an issue for the other classes that have this spell. It is treated as a scimitar otherwise. Decent backup option for some shaman.
Flickering Lights
Focused Scrutiny: This is a sizeable bonus, and likely something you throw up before walking into the party/ball/tavern etc.
Fog Cloud: Good battlefield control potential.
Fool’s Gold
Garrulous Grin: If you can land this discretely in an important social situation, if could be helpful.
Gentle Repose
Ghostbane Dirge: Not something to prepare every day, but if you KNOW you’re fighting something incorporeal, this is something you can throw out to help the party’s damage a lot.
Glide: Feather fall it ain’t.
Guiding Star
Harmless Form
Harvest Season: You could think ahead and use Goodberry, honestly.
Healing Token: As you gain access to non-touch healing spells, this becomes a better option. Intriguing but not compelling, really.
Hold Person: Apply debuffs first, particularly Misfortune if possible, to make this hit and stick.
Huntmaster’s Spear: This is a really cool spell, but pretty situational.
Imbue with Elemental Might
Inflict Moderate Wounds
Insect Scouts
Invigorating Poison
Languid Venom
Levitate: Many of us won’t want to stand in melee unless needed.
Life Pact: I feel this is most useful for shaman who are not healers, and are not operating in a group with one. Life Shaman will likely be stabilizing people via delivered spells and/or channel.
Mindshock: Interesting self-buff for a melee shaman, especially if you’re whipping a Falchion around.
Night Blindness: Real blindness sends its regards. Also, Wizards and Witches get this at level one, where it might be worth the occasional prepare for fun.
Owl's Wisdom
Plant Voice
Quick Change
Raven’s Flight
Remove Paralysis: Probably worth a scroll.
Resist Energy: Avoiding damage is good.
Restoration, Lesser: Life Shaman won’t prepare this too often as they get it via Spirit Magic.
Scale Spikes
Scare
Secret Speech
Sense Fear
Shared Sacrifice: I like this spell a lot, but it sadly has the Evil descriptor.
Shield Companion: If you know your spirit animal will be targeted, this is a good thing to have active. The value of this spell depends a lot on your GM - many don’t attack them unless they participate directly in combat. If you’re a melee shaman and/or using a mauler companion, this is probably a solid green.
Shield of Shards
Sickening Entanglement: The requirement for natural plants means that this can’t be blue - but it’s a great option when they are.
Solidify Earth
Spiritual Squire: This can be really helpful if you are the designated Use Magic Device guy, plus he can move stuff around and, worst case, can aid another.
Spiritual Weapon: There is a reason you see this spell cast a lot. Sadly, this is probably your best in-class spell at this level for dealing damage without Spirit Magic or Cleric spells.
Splinter Spell Resistance: Lots of enemies at higher levels have spell resistance, and this is a nice boost to getting through it. Goes well with an archer ally, honestly. While is is obviously less consistent, this is better than two feats when it works.
Spore Burst
Summon Nature’s Ally II: Some nice stuff on this list.
Summon Swarm
Touch of Bloodletting
Tree Shape: If camping in the wild, could be fun to take your lookout shift as a tree.
Unsettling Presence
Venomous Bite
Vine Strike
Visualization of the Body
Visualization of the Mind
Warp Wood
Web Shelter
Wild Instinct
Wood Shape
Air Breathing
Akashic Communion
Anchored Step
Animate Dead: If you’re into this kind of thing.
Assume Appearance
Aura Sight
Bestow Curse: This can be debilitating if you can land it - and with the help of Evil Eye/Misfortune, you should have a decent chance.
Blindness/Deafness: This is a good debuff, but is a level two spell on the Witch and Wizard/Sorc lists.
Call Lightning: Sadly, one of the only in-class blasting options at this level.
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance
Clear Grove
Contact Entity II
Create Food and Water: For the size of most adventuring parties, you can usually use Goodberry if berries are available. Or, you know, just use survival.
Cure Serious Wounds: Gotta pay to play.
Curse of Befouled Fortune: You will use Bestow Curse instead in like 99 percent of situations.
Daylight: Someone in your party should be bringing this unless you have some other way to deal with supernatural darkness.
Deep Slumber: Again, grabbing Slumber Hex might be a better idea, especially as more and more things become immune to this stuff at this level.
Deeper Darkness: Unless your party is built to take advantage of this, you might make them very upset by casting this.
Dispel Magic: As with Daylight, someone should probably be bringing this every day.
Dominate Animal
Draconic Malice
Ectoplasmic Snare
Final Sacrifice
Find Fault
Fins to Feet
Flesh Puppet
Fly: I feel I should note you can get this effect for yourself with Witch Hex: Flight or Heavens Hex: Heaven’s Lure.
Font of Spirit Magic: One of the few Shaman-only spells right now., this becomes a lot better if your party can take advantage of it, or if you are a blaster with Fluid Magic. But +2 to DCs and +2 to caster level checks is good, even with the 50g material component. Check with your party to see if this is worth using - but if it is, you should strongly consider using it.
Harrowing: This spell is a huge risk, but it can pay off.
Hex Glyph: I can see uses for this, but it’s not an everyday thing.
Hollow Blades
Horrifying Visage
Inflict Serious Wounds
Irregular Size
Jealous Rage
Lover's Vengeance
Magic Circle against Evil/Chaos/Law/Good
Magic Vestment
Mantle of Calm
Mindlocked Messenger
Mind Maze
Motes of Dusk and Dawn: In a party that messes with darkness shenanigans, this can be good.
Nauseating Trail: Especially with a fast spirit animal, you could see using this to make walls around enemies. Use on yourself and combine with Grace to walk circles around melee enemies.
Pierce Disguise
Planar Inquiry
Pocketful of Vipers
Polymorph Familiar
Protection from Energy: Sadly, we don’t get the communal version, but you can get it via FCB
Quell Energy
Remove Blindness/Deafness
Remove Curse
Remove Disease
Revenant Armor
Scale Spikes, Greater
See Beyond
Shadowmind: Cool for darkness shenanigans.
Shield of Darkness: This is a surprisingly good defensive self-buff, as long as your opponent can’t see in magical darkness (most can’t). Could also decide to share with your familiar.
Shroud of Innocuity
Sky Swim: Situational, but the thought of a flying shark is terrifying.
Sleet Storm: Good battlefield control potential with this spell.
Speak with Dead: Creative use of this spell can give you important information.
Speak with Haunt: Haunts are pretty rare and it seems like most GMs don’t run them properly anyways. Ask your GM if/how they will be using haunts.
Spotlight
Stench of Prey
Stinking Cloud: More control. Nauseated is a terrible condition to suffer through for 1d4+1 rounds.
Stone Shape: Make a door, seal a hallway, make some cover... think about how much stuff is made of stone in this game.
Stricken Heart: This is actually a pretty good spell, since they get no save if you succeed on the touch attack. Having said that, you get it at 3rd instead of at 2nd.
Summon Nature’s Ally III
Thorny Entanglement: This is an interesting spell. Given that the damage isn’t huge, and the thorns attack all creatures, I feel it is useful situationally.
Transfer Regeneration
Trial of Fire and Acid: It’s only 2d6, but SR does not apply, they only save for half, and it doesn’t require you to spend actions constantly. Since Melee shaman are unlikely to have invested in spell penetration, this is an okay option.
Venomous Promise
Wall of Split Illumination
Ward of the Season: “What year is it.... sorry, I mean what season...”
Water Breathing
Water Walk
Waters of Lamashtu
Wind Wall
Adjustable Polymorph: See Alter Self.
Aerial Tracks
Air Geyser: Not a terrible spell, but Shaman get it as a 4th instead of a 3rd.
Animal Ambassador
Anti-Incorporeal Shell
Assume Appearance, Greater
Ball Lightning: One of your only blasting spells at this level. The penalty to saves for wearing metal armor makes this a pretty decent option.
Bit of Luck: Technically Catfolk-only, but if your GM lets you take this as a Half-Orc, this is potentially blue.
Bloody Arrows
Borrow Corruption
Bountiful Banquet
Claim Identity
Command Plants
Conditional Curse
Contingent Venom
Control Water
Cure Critical Wounds
Curse of Burning Sleep
Curse Terrain
Detect Scrying: You won’t use this often, but it will be handy when you need it.
Dismissal: By the time you get this, outsiders are more common. Throw up your debuffs to ensure this lands. Scream “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” for best results.
Divination: Since the value of the effect depends partially on your GM, your mileage may vary.
Divine Power: Delicious melee shaman action. Probably blue for melee half-orc shaman that are abusing luck bonuses.
Earth Glide
False Life, Greater
Familiar Melding: You remember that part in The Matrix when Cypher starts unplugging everyone? This has uses, but it’s not worth the risk.
Fear: I don’t mind this one because, even if they save, they’re still shaken for one round, there is no HD limit, and the area of effect is good.
Giant Vermin
Ice Storm: Moderate damage, decent control potential.
Imbue with Spell Ability: It is not clear how this works with Shaman spells... do you have to pick spells that appear on the Cleric spell list?
Inflict Critical Wounds
Magic Weapon, Greater
Neutralize Poison
Persistent Vigor: I love the immunity to sickened/nauseated, but the duration is too short.
Planar Ally, Lesser: Paying outsiders to help you can get expensive, though.
Poison
Rain of Frogs: A level 3 spell for everyone else, level 4 for you. Too bad, I love the flavor.
Reincarnate:Your first spell that returns people to life.This is a huge gamble.
Repel Vermin
Restoration: Ability damage and negative levels aren’t the most exciting concepts in the game. But consider that by removing them, you are likely preventing a huge loss of party efficacy.
Ride The Waves
Sands of Time
Scrying: How useful is partially dependent on your GM. I like spells that get you information, though, because they often help with spell preparation later.
Sending
Slowing Mud: It’s true that they can spend actions to get rid of it, but that usually means that you’ve tilted the combat’s action economy even further in the party’s favor. Every action they waste getting rid of it is one they don’t spend killing you or your allies.
Solid Fog
Spike Stones: Given that tons of stuff has DR/Magic at this level, it’s hard to recommend this.
Spit Venom: Blindness with no save, even for one round, is pretty nice. Sadly, we get this a level later than Druids and Witches.
Thorn Body
Tongues: A level later than Sorc/Wizard and Witch. Note that Lore Spirit gives this as a 2nd-level spell.
Transplant Visage: Interesting concept, but it has the Evil descriptor.
Wandering Star Motes
Ancestral Memory: Interesting spell, but pretty weak mechanical effect for a 5th.
Animal Growth
Baleful Polymorph
Blight
Break Enchantment
Breath of Life: Mouth-to-mouth is optional, but dramatically potent.
Call Lightning Storm
Commune: Some costly components, but not terribly at this level.
Commune with Nature: “Gain knowledge of” is a pretty vague effect.
Control Winds
Cure Light Wounds, Mass
Curse of Unexpected Death
Curse, Major
Dispel Evil/Chaos/Law/Good
Dominate Person
Feast on Fear: A shame about the low HD limit, otherwise this would be a lot better.
Flame Strike: A solid blast spell that retains some use against creatures with fire immunity or heavy resistance. Sadly only gets half-benefit from Flame Curse.
Ghostbane Dirge, Mass
Grove of Respite
Hex Glyph, Greater: Since you don’t get Major Hexes, the only reason to use this is to inflate the Hex’s DC.
Hunter's Blessing: Assuming the sacred bonus to attack and damage isn’t overlapping with someone else’s spell, this is actually a pretty solid choice with a good duration. Requires you to know the situation you’re walking into, to some extent, but that is easier at this level.
Imbue Hex: An interesting idea to help with action economy, but the cost of a 5th is steep.
Inflict Light Wounds, Mass
Insect Plague
Overland Flight: The duration is really great, but for individual encounters you have the lower-level Fly or a couple hexes.
Rest Eternal
Stoneskin: A level late, and costs some money to cast.
True Seeing: You get it at 5th (along with Clerics) instead of 6th.
Vengeful Stinger
Wall of Fire: An okay spell, but you get it late.
Wall of Thorns: This can really ruin someone’s day.
Antilife Shell: No save? No save.
Awaken: Check with your GM before using this.
Banishment
Bear's Endurance, Mass
Bull's Strength, Mass
Cone of Cold: Late-entry, but you don’t have a ton of other blast options at this level.
Create Undead: Doesn’t grant control, Shaman can’t channel negative energy in-class to use the Command Undead feat and don’t have access to the Command Undead spell by default.
Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass
Dispel Magic, Greater
Eagle's Splendor, Mass
Find the Path
Fire Seeds
Flesh to Stone
Inflict Moderate Wounds, Mass
Owl's Wisdom, Mass
Planar Ally
Raise Dead
Slay Living
Snake Staff: Late-entry and not that great to begin with.
Stone to Flesh
Wall of Stone: Late-entry, but still great.
Animate Plants
Cloak of Dreams: Casting time is painful, but this can stop your attackers dead.
Control Weather
Creeping Doom: It’s potentially a lot of damage, even without specializing for summoning.
Cure Serious Wounds, Mass
Fairy Ring Retreat
Harm
Heal
Ice Body
Inflict Serious Wounds, Mass
Liveoak
Plane Shift
Regenerate
Restoration, Greater
Scrying, Greater
Stone Tell
Sunbeam
Transport via Plants: Great way to get around.
Vision
Vision of Lamashtu
Vortex
Wind Walk
Animal Shapes
Blood Mist
Circle of Clarity: Late-entry and not amazing.
Create Greater Undead: Doesn’t grant control, Shaman can’t channel negative energy in-class to use the Command Undead feat and don’t have access to the Command Undead spell by default.
Cure Critical Wounds, Mass
Destruction
Discern Location
Earthquake
Fire Storm: Likely your blast spell of choice at this level.
Horrid Wilting
Inflict Critical Wounds, Mass
Irresistible Dance: Still lasts a round if they save.
Planar Ally, Greater
Resurrection
Stormbolts: The actual damage and stun potential is good and you can exclude creatures as you’d like. The burst is centered on you, which is a downside.
Sunburst: Huge area again, but at least you don’t have to be in the middle of it, like with Stormbolts.
Symbol of Dispelling
Whirlwind: Good battlefield control.
Elemental Swarm: The cast time is offset by the fantastic duration. You’re likely not specialized to summon, though.
Energy Drain: Hopefully you’re not terrible at touch attacks because this spell is worth casting.
Etherealness
Foresight
Heal, Mass
Polar Midnight: You want to line this up with something else that prevents movement, if possible, to get the most use out of it.
Shambler: You’d probably prefer to use Elemental Swarm, given the choice, but this summons as a standard instead of 10 minutes.
Shapechange: Great possibilities with this spell.
Soul Bind
Storm of Vengeance
Tsunami
Wail of the Banshee
Winds of Vengeance
The hexes available using each spirit will be examined in the spirit section - for now, here are the hexes available to all shaman.
Chant: Most debuffers will pick this up for Evil Eye, at the very least, but it also helps buffers maintain Fortune, among other hexes. Chant aloud at the table for maximum effect.
Charm: If you have a social focus, this could be pretty useful. It also works against animals, which is nice, but Charm Person and Charm Animal are on your spell list.
Evil Eye: Even though this has been errata’d to be mind-affecting, this is still great. Shaman of all stripes can and should pick this up.
Fetish: If you were going to take Craft Wondrous Item anyways, this is a good way to get it, since it’s simply an improved version. The only issue is that you likely won’t have a stellar Intelligence score, but you can also use Lore spirit to use Wisdom instead of Int on days where you’d like to craft.
Fortune: Great for buffers and, RAW, you can extend it indefinitely with Chant. Many GMs will not let you use it past the end of a combat. Hex Vulnerability no longer works here after the errata. If you routinely have time to set up, throw it on everyone and chant as you walk in to the fight, this is likely blue.
Fury: Could see some solid use in a melee-centric group, but the morale bonus to attacks will conflict with a lot of mechanics. As with Fortune, you can extend it with Chant, but most GMs will likely not let you chant indefinitely out of combat. Can be combined with Hex Vulnerability (see Healing Hex).
Healing: If you’re healing-focused, it can save you some spell preparation.And, worst case scenario, you can use this hex against undead.
Misfortune: I prefer this to Fortune because, even though they get a save, it affects all of the enemy’s significant rolls. If you get this on the primary enemy in a combat, they’re going to have a really bad time. Extend indefinitely with Chant.
Secret: If you’re so feat-starved that you’re using hexes to get more feats, that’s a bit weird. If you get this, it’s likely in later levels as you begin to feel comfortable with your array of hexes.
Shapeshift: Compared to druid’s wild shape, you’re 8 levels behind... at that point, I’d take a pass. On the other hand, I could see melee shaman getting some use out of this.
Tongues: This is quite good if your party needs a language guy. Your Int is likely poor, so you’ll probably not have a lot invested in languages.
Ward: Though the bonuses do scale, they are common bonuses on spells and are usually the first kinds of bonuses that people pick up on magic items. This isn’t worth your time. In fairness, it’s decent enough at low levels.
Witch Hex: ...just a taste. You only get to choose one, so make it good. Note that you treat your shaman level as your witch level when determining the powers and abilities of the hex and you substitute Wisdom for Intelligence.
Debuffers will probably pick Slumber because it is basically save or die against most party configurations, and Shaman are also great at making people fail saves. Most other Shaman will opt for Flight as we have only a strictly inferior option as part of the Heavens Spirit. Scar has a lot of potential for certain builds. Prehensile Hair is an option if you want to deliver touch spells from further away and don’t want to risk your spirit animal - especially if you dumped Strength.
The shaman’s spirit animal class feature is a useful addition to the class’s overall abilities. The question you have to ask yourself is “What will I be using my spirit animal for?”
Healers often use spirit animals to deliver touch spells to allies. A blaster or debuffer may opt for a familiar capable of using a wand, or one that can help augment their knowledge skills. A melee shaman may have their spirit animal take the mauler or protector archetype to help out in actual combat.
Player Companion: Familiar Folio has brought in a ton of options for spirit animals, including some I’ve mentioned above. These options will be explored in-depth in this section.
Familiar Archetypes (Familiar Folio):
Decoy: You may end up as the party face, but this is still just weak stuff.
Emissary: This is actually an interesting option. You can get constant guidance in-combat without spending your own actions, and it gets a bunch of skills that you may have ranks in as class skills. Share Will is okay, but your save is already fine on its own. The downside is that you lose Deliver Touch Spells, which is a dealbreaker for some Shaman.
Figment: I can see the appeal for some classes and builds, but I just can’t recommend this for shaman.
Mascot: This may work well in some groups, but I’d pass.
Mauler: If you’re a melee shaman, you should definitely consider this. Heck, if you aren’t, but you aren’t planning on delivering touch spells with your familiar, this is a solid way to provide flanking for allies and cause some extra damage. Just make sure you don’t let your familiar die.
A note about the size change from Mauler, though. Creatures that are smaller than Small receive bonuses to Strength and penalties to Dex when they increase in size. You can find that table here.
Protector: If you find yourself in melee often, this is something else to consider. Unfortunately, Mauler is so good that you’ll likely choose that.
Sage: Expanding your knowledge skill selection may or may not be useful - it depends on your party’s configuration. This keeps Deliver Touch Spells, so it’s viable if you like that part of the standard familiar package. In some ways, if your familiar is not likely to be attacked vs. AC, this could be a valuable addition.
Familiar Archetypes (Animal Archive):
Infiltrator:
Pilferer:
Valet:
A word on familiar ranking:
Since most familiars (minus some archetypes) use your skill ranks, and Shaman are likely to put points in things like perception, a low base skill modifier for that is not terrible - but on the flip side, you probably aren’t investing points in stuff like stealth, so it’s a boon if they have that for themselves already.
Standard familiar options:
Below are the options available to you by default, without taking Improved Familiar. They are ranked based on their performance for their best role.
Archaeopteryx: +2 bonus on Reflex saves. The weak flier part can be limiting. Decent option for delivering touch spells.
Arctic fox: +2 bonus on Reflex saves. Decent move speed, and it comes with Scent. Makes a decent scout, or a good mauler due to its decent strength.
Arctic hare: +4 bonus on initiative checks. Unless you picked up Noble Scion or Improved Initiative you likely have a bad initiative mod, and this is a good way to mitigate the weakness. Decent scout as well, assuming you invested in Perception.
Arctic tern: +3 bonus on Fly checks. Besides the flying part, this is a weak option, and the bonus to Fly checks is lame.
Armadillo: +1 natural armor to AC. This could maybe make a good Protector, but the rest of it, minus scent, is pretty bad.
Bat: +3 bonus on Fly checks is still not good, but you get Blindsense 20ft and a decent Perception.
Blue-ringed octopus: +3 bonus on Swim checks. The bonus to swim is situational, but with the inclusion of Mauler archetype (and the availability of Aquarium Balls to keep it alive), the multiattack tentacle grabbing could get nasty. It actually has a land speed - the problem here is that you initially have no way to keep it out of its ball for long without it suffocating. Eventually you can use spells to let it breathe air.
Cat: +3 bonus on Stealth checks. You probably won’t use the Stealth bonus, but it has scent, is a good scout on its own, and has an average move speed.
Chicken: +3 hit points. The HP bonus is really the best part about this creature. I want to rate this higher, because anyone who chooses a chicken familiar is probably a cool guy.
Dinosaur, compsognathus: +4 bonus on initiative checks. Has a decent land speed with scent, low-light vision to boot. This thing is also a good mauler, if you go that route.
Dodo: +4 bonus on initiative checks. Worse than the hare and compy in basically every way, but still gives a delicious initiative bonus.
Dolphin, popoto: +3 bonus on Swim checks. No land speed, the need to breathe air and the small size makes this pretty situational as it is. The rest of its abilities, besides Blindsight, are weak. It could maul, but you have better options, even in the aquatic realm.
Donkey rat: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves. Bonus to fort is good, and the rat makes a good scout due to good stealth, perception, low-light vision and scent. Not a combatant.
Dwarf caiman: +3 bonus on Stealth checks. Good stealth, but bad perception and little else of interest. You probably won’t use the skill bonus.
Ermine: +2 bonus on Reflex saves. A good scout and the master bonus helps your weakest save. Uses weasel stats but adds +4 to Stealth to blend into snow.
Flying squirrel: +3 bonus on Fly checks. The skill bonus is not good, not a great scout, poor flying and far too weak to be a mauler.
Fox: +2 bonus on Reflex saves. Decent move speed, and it comes with Scent. Makes a decent scout, or a good mauler due to its decent strength.
Giant isopod: +1 natural armor bonus to AC. I can see some use for this, but it’s a poor scout, poor mauler, and has limited mobility.
Goat: +3 bonus on Survival checks. The skill bonus is alright and it makes a poor scout, but it has relatively high strength (for a familiar) and decent land mobility. If you’re choosing some other archetype besides mauler, this guy comes with some built-in combat capability. Plus, it’s a goat - the jokes write themselves.
Greensting scorpion: +4 bonus on initiative checks. Probably relegated to scout duty only, but with Darkvision, it’s good at that. Strength is too low to maul.
Hawk: +3 bonus on sight-based and opposed Perception checks in bright light. It has the flight speed and perception, along with a decent stealth, to act as a scout or deliver spells. Mauling is possible. Same as osprey, which grants a bonus to Survival instead, and Snail Kite, which grants a bonus to Fly.
Hedgehog: +2 bonus on Will saves. You probably don’t need the bonus to Will and the creature is slow. It has great stealth due to its size, but has a poor perception.
House centipede: +3 bonus on Stealth checks. The bonus to stealth checks isn’t great, but this thing is hard to see, has a decent perception, and has a fast climb speed. Decent scout.
Ioun wyrd: +1 natural armor bonus to AC. Has a fly speed, construct traits and blindsight. Can also share Ioun stones with its master within 30 feet. An interesting option.
Marine iguana: +3 bonus on Swim checks. Uses Dwarf Caiman stats, and at least the caiman gives you a stealth bonus.
Kakapo: +3 bonus on Climb checks. Horrible.
King crab: +2 bonus on CMB checks to start and maintain a grapple. You will likely not use this skill bonus unless you use Shapeshifting. However, with the extra strength from changing to medium, this guy can make a decent mauler.
Koala: +3 bonus on Climb checks. Bad bonus, bad speed, no real reason to choose this.
Lemming: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves. There are better places to get the Fort bonus. The rest of this creature is a wash.
Leopard slug: +3 bonus on Climb checks. Bad bonus. The only reason this isn’t red is the darkvision, and the fact that it can get into basically anywhere.
Lizard: +3 bonus on Climb checks. Good stealth, climb speed, a bit slow.
Mole: +3 bonus on smell-, taste-, and touch-based Perception checks. A burrow speed and decent perception are intriguing, but there’s not much else there.
Mongoose: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves. Decent scout, bonus to fort is good, and it has scent and low-light. Uses the Weasel’s stats, and the weasel’s master bonus is +2 Reflex.
Monkey: +3 bonus on Acrobatics checks. Not a great choice because the skill bonus is likely wasted, and the monkey isn’t sneaky enough to act as a scout. Strength is too low for a mauler.
Osprey: +3 bonus on Survival checks. Uses Hawk stats, so choose between survival checks or sight-based perception checks in bright light. Mauling is possible.
Otter: +3 bonus on Swim checks. There’s not a lot here.
Owl: +3 bonus on sight-based and opposed Perception checks in shadows or darkness. Great scout since it has huge perception and stealth bonuses. This thing could be a mauler, even.
Parrot: +3 bonus on Linguistics checks. If you want a flying familiar, I would direct you to the hawk/osprey instead of this.
Peacock: +3 bonus on Intimidate. Good for demoralize builds, and having your familiar demoralize everything in sight is actually not bad.
Penguin: +3 bonus on Swim checks. This is all pretty situational.
Petrifern: +1 natural armor bonus. Blindsight is okay, and petrifying gives it options to “full defend” when it isn’t needed for delivering touch spells. Now you can be like Jean Reno’s character in The Professional and carry a plant around.
Petromin: +3 bonus on Stealth checks. It can shed light as a candle, has limited flight, and is invisible to creatures using only darkvision. This one is unique, but probably not mechanically better than some of your other options. Plus, the master bonus isn’t great.
Pig: +3 bonus on Diplomacy checks. Better skill bonus than the goat, plus it gets scent. The downside is the strength is slightly worse, and it lacks the goat’s climb/acrobatics and nimble moves. The other downside is that your familiar could hog the spotlight.
Platypus: +3 bonus on Swim checks. Tons of situational abilities, not a good scout, an underwater-only lifesense and a poison that deals nonlethal damage. Pass, even for an aquatic campaign.
Ptarmigan: +3 bonus on Stealth checks. The master bonus is probably not helping you make a check at higher levels. Has a decent fly speed, stealth and perception.
Pterosaur, rhamphorhynchus: +2 bonus on initiative checks. You get a good fly speed and good scouting ability. The interesting part for this familiar is using its Sudden Swoop to deliver melee touch attacks without provoking attacks of opportunity.
Pufferfish: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves. The bonus to fort is good, but the poison is pretty situational and it doesn’t offer much else besides - plus, it’s aquatic.
Puffin: +3 bonus on Swim checks. 40ft. fly speed and decent stealth and perception. Still, you can do better elsewhere and the master bonus is likely wasted.
Raccoon: +3 bonus on Sleight of Hand checks. This is a decent mauler, but there are better options. There are better options for scouts and the skill bonus is probably wasted completely on you.
Rat: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves. Good scout, but very slow - even if that lack of speed is offset by a climb and swim speed. Fort bonus is nice. Because it isn’t really fast enough to deliver spells, it’s really best as a dedicated scout.
Raven: +3 bonus on Appraise checks. The skill bonus is almost definitely wasted. There are better scouts, and there are better options to deliver touch spells. However, since it can speak a language of its master’s choice, your GM may rule that it can make Use Magic Device checks to activate wands. Check with your GM.
Sea krait: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves. Has the same stats as the Viper. If all you will use your familiar for is dedicated scouting across a variety of terrain (including water), this is a great option. It is somewhat less sneaky than the rat, but it has a better perception and is faster.
Seal: +3 bonus on Swim checks. It has to breathe air, is slow on land, and has no other really redeeming features that you can’t get elsewhere. Insert lyrics to “Kiss From A Rose” here.
Skunk: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves. The musk spray ability doesn’t scale with HD, but they’re still sickened for 1d4 rounds on a save - not bad. Has a decent perception and stealth with average land speed. If you want a scout with a little something extra, you could do worse.
Sloth: +3 bonus on Climb checks. This thing is so slow that it’s practically glacial, but it does have a great stealth. The skill bonus is probably not very helpful.
Snowy owl: +3 bonus on sight-based checks in shadows or darkness. Same as Owl, but with a +4 stealth bonus to hiding in snowy environments.
Scarlet spider: +3 bonus on Climb checks. Even with the poor skill bonus, this thing is average speed, has 60ft darkvision and a great stealth and climb modifier. Good scout material.
Snail kite: +3 bonus on Fly checks. Same as Hawk.
Squirrel: +3 bonus on Sleight of Hand checks. There are better options for scouts that are both faster and sneakier - even with the diminutive size.
Thrush: +3 bonus on Diplomacy checks. Speaks a language like the Raven, so the caveat from before regarding UMD applies. The skill bonus is more useful here, though.
Toad: +3 hit points. If you want the HP bonus, take this over the Chicken. Still, this thing is really slow.
Toucan: +3 bonus on Diplomacy checks (can’t speak). Uses the raven’s stats, loses a language, grants a different skill bonus. Just take the Thrush instead.
Tuatara: +3 bonus on Survival checks. It does have Darkvision 60ft., but it’s otherwise slow-ish. Has some skills you don’t normally see on familiars. Worth a look, if nothing else.
Turtle: +1 natural armor bonus to AC. Too slow, not very stealthy and not very perceptive. Not a great option for any familiar role.
Snapping turtle: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves. There are better ways to get the Fort bonus.
Viper: +3 bonus on Bluff checks. Has the same stats as the Sea Krait. If all you will use your familiar for is dedicated scouting across a variety of terrain (including water), this is a great option. It is somewhat less sneaky than the rat, but it has a better perception and is faster. The skill bonus could be useful, since you probably have a decent charisma.
Wallaby: +3 bonus on Acrobatics checks. This is a mauler-only candidate, even at Small size to start. Faster than the goat and pig, and it has Acrobatics. Unfortunately, you probably didn’t take ranks in it, so the master bonus isn’t great.
Weasel: +2 bonus on Reflex saves. This is probably your weakest save, so using your familiar to shore it up is a good idea. Decent scout, bonus to fort is good, and it has scent and low-light. Shares stats with the Mongoose, which gives +2 Fort.
Improved Familiar options:
The use of the Improved Familiar feat opens up some new options for Shaman. I’ve put the required caster level and the creature’s alignment in parentheses for you. The feat has been confirmed as legal for Shaman.
Aeon, Paracletus (7th, N): The aura is pretty situational, because the Aeon can only exclude one creature (probably you, if it’s the harmful version of the aura). Casting Commune once per week could be really great, depending on your GM. This could make a good sage, and the racial bonus to Knowledge skills could be useful if you’ve placed points there.
Agathion, Silvanshee (7th, NG): Used to be straight overpowered, until the Lay on Hands was specified to always be as a 2nd-level paladin. Still good due to the fast movement speed, good mobility, great saves and great stealth/perception. Heroic Strength and pounce could mean a formidable mauler once per day. Truespeech and Speak With Animals can be very handy. Gets Commune one a week to top it off. Good kitty.
Almiraj (5th, any): If this was a regular familiar, it would be decent, but it’s outclassed here. Burrow speed is interesting, I guess. You’d like to make use of that horn as a mauler, but since it starts as Small size it just isn’t buffed enough to make it practical.
This section will look at all aspects of each spirit - the hexes, spirit abilities, and spirit magic spells.
This spirit is support-focused, and has good options for dealing with incorporeal undead. A decent catch-all wandering spirit that will see a lot of use as a Wandering Spirit with buff- and healing-focused Shaman.
Spirit Magic: This is one of the better Spirit Magic lists. Heroism, Telekinesis and Greater Heroism are all useful spells that Shaman don’t get access to normally without significant Int investment and Arcane Enlightenment. Spiritual Weapon is always nice to have around.
unseen servant (1st), spiritual weapon (2nd), heroism (3rd), spiritual ally (4th), telekinesis (5th), greater heroism (6th), ethereal jaunt (7th), vision (8th), astral projection (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Ancestral Blessing: The effect is decent, but the fact that it ends when an attack hits or deals damage is lame. If this didn’t require a standard action, it could be useful. As-is, pass.
Ghost Blade: This is a great option to have, even if you don’t use it every day. Definitely bait for Wandering Hex / Spirit Talker. When you need it, you need it.
Intercessor: Speak With Dead can get a lot of mileage when used appropriately. This is also a great option to have.
Might of the Fallen: This hits its stride when you get to the mid-levels and you routinely see ability damage every day. You can use Hex Vulnerability to get more mileage, as well.
Wisdom of the Ages: Being able to stand in as your party’s brains is nice, depending on your composition.
Spirit Animal:
This is mediocre at best, and is negated completely if you go with the Mauler archetype. Personally not a fan.
Spirit Ability:
It’s decent, if you have nothing else to do. The bonus is untyped, so no worries about it not stacking with spells already in play. Becomes underwhelming later on as a +2 is quickly outclassed by other things you can do with your standard action.
Greater Spirit Ability:
This ability is a mess. If you’re not a melee shaman (and this tree is not especially melee-focused), you won’t get much mileage. If it wasn’t minutes-per-level and it didn’t disappear one round after leaving your grasp, it would at least be cool to have around for the ghost touch upgrade later. If you are a melee shaman, this may be slightly better, but still mostly useful for the ghost touch and the ability to summon whatever weapon best suits your current situation if your standby isn’t doing it for you.
True Spirit Ability:
Not having to pay the summoning cost is nice, I guess.
Manifestation:
This is nice, but at 20th you expect the good stuff.
This is a primarily melee-focused spirit, although debuffers and buffers can find some items of interest.
Spirit Magic: The spell list here is solid enough, but it’s also pretty unfocused - though some might call it “pleasantly varied.”
Enlarge person (1st), fog cloud (2nd), magic vestment (3rd), wall of fire (4th), righteous might (5th), mass bull's strength (6th), control weather (7th), earthquake (8th), storm of vengeance (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Most of this is geared toward melee shaman, and it’s still not great for them.
Battle Master: The initial effect is pretty weak. Getting weapon specialization at level 8 is pretty good, though. Obviously only melee shaman need apply here.
Battle Ward: This is good enough at low levels, but deflection bonuses tend to be common, and it decreases in value each time... plus they can’t be affected for 24 hours? Even though it does eventually scale at higher level, the duration is good, and you can use Hex Vulnerability to re-use it, you can do better than this. Potentially green in large parties.
Curse of Suffering: The first part of this ability will only be useful in parties that can take advantage of it. The second part is what you want it for, since there’s no save. But enemies that heal are not common enough for this to be useful all the time. If you know your opposition, this could serve you well as a wandering hex, or could be picked up via Spirit Talker.
Eyes of Battle: This has uses, but by the time that invisibility becomes a big problem, there are numerous ways for magic users to get rid of it - although Shaman are not typically one of them. There are also numerous non-magical ways to negate invisibility. The second part is for ranged shaman, I guess? Pass.
Hampering Hex: Battle spirit, you tease - finally, something worth taking. Now, you can’t extend this with Chant, but it does stack with Evil Eye. Whether or not the penalty to CMD matters depends strictly on your group. But Evil Eye is significantly more flexible, and you should probably just take that.
Spirit Animal:
This is actually pretty good, as far as spirit animal abilities go. You don’t want your familiar to die, and this helps keep it alive.
Spirit Ability:
One of the most unclear shaman abilities. Is it a standard action to activate, and then a free action to maintain? Is it a standard action every round? The attack bonus doesn’t stack with Bless, but does eventually outscale it. It stacks fully with a Bard’s Inspire Courage. If your GM makes you spend a standard every round, you should probably just do something else. Hoping for some errata here soon.
Greater Spirit Ability:
This is one of the reasons you decided to be a melee shaman. You can use inquisitors as a point of comparison - they get this three levels earlier, but for nowhere near as long (depending on your Cha modifier). Also, you need to be wielding the weapon to use this, but unlike the inquisitor, it stacks with an existing bane property of the same type, and there’s no clause that says you can’t then hand the weapon off to someone else. Heck, maybe someone could use Call Weapon!
True Spirit Ability:
A standard to start this is a rough deal, but it’s still pretty good. Obviously this is more useful in fights against multiple, smaller opponents.
Manifestation:
This is understandably pretty good. It favors high-crit, full-attacking Shaman, so if you plan to make it to 20th level, you may want to keep that in mind.
This is the best option for a minion-master-type shaman, and there are hexes for buffers and debuffers.
Spirit Magic: Fear, Undead Creation/Control and save or die/suck. Not my favorite collection of spells, and not terribly useful to pick up the list via Wandering Spirit. False Life is the only real standout.
Cause fear (1st), false life (2nd), animate dead (3rd), fear (4th), slay living (5th), circle of death (6th), control undead (7th), horrid wilting (8th), wail of the banshee (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Bone Lock: Fairly mediocre since they get a save, although staggered is a great condition against solitary or paired enemies, especially ones with tons of natural attacks that they can utilize on a full attack. Gets better at higher levels, but by then you can create a lot more havoc with other options.
Bone Ward: Deflection bonuses are good, but common. It scales up later, but once per person per 24 hours is pretty weak. Duration is also initially pretty weak.
Deathly Being: This has uses, especially if you know your opposition in advance. A lot of enemy types make use of negative energy effects, and the untyped bonus to saves against death and energy drain effects you get later on are also great. A good pickup for Wandering Hex or Spirit Talker, but not a great everyday hex. At 16th, this is a good way to ignore negative level penalties.
Fearful Gaze: At low levels, it’s probably easier to use Intimidate to create the Shaken condition. At 8th, Frightened is better. It’s still a mind-affecting fear effect, but if you want a reliable way to create them, this is your best Hex option.
Grave Sight: Extremely situational and not recommended.
Spirit Animal:
Anything that makes your familiar harder to hit is a good thing.
Spirit Ability:
Melee touch attack that is ineffective against a common enemy type. I guess if you’re creating and controlling undead, this is a cost-effective way to keep them alive? The 11th-level bonus is likely only useful in campaigns focused around Evil-aligned PCs.
Greater Spirit Ability:
The DR is nice, if not always effective at 8th level. The burst attack is situational at best, since you can’t exclude creatures or squares, and they get a save... and you can only use it three times per day.
True Spirit Ability:
Lots of uses for this - at the very least, you’re a less-attractive target against a lot of foes.
Manifestation:
Improved Power Word: Kill, at-will Animate Dead, and auto-stabilize. It’s good stuff, but you had to wait until 20th level to get it.
This spirit is based mainly around blasting but has a couple of great all-purpose options. This is a solid primary spirit for blasters, and a great wandering spirit for Shaman who want to add some damage potential or enable their casters via Flame Curse.
Spirit Magic: Mostly blasting spells, but since you can cause vulnerability with no save, most of these are worth casting.
Burning hands (1st), resist energy (2nd), fireball (3rd), wall of fire (4th), summon monster V(fire elementals only, 5th), fire seeds (6th), fire storm (7th), incendiary cloud (8th), fiery body (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Cinder Dance: A good way to pick up some extra mobility.
Fire Nimbus: They get a save, which isn’t great, but the effects and duration are solid.
Flame Curse: The good stuff! No save, and they become vulnerable to an extremely common form of damage (and one that you are capable of supplying). Your party’s blasters will love you. Lasts until the end of your next turn, so even at low levels you get your next turn to take a shot at the vulnerable enemy.
Gaze of Flames: You can see through the most common types of vision-impeding effects, which is nice. No action specified, so it’s unclear if the effect is maintained as a free action or not.
Ward of Flames: Good enough at low levels, but the scaling is nowhere near good enough in the long-term.
Spirit Animal:
Immune to Fire is nice, vulnerable to Cold is not. Shedding light as a candle could be useful, but could also just draw attention to the spirit animal and make it a target. This almost feels like a penalty for selecting this spirit.
Spirit Ability:
Unless you’re built to make melee attacks, this is largely irrelevant. Given that you can make enemies vulnerable to fire damage though, it is better than a lot of the other melee touch attacks granted by Spirit abilities.
Greater Spirit Ability:
Fire resistance 10 is nice, and Burning Hands with no damage cap three times a day is good too.
True Spirit Ability:
This is useful, but how useful depends on whether your GM allows you to cast spells in this form.
Manifestation:
Great stuff, but again, you’re level 20. This is somewhat underwhelming compared to other spirits’ Manifestation, though.
This is an interesting grab-bag of stuff. There are some hexes worthy of cherry-picking via Wandering Hex and/or Spirit Talker, and the spirit abilities are pretty good.
Spirit Magic:
A bizarre but fun group of spells. Color Spray can end fights at low levels, and it’s nice to always have a Daylight to pull out of your hat. If you’re in the level 7 to 9 range and someone else routinely covers Daylight, this is a lot less impressive. Prismatic spray is just good, clean fun.
Color spray (1st), hypnotic pattern (2nd), daylight (3rd), rainbow pattern (4th), overland flight (5th), chain lightning (6th), prismatic spray (7th), sunburst (8th), meteor swarm (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Enveloping Void: Okay, so they get a Will save, but the effect is still pretty solid. Bright light becomes dim light (20% miss chance), and normal light becomes darkness. The duration is good enough.
Guiding Star: The value of this Hex depends a lot on how active your party is at night. Groups without a ton of darkvision tend to shy away from night-fighting if possible, so your mileage may vary. Pretty situational.
Heaven’s Leap: Great for getting yourself or your allies out of trouble, getting your full-attack-happy friends to the enemy, getting your dying allies away from the thing stabbing/eating/grabbing them, or getting your allies across dangerous terrain. It’s a supernatural ability, so it doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. The once-per-24-hours restriction sucks, but it’s still great and you can work around the restriction with Hex Vulnerability if needed (especially for out-of-combat applications).
Lure of the Heavens: Not great at 1st, but improves substantially at 5th and eventually 10th. If you can hold off to get this instead of getting the Flight Hex via your only Witch Hex, do so, as it frees up some other great Witch options like Slumber.
Starburn: This is pretty bad, but at least it targets Fort. It isn’t entirely clear what the radius of the emitted bright light is. I could see this being useful if you knew that you were going somewhere that promised constant darkness shenanigans.
Spirit Animal:
The star map part is pretty situational, though it does have some cool flavour. The fly speed/increase is great, since you likely chose a familiar that could fly anyways. The “small nimbus of light” that it emits while flying is not detailed, so there’s no word on how large the area is and what kind of light it is (I assume normal).
Spirit Ability:
Decent debuff, no save, and good duration. Added utility against things that like to turn invisible constantly is a bonus.
Greater Spirit Ability:
Darkvision is always good to have, and it lets you mess around with darkness effects and work at night or underground if needed.
True Spirit Ability:
Fun spells, and even Lore Shaman with high intelligence scores likely won’t have them high enough to grab these.
Manifestation:
Bonuses to saves? Alright!
This is the Shaman healing spirit, althought the Restoration specialization will likely be a straight upgrade for a lot of healing builds.. Unfortunately, the Spirit Hex selection on the main Life Spirit is pretty sad.
Spirit Magic:
There’s stuff here that you’ll be glad you have access to every day if you’re trying to heal. If you’re not, then most of this won’t be great.
Detect undead (1st), lesser restoration (2nd), neutralize poison (3rd), restoration (4th), breath of life (5th), heal (6th), greater restoration (7th), mass heal (8th), true resurrection (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Curse of Suffering: Potentially useful against opponents that heal, or if you have a bleed-focused party (madness!). These are both incredibly situational applications.The only reason this isn’t red is because there’s no save.
Deny Succor: I’m actually okay with an enemy spending his standard action casting a cure spell. Pass.
Enhanced Cures: This is okay at higher levels, but even then it’s just letting you use lower-level cures more effectively. You probably just want to cast a better spell.
Life Link: Formerly the biggest tease of all time, and only worked when your ally got to negative five (-5) hit points (a.k.a. likely dying), not when they are missing five hit points. It has since been erratad to work exactly like the Oracle version. Redirect damage to yourself, and then heal yourself up!
Life Sight: The upgrade at 12th makes this marginally useful, but it’s still just better to skip this.
Spirit Animal:
Again, you don’t want this thing to die, and this helps, with the added bonus that you may never have to waste healing resources on it.
Spirit Ability:
Also known as the reason you took Life spirit. Full channeling progression, but two fewer channels than a cleric (all other things being equal).
Greater Spirit Ability:
There’s another way to automatically stabilize creatures - it’s called “magical healing,” which you’re probably familiar with by the time you get this. The +4 bonus to heal checks is okay, I guess?
True Spirit Ability:
Is it just me, or is this spirit a rollercoaster ride? This is incredible, and may be a good reason to retrain Quick Channel.
Manifestation:
Anything that makes the healer harder to kill is probably a good thing.
Added in the Healer’s Handbook, Spirit Specializations swap out Spirit Magic spells, Spirit Abilities and Hexes from their parent spirit. Note that you can’t take this as a Wandering Spirit. The wording seems to imply this can only be taken by actual Shaman and not by archetypes that grant Shaman spirits, but I haven’t seen a ruling yet.
Spirit Magic: Remove Sickness replaces Detect Undead.
Replacement Hexes (replace Deny Succor and Curse of Suffering):
Shell of Succor: This is a pretty nice hex that doesn’t have the once-every-day limitation. Damage soaked completely by the temporary HP counts as a miss, which is kind of weird. 1 + CHA modifier uses is decent. This is a Hex, so your familiar can deliver the touch (and doesn’t have to be in contact with you before doing so).
Spirit Boost: Decent, but only applies to spells (not channeling). Could be good if you’re curing yourself in a Life Link / Shield Other situation.
True Spirit Ability:
Spirit of Life: Replaces something that was basically pointless anyways, so it’s a solid upgrade. But being able to move a cure to your familiar as a Swift Action is pretty useful.
This is one of the more interesting spirits, at least in terms of the sheer possibilities it offers for expanding your spell list and skill bonuses. Lots of great stuff to cherry-pick from the Hex list using Wandering Spirit and/or Spirit Talker.
Spirit Magic:
You get Tongues as a 2nd-level spell (normally 3rd or higher for full casters) and Legend Lore as a 4th (normally 6th or higher for full casters).
Identify (1st), tongues (2nd), locate object (3rd), legend lore (4th), contact other plane (5th), mass owl's wisdom (6th), vision (7th), moment of prescience (8th), time stop (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Arcane Enlightenment: This is amazing. The only downside is the intellect requirement, but if you were aiming to be a primary debuffer, this is something you should consider at character creation. In any case, there’s a ton of good stuff here. This is a great pickup via Wandering Hex / Spirit Talker since you get to choose the spells every time.
Benefit of Wisdom: Best to know your party composition before selecting this, but it allows you to stand in as the party’s brains. Another great option for Wandering Hex / Spirit Talker, especially in situations where you don’t know what will be at your table, like in PFS.
Brain Drain: They get a save and, assuming they fail, then you have to spend a full-round action to sift through their thoughts? Don’t bother with this.
Confusion Curse: They get a save, and then they may be able to act normally anyways as per the rules for Confusion. Just hit them with Evil Eye instead. Pass.
Share Knowledge: Combined with your ability to cast Tongues, this is potentially useful, but still somewhat situational. In the right party, you can get a lot of use out of this.
Spirit Animal:
Chances are that your familiar does some scouting, so the bonus to Stealth checks is welcome.
Spirit Ability:
You probably have several better ways to spend a standard action than this. If you could somehow grant these to your party, it would be a lot better.
Greater Spirit Ability:
Divination can be very useful, but also depends somewhat on your GM. Still, this usually is a steal.
True Spirit Ability:
Permanent Tongues is pretty great, as are the skill bonuses.
Manifestation:
Wish. ‘Nuff said.
Added in Advanced Class Origins, this spirit is mostly built around melee fighting, but you also get a megafauna animal companion at 16th if you chose this as your primary spirit. I wouldn’t, but there you have it.
Spirit Magic:
Mostly built around buffs at low levels. Bull’s Strength eventually becomes mostly pointless when people have belts. Stoneskin is cost-prohibitive until higher-levels. I personally like summoning spells, but when you’re not built to do it (as a melee shaman likely is not) then it’s a lot less impressive in combat.
If you aren’t yourself a melee shaman, but your team has a couple melee beatsticks, you could do worse than this list, especially early in levels.
Enlarge person (1st), bull's strength (2nd), rage (3rd),stoneskin (4th), beast shape III (5th), tar pool (6th), summon nature's ally VII(7th), frightful aspect (8th), polar midnight (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Burden of the Beast: This is useful only against very specific opponents: mobile, high-Dexterity combatants. Plus, your GM will hate you for forcing him to look up the carrying capacity table for each of his enemies. Pass.
Mammoth’s Hide: This is probably my favorite of the “ward-type” hexes because most players opt for deflection bonuses (they apply to flat-footed and touch AC) before natural armor bonuses (only flat-footed) when given the option, so this is more likely to work for full-value. Plus, you get a bonus to cold resist, the duration is fine, and there’s no once-per-day nonsense so you can probably keep it on the melee guys for a few encounters.
Phantom Stampede: Incredibly situational. You’d rather have the Battle Spirit’s Hampering Hex (or even better, Evil Eye) in basically every conceivable situation.
Primal Speaker: When Gabe Newell described Windows 8 as “this great sadness,” he could have instead been describing this hex. I guess if your campaign takes place entirely within the Realm of the Mammoth Lords or Sargava or something, you may want to take a look at this?
Thunder Foot: I actually like overrun and this circumvents your BAB weakness. On one hand, worthless for anyone who isn’t a melee shaman, and risky to actually use until 7th. On the other hand, free feats, and pretty thematic too.
Spirit Animal:
Strength bonus. Nope.
Spirit Ability:
This could be a lot worse, but they still get a save. On the other hand, it gives you a good alternate standard action besides just taking one attack for when you have to move in and can’t charge. Note that you only have to hit!
Greater Spirit Ability:
By the time you get this, you should have already purchased a belt, so... I guess you get half your belt gold back? I really dislike it when classes grant bonuses that you can buy - especially when it’s this late.
True Spirit Ability:
Full animal companion, but limited in terms of what you can choose. Still, mastodon are pretty awesome. It’s just a pity you get this so late in the game.
Manifestation:
Permanent mammoth form!
There’s some interesting options here, but it is hurt by a lack of focus, especially when it comes to the spell and hex selection.
Spirit Magic:
You already have Barkskin, but potentially getting it once without preparing it is good. Check with your GM before using Awaken. I know I said that summoning without investment is usually not great, but four swarms (via Creeping Doom) can really ruin someone’s day.
Charm animal (1st), barkskin (2nd), speak with plants(3rd), grove of respite (4th), awaken (5th), stone tell (6th), creeping doom (7th), animal shapes (8th), world wave (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Entangling Curse: It’s only one target, but it gets around the natural plant limitation of Entangle (the spell) and the target limitation might actually help you to not entangle your party. They do get a save, and it has the 24-hour restriction, but the duration is potentially good.
Erosion Curse: The anti-construct usage is really situational, but being able to potentially destroy a bonded object/holy symbol or the weapon that an enemy relies on is strong. Constantly destroying items can have unintended meta-game consequences; speak with your GM about how they typically handle sundering/item destruction, and if using this will mean calling down sunder-wrath on you and your party.
Friend to Animals: Being able to turn your unused spells into anything is okay. The second part will make the party’s animal companion love you. Note that this does NOT work on wild-shaped druids since polymorph effects do not change your type.
Speak with Animals: I mean, maybe you really want to chat it up with a honey badger...
Stormwalker: All-around decent utility, but unless you focus on creating such effects, this may not come in handy too often.
Spirit Animal:
Very situational, but on the other hand, it could be the difference between your familiar delivering that touch spell or not.
Spirit Ability:
Great against singular or few opponents, worse against swarms of enemies, but they don’t get a save. Against a single opponent, you just gave your whole party Blur.
Greater Spirit Ability:
Automatically stabilizing is good, especially if you are the group’s healer and no one else is going to be able to help you. The healing is minimal, no matter the level, but it could push you over the threshold with a little luck.
True Spirit Ability:
“I was a druid all along, guys!” Full companion animal, and you get your pick of the litter.
Manifestation:
This sounds like a plot for a weird Del Toro flick.
Too much of this spirit is reliant on being in an urban environment to make it routinely useful as a main spirit. In a purely urban campaign, this is probably green. The spirit magic list is pretty good, though. My rankings below assume majority of time spent in urban environments.
Spirit Magic:
charm person (1st), summon swarm (2nd), hold person (3rd), confusion (4th), wall of stone (5th), mislead (6th), mass hold person (7th), (8th), imprisonment (9th).
What’s strange about this list is that Hold Person and Wall of Stone — both good spells — are acquired at a higher level than usual. If you were going to prepare them anyway, that’s not necessarily bad.
Spirit Hexes:
Accident: Effect is actually decent, but a caster level check without casting ability score vs. CMD is not likely to land at low levels and then, at higher levels, enemies will be a lot harder to trip.
Bad Penny: Great effect, difficult to use except in situations where you know the target and can approach them.
City Spirit: This could actually be really good when combined with certain hexes but bonuses to Dexterity skill checks aren’t that useful.
Ward of the City: I actually think this could be green in the right setting or campaign, especially for the fortification-type effect and the fact that it stacks.
Spirit Animal:
Increase to initiative is good.
Spirit Ability:
This is pretty good, but make sure you look at the limitations for each version of this ability.
Greater Spirit Ability:
If you took this spirit, I’m assuming you spend a lot of time in urban environments.
True Spirit Ability:
I hope you built for melee.
Manifestation:
Good in Urban environments: the motto of this entire spirit.
Sorry to say it, but this spirit doesn’t rock. Actually, I’m not sorry.
Spirit Magic:
What if you took a bunch of vaguely stone-themed spells and jammed them together? You’d get this spirit magic list.
Magic stone (1st), stone call (2nd), meld into stone(3rd), wall of stone (4th), stoneskin (5th), stone tell (6th), statue (7th), repel metal or stone (8th), clashing rocks (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Crystal Sight: Useful enough for both dungeoneering and urban environments. A likely cherry-pick target.
Lodestone: This is useful only against very specific opponents: mobile, high-Dexterity combatants. Plus, your GM will hate you for forcing him to look up the carrying capacity table for each of his enemies. Pass.
Metal Curse: No save is good, the duration is not, and there’s that silly 24-hour restriction. Use Evil Eye instead.
Stone Stability: Unlike the Mammoth spirit’s Thunder Foot, this doesn’t help your BAB for the maneuver in question.
Ward of Stone: DR is nice, DR for only one hit is not. Oh, and enjoy the 24-hour restriction and poor duration. Scales minimally.
Spirit Animal:
Constant DR is fine, but realistically your spirit animal is more likely to take energy damage.
Spirit Ability:
Unless you’re built to make melee attacks, this is largely irrelevant. Unlike the Flame spirit, you can’t force vulnerability to this damage type. However, fewer things are likely to be immune/resistant to this damage type.
Greater Spirit Ability:
The DR is nice. The burst attack is situational at best, since you can’t exclude creatures or squares, and they get a save... and you can only use it three times per day.
True Spirit Ability:
This is useful, but how useful depends on whether your GM allows you to cast spells in this form.
Manifestation:
Acid resistance is pretty meh. Free metamagic feats are nice, but only on earth/acid spells...
This is a mixed bag, with a couple stand-out options and a lot of “meh.” A lot of this Spirit depends on whether you routinely operate underwater, as well. Adjust your ratings accordingly.
Spirit Magic: Water-themed spells, by their very nature, tend to be pretty situational. Wall of Ice is a nice control spell and Slipstream is usually usable as a speed increase.
Hydraulic push (1st), slipstream (2nd), water breathing (3rd), wall of ice (4th), geyser (5th), fluid form (6th), vortex (7th), seamantle (8th), tsunami(9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Beckoning Chill: In the right group, this is potentially very useful. They get no save, the duration is fine, and if your party is dealing cold damage anyways then this is a way to help debuff. It does have the 24-hour restriction, though.
Crashing Waves: The boost to CL is nice, but it applies only to very specific spells, and the Water descriptor is more rare than you’d think. The spells that deal damage are basically nonexistent at low levels.
Fluid Magic: This is pretty great. This makes blasting more effective, and you will likely cherry-pick this via Spirit Talker or Wandering Hex in order to load up on Spirit Magic spells from the Fire list if you’re going the blasting route - especially if you don’t have the Intelligence to make Arcane Enlightenment work.
Mist’s Shroud: The duration is poor, given that it dissipates after one attack.
Water Sight: Some solid utility here, and the ability to Scry without buying the focus mirror is nice, but it’s rounds-per-day. Actually, given that Scrying takes an hour to cast, it isn’t clear how this is supposed to work... likely the actual Scrying takes up rounds, but not the casting time.
Spirit Animal:
If you are doing an aquatic campaign you probably should have chosen something aquatic, but this has situational uses. If you use your spirit animal to deliver touch spells often, the Mobility could be useful.
Spirit Ability:
Melee touch attack that deals non-lethal... Quenching weapon at 11th... no thanks.
Greater Spirit Ability:
Permanent swim speed and water breathing is nice. The cone attack is underwhelming.
True Spirit Form:
This is useful, but how useful depends on whether your GM allows you to cast spells in this form.
Manifestation:
Unlike Crashing Waves, this does apply to cold spells, making it a lot more useful. Cold resistance is good.
There’s blasting support, self-buffing, and a good scouting ability. But this spirit suffers from the same ills as the other elemental spirits - the spirit abilities are mediocre and the spirit magic list is a collection of random stuff.
Spirit Magic:
These get substantially better as you level. Control Winds is a great way to ruin everyone’s day.
Alter winds (1st), gust of wind (2nd), cloak of winds (3rd), river of wind (4th), control winds (5th), sirocco (6th), control weather (7th), whirlwind (8th), winds of vengeance (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Air Barrier: It’s like Mage Armor (without the Force part), but eventually becomes better. You could feasibly forgo the use of armor if you have reliable access to this - or, if you’re in an area that you know your armor will hinder you, you could grab this via Spirit Talker / Wandering Hex.
Sparking Aura: The duration is the worst part. They don’t get a save, it’s a potential light source, it’s good against stuff that wants to turn invisible and flee/set up a sneak attack, and it’s a likely source of added damage.
Vortex Spells: This is an intriguing idea to build a blasting Shaman around, but most will not get much use out of this. Note that there are spells that require attack rolls but deal no damage - all you have to do is confirm the crit, and they don’t get a save. This becomes more effective with access to Arcane Enlightenment.
Wind Sight: The initial bonus is unclear: technically you don’t take penalties on Perception for range, the DC just increases. Having said that, assuming we use common sense, this is potentially saving you from the first -10 to Perception you would take due to distance (The DC increases by 1 for every 10 ft). The clairvoyance/clairaudience application is very versatile given that most places you will adventure in will have air.
Wind Ward: This is pretty situational but, if you know your opposition/order of battle well, this could be a useful pickup via Wandering Hex/Spirit Talker against certain opponents. The scaling at 8th and 16th prevents this from falling into red territory.
Spirit Animal:
Resistance to a comparatively rare form of damage and a glow that will likely give away your spirit animal’s position. At least it doesn’t get a vulnerability to anything like Flame Spirit.
Spirit Ability:
Unless you’re built to make melee attacks, this is largely irrelevant. Unlike the Flame spirit, you can’t force vulnerability to this damage type. However, fewer things are likely to be immune/resistant to this damage type.
Greater Spirit Ability:
The resistance is okay, but the line is solid damage. I also personally find lines to be a lot easier to use than cones when there’s friendly traffic in the area. The damage type makes it a good fallback attack against many different foes.
True Spirit Ability:
This is useful, but how useful depends on whether your GM allows you to cast spells in this form.
Manifestation:
The resistance is only okay given the relative scarcity of this damage type - but the metamagic feats on Air/Electricity spells is a solid addition.
Introduced in Heroes of the Wild, the Wood Spirit is kind of a mess. There’s some interesting stuff, but most of it is structured on the fluff side of things rather than the crunch side. That’s not necessarily a bad thing ... but this is an optimization guide.
Spirit Magic:
Overall, not the greatest. Having Barskin every day is nice, but a lot of these are really situational. Transmute Metal to Wood can be effective but it also renders all that delicious loot worthless. Tree Stride is good, but since you can only affect yourself it is somewhat situational.
Shillelagh (1st), barkskin (2nd), minor creation (wood items only) (3rd), thorn body(4th), tree stride (5th), ironwood (6th), transmute metal to wood (7th), changestaff (8th), wooden phalanx (9th).
Spirit Hexes:
Hex of Lignification: This is a solid debuff against certain foes, but giving them hardness 5 is a serious drawback at low levels. Still, against foes that need to full attack to be really dangerous, I’d consider it - and at a certain point, your party will be able to overcome hardness. I also like that it targets Fortitude.
Nature’s Gifts: Somewhat-improved Goodberry? Hard pass.
Spines and Brambles: The affected area isn’t huge, but you could definitely prevent some charge attacks with this, as well as make things difficult for approaching enemies. Truthfully, you already have spells to do that. Since it doesn’t specify that you need a natural environment, you could use this to grow plants for an Entangle, even in areas without vegetation.
Verdant Path: Woodland stride isn’t that great to begin with; Air Walk within 10 ft. of a tree is hilariously limited in nine out of ten campaigns.
Whispering Leaves: This is less restricted than Verdant Path and gets significantly better at 8th, and is cool from a flavour perspective. Something to consider.
Spirit Animal:
This is kind of interesting, as it lets you pass your familiar off as a carving or tree limb, basically. The Life Spirit’s bonus it ain’t, though.
Spirit Ability:
So this is only good if you’re a melee shaman or Hex Striker with feral combat training. Even then, it isn’t great.
Greater Spirit Ability:
This is great for a debuff shaman. Sadly, it is centred on you. One of the highlights of this spirit, certainly.
True Spirit Ability:
I’d rather have any of the elemental body powers that some of the other spirits have over this.
Manifestation:
One of the better manifestation bonuses - but you’re level 20, so you can do some of this on your own.
For many classes, feats are a primary method of determining the character’s focus. For Shaman, they are one method among many. Still, your feats can greatly expand your capabilities, or just make you better at what you’re already doing.
I obviously can’t list every feat, but will try to hit the common options, traps, and interesting choices.
Because Hexes are a big part of the class, grabbing feats to improve their effects or expand your selection is tempting. However, bear in mind that Shaman do not get the Hex class feature until level 2 - so you don’t qualify until then. I’ve put feats that affect hexes in their own section, though they are technically “General Feats.”
Accursed Hex: A great choice for the debuffer, especially if you grabbed a save-or-suck Hex like Slumber or Misfortune. Less useful if debuffing isn’t your primary role.
Amplified Hex: A tempting option to make your Hexes even more difficult to resist or to expand your range early in a confrontation where some maneuvering is required. Depending on your role, you may or may not have the spells available to continue to use this throughout the day ... and at low levels, you’re limited.
Extra Hex: As written, this feat seems to indicate that the Shaman must select a Hex from their spirit (and, as a result, can’t take Hexes from the list of generic Shaman hexes). You can see some discussion about this in this thread. I believe the intent is to allow the selection of the generic hexes, and also think that the forthcoming errata will clarify this. For the moment, this is one of those gray areas of the class. I consider this blue for most Shaman, assuming you can choose from the generic hexes.
Flexible Hex: We heard you like flexibility! The value of this feat on any given day depends on your wandering spirit - some simply don’t have a ton of great options. On the other hand, a few of them have several, and this lets you exploit that.
Hex Strike: Not useful for most shaman, but there is spell support for making unarmed strikes in the shaman spell list.
Seeds of Doubt: Extremely situational and could actually impede you personally. I wouldn’t bother.
Spirit Talker: Expanding your versatility even more? This is a strong option. It offers tons of abilities for expanding further outside your established roles to support your party. The one-hour limitation can be bothersome, but you
Ability Focus: Not PFS-legal, and your GM probably won’t let you take it. But for a dedicated debuffer, this is great.
Alignment Channel: With no in-class access to negative energy, this is not great.
Armor Proficiency, Heavy: For melee shaman, this is an option to improve AC. For everyone else, who likely have mediocre or poor STR scores and want to retain mobility, this is likely to be ignored.
Augment Summoning: Summon Nature’s Ally spells were added to the Shaman spell list, and I personally like summoning, it’s just that Shaman has no particular advantage over any other class in this area.
Battle Cry: Gives you a good option for your swift action, even after the nerf. The save reroll is the real killer part of this feat, since it doesn’t specify fear save, as was likely intended. You probably have a decent-to-great Charisma, unless you’re a melee Shaman.
Bless Equipment: I could potentially see a Witch Doctor picking this up, but it’s just not that great.
Channel Endurance (Gozreh): This is a decent effect, but better ones definitely exist for channeling Shaman.
Channel Smite: With no negative energy channeling in-class, this is very situational except in really undead-heavy campaigns. I’d stay away from it.
Channeled Revival: Shaman with access to channels have a good chance of having access to Breath of Life once per day via Spirit Magic. Still, something to consider if your party is fragile.
Clarifying Channel (Shelyn): Shelyn is kind of a weird choice for a Shaman, but granting a reroll to charm/compulsion with a large bonus could be the difference between an ally standing around or rejoining the fight. Decent.
Cleave: I’m generally not a fan of this feat, and melee shaman have a limited amount of feats with better options. However, because Chant is a move action, if you’re mixing hexes and melee attacks, you may not want to make a full attack anyways, so the feats that enable different Standard Action attacks are worth mentioning.
Combat Casting: Shaman eventually get pretty good options for mobility, but depending on the kind of opposition you face, this could come in handy. Most Shaman can safely pass.
Combat Expertise: Melee Shaman are unlikely to meet the prerequisites for this feat given how spread out their stats will already be.
Combat Reflexes: Unless you’re a DEX-based melee shaman, you probably won’t be able to take full advantage of this feat. Even then, you’ve already got a bunch of feats committed to being DEX-based.
Cornugon Smash: A key part of an Intimidate-based build for a melee shaman. Making people shaken and being able to toss around Evil Eye is a great way to make hard-headed opponents easier to hit, or make dangerous opponents weaker.
Curse of Vengeance (Calistria): I’ve never liked stuff that gives you bonuses when you’re basically out of the fight, but Bestow Curse is on our spell list, so this is something to consider if you want to make routine use of them. Still, I don’t like it.
Dazzling Display: Another option for the melee Shaman who wants to Intimidate. Given the lack of full BAB, Weapon Focus is a good choice for melee Shaman anyways.
Deific Obedience: I don’t like most of the bonuses, but it’s something to think about.
Dervish Dance: It’s an option for DEX-based melee Shaman, but you’ll have to get the proficiency somewhere.
Destructive Dispel: This is a great option if you do a lot of dispelling, and it feels like it fits well into the debuffing niche. Grab Cleromancy from the Cleric spell list to give yourself a good chance of landing the dispel. Obviously, only dispellers need apply.
Dispel Synergy: More dispel support. The -2 to saves only affects spells, but it’s still great - especially if you have more magical artillery in the party.
Divine Barrier (Apsu): Being able to basically grant Improved Evasion to your party for the cost of one use of Channel Energy is good.
Divine Interference: Note the restrictions, but it’s still a good option for many different Shaman builds.
Diviner’s Delving: How useful this will be is determined partially by your GM, but the prerequisite is pretty harsh since most Shaman won’t be specializing in this.
Dodge: Always an option to increase your AC.
Dreamed Secrets (Great Old Ones): You have a far easier and less risky way to gain access to Wizard spells. Pass.
Eldritch Aid: Another way to expend your spell slots to assist allies, but this one is a bit more situational.
Eldritch Heritage: There’s some good stuff here, and you probably have a decent Charisma. A lot of people swear by the additional capabilities this feat offers, while others seem to hate it. The Dreamspun bloodline could work really well with a Slumber Hex-happy debuffer.
Eschew Materials: Always an option, but it’s another one of those feats where the utility is determined by how often your GM goes after your gear.
Fateful Channel: This is really good for Witch Doctors, who will be able hand this out often. One thing to note is that it affects any creature healed, so you could end up giving this to enemies if you aren’t able to exclude them with Selective Channel.
Favored Enemy Spellcasting: I mention this because in certain campaigns this could potentially be better than taking spell focus in a magical school.
Fencing Grace: Another DEX-enabling feat, and it’s probably the feat of choice if you already have rapier proficiency from your race.
Feral Combat Training: This has potential applications if you are a melee Shaman going the Hex Strike route.
Fey Foundling: If you’re planning on healing and/or abusing Shield Other, this is a great way to keep yourself topped off. If you’re not, you likely won’t want this.
Flagbearer: A permanent, slightly better version of Bless with a reduced range, but it needs a free hand. This is something to consider for Shaman filling a support role like Buffer or Healer.
Furious Focus: If you’re a melee Shaman taking Power Attack, this is a good feat to pick up, space permitting.
Glorious Heat (Sarenrae): Given that the bonus to attacks is Morale, which is pretty common, it just seems like too little for the feat cost. Plus, you need to be the one casting the fire spells and there are blind spots in the spell list, so this appears better than it is for most Shaman.
Great Fortitude: It’s one of your weak saves, so if you can’t think of something else to take, it’s an option. Your Reflex save is probably worse, though - and if you’re not in melee often, that may be more important.
Hamatulatsu: Supports the Hex Strike route by offering further debuff potential, but the Weapon Focus requirement is a bit steep for the feat-starved Hex Striker, and you don’t have inexpensive options to expand your crit range.
Hurtful Strike: An option for intimidating melee Shaman, but low priority compared to a couple of the other mainstays.
Improved Channel: Unless it’s an undead-heavy campaign and/or you went Grave Warden, this likely just isn’t worth it.
Improved Counterspell: Not worth the cost in most cases.
Improved Critical: Melee shaman will probably take a look at this, though it’s really your call on whether or not you’d prefer to spend the feat or grab the Keen quality, if applicable.
Improved Familiar: There have been discussions about whether or not this is legal to take as a Shaman for various reasons but it has been clarified that Shaman DO qualify.
As for choices for your new familiar, refer to the Improved Familiar section of this guide.
Improved Initiative: This feat is always in the conversation, and for good reason. You’re not likely to have a great DEX modifier and this is a solid fallback option for a feat if you can’t think of something else to take.
Improved Unarmed Strike: I mention this mostly because it’s a prerequisite for Hex Strike.
Intimidating Prowess: A potential addition to the intimidating melee Shaman’s build.
Iron Will: This is your good save, plus your wisdom modifier is likely to be decent, so this is probably the least-needed of the save-enhancing feats for you.
Leadership: As always, this is an incredibly powerful feat, but it is not PFS legal and many GMs disallow it.
Liberation Channel (Cayden Cailean): I like this, because you often need to cast Freedom of Movement on multiple party members anyways, and this lets you do it while healing.
Lightning Reflexes: Potentially your weakest save, depending on your stat array.
Lucky Healer (Halfling): Interesting option for Halfling Shaman who are specialized in healing.
Lunge: Given how feat-starved melee shaman tend to be, I’m not sure this will slot into a lot of builds - but some people love it. YMMV.
Noble Scion: This is particularly interesting since one of the options lets you use Charisma for initiative. For many Shaman, you’re better off taking Improved Initiative (if you take only one), but healing Shaman will likely have a Charisma high enough to make this better.
Planned Spontaneity: You’re probably not putting points in Knowledge (Arcana), but this is a decent option.
Power Attack: You’re probably taking this if you’re a melee shaman.
Protective Channel (Iomedae): I like the free spell, even if it is just a first level spell. Protection from Evil is good, you won’t have to prepare it and/or Magic Circle Against Evil anymore, and you get to choose whether or not targets gain the benefit.
Quick Channel: If you’re a Life Shaman / Witch Doctor, you’re probably getting this to improve your action economy and allow you to continue to cast support spells and/or debuff with your standard. Life Shaman can retrain after level 16, when Channeling becomes a Swift action.
Reactive Healing: This is an option to keep yourself from being knocked unconscious or outright killed. Feels a bit weak for the cost of a feat, though.
Sacred Geometry: Really good, probably not legal at your table because of how good it is, not to mention the slowdown.
Savior’s Arrow: Pass.
Seductive Channel (Calistria): The once-per-day penalty makes this very weak for the cost of a feat.
Selective Channeling: A near-must for in-combat channelers.
Okay, so you like the Shaman’s class features, but maybe you need to cover some other role, you want to add some Shaman versatility, or a full Shaman wouldn’t make sense for your campaign. Here are all the archetypes that provide Shaman class features.
You get: Shaman Familiar (1st), Spirit Ability (1st), Greater Spirit (8th), Manifestation (20th), Spirit Hexes (5th, 10th, 15th), uses Intelligence instead of Wisdom for Hexes
You lose: Spellbook, arcane bond, arcane school, bonus feats
So the benefit of this archetype is that you keep the superlative Wizard spell list while gaining access to some Shaman stuff. In many ways, this is the opposite of how Wizards typically work, as they tend to focus on one or two things at all times, using their arcane bond and school to augment that focus. Instead, this lets you diversify into something else. You could be a healing wizard!
I like this archetype a lot, but you lose a lot of power in taking it. Debuffing or blasting are both options here.
You get: All knowledge skills as class skills, Wandering Hex (3rd), switches Wisdom for Charisma and vice versa for the purpose of determining the hex’s effects, Spirit Magic from chosen Wandering Hex Spirit (4th), Spirit Ability (7th), Greater Spirit Ability (15th)
You lose: Revelations gained at 3rd, 7th, and 15th, bonus class skills from the oracle’s mystery
I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the Oracle is a seriously busted class, and this is a seriously busted archetype for it.
A Lunar Oracle with CHA to AC and REF, a full animal companion, Life Link and the ability to channel positive energy at 7th? Yikes.
The only thing that prevents me from playing this: I hate spontaneous casting. If you don’t, seriously consider this, as you get a ton of benefits.