I was hoping to introduce some of my roleplaying friends to RQG and Glorantha later this year. But I've now learnt that one of them has already played it - and it wasn't a happy experience.
The story, as he told me, was that he decided to be a shaman so that he could bring the magic (and no, he's not a D&D fan - he likes Vampire and Fate). But, he says, it didn't work, as "everyone has magic", "I didn't bring the best spell, I brought the sixth best spell" and "healing doesn't matter because everyone has it." He did admit that he could help out of comabt by communicating with spirits but felt that he was next to useless in combat. My experience of RQG shamans is practically zero, but I would have thought that with the fetch, bound spirits, large range of spells and much greater than any one else's magic pool that ineffectiveness in combat would not be a problem. Maybe I'm missing something?
I feel something went wrong somewhere in that game (which I didn't play). But not knowing shamans I'm handicapped in trying to explain to him where it went wrong. So
1) what do people see as the role of the shaman in the group/story?
2) how effective are shaman in combat and how do they achieve that?
Any advice appreciated.