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Introduction
The Spirit Shaman is a base class from Complete Divine. If you are looking for a mystical figure with powers that derive from the world of spirits, this is the class for you!
It comes equiped with 20 levels of divine spellcasting, many special abilities that are both offensive and defensive, and loads of mysticism. This Handbook will look into optimizing its strengths and working around its weaknesses.

Thanks to PhoenixInferno for inspiration on the format, to DavidWL for his guide to increasing your spell list and builds, to Yue Ryong for his Epic Spirit Shaman work and Quippish and Ed-Zero for looking through the tons of books for concentration spells.

Also thanks to camirblu for keeping the thread alive!


Table of contents

• Introduction
• Ability Scores
• Class Features
• Spellcasting
• Races
• Feats
• Prestige Classes
• Sample Builds
• Spirit Shaman Resources



Ability Scores

Strength:
A Spirit Shaman can be a formidable combatant against Spirits. And with the Druid spell selection, no short of a mediocre damage dealer by herself. If you want to add to melee power, Strength becomes important, BUT Strength is in no way an ability score you need to have high.

Dexterity:
You only have access to light armor, and alot of your offensive spells rely on Dexterity, so make sure you remember that when you create your Spirit Shaman.

Constitution:
Constitution is an important ability score, no matter what kind of Spirit Shaman you are. Medium HD and poor armor proficiencies will hurt you, if you ignore you Constitution.

Intiligence:
You have 4 skill points per level, what more do you need?

Wisdom:
You must still retain a little Wisdom to be able to cast your spells, and bonus spells derives from Wisdom aswell, so no slacking here. (or dumb it completely, see Dynamic Priest feat below)

Charisma:
When you play a Spirit Shaman it is very important to have a high Charisma, it is the backbone of your abilities and spellcasting. Therefore is this the most important ability score. It is also very easy to qualify for certain prestige classes that boost your Charisma dependency/power aswell, so stock up on Potions of Eagles Splender and Cloaks of Charisma.


Ability Score Destribution:
Heres how I would buy my ability scores.

15 Points (Low-powered Campaign)
Str 8, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 12 and Cha 13 (What cruel DM would ever makes this kind of campaign?)

22 Points (Challenging Campaign)
Str 8, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 12 and Cha 15

28 Points (Tougher Campaign)
Str 8, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14 and Cha 16

32 Points (High-powered Campaign)
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14 and Cha 16

35 Points (You average Optimized Campain)
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14 and Cha 17



Class Features

Spirit Guide:
You Spirit Guide starts out just as flavor to your character and the Alertness feat, but later on it will boost your power significantly.

Wild Empathy:
Because you use Charisma (moslty) for your spellcasting, you will often have the best Wild Empathy in the game. In certain cases it might come in very handy, so don't hesitate to try your luck on wild boars.

Chastise Spirits:
You will come to love this ability, even if it only affects Spirits. Its like a nice 30ft Burst damage spell, although its a Supernatural Ability which doesnt provoke attacks of oppertunity. Since and as your Charisma rises so does the power of your Chastise Spirits ability and your uses per day.
In a Campaign where you will encounter Spirits on a daily basis, it is recommendable to take Ability Focus in this ability (But generally its powerful enough as it is).

Detect Spirits:
Could come in handy at times, finding incorporeal Spirits just became alot easier.

Blessing of the Spirits:
A nice defensive ability that qualifies you for certain prestige classes. Remember to have this active 24/7, you have nothing to lose.

Follow the Guide:
Slippery Mind, basically, well, a lifesaver at times. It sure is one of the quickest ways to get it, not counting Paladin Variants ofcourse.

Ghost Warrior:
Notice how this ability works against ALL incorporeal creatures. For any ghostbuster this ability is just awsome!
6th level is also an ok exit point if you want to become a Warrior Spirit Shaman.

Warding of Spirits:
This ability is almost only useful for fulfilling prestige class requirements.

Spirit Form:
While its pretty cool and handy to have this ability, and at an early level, its just not that uber(TM RT). Notice how this ability sucks if you are a melee Spirit Shaman since you lose all strength mod.

Guide Magic:
Having your Spirit Guide "Concentrate" for you is awsome!!! This is one of the best Spirit Shaman abilities, and a major spellcasting boon. A list of "Concentration" spells can be found in the Spellcasting chapter.

Recall Spirit:
This is one hell of an ability, sure it only works once a week, but its free to use and your raised friend loses nothing.
Save 5.000 gp next time someone in the party dies? Count me in!
Also, 11th level is a good drop off point if you wish to smack a prestige class on your character.

Excorsism:
This ability will proberly almost never come into use, but when it does, it will be great.

Weaken Spirits:
At 16th level you will have lots of Chastise Spirit attempts per day. If you encounter a badass Spirit, I reccomend you start of by Weakening it for as many rounds as possible so the rest of the part can have their way with your Spirit opponent. The next rounds you will be able to blast it with your normal Chastise Spirits, or boost party members or whatever, and when your Weapon Spirit ability runs out, smack em with another one. Rinse, repeat. This ability will come in handy many many times, there are plenty of anoying highlevel monsters and templates that can give you targets for this ability.
This is also a good exit point if you want to try some prestige class levels.

Spirit Journey:
Bah, your Mage has this ability, hell, your Rogue proberly has it aswell. Handy, but nothing to jump about.

Favored of the Spirits:
Do it! 1000 xp is nothing when it saves your life. And it might turn out that saving your life will actually mean the survival of the whole party.

Spirit who Walks:
Remembered to dip? I hope so. Theres not much to gain from this last level.



Exit Point Summery
So, if we look back we can safely say that there are some good exit point levels in the Spirit Shaman. Those levels are:

6th level: Here we have Ghost Warrior, saves go up and so does bab.
7th level: 4th level spells, Warding of the Spirits? Good exit point.
11th level: Recall Spirit. Thumbs up!
16th level: Another highlight in the Spirit Shaman class.
19th level: Favored of the Spirits.

Races
Obviously the races that are best Spirit Shamans are the ones that boost its prime scores and synergize with its abilities. Heres a list:

+0 Level Adjustment Races

Dwarf, Gold, Dream (Forgotten Realms CS, Races of Stone) LA +0
Gold Dwarf is a good race, it is strong and reliable. But not the great blaster though. Dream Dwarf is both flavor wise and ability wise a great choice for a Spirit Shaman, they can become deadly ghostbusters!

Halfling, Lightfoot, Strongheart, Ghostwise (Players Handbook) LA +0
With their size and bonus to dexterity, halflings make great Spirit Shamans. Also, the Strongheart variant from Forgotten Realms works out fine aswell. And come to think about it the Ghostwise halflings from the same book would be nice aswell.

Feytouched (HERE) LA +0
Great score bonues, great flavor and nice bonues on saves versus mindaffecting effects. I'd take it over many other races.

Human (Players Handbook) LA +0
An extra feat and extra skills saves a character with bad scores, it could also help out on the requirements for prestige classes and weird feat combos.

Illumian (Races of Destiny) LA +0
Obviously, the Krau Illumian is a good choice, bonues caster levels are always good to have. And there is properly more reasons aswell.

The Naenhoon is also a good choice, makes for a great Persistent Divine Metamgic Spirit Shaman. Look below in the builds section.

Killorn (Races of the Wild)
If you wan't to make good use of the MAgic of the Land feat, this race works wonders for your Knowledge (Nature) checks.

Lesser Aasimar (Players Guide to Faerun) LA +0
The easy way of boosting two of your primary scores.

Raptoran (Races of Wild) LA +0
The Raptoran is also a good choice, with its natural flight, you wil be able to bomb you enemies with splinter bolts and flame strikes from a far.

Level Adjustment +1 Races

Aasimar (Monster Manual I) LA +1
If you are able to buy back its LA, then this race is worth your money.

Catfolk (Races of Wild) LA +1
If you can buy back your LA, then Catfolk is a great race. +4 dex and +2 cha? Whats not to like.

Gnome, Chaos (Players Handbook, Races of Stone) LA+1
A normal Gnomes is an ok choice of race, but the Chaos Gnome is far better.
With a boost to 3 of your primary scores, the Chaos Gnome is one hell of a choice. Just make sure to buy back that LA at early levels.

Hobgoblin (Monster Manual I) LA +1
For a more combat oriented Spirit Shaman, this is a good choice. Remember to buy off that LA.

Uldra (Frostburn) LA +1
Good ability boosts, fey race already. These fellas fit both flavor and mechanic wise. Not good for melee combat though.



Feats
For the most part the Spirit Shaman works wonders with most metamagic feats. With your offensive spells you take offensive metamagic feats like Empower Spell, Energy Substitution and Twin Spell. With your buffs you take Twin Spell or Extend for eksample. This is really up to you, and depends on your style of play.
Also, make sure to keep those prestige classes in mind when you pick your feats. Track is a good one here, it opens up for Witch Hunter, which is a great boon!
Heres some other ideas:

Augment Healing (Complete Divine)
The Spirit Shaman can be an effective healer aswell, so its no waste to take this fella.

Dynamic Priest (Legends of the Twins: Dragonlance)
Feeling low on Wisdom? Begin play with this feat and remove the need for Wisdom all together. Yes sir, this feat makes you single score dependent again!

Education (various campaign settings)
There are to many Knowledge skills that the Spirit Shaman hasn't have as class skills. This feat, or simular ones, will help with requirements for prestige classes.

Extra Spell (Complete Arcana)
Mixed with Guide Magic and you can make some deadly combos! See the Spellcasting part of this handbook for more information on concentration spells.
(The Sage has ruled that Extra Spell only adds spells from your spell list. This renders the feat useless for the Spirit Shaman. Many has found this ruling dumb and don't follow it, me included. I suggest you speak with your DM before using Extra Spell in your game.)

Extraordinary Concentration (Complete Adventurer)
Combining Guide Magic, Swift Concentraion (Complete Scoundrel) skill trick and this feat and you can concentrate on 4 Tsunamies. Neet eh?

Inscribe Rune (Players Guide to Faerun)
A simular choice to the Scribe Scroll feat, see below. Also opens up for the Runecaster prestige class.

Magic of the Land (Races of Wild)
For an Utility Shaman or a Healer Shaman this feat can be quite handy. Stabilizing allies with long range spells like entangle can be a life saver!

Scribe Scroll (Players Handbook)
Because the Spirit Shaman has so few spell to chose from per day, Scribe Scroll can be a great boon to your spell casting versality.

Spontainous Healer/Summoner (Complete Divine)
You will always have a small amount of Wisdom, no matter how you build your Spirit Shaman. And with one or both of these feats, you could effectivly add a number of spells to your Retrieve list equal to you Wisdom modifier.

Zen Archery (Complete Warrior)
If Dex is low, Zen is the way to go.



Prestige Classes
Many of these prestige classes requires Knowledge ranks on Spirit Shaman cross class skills, in many casses Education would help out.

Ardent Dilettante (Planar Handbook)
This class has near-full spell progression (-1 level) and is fairly easy to qualify for, though perhaps not all the way through its levels, but not impossible (requirements for the class build as you progress, but start out very simple). It focuses on the sensations and experience of life...

Contemplative (Complete Divine)
If you have the Education feat already, why not dip this class for a bonus Domain? If its worth it to take Education to get a new Domain is arguable.

Divine Disciple (Players Guide to Faerun)
Here you will get som solid abilities aswell as a bonus Domain.

Elemental Archon (Faith and Pantheons)
This has mostly full spell progression, and ties the sham towards a specific element...they even get their own pet mephit! With the elemental-style race suggested above, this could be fun.

Grey Hand Enforcer (FR: Waterdeep, City of Splendors)
For your genuine combat Spirit Shaman this is a great choice. DR/-, SR and a mild smite ability mixed with full bab. Not bad. Might wanna mix with Stormlord, look below.

Hathran (Players Guide to Faerun)
Are you sick an tired of only having access to the spells you have retrieve for the day? Cheer up, because the Hathran gives you access to all spells known with its SpRashemi Spirit Magic ability. Ofcourse, it only works within the bounderies of Rashemen, bit a prober Wind Walk or Tree Stride spell could take your there fast.

Holt Warden (Complete Champion)

Sixam]Very low requirements (3rd level spells and 2 class skills), a reliable package of class abilities (mass heal for free once a day) the Holt Warden is a good PrC for those Shamans who want to push for a druid/shaman mix. The best part is, the 10th level ability (+8 to Bluff/Sense Motive/Intimidate a lone creature for a day) is entirely disposeable, so a Shaman 11/HWarden 9 build is completely feasible.

Human Paragon (Unearthed Arcana)
Are you human? Then take this prestige class. Why? Because you gain access to all Knowledge skills!!!

Master of Radiance (Libris Mortis)
If you are willing to sacrifice a caster level, this class is much superior to Sacred Excorcist (see below) if you want to get Turn Undead. Turn Undead + Divine Metamagic = Cheeze power!

Moonspeaker (Races of Eberron)
If you should ever find yourself playing a Shifter Spirit Shaman you need to tag Education on your character and enter Moonspeaker! The flavor is great and the class abilities compliment both your race and your Spirit Shaman levels.

Mystic Wanderer (Magic of Faerun)
Charisma bonus to AC and easy requirements? Hook me up! This is also best for dipping IMO.

Prestige Paladin (Unearthed Arcana)
Again, Divine Grace, immunity to fear, Turn Undead and other goodies. Great for some dipping!

Ruathar (Races of the Wild)
One of the easiest ways to get a magic item and near agelessness is through this class. The requirements are easy and flavor is great. Seen from a optimization perspective the sinlge most powerful thing about the Ruathar is its access to the Knowledge (Religion) skill, which lets you qualify for other prestige classes without the need of the Education feat.
But remember, it might hurt you Chastise Spirit ability.

Sacred Exorcist (Complete Divine)
It opens up fro turn undead, and therefor Divine Metamagic, and then up for Persistent Divine Metamagic. Woohoo!

Seeker of the Misty Isle (Complete Divine)
Travel Domain with easy requirements? Sign me up!

Stormlord (Complete Divine)
Has some great flavor and you can imbue your spear with powerful enchantments. Mix with Grey Hand Enforcer isnt a bad choice since they share some of the same requirements.

Walker in the Waste (Samdstorm)
Walker in the Waste not only has a lot of strong abilities in itself, but has great charisma synergy with the Spirit Shaman. It also adds spells and alot of other goodies. If you plan on being a Walker in the Waste, the Spirit Shaman is proberly the best setup for this. See build below.

Witch Hunter (Oriental Adventures)
For the combat Spirit Shaman, this prestige class is great for a 1 to 4 level dip. Notice its Knowledge Requirements, have to think about that from early levels.

Windwalker (Faiths and Pantheons)
Just one hell of a combo. Good reflex and good bab synergyzes great with the Spirit wrote:

Ok, beta version done.

ENJOY! :D

You know, this really makes me think Spirit Shaman is a well-designed class; wanting 20 levels--or even 11--of a base class is something that doesn't happen that often. Clerics and druids, sure (well, clerics have nothing-lost PrCs like Radiant Servant), but the Fighter? Other than Snow's Chain Gun Tripper, very few builds are good as Fighter 20 (and even that one is better as, oh, Monk 2/Fighter10/Psychic Warrior 8, say). Swashbuckler isn't bad as Swash 20 with the Wounding and Weakening Critical abilities, if you fight a lot of fleshy things, but mostly it's used for a three-level dip for Insightful Strike. Rogue? PrCs. Paladin? Waaaaay PrCs. And so on and so forth.

I've never really looked at the Spirit Shaman as a class, but the publication of a handbook has piqued my interest. I will take a look at it some more.

And I notice the format of your handbook has a passing resemblance to another recently published handbook I like yours better actually, I will edit the HoM Handbook to look a little bit more like yours. A comment - if you can link your Table of Contents, that might be cool.