General Information (SB)

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The shaman classes belong to the priest group featured in the Player's Handbook. They are specialty priests, but are unlike most other specialty priests currently in the game.
Shamans do not serve a deity or pantheon of deities. Instead, they act as a bridge between the prime material plane and the unseen spirit world. Different shaman types have different approaches to this.
The tribal shaman is a religious functionary, who deals with the spirits on the behalf of his community, and so is concerned with performing important social rituals and acting as the spirits' representative.
The solitary shaman, by contrast, is a loner, a man or woman outside of normal society who communes with nature and the spirits of the natural world.
Finally, the spiritualist shaman is a dark, brooding figure, who speaks with rats and wolves, commands vengeful spirits, and often serves forgotten gods.
The relationship between shamans and the spirits, although superficiously similar to that of other priests and their deities, is actually somewhat more intimate. This relationship is touched upon below, and further detailed in "Shamanic Magic" and "The World of the Spirits."
All shamans use eight-sided Hit Dice (d8s). They do not receive additional spells for high wisdom scores. Each shaman class is limited to the selection of weapons listed under the detailed description.
All shamans use Table 1 to determine their advancement in level as they gain experience points. Shamans with Wisdom scores of 16 or greater receive a 10% bonus on all experience points earned. They also use Table 2 to determine how many spells they can cast at each level of experience.
The way spells work for shamans is one of the primary difference between these classes and most other priest classes. Shamans do not pray for new spells every day, but instead have them provided by one or more patron spirits. A spirit that grants a shaman spells or other long-term favors is termed his a patron spirit. Once the shaman has devoted one of his slots to a particular spell, he cannot change it to a different one, except under unusual circumstances. However, unlike other AD&D spellcasting classes, the shaman may cast each spell in his repertoire more than once a day. Full details on the spellcasting abilities of shamans is provided in the section titled "Shamanic Magic."
All shamans gain one eight-sided Hit Die (Id8) per level from 1st through 9th. After 9th level, shamans earn 2 hit points per level and they no longer gain additional hit points for high Constitution scores.
Shamans may be dual or multi-classed, and follow the same combinations and restrictions as the cleric class in the Player's Handbook. If the campaign already contains shaman characters (created using rules from another AD&D accessory), DMs and players may bend the rules as described above.
 Table 1: Shaman Experience Levels
Level	Cleric 	Hit Dice (d8)
1 	0 	1
2 	1,500 	2
3 	3,000 	3
4 	6,000 	4
5 	12,500 	5
6 	20,000 	6
7 	35,000 	7
8 	60,000 	8
9 	90,000 	9
10 	125,000 	9+2
11 	200,000 	9+4
12 	300,000 	9+6
13 	750,000 	9+8
14 	1,200,000	9+10
15 	1,650,000	9+12
16 	2,100,000	9+14
17 	2,550,000	9+16
18 	3,000,000	9+18
19 	3,450,000	9+20
20 	3,900,000	9+22
: * See section on hierophant druids under "Druids" in this chapter.
 Table 2: Shaman Spell Progression
Priest	Spell Level	 	 	 	 	 	
Level 	1 	2	3	4	5	6	7
1 	1 	—	—	—	—	—	—
2 	2 	1	—	—	—	—	—
3 	2 	2	—	—	—	—	—
4 	3 	2	—	—	—	—	—
5 	3 	3	1	—	—	—	—
6 	4 	3	2	—	—	—	—
7 	4 	3	2	1	—	—	—
8 	4 	3	3	2	—	—	—
9 	5 	4	3	2	1	—	—
10 	5 	4	3	2	2	—	—
11 	5 	4	3	2	2	1	—
12 	6 	5	4	3	2	1	—
13 	6 	5	4	3	3	2	—
14 	6 	6	5	4	3	2	—
15 	7 	6	5	4	3	3	—
16 	7 	7	6	5	4	3	—
17 	8 	7	7	6	5	4	1
18 	9 	8	7	7	6	4	2
19 	9 	9	8	8	6	5	2
20 	9 	9	9	8	7	6	2