Shamanic Dance

Shamans can summon spirit allies by performing a ritualistic dance.
== Mechanics ==
Note that while the above is not incorrect, it is slightly misleading, since it makes no mention of the probability of each type of spirit ally. The table below accurately portrays this.
Shaman Level	Percentage Chance per Spirit Ally	Percentage Chance per Spirit Ally	Percentage Chance per Spirit Ally	Percentage Chance per Spirit Ally	Total Summoning Chance
Shaman Level	Minor Animal 	Major Animal 	Minor Nature 	Major Nature 	Total Summoning Chance
1 	37 	- 	- 	- 	37%
2 	39 	- 	- 	- 	39%
3 	41 	- 	- 	- 	41%
4 	43 	- 	- 	- 	43%
5 	45 	- 	- 	- 	45%
6 	20 	27 	- 	- 	47%
7 	20 	29 	- 	- 	49%
8 	20 	31 	- 	- 	51%
9 	20 	33 	- 	- 	53%
10 	20 	35 	- 	- 	55%
11 	20 	37 	- 	- 	57%
12 	10 	20 	29 	- 	59%
13 	10 	20 	31 	- 	61%
14 	10 	20 	33 	- 	63%
15 	10 	20 	35 	- 	65%
16 	10 	20 	37 	- 	67%
17 	10 	20 	39 	- 	69%
18 	5 	10 	20 	36 	71%
19 	5 	10 	20 	38 	73%
20 	5 	10 	20 	40 	75%
== Creature Statistics ==
All spirit allies have the following immunities: Critical hit, Backstab, Poison, Disease, Stun, Intelligence drain, Hold creature, Confusion, Paralyze, Feeblemindedness, Panic, Detect Alignment, Charm/Domination and Psionics.
They are also immune to being selected by the player, which means that the player has no direct control over them.
All spirit allies also have 50% resistance to Slashing, Crushing, Piercing, and Missile damage, and 100% resistance to Poison damage.
The attacks of the spirit allies are also enchanted, meaning that they can bypass certain immunities. Note that this does not affect their Thac0 and damage. Moreover, all of their special abilities (on crit effects and fireshields) are either nonmagical (so they bypass MR) or magical but still bypass MR anyway.
Spirits are vulnerable to the Death Spell and Death Fog, which means enemies with those spells can immediately kill all summoned spirits.
=== Animal Spirits ===
==== Minor Animal Spirits ====
The minor animal spirits are the Fox, Snake and Hound. They all have 2 Hit Dice and Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores of 3. The Hound Spirit is anomalous and its mental attributes are instead 7.
Minor Animal Spirit	Basic
Statistics	Combat	Defenses	Special
Fox Spirit 	HP 16
STR 12
DEX 17
CON 12	Base Thac0 19
APR 1
Enchantment +1
Attack 1d3 Piercing	Base AC 6
Saving Throws
D14/W16/P15/B17/S17	On critical hit:
Confusion on target for 1 round
Save vs Spell negates
Snake Spirit 	HP 16
STR 10
DEX 17
CON 12	Base Thac0 19
APR 1
Enchantment +1
Attack 1d2 Piercing	Base AC 6
Saving Throws
D14/W16/P15/B17/S17	On critical hit:
Poison on target 1HP/sec for 1 round
Save vs Poison negates
Hound Spirit 	HP 16
STR 11
DEX 16
CON 12	Base Thac0 19
APR 1
Enchantment +1
Attack 1d3 Piercing	Base AC 5
Saving Throws
D14/W16/P15/B17/S17	On critical hit:
Panic on target for 1 round
Save vs Spell negates
==== Major Animal Spirits ====
The major animal spirits are the Bear, Panther and Boar. They all have 4 Hit Dice and Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores of 3.
Major Animal Spirit	Basic
Statistics	Combat	Defenses	Special
Bear Spirit 	HP 32
STR 18/76
DEX 10
CON 16	Base Thac0 17
APR 3
Enchantment +2
Attack 1d6 Slashing	Base AC 6
Saving Throws
D13/W15/P14/B16/S16	On critical hit:
Stun on target for 1 round
Save vs Spell negates
Panther Spirit 	HP 32
STR 17
DEX 18
CON 16	Base Thac0 17
APR 3
Enchantment +2
Attack 1d4 Slashing	Base AC 6
Saving Throws
D13/W15/P14/B16/S16	On critical hit:
Slow on target for 1 round
Save vs Spell negates
Boar Spirit 	HP 32
STR 18
DEX 16
CON 16	Base Thac0 17
APR 2
Enchantment +2
Attack 2d3 Piercing	Base AC 6
Saving Throws
D13/W15/P14/B16/S16	On critical hit:
2d4 Piercing damage
=== Nature Spirits ===
==== Minor Nature Spirits ====
The minor nature spirits are the Lesser Fire, Lesser Air and Lesser Earth. They all have 8 Hit Dice and Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores of 7. The Lesser Air Spirit is also under non-dispellable Improved Invisibility, which, amongst other things means that its saving throws are 4 points better than what is shown in the tables below.
Minor Nature Spirit	Basic
Statistics	Combat	Defenses	Special
Lesser Fire Spirit 	HP 64
STR 16
DEX 16
CON 16	Base Thac0 13
APR 1
Enchantment +3
Attack 1d2 Crushing +1d8 Fire	Base AC 4
Saving Throws
D13/W12/P11/B12/S13
Extra resistances:
Fire and Magic Fire 100%
Cold and Magic Cold -50%	Fireshield effect: 1 Fire damage to melee attackers
Lesser Air Spirit 	HP 64
STR 17
DEX 19
CON 12	Base Thac0 13
APR 1
Enchantment +3
Attack 1d10 Slashing	Base AC 4
Saving Throws
D13/W12/P11/B12/S13
Extra resistances:
Electricity -50%	Improved Invisibility
Lesser Earth Spirit	HP 64
STR 19
DEX 10
CON 19	Base Thac0 13
APR 1
Enchantment +3
Attack 2d6 Crushing	Base AC 4
Saving Throws
D13/W12/P11/B12/S13
Extra resistances:
Acid -50%	On critical hit:
Sleep on target for 1 round
No save
==== Major Nature Spirits ====
The major nature spirits are the Fire, Air and Earth. They all have 12 Hit Dice and Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores of 7. The Air Spirit is also under non-dispellable Improved Invisibility, which, amongst other things means that its saving throws are 4 points better than what is shown in the tables below.
Major Nature Spirit	Basic
Statistics	Combat	Defenses	Special
Fire Spirit 	HP 96
STR 17
DEX 17
CON 17	Base Thac0 9
APR 1
Enchantment +4
Attack 1d3 Crushing +1d10 Fire	Base AC 2
Saving Throws
D7/W9/P8/B8/S10
Extra resistances:
Fire and Magic Fire 100%
Cold and Magic Cold -50%	Fireshield effect: 1d3 Fire damage to melee attackers
Air Spirit 	HP 96
STR 18
DEX 21
CON 14	Base Thac0 9
APR 1
Enchantment +4
Attack 1d12 Slashing	Base AC 2
Saving Throws
D7/W9/P8/B8/S10
Extra resistances:
Electricity -50%	Improved Invisibility
Earth Spirit 	HP 96
STR 21
DEX 10
CON 21	Base Thac0 9
APR 1
Enchantment +4
Attack 2d8 Crushing	Base AC 2
Saving Throws
D7/W9/P8/B8/S10
Extra resistances:
Acid -50%	On critical hit:
Sleep on target for 1 round
No save
== Related Items ==
There are three items that, when equipped, affect summoned spirit allies; The Circlet of Lost Souls gives them a permanent Bless effect, the Heart of the Mountain gives them +10 Hit Points, and The Soulherder's Staff gives them +1 Strength. Note: The Soulherder's Staff is only usable by M'khiin.
It should be noted that these effects will be applied to an existing spirit ally if the item is equipped after the spirit has already been summoned. Strangely though, if the item is removed, the spirit allies do not lose these bonuses.
== Gameplay ==
Spirit allies seem to always be summoned starting northeast of the character, regardless of the direction the shaman is facing. To summon them to the south, filling the northern "slots" with other companions (or even walls and other obstructions) will force them to be summoned south. This is the only thing that the player can control regarding the spirit allies, since after they are summoned, they do their own thing.
When multiple shamans are dancing, their combined summoning limit is equal to the limit of the highest level shaman. As an example, when an 18th level shaman is dancing alongside two 7th level shamans, a maximum of 5 spirit allies will be summoned. It should be noted that once the limit for the lower level shamans is reached (3 in this scenario), then only the higher level shaman's dance will contribute. Also, the spirit allies are unsummoned only when all shamans stop dancing, and which shaman is left dancing makes no difference. In the previous example, even if the 18th level shaman stops dancing, no spirit ally is unsummoned, even though the 7th level shamans only have a limit of 3. It should also be noted that spirit allies count towards the normal summoning limit as well.
The only ways to "select" different spirit allies when dancing is to either unsummon them and try again, or kill the undesired ones. It should be noted though that the (lesser) air spirit cannot be attacked unless it attacks something else first (due to its improved invisibility), and that the (lesser) fire spirit will damage whoever attacks it in melee.
A Shaman may utilize a clone (obtained through the use of Vhailor's Helm) to help speed up the process of reaching the summoning limit. However, if the original, non-clone, Shaman moves, all of the spirits will be unsummoned, even if the clone keeps dancing. To make better use of this setup, you should continue dancing with the original Shaman when the limit is reached, and use the clone to perform other actions, like casting spells.
Spirit summoning is not interrupted upon taking damage. Enemies initiating dialogue with the player can sometimes cancel Shamanic Dance. It is possible to move a few steps and keep up Shamanic Dance, as long as it is re-activated before the beginning of the next round. Likewise, the ability to cast spells is not restored immediatly upon stoping the dance, but there's a short cooldown period that has to pass first.
The party gains normal experience for enemies that your summons kill.
== Bugs ==
The hound spirit has greater mental attributes than the rest of the animal spirits. While almost certainly a bug, it has no impact on gameplay.
The (Lesser) Air and (Lesser) Earth Spirits have respective Electricity and Acid resistance values of -50%. This is probably a bug since +50% resistances seem more likely given the nature of these spirits.
When the spirit allies follow an enemy out of sight of the shaman (possibly to chase a fleeing enemy), more often than not they stop attacking completely.
Some people believe that the summoning limit behaviour of the shamanic dance (in terms of multiple shamans sharing the same limit of spirits) is a bug. It is, however, possible that this is the intended behaviour.
The ability is also mostly definitely bugged in that regular summons count towards the "spirit limit" as well. For example, if a shaman of level 6 (with a limit of 3 spirits) casts Animal Summoning I to summon two dire wolves and then starts dancing, they'll only be able to summon one spirit. This, however, does not apply to summons that do not count towards the regular summon limit (like Elemental Princes, Devas/Planetars and Demons/Devils or even Simulacrum clones).
Category:Class abilities
Category:Abilities