The Shaman

[AxeMental]

I know this is covered in the DMG someplace related to some monsters that have spell abilities due to religious, demonological or magical study. For instance a troll can be a shaman and cast spells. I also assume that humans as monsters and NPCs can be shamans. It true, are shamans worked up any place in more detail? Are there different "types" of shaman discussed in a Dragon article for instance? Do you think of Shamans as a broad "class" (as an archetype with a collection of powers and assumed behaviors, the way a cleric or magic user is a class)?

I've never been able to really settle on what a shaman is, say compared to a witch for instance. Dragon has witches, but what about all the other sorts of shaman there could be out there (witch doctors, demon worshipper monsters etc.).

[T. Foster]

Shamans as described in the DMG are just inferior clerics (with low level limits and very limited spell lists), so there's no reason any race capable of being a real cleric would want to be one. The same with the DMG's witch doctor vs. magic-users.

I do think a shaman could be a viable class, with spells and abilities distinct from those of the standard cleric and druid -- focused on talking to, warding off, and binding spirits, and at higher levels traveling in the spirit (i.e. ethereal) plane -- but that's not what's presented in the DMG. The DMG shaman is just an inferior "hedge cleric," nothing more.

EDIT: some pertinent prior discussion on a potential shaman class

[James Maliszewski]

I also assume that humans as monsters and NPCs can be shamans.

There's no reference to such in the DMG. By the book, the only races listed as having shamans are humanoid and related creatures, though cave men (who are a type of human) can have witch doctors.

[Matthew]

Seems like just a sort of shorthand template for giving humanoids spell casters without mixing them in with the standard classes, and thus opening them up. I usually think of them as somewhere between magicians and clerics, which I think works well.

[thedungeondelver]

I love throwing shamen and witch-doctors at players. Nothing like a dispel magic thrown into the middle of a high level party by a piddly little kobold to liven things up!

[francisca]

I've always wussed out and scribbled out "druid" and wrote in "shaman".

[Kellri]

Check out the Humanoid Spellcasters tables in CDD4 for DMG/OSRIC base standards - despite being generally played down, nearly all races capable of worship/study have spellcasters. KotB for one will be much deadlier with their inclusion.

[PandaKhan]

there is a Shaman class in "Golden Khan of Ethengar" book.