Shugenja (Dungeons & Dragons)
| A Dungeons & Dragons character class | |
|---|---|
| Publication history | |
| First appearance | Oriental Adventures (1985) |
| Editions | 1st, 3rd, 3.5 |
| Source books | 1st edition: Oriental Adventures (1985) 3rd edition: Oriental Adventures (2001) 3.5 edition: Complete Divine |
The shugenja or shukenja is a playable character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
The shukenja was introduced in the original first edition Oriental Adventures book. The first edition shukenja was a cleric subclass with its own unique spell list, designed to emulate Taoist, Buddhist, and Shinto priests rather than the western-style cleric. Unlike later implementations, the shukenja did not have any elemental affinity.
In a review of the book, reviewer Ashley Shepherd commented: "Shukenja, the clerics, are penalised if they slay too freely."Jim Bambra described the shukenja as "priests who are forbidden to kill, and who gain experience points for healing NPCs".
Inspired by mythologies of the Asian cultures, the shugenja fills the spot most commonly played by the Cleric class in a traditional D&D game—that of a primary divine spell caster. Shugenja are typically members of the noble class, though they are not bound by the honor code of the Samurai.
The class presented in the revised Oriental Adventures book has no real comparison with the class released in earlier editions, and the authors themselves have made it a point to note that the old style shugenja class was replaced by the shaman class. The shugenja was revised from the Oriental Adventures book by being presented in the Complete Divine supplemental book, published in 2004.
The most prominent ability scores of the shugenja are:
No published race currently uses the shugenja as a favored class.
The shugenja is a divine spontaneous spellcaster, and it has similarities to the favored soul and spirit shaman base classes.
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