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[Techno Magician]

Anyone use them extensively, it seems onmyodo is the only one i have heard of any one using, and it seems alright with the quicker casting of spells and being able to maintain for half price, sure not as spontaneous but good for a specialized wizard or one who uses his spells merely for constant buffs.

Personally i am interested in shamanism, it seems like an interesting idea, but also seems much harder for the DM constantly having to come up with what type of spirits are in the area, how powerful the area is, and then remembering any area they might come back to and what type of area it is.  It also seems quite open to DM fiat "this boss is in an area of low/no spiritual power".

edit: would also like any opinions on the natural and vodoun ones, personally they both seem pretty useless to me(drawback of rolling a fumble particularly for natural, though ok as a last resort for a normal wizard)

[Lizbeth]

I find them to be fine for fluff.

Mostly they are too restrictive to have powergaming use.

Natural casting is too dependant on GM, but I'm GM so I'm fine.

[EVILrokzz]

Onmyodo - Well, ancient Japanese magic with talismans. Works ok I guess... requires preparation though and limitations are annoying

Vodoun - Voodoo, meh... pathetic. If you don't plan on picking the teeth off your opponents and finishing them from a distance with the excavated remains of their mother's wooden leg and effect spells, I'd ignore it like it didn't exist

Shamanism - A good idea, but most of Gaia is "default" and quite a few places are low-none so... rather pointless. A High Spiritual Area is just as rare though

Natural Magic - I'll be frank, it's crap. To get the same effect (if not better) you can use a 40 Zeon spell while Natural Magic makes it cost some 800 Zeon to cast without problems. In my opinion - worthless. Good for versatility, but I would put it on a Warlock... maybe

All in all, the default is the norm in my games. Onmyodo is used in Varja, Kingsley has Vodoun and the rest is pretty much non-existent

[sognodeglieterni]

Onmyodo- As other said is pretty good, als very usefull with warlock that buff himself with daily spells. The "break-the-seal-break-the-spell" is also very nice to play some anime/manga style situation like barrier, illusionary place and so on

Shamanism - This is obviouslly better for Npc tha Pc, is also good for doing Druidic type mage npc or "i'm-nearly-god-in-my-palace" Bbeg, just add shamanism and sancta santorum rules from arcana exxet.

P.s. Someone said most of gaia is default or less, but ( as far as i read it) we are not talking about magic filled are but spirit filled area, after all the recent death Remo could be high power spiritual area. 

Natural magic- probably a poor choice for a full caster, can be very nice for utility, we had an illusionist infiltrator with this and plays out very well.
Also note that even if requires much zeon he must not spend DP in projection so is 30 DP per level that can go in accumulation multiple or flat Zeon

vodun- this is actually the "stronger" and "bugged" of all theorem: sure you would do 1/2 damage with damage spells, but if you wanted to cast damage spell you should not play a voodoon anyway. Any Support,buffer or  healer can pick this theorem, they will not have any drawback for this (since they would not cast direct damage spells anyway and if needed they can boost some MR check)
Think about it this way: Is the only theorem that offer a bonus (even if you use it rarely) with a drawback that you can forget at all without much trouble. Just play an Essence/creation/necromancer/illusionist.

[EVILrokzz]

Shamanism - This is obviouslly better for Npc tha Pc, is also good for doing Druidic type mage npc or "i'm-nearly-god-in-my-palace" Bbeg, just add shamanism and sancta santorum rules from arcana exxet.

P.s. Someone said most of gaia is default or less, but ( as far as i read it) we are not talking about magic filled are but spirit filled area, after all the recent death Remo could be high power spiritual area. 

It's not just about how many spirits there are but about how powerful they are and the amount of supernatural forces present. Naturally, in places where there are stronger supernatural forces there will be stronger magical spirits - spirits like magic

Also, it is stated that most places in the world are "Normal". Then again, the Shaman can boost the supernatural forces in an area by using Call Spirits and turn it into a "Powerful" zone
Still, a bit of a waste

[Tarrant12]

The book does say that most urban centers are higher than normal. So if you had an urban centric campaign they could be interesting.

Flavorwise shamans are pretty awesome, however like others have said the normal casting method is simply the best under normal circumstances.

[Techno Magician]

hmmm, ok and yea as i rarely DM the whole "for NPC" thing gets lost on me at times, from that perspective they can all be used fairly well(not just for flavor either, they will actually help the NPC be more powerful).  I like the thoughts behind vudon for non damaging spell user.

Thanks for your opinions everyone.

[Rii Nagaja]

The book does say that most urban centers are higher than normal. So if you had an urban centric campaign they could be interesting.

Flavorwise shamans are pretty awesome, however like others have said the normal casting method is simply the best under normal circumstances.

Isn't it ironic how shamans naturally seem to be the strongest in civilization? Maybe they should get the hint.