Shamans: Prepared or Spontaneous?


Rules Questions

Shadow Lodge

I'm assuming Shamans are prepared spellcasters, but the closest wording I can find to confirm that is this:

Spirit Magic wrote:
A shaman can spontaneously cast a limited number of spells per day beyond those she prepared ahead of time. She has one spell slot per day of each shaman spell level she can cast, not including orisons. She can choose these spells from the list of spells granted by her spirits (see the spirit class feature and the wandering spirit class feature) at the time she casts them. She can enhance these spells using any metamagic feat that she knows, using up a higher-level spell slot as required by the feat and increasing the time to cast the spell (see Spontaneous Casting and Metamagic Feats).

But then what does this mean with regards to Spirit Magic?

It doesn't sound like I can sacrifice any spell to cast a spirit spell (like a cleric can sacrifice a spell for a cure spell), and the first two sentences sound like it's just a prepared spell that needs a full round action to cast like a spontaneous spell?

Talk to me like I'm new to the game, thanks :)


Marking this thread for interest. I find the description of the Shaman such as has made it onto d20pfsrd.com somewhat confusing, even after reading a Shaman guide. Which is weird, because I don't have trouble understanding any of the other classes (even though I may miss stuff just because of the sheer quantity of stuff, and then the ACG/ACO has a real problem with errors causing things to objectively not make sense, but I don't think that's my problem with the Shaman).


well you know how a cleric has his normal spell alotment and then the extra domain spells? think of that.
for each spell level he reaches the shaman get a spellslot he need not prepere. now since he may have more then one spirit active(via the wandering spirit abilities and such) the spells avilable per level from the spirits might be difrent depending on the spirits he has acceses to. so each day after prepering spells he has a slot for each spell level that he can decide when he cast which of the spriti spells he got acsess to, to use for it. he can also use a lower spell with a higher spell slot(as all spontanius casters can.) and he can use metamegic as well. say he has up to 3rd levle spells so he has 1st,2nd and 3rd level spell slots open. now say he knows silent spell feat and his spirit give him acsess to charm person as a 1st level spell. he can cast that using the 1st level slot(or pick a difrent 1st level spell from any other spirit he might gained that day) he can also use silent spell to cast using the 2nd level slot a silnet charm spell(and later even use the 1st slot for a difrent taret with charm,if he didnt use it allready). when he uses the meta magic with a slot he follows all the spontanius casting rules. including increasing the time it takes to cast the spell.


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You get one extra spontaneous spell slot per level, no bonus slots, that you can use to cast the spells on your spirit magic list. A battle shaman, for example, at 1st level has one spell slot she can use to cast enlarge person. At 3rd level, she gets a second level spell slot that can be used to cast fog cloud or enlarge person (using the standard mechanism where a spontaneous caster can use a higher level spell slot to cast a lower level spell). Other than these, all of a shaman's spells are prepared.

Liberty's Edge

I am not sure where the idea of Spirit Magic spells requiring a full round to cast comes from.

These are not prepared spells. These are slots which can be used to cast any spell known to the shaman. The similarity to clerics is that they are like domain spells in that you get one per spell level. There are no other similarities to cleric spells (other than them being divine spells).

Maybe an illustration of a shaman in action would help.

Shaman gets up in the morning and prepares 3 level 1 spells and 2 level 2 spells. She doesn't memorize Ghostbane Dirge. Later that day, the party is surprised that there's a ghost in the inn. She uses her Spirit Magic to cast Ghostbane Dirge on the ghost, and the party is able to get a few solid hits on it before it's a total wipe.

Sorry, I couldn't resist the opportunity for a sad ending.

Shadow Lodge

So the shaman can spontaneously cast any shaman spell or any spirit spell the shaman knows? I thought it was the latter; it does say "granted by her spirits".

I'm also assuming you can't prepare the spells granted by the spirit as a prepared spell? Is that right? You can only put it in a spontaneous slot?

Liberty's Edge

Ok, sorry. I did not see that they were limited to spells from their spirit!

So that makes it more like a cleric's domain spells, with the added flexibility of being able to use Wandering Spirit to add a different spirit's spells to her list and then cast one of those instead of the ones from her permanent spirit. Without Wandering Spirit, I think this would function exactly like a cleric's domain spell, since each spirit grants only one spell per level.


Avatar-1 wrote:
So the shaman can spontaneously cast any shaman spell or any spirit spell the shaman knows? I thought it was the latter; it does say "granted by her spirits".

The latter. If you're a level 5 shaman with the battle spirit and the life wandering spirit, you have 3 spontaneous spirit magic slots. You can use the 2nd level slot to spontaneously cast Fog Cloud or Lesser Restoration. Or you could use it to cast a +1 metamagicked 1st level spell from your spirits like Extended Enlarge Person or Silent Detect Undead, for example.

Avatar-1 wrote:
I'm also assuming you can't prepare the spells granted by the spirit as a prepared spell? Is that right? You can only put it in a spontaneous slot?

Correct. Spirit Magic doesn't add the spirit's spells to your actual class spell list.

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