Shattered Kingdoms

(Moved from the "buff shamans" thread)

What sticks out to me about shaman, really, is that they're about as good at life-giving as a veteran level priest, or a warlock. (Seriously, a warlock.) I don't think we need to change them in PK, at all, but they deserve better than raise dead.

Give them a spell, at master, that will bring someone back to life with no exp penalty, but requires an in-tact corpse of the person. Require the spirit of the person to be in the room and manifest for this to happen, which can be accomplished via seance.

That way, some barbarians may actually be able to roleplay preferring life from a shaman without having to cry over the exp lost from a raise dead. The requirement of the person in the same room and manifest would be the antonym of the "Are you in the River?" requirement of the traditional resurrection, which I think would emphasize the corporeality and otherness of the Shaman.

It would also be an interesting option, in the absence of a corpse, to be able to instead use a voodoo doll to restore a present spirit. My idea is that the doll would not be destroyed, but would be worn down as much as a doll is worn down when it voodoos someone. This would allow voodoo dolls to be usable to restore as well as to harm, which could generate some interesting conflict, as to whether or not to place your life in a shaman's hands.

Did you know that raise dead and breath of life used to take all of the experience that someone had for that level?

It's still NOWHERE near as good as Resurrection, even with the change.

I thought that was the idea.

The current system forces shaman who either don't believe in the gods, or believe they are weaker than the spirits (depending on your RP) to have to depend on a priest if they don't want to lose XP. Puts Barbarians in the same position also.

What I have proposed in the past is that Barbs/Shaman loose XP when they get resurrected but don't lose the XP if they are raised.

And now I sit back and wait for all the god-worshiping civilized barbarians who play this game to start flaming.

That would work too, really. It doesn't make any sense for a shaman or barb to use a priest, unless it's a last resort. We've ALL done it (well, anyone who's played either class) but it shouldn't happen.

But I do like the idea of giving a spirit doll a POSITIVE use.

BoL and Raise Dead should cost 1 tick of EXP, or put the dead guy back at the start of the level, whichever comes first.

I had read the original post but didn't re-read it when it was made its own topic. I had forgotten about the points about spirit doll. Sounds sweet. However there would have to be some way for a shaman to remove a body part without it being an attack. If there was a way to do that, I would be all for this idea WITH the reversal of XP loss on resurrection for those classes.

Just ask the barbarian for a finger, give brbs the option to remove limb...they are wild enough to do it

What about barbarians who join religions?