Spirit Shaman (5e Class)

Spirit Shaman

A nomadic elf closes her eyes and whispers to the spirits of her ancestors for guidance; moments later she emerges confident in her abilities charging forward towards her goal. A burly human raises his staff, channeling ethereal energy into his strikes as spectral flames wreathe his weapon. Spirit Shamans are mystics who bridge the gap between the material world and the realm of spirits, wielding otherworldly energy to heal allies, ward off evil, and strike down foes with uncanny power. Masters of the realm beyond and all things spiritual a Spirit Shaman utilizes the souls under its command to manifest their abilities turning slain foes and forgotten heroes into powerful tools at the shaman’s disposal.

Mystic of the Spirits

Spirit Shamans are guardians of the spiritual realm. They commune with ancestral guides, nature spirits, and ghostly entities to harness Spiritual Energy – a unique resource drawn from the spirit world. By harvesting the souls of fallen creatures and manifesting them through mediums such as smoke, blood, sand, or the Spirit Shaman’s own flesh they gain the ability to assume their physical forms and harness their natural abilities. In battle, a Spirit Shaman might empower their weapon with radiant, necrotic, or psychic force, or call upon protective phantoms to shield companions. They can even unravel a creature’s soul with concentrated spiritual force, reducing it to ruin. Outside of combat, Spirit Shamans serve as wise counselors and occult problem-solvers, able to sense unseen presences and heal wounds by channeling benevolent spirits.

Creating a Spirit Shaman

Quick Build

You can build a Spirit Shaman quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Wisdom your highest ability score, reflecting your spiritual insight. Constitution should be your next highest, to give you resilience in channeling powerful energies (alternatively, choose Dexterity for better defense if you prefer light armor). Second, choose a background that ties you to the spirit world, such as Hermit (perhaps you lived in seclusion training with spirits) or Outlander (if you wandered learning tribal rituals). Finally, take equipment that befits a shamanic warrior – for example, a quarterstaff or spear as your weapon and a druidic focus like a totem or staff to help channel your powers.

Class Features

As a Spirit Shaman you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per Spirit Shaman level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + Constitution modifier per Spirit Shaman level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor, Medium armor, Shields
Weapons: Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons that lack the Heavy or Two-handed property
Tools: Choose one artisan’s tool or musical instrument
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Constitution
Skills: Choose two from Animal Handling, Arcana, History, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Persuasion, Perception, Religion, Stealth, Survival

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a quarterstaff or (b) a spear or (c) any simple weapon
• (a) a light crossbow with 20 bolts or (b) a shortbow with 20 arrows or (c) any martial weapon
• (a) an explorer’s pack or (b) a priest’s pack
• A druidic focus (such as a totem, staff, or wand decorated with feathers and bones) and a healer’s kit
• If you are using starting wealth, you have 2d4x10 in funds.

Table: The Spirit Shaman

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Soul Shape	Soul Reservoir
1st	+2	Spirit Sense	0	0
2nd	+2	Spiritual Energy, Soulbound Strikes	0	0
3rd	+2	Soul Reservoir (Soul Harvest), Soul Shape	2	5
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement	2	6
5th	+3	—	2	7
6th	+3	Unbound Strikes, Spirit Channel, Spirit Channel: Soul Mend	3	8
7th	+3	Spirit Channel: Wraithguard	3	8
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement	3	9
9th	+4	Spirit Channel: Astral Resonance	3	9
10th	+4	—	3	10
11th	+4	Phantom Ruin	4	10
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement	4	11
13th	+5	—	4	11
14th	+5	Ethreal Eclipse	4	12
15th	+5	—	4	12
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	4	13
17th	+6	—	4	13
18th	+6	Soulbinder’s Zenith, Eternal Conduit	4	14
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	4	14
20th	+6	—	4	Unlimited (or DM’s Discretion)

Spirit Sense

Starting at 1st level, you can perceive the presence of spirits and the lingering essence of the dead. You gain the following benefits

• See the Unseen:

You are able to see spirits of the dead that remain on the material plane. This includes ghosts, specters, and similar incorporeal undead, even if they are invisible or on the Ethereal Plane, out to a range of 60 feet. Such spirits appear as translucent or wispy forms to your sight. (This does not automatically reveal all invisible creatures – only those that are spiritual in nature or the souls of the departed.) Additionally, you can innately sense when the area around you is haunted or inhabited by a spirit. The DM may reveal the presence of any unseen spiritual entities within 60 feet (though you might not know their exact identity or nature without further interaction)

• Spiritual Guidance :

Whenever you use this ability, you may choose yourself or one creature within 30 feet to receive guidance from the spirits. The chosen creature gains the effects of the Guidance spell (adding 1d4 to an ability check of their choice within the next minute). This represents spirits whispering insight, sharpening perception, or steadying the hand of the recipient. You can use this a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier + proficiency bonus. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. You also have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks when communicating with spirits or undead, as you can intuitively read their emotions.

• Commune with the Dead:

You can speak with lingering souls to glean knowledge from the deceased. By concentrating for 10 minutes (performing a small ritual of prayer, chanting, or offering), you can cast Speak with Dead without expending a spell slot or material components. The soul you target (usually via its corpse or ghost) does not need to remain present for the full ritual – your ceremony calls it forth temporarily if it has already departed. If you need quicker answers, you may instead expend 1 Spiritual Energy to use Speak with Dead as an action (no ritual needed). The normal limitations of the spell (such as how many questions can be asked and the corpse’s knowledge) still apply.

Spiritual Energy

At 2nd level, you tap into the well of spiritual power that fuels your abilities. You have a pool of Spiritual Energy points (or SE) that you can spend to activate various Spirit Shaman features. The maximum number of Spiritual Energy points you have is determined by your Spirit Shaman level and Wisdom:

• Spiritual Energy Points = (your Spirit Shaman level + your proficiency bonus) x 2.

For example, a 5th-level Spirit Shaman has (5 + 3) x 2= 16 Spiritual Energy points. As you gain levels (and increase your proficiency bonus), your energy pool grows. You regain all spent Spiritual Energy points after finishing a long rest.

Some of your features will require creatures to make saving throws to resist their effects. When you use such an ability, the save DC is calculated as follows:

• Spirit Shaman save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier.

Soulbound Strikes

Also at 2nd level, you learn to infuse your weapon attacks with spiritual power. As a bonus action, you can spend 1 SE to imbue your strikes with otherworldly energy. When you do so, choose one damage type: radiant, necrotic, or psychic. For 1 minute your melee and ranged weapon attacks deal an extra +1d8 damage of the chosen type on a hit. This bonus damage is in addition to the weapon’s normal damage (it “stacks” with any magical properties or effects on the weapon). The effect lasts for up to one minute, until you are incapacitated, or until you choose to end it early as a bonus action. You can only have one type of Soulbound Strike active at a time (activating a new one ends the previous effect).

For an additional 2 SE at the time of casting or as a bonus action on subsequent turns you may deepen your connection to the spiritual realm you draw from for each type of Soulbound Strike granting the following effects as long as Soulbound Strikes last:

• Empyrean Brand:

When you hit a creature with an attack enhanced by Soulbound Strikes radiant energy, that creature glows with ethereal light. Until the start of your next turn, attack rolls against that target have advantage, and it cannot benefit from being invisible (Your weapon gleams with heavenly radiance, revealing hidden foes and making them vulnerable.).

• Abyssal Rend:

Whenever you deal necrotic Soulbound Strikes damage to a creature, you regain hit points equal to the 1d8 bonus + attack modifier damage dealt. The siphoned life energy knits your wounds even as you harm your foe. (You tear into a creature’s soul with the power of the damned, siphoning their life force to fuel your own vitality.)

• Limbo’s Grasp:

When you hit with psychic Soulbound Strikes, the burst of telepathic anguish clouds your target’s mind. The creature has disadvantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws until the end of its next turn. (Your strikes carry the weight of forgotten souls, clouding the mind and disrupting the balance between the living and the dead.)

Soul Reservoir (Soul Harvest)

You have mastered the art of extracting and storing the lingering essence of creatures that have passed on. Through Soul Harvest you can bind their spirits to your Soul Reservoir, an item that holds much sentimental value or mystical/ancestral connections, granting you access to their abilities through your class features. Your Soul Reservoir can hold a maximum number of creatures as shown on the Soul Reservoir table shown above. If full you must release a soul having it pass along peacefully unless it is particularly vengeful or cursed (DM’s discretion).

• Soul Harvest:

- Whenever a creature with a soul dies within 30 feet of you, and you can see its remains, you may attempt to harvest its soul into your Soul Reservoir.

- You may attempt to capture a soul at any time after its death as an Action, provided its body is still intact. However, the difficulty increases over time as the soul fades.

- When attempting to capture a soul, roll a d20 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus. You must be holding your Soul Reservoir to do so and succeed against the following DC:

starting DC = 10 + the creature’s CR (rounded up).

- This feature does not work on creatures without true souls (such as constructs or mindless undead), though spirits and certain intelligent undead may still qualify at the DM’s discretion.

- Additionally at DM’s discretion, a creature may willingly allow their soul to be captured forgoing the roll.

• Harvest Modifiers:

- For every hour since the creature’s death, the DC increases by +2 ( max +8 at 4+ hours)

- For each failed attempt to harvest the creature’s soul, the DC increases by +3 for future attempts. Additionally, each attempt past the first harvest cost an additional 2 SE which stacks with each attempt.

- If the creature’s CR exceeds your Soul Shape maximum, the DC increases by +2 per CR above your limit.

- If you or an ally dealt the killing blow on the creature, reduce the DC by your proficiency bonus.

• Soul Details:

Each soul you capture retains the essence of the creature it came from. For as long as you have it bound, you effectively “know” the creature’s basic information (its name, its type, roughly what it was in life) and you gain access to certain uses of that soul through your class features. The soul is not conscious or communicative unless you have a specific ability to converse with it (you could use Spirit Sense’s Speak with Dead on a soul in your reservoir, for example). If a soul has any particular reluctance or personality, the DM might flavor how it behaves when you use it (a virtuous soul might grudgingly fight for you but disapprove, an evil soul might cackle when you channel its power, etc.). Mechanically, though, once captured it is bound to your will.

Soul Shape

Your mystical connection and hold over souls allows you to take on their aspects. As a Bonus Action, you activate Soul Shape and undergo a physical transformation into a creature whose soul you have stored in your Soul Reservoir. You stay in that form for a number of hours equal to half your Spirit Shaman level or until you use Sou Shape again, have the Incapacitated condition, or die. You can also leave the form early as a Bonus Action.

Number of Uses

You can use Soul Shape twice. You regain one expended use when you finish a Short Rest, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
You gain additional uses when you reach certain Spirit Shaman levels, as shown in the Soul Shape column of the Spirit Shaman Features table. Alternatively once on each of your turns, if you have no uses of Soul Shape left, you can give yourself one use by expending 5 SE (no action required). 

Restrictions

*The maximum CR of a creature you can transform into is equal to half your Spirit Shaman level (rounded up).
*You cannot transform into swarms or creatures that require multiple bodies to function (DM’s discretion).

While Shape-Shifted

* While in a form, you retain your personality, memories, and ability to speak (If the creature you transformed into normally lacks speech, your voice takes on a resonant, ghostly quality.)
*You gain a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to your (Spirit Shaman level + your Wisdom modifier) × 3.
*Until you leave the form, your AC equals 13 plus your Wisdom modifier if that total is higher than the creature’s AC.
*Your game statistics are replaced by the creature’s stat block, but you retain your creature type; Hit Points; Hit Point Dice; Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores; class features; languages; and feats. You also retain your skill and saving throw proficiencies and use your Proficiency Bonus for them, in addition to gaining the proficiencies of the creature. If a skill or saving throw modifier in the creature’s stat block is higher than yours, use the one in the stat block.
*If you Soul Shape into a creature that had spellcasting abilities, you do not gain access to the creature’s spell slots or spells known (besides innate spellcasting) unless otherwise stated. If the creature has natural magical effects that are not spell slots (such as an innate magical breath attack, passive aura, or innate spellcasting), you retain those as part of the transformation. 
*Your ability to handle objects is determined by the form’s limbs rather than your own. In addition, you choose whether your equipment falls in your space, merges into your new form, or is worn by it. Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it’s practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment based on the creature’s size and shape. Your equipment doesn’t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can’t wear must either fall to the ground or merge with the form. Equipment that merges with the form has no effect while you’re in that form.
*You do not gain legendary or lair actions.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Unbound Strikes

Starting at 6th level, your attacks in Soul Shape form count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. Additionally you may use and maintain the benefits of the Soulbound Strikes feature while transformed.

Spirit Channeling

By 6th level, you have learned to channel your spiritual power into a variety of specialized supernatural effects. These abilities allow you to protect allies, heal wounds, or even manifest frightening apparitions. Using a Spirit Channeling option requires you to spend Spiritual Energy points, as detailed below. Some channeling effects have a cooldown period before you can use them again naturally; however, you can spend extra energy to reduce the cooldown. Unless otherwise stated, using a Spirit Channeling ability takes an action.

Cooldown Reduction

After you use one of the Spirit Channeling options, you normally cannot use that same option again for a short duration (approximately 10 minutes) as you recuperate your spiritual focus. For each additional Spiritual Energy point you spend when activating a channeling ability, you halve its base cooldown time, to a minimum of 1 minute. (In other words, spending more energy can let you reuse that channel ability again sooner. Most often, spending 3 extra points will reduce a 10-minute cooldown down to about 1 minute, the minimum.)

Spirit Channel: Soul Mend

Finally at 6th level, you can call upon benevolent spirits to aid you in mending wounds. As an action, you can touch a creature and spend Spiritual Energy to heal them. The target regains 1d8 hit points per Spiritual Energy point you expend plus your Wisdom modifier. You cannot spend more points on a single use of this feature than your proficiency bonus. (For example, if your proficiency bonus is +3, you can spend at most 3 points at once, healing for 3d8 + Wisdom modifier HP.) The healing energy is accompanied by faint whispers or warm ghostly light around the target’s wounds restoring them and their vitality.

Cooldown

Soul Mend can be used freely as long as you have the energy to spend outside of combat. However inside combat you may use this channel a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus before it goes on a 10 minute cooldown, after which you may use this feature this way again.

Spirit Channel: Wraithguard

Calling upon lingering spirits, you create an ethereal barrier that absorbs physical harm, shielding yourself and your allies from deadly blows. As a bonus action, you may expend 3 Spiritual Energy to grant yourself or one creature within 30 feet resistance to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage for 1 minute. The spectral energy manifests as ghostly figures that hover protectively around the target, intercepting attacks before they land. Alternatively you may bolster this feature spending additional SE increasing the duration by 1 minute, up to a maximum of 10 minutes. Also when activating Wraithguard, you may choose to affect additional creatures within 30 feet. Each extra target costs +1 Spiritual Energy per additional creature beyond the first. You may shield a number of creatures up to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 extra target).

Cooldown

Once Spirit Shield ends, you cannot use it again for 10 minutes.

Spirit Channel: Astral Resonance

By merging your essence with the spirits bound to you, you temporarily inherit a fragment of their power—allowing you to adopt their movement, traits, and attack abilities. As a bonus action, you expend 5 Spiritual Energy to channel a soul from your Soul Reservoir, inheriting one movement type, sense, one trait, or one attack feature from it for 1 minute. You may end this infusion early as a bonus action. (For example for traits you could take a channeled Fire Elemental’s Fire Immunity, Grappled Immunity, or Fire Form.) If an attack or feature requires a saving throw, its DC = your Spirit Shaman save DC. Additionally at 15th level, you may select two different movement types, senses, traits, attacks features from the same creature or two different ones.

Enhancements

You may enhance Astral Resonance by spending extra Spiritual Energy at activation:  
* +1 Energy: Extend the duration by 1 minute (max 10 minutes).
* +2 Energy: Gain an additional movement type from the same creature.
* +3 Energy: Gain a second trait (from the same soul at 9th level, or from another at 15th level).
* +3 Energy: Gain a second attack feature (from the same soul at 9th level, or from another at 15th level).

Restrictions

* You do not gain the creature’s spellcasting or legendary actions.
* If an attack has a limited number of uses per day, you do not exceed that limit.
* You may take only part of an ability with recharge (e.g., choosing a breath weapon means you can only use it once).
* If you change which bound soul you are channeling, the previous infusion ends immediately.
* You may only channel a different soul than your current Soul Shape form. If you are in the form of a Dire Wolf, you cannot select an ability from that same wolf, but you can take a movement or attack from a Fire Elemental in your reservoir.)
* If an attack or trait overlaps between Soul Shape and Spiritual Infusion, they do not stack; you use the strongest version available.

Cooldown

Once Spiritual Infusion ends, you cannot use it again for 1 hour.

Phantom Ruin

At 11th level, you gain the ability to unravel a creature’s soul with concentrated spiritual force reducing it to ruin. As an action, expend 4 SE choose one creature you can see within 60 feet. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Spirit Shaman save DC. On a failed save, the creature takes 2d10 force damage and is Stunned until the end of your next turn as spirit energy floods into it before imploding its soul rendering it inert. If a creature fails the Wisdom save by 5 or more the target becomes Paralyzed instead of stunned for the duration. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage and suffers no condition. Alternatively as part of the Action to use this feature, you may spend 2 SE to empower this feature dealing an additional 1d10 per point spent to a maximum of 10d10. You may use this feature twice, regaining all expended uses on a Long Rest. You gain additional uses of this feature at 15th and 17th level.

Spirit Channel: Ethereal Eclipse

A spectral darkness weighs upon those around you, as the spirits bound to you seep into the material world, distorting reality and weakening those caught within their grasp. Their whispers unravel the mind, their presence dulls the senses, and their spectral touch saps the strength of the living. As an action, you expend 6 Spiritual Energy to summon a ghostly aura that radiates within a 30-foot radius. The aura moves with you, centered on your position. This effect lasts for 1 minute and requires concentration as if concentrating on a spell. When a creature of your choice enters the aura for the first time on a turn or starts its turn inside it, it must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Spirit Shaman save DC. On a failure, the creature suffers the following effects while inside the aura:

• Disadvantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws.

• Disadvantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma ability checks.

• Disadvantage on attack rolls until the start of its next turn.

On a success, the creature is immune to the attack disadvantage effect for 24 hours but remains affected by the saving throw and ability check penalties.

Enhancements

You may enhance Ethereal Eclipse by spending extra Spiritual Energy at activation:
* +1 Energy: Increase the radius to 60 feet.
* +2 Energy: Affected creatures also have disadvantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution ability checks.
* +3 Energy: When a creature fails its saving throw, it also cannot take reactions until the start of its next turn.
* +4 Energy: Affected creatures have their movement speed halved while inside the aura.

Cooldown

Once Ethereal Eclipse ends, you cannot use it again for 1 hour.

Soulbinder’s Zenith

Having fully embraced your bond with the dead you stand at the peak of spiritual mastery, drawing limitless power from the souls bound to you. The spirits within your Soul Reservoir now flow through you effortlessly, enhancing your form and fortifying your will. Upon reaching 18th level, your connection to bound spirits becomes nearly unbreakable, granting you the following permanent benefits:

• Spiritual Energy Wellspring: At the start of each of your turns, you regain 1 expended Spiritual Energy if you have at least one bound soul in your Soul Reservoir.

• Endless Guidance: Whenever you make an ability check or saving throw that uses Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma, you can roll 1d4 and add it to the result (this stacks with Guidance and similar effects).

• Soulbound Resilience: You gain resistance to radiant and psychic damage, immunity to necrotic damage, and you cannot be charmed, frightened, or possessed while you have at least one bound soul in your Soul Reservoir.

Eternal Conduit

Your connection to the spirit world has reached its peak, allowing you to seamlessly channel the strength of bound souls. You exist as both a living being and a conduit for the dead, wielding their power effortlessly. As an action, you can expend 12 Spiritual Energy to momentarily channel multiple bound souls at once, awakening their latent power within you. For the next minute, you gain the following benefits:

• Spectral Convergence: When you activate Astral Resonance, you can choose an additional benefit from the same bound soul, allowing you to take two traits, two attacks, or two movement types from a single bound soul. (For example at 18th level you can take the Dire Wolf’s 50ft movement and Pack Tactics trait, as well as the Fire Elemental’s Fire Form and immunity to fire damage traits.)

• Living Phantasm: For 4 SE as a reaction when hit by an attack you can briefly shift into an incorporeal state, gaining resistance to all damage from that attack.

• Soul-Powered Strikes: When you hit a creature with a weapon attack or natural attack, you can deal extra damage equal to your Wisdom modifier (psychic, necrotic, or radiant—your choice).

• Echoes of the Fallen: When a creature within 30 feet of you dies as a Reaction, you can immediately expend 5 Spiritual Energy to summon a spectral echo of the fallen creature. This echo lasts for 1 minute and can perform one of the following effects (your choice when activated):

- Lingering Guardian: The spirit protects an ally of your choice, granting them temporary hit points equal to half the creature’s original hit points (max 50 HP).

- Vengeful Shade: The spirit lashes out at its killer or another enemy, making one attack using the creature’s original attack bonus and damage before vanishing.

- Knowledge from Beyond: You may ask the spirit one question, as if using Speak with Dead, before it fades away.

Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Spirit Shaman class, you must meet these prerequisites: Wisdom 16

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the Spirit Shaman class, you gain the following proficiencies: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields

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