Shamans, Choosing starting skills and spells Options

[Cryptkeeper]

I know that alot of this is dependant on what you want your character to be but my question is what are the ideal spells and skills that give a starting shaman a good solid array of abilities so not to be pushed in a specific direction and weak in all others?

Any help appreciated :spin:

[ialdabaoth]

In general, I go for one good Combat spell, one or two good Control Thought-type spells, and a good Healing spell. Just about everything else can be handled by someone else in the party.

[Grey]

Don't forget Improved Invisibility.

[ialdabaoth]

Indeed! Magic Fingers is a nice one, too.

[Glyph]

Elves are the way to go if you are going to concentrate on conjuring. The difference between a 6 Charisma and an 8 Charisma are dramatic, since Charisma is not only used to resist Drain, but is also compared to the Force of the spirit to determine the Drain code. So you are not only rolling 2 more dice, but also often rolling against a lower Drain code. Whether you choose an elf or not, a high Charisma is a lot more important for a shaman. The reason for this is that they do their summoning on the fly. A hermetic mage can summon an elemental the week before, so if he gets Serious Drain, he can simply sleep it off. A shaman has to be able to summon and keep going.

As far as spells, it depends on your Totem. Each Totem gives different bonuses and penalties, and you should play to the strengths of your Totem (in other words, if you are playing a Dragonslayer Totem, pick a few good combat spells). With only 25 starting spell points, a shaman is usually better off specializing in a certain role (healer, fighter, thief, etc.) instead of trying to be a generalist.

[The White Dwarf]

Theres a ton of advice I could give, but most of it would be pointless without some idea of what you want to play. If you could post a breif description of what you want to do with your guy it would help a lot for us giving out ideas. (such as I like illusions, I want to blow stuff up, screw spells give me spirits, he needs to be stealthy, etc).

[Bitten by the bu...]

What I have for my shamans: Improved invisibility, manaball/other combat spell, sterilize (always good when you are a magicuser), fashion (always handy when you are infiltrating a corp/site) and mask (same as fashion).

Though I prefer that my shamans are handy with a gun and knows martial arts of somekind. You can always buy new spells with karma, but to do that you need to be alive. Magic is all well and good, but keeping your heinie together in a firefight is always nice.
And it depends on which totem you play, Cat always goes high for illusion spells, Bear is big on healing etc..:D
Though mine always have imp. invis. and sterilize.:)

Perhaps a quick rundown on your character would be nice? No need for stats, just a quick description.:)

[Snow_Fox]

It varies with the player adn the totem but i usually like one good combat spell, 1 good healing spell and the rest are spread through illusion and manipulation spells. I'm real big of misdirection for my spell use. Also elemental manipulations give you a way to screw up electronics.

[Spookymonster]

Stunball(Sleep) - ignores armor, good against both physical and astral targets, less draining than Powerball or Manaball, and allows you to take prisoners afterwards (or perform a coup d'grace on a defenseless target, if that's more to your liking)
Levitate - the Swiss army knife of magic. Great for getting to those hard-to-reach spots and/or avoiding security. Also handy for: disarming your opponent, retrieving dropped items, makeshift defensive cover, firefighting, etc.
Trid Phantasm - very taxing, but well worth it. The top-of-the-line in illusion spells. Need a crowd ASAP? Or how about group invisibility? A quick distraction? Give security devices 'false' readings? Stifle any 'worksite' noises?
Entertainment - effortless drain. Only Force 1 required, but extremely useful for messaging, tactical displays, 3-D images of people and places you may be trying to find, and can provide the mage an additional source of income as a street performer, nightclub entertainer, etc.
Fashion & Makeover - potentially as useful as Physical Mask, but cheaper to buy and less draining. Since you don't have to sustain the spells to maintain the effect, you won't draw any undue attention on the astral. Grow a beard, shave your head, dye/bleach your skin, add tattoos, cover up distinguishing marks, etc. Of course, drastic changes are out of the question, but then that's what Trid Phantasm's for, innit?

[Siege]

A lot of it depends on what kind of shaman you want to play.

I'll comment on skill sets rather than spells -- corporate? street? Info-spook? Medical treatment? Military/combat spec? Professional runner?

-Siege