Introduction (SB)

__TOC__
: With a gesture, the wizard lights up the evening sky with the destructive power of a fireball. The cleric whirls on a booted heel, presenting her holy symbol forcefully, and her goddess rewards her faith by bringing a flame strike down upon the advancing trolls. Meanwhile, the party's third member, the shaman, is gesticulating wildly, shouting seemingly to nobody, "I know this is a stronghold of your enemy, but I just can't take the time to topple every stone and sew the ground with salt right now! Yes, we'll do it afterwards, just let me control the ghost pack that dwells here! I just want them to drive off the trolls before they kill us!"
: As the cleric and wizard turn to face the smoldering trolls, now almost upon them, the shaman joins his companions with a frustrated sigh, readying his staff for a final, desperate stand. But then the trolls stop their lumbering advance. Some of them cry out, beating at the air around them. Others turn tail and flee, fire erupting on their bodies. Squinting at the scene before them, the wizard and the priest think they can just make out the ghostly outlines of a dozen hellhounds.
: "Thank you, kind spirits," the shaman cries.
==Introduction==
You hold in your hand an AD&D® accessory that presents Dungeon Masters (DMs) and players with three brand new character classes, as well as providing expansion rules that will lend a new dimension to the cosmology of any campaign world—the world of spirits.
Although shamans wield magic, they are not typical spellcasters who either manipulate unseen forces to predictable ends or who serve powerful entities and are rewarded with the power to perform minor miracles. Instead, shamans must cajole and persuade the inhabitants the spirits, to grant them unpredictable and subtle magics; and in return they may be required to perform certain services for the spirits. Shamans are not masters of the magic arts, but must work as partners with those who fuel their spells. Certain shamans are loners or outcasts from society, while others are important functionaries within their tribes or communities. The shaman classes are not well-suited for campaigns where there is a constant focus on combat and straightforward dungeon crawls, as they have few combat abilities, but are well suited to investigative, diplomatic, and similar styles of play.
==Using tnis Book==
The information in Shaman is designed to inspire players and DMs alike, and to provide ideas for interesting characters and adventures.
The first section of the book details the three shamans character classes. These chapters are intended as a resource for both players and DMs, explaining not only the skills and powers of the shamans, but also suggesting what the personalities, beliefs and objectives of these characters might be, and how they fit into the world around them. The goal is to give players the tools to create characters with interesting powers as well as fully developed personalities.
The second section of the book is for the DM's eyes only, and those who would play shaman characters should not read these pages. Here the secrets of the spirits are fully revealed and DMs can find useful notes on integrating the information in this material into ongoing campaigns. MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM® pages detailing some of the spirits most useful as antagonists in adventures are also included, as well as scores of adventure ideas and new magic items.
One word of caution before proceeding: All the information presented in Shaman is completely optional. While care has been taken to not violate any published information about the cosmology of the various TSR campaign worlds, this book can add an additional "mystic" layer to the fabric of those realities. DMs should feel free to accept as much of this volume as they think fits with the vision they have of the campaign world and reject the rest.
==Shamans and the Spirits==
To properly understand the shaman character, either as a PC or NPC, some time needs to be spent exploring their views of the spirits around which their lives revolve.
Different shamans disagree about exactly what spirits exist, and where they are found. What follows are three "in-character" views of the spirits, given by three very different types of shamans.
: The spirits are of three types, like clans. First, there are the spirits of the wind and sky, rain and sun, the Great Spirits who look down upon us from afar. Second, there are those who walk in the wild places, the Grandfather Animals from whom all beasts are descended, the lost dead, and darker creatures. Third, there are our ancestors and the heroes whose deeds are told of it legend, to whom most of our sacrifices are given.
: The spirits gave us our laws and our traditions, and they punish us if we offend them. They are like elders of the tribe, but greater; being old and venerable they are wiser, and so must be obeyed.
: —Ryambe, tribal shaman.
: Everything feels. Everything sees, and hears. And if you listen hard enough, everything will talk to you. Every speck of earth can tell of the footsteps that have fallen upon it. Every gust of wind can speak of the places it has blown across before. The trees are old and wise, the beasts of the forest smell every scent and see every movement. Is that what you mean when you ask about spirits? Or are you asking about the people who stay behind when their bodies have gone, to finish a task or to stand by an obligation? Perhaps those are spirits. I do not know what you mean. Everything is alive!
: —Mariella, solitary shaman.
: Spirits? You want to know about the spirits? Ha! Why should I tell you? You give me something—you pay me? All right then.
: The spirits are the shadows that crawled across the ceiling when you were a child; they made the sounds that your parents said was just the wind on the shutters. You probably expected they'd be found in bloodier places, farther away—around the crumbled altars where lunatics cut their breasts, in the alley where the murderer struck—well they're there, too. Just don't forget to look closer to home.
: What are they? What are they? How should I know? What are you? Dumb question, you're a human, they're spirits. What else can I say?
: Now... if you want to know more, you hand over more silver....
: —Karalach, spiritualist shaman
==The Invisible Landscape==
There is an unseen place, a world that exists at once alongside and in the same space as the game world—the world in which the spirits dwell. While shamans universally agree that this place exists and is as real the one they inhabit, they do not agree on what the spirit world is like. The shamans only know what the spirits have told them of the spirit world, and the spirits give conflicting descriptions. As different shamans speak with different spirits, they each hear different sets of descriptions, and so formulate different pictures of the place.
Here are some examples of how spirits describe their world:
: Our world is the same as the world we lived in earlier times. There are great forests and rolling plains. Wild beasts are plentiful. The rains always come when they should, and all plants give forth good harvests, plump swollen fruit and all healthy things; the hunters come back laden from each foray, and when wild beasts attack us we drive them off after great fights—always victorious but carrying a scar that the womenfolk will admire. Here we carry on our trades as before, the potter, weaver and basket maker all, creating objects far above what living men can make. Here rulers are wise, and are always obeyed; here women are beautiful and men are always strong.
: —The Ancestor's Story
: I stand on the mountain where I was born— bleached and bare as it was then, not all built upon as it is now—and look down upon the city that I founded. My feet are on the summit, where the city's priests have now built me a temple, and my head is far above so that I can see all.
: The city is as it was, with all the buildings that I had commissioned standing still. The purple flags of our greatest days still flutter on the towers, and the crash of steel echoes from battlefields far away. For those were the days when the walls gleamed white and strong, when the goldenrobed priests in the courts would tell at a glance the right from wrong.
: —The Founder's Story
: Black and red black and red, always burning fighting hurting, the world screams and I scream back and its not good and not just and not fair and you come here and see if you like it, you smug self-satisfied ugly hate you cut you rip claw bite you. Black and red black and red....
: —The Lesser Spirit's Story
Many shamans hope to experience the spirit world for themselves, but although most have had visions of the place, none have ever proved that they have managed to visit it. Some speculate that the living may not travel into the spirit world; others suggest that if a shaman ever succeeded he or she would be bound to remain— having thereby become spirits, unable to resume life on the material plane.
Of course, there is a reason that these accounts differ. If you are a DM, you will find an explanation later in this book; if you are playing a shaman as a character, you will enjoy the game more if you know only as much as your character does, and learn with him as the mystery of the spirits unfolds.
==Dealing With the Spirits==
It is not just anyone who may ask a favor of the spirits. Special rituals and techniques have been developed—by shamans—to do this properly. Characters other than shamans may attempt to gain aid from the spirits, but often do so at their peril.
The usual method is to give the chosen spirit a gift (a sacrifice) and ask the favor. For this, the aid of a competent shaman is required, to advise on which spirit should be approached, to identify a place where it may be contacted, to determine what type of sacrifice is required, and to conduct the ritual or sacrifice in the correct manner. A good number of requests fail simply because the shaman has not correctly guessed where a spirit is at a particular time, or fails to conduct the sacrifice properly.
What sacrifice is suitable depends upon the spirit receiving it, and the reason for the sacrifice. Different spirits have different tastes. Some prefer bloody offerings (slaughtered livestock), while others require that weapons or gems be thrown into sacred waters, that wooden effigies be burnt on special pyres, or make some other demand. In any case, the sacrifice will always require a certain quantity of money or effort. (Rules governing sacrifices to spirits are located in the DM's section of this volume.)
Shamans have easier methods of contacting the spirits. Each type of shaman has its own technique, which relies on meditation or exhortation rather than the more expensive method of giving a sacrifice. These techniques are described in the next chapter, which provides rules and roleplaying guidelines for the three shaman classes.
==Powers of the Spirits==
Although they spend most their time in an invisible state, virtually all spirits can also manifest themselves on the prime material plane, sometimes appearing as opaque or shimmering forms but usually as apparently solid shapes. Unlike many other supernatural beings, they have no power to change their appearance.
The power of individual spirits varies greatly. Some can only create effects that mirror one 1st level priest spell per day, while others have an array of powers that rival those of even the mightiest priest or wizard.
Generally speaking, the spirits' powers, like the spirits themselves, are invisible. They cause subtle, often imperceptible affects, and many of their actions might be mistaken for fluke or natural events. Many use only slow, insidious magics (cursing an enemy army rather than appearing to fight them), while others prefer to possess mortals and using them to attack foes.
They can affect human emotions, can aid or hinder warriors and others in combat, and affect the fertility of animals, crops or people.
Should a character wish to combat a spirit physically, it is said that not even the most powerful magics can affect it while it is in the spirit world. However, enchanted weapons will injure a spirit who has taken form on the prime material plane, particular the spirit-knives created by shamans.
==What the Spirits Know==
A spirit's knowledge depends on its age and the things that it has experienced.
A young tree, for example, able to "feel" the world around it through its leaves, and perhaps conversing with the wind that blows through its boughs, may know a little of the affairs of the area during its life time, but nothing of the time before it grew.
Less impressive still, a pebble in a stream may be acutely aware of the way that it has tumbled through the waters, but is unlikely to know anything more.
By contrast, an ancient ancestor, watching over its people through the generations and speaking with their shamans, will amass an encyclopedic knowledge of the tribe's history.
==Setting Up Shrines==
Spirits are generally only worshipped in specific locations, either at sites of some importance to what they A shaman may wish to set up a shrine to a spirit, on his or her own behalf, or on behalf of the tribe or other associates. The purpose of this is to sanctify an area so that the sacrifices made there are received by the spirit (assuming that the shaman presiding over the sacrifice makes a successful Shamanic Ritual nonweapon proficiency check, explained in the chapter "Proficiencies."). It is also easier to contact the spirit at a shrine dedicated to it, though a spirit may have dozens of shrines and can hardly be expected to be at all of them at once.
To set up a shrine, the shaman must specify which spirit the shrine is to be dedicated to, and perform any rituals or tasks dictated by the spirit (in other words, the DM).
The shrine may be a small building, a fenced-off area of prairie, a grove of trees, or anything else suitable for the spirit to which it is dedicated. These are fixed places, not comprised of portable objects. Each shrine may be dedicated to only one spirit or group of spirits (one rogue hero, one ghost pack, etc.), but may be used by any shaman who can physically gain access.
Maintaining a shrine is not difficult. An hour per week is usually all that is required to keep the place clean and tidy, and players' shamans should be able to leave the place for a few weeks to go adventuring. Shamans leaving on longer adventures or journeys should find someone to tend the shrine in their absence, as the spirit may be insulted if its shrine is left to rot.