there's a couple of elements to the answer, i think. one is simply numerical power. theists have to advance step by step, 3HP per level of ability. Arnell can start with a Cutting Wind Spirit of 17 in game session 1, pack together his Shaman abilities such as Spirit Combat & Spirit World Travel and (with a little luck) end the session with a Cutting Wind Spirit of 5W or maybe higher. for 1HP. so shamans get numerically powerful faster than theists.
this is enhanced by the APs & augments spirits bring to contests, plus of course your fetch.
Arnell may only be a wee lad, but he's got stuff in his bag that can hurt you ;o)
the other side of this is diversity. it would be boring having 5 fearsome abilities but unable to do anything else. but Arnell's main preoccupation (probably the same for any shaman) is dealing with the spirit world - he isn't constrained to having just 5 spirits, or even ones from his tradition. i lose count of how many he has, but it's something like 10 multiple use fetishes - not many, considering, but most of them are flexible enough to solve many different kinds of problems.
and of course these don't have to have tightly defined uses. His intergrated Ignite Fuel ability has been used to start fires, sure, but also to ignite the tinder-dry passion of a cruel woman's heart (well, that's how it seemed to Arnell's hormone-addled adolescent brain).
in other words the theist starts with a diversity of abilities but increases their power only slowly. the animist starts with a limited number of spirits at a lower power range, but is likely to quickly race away from the theist pack in terms of power. thereafter the shaman diversifies his deck of cards, but will usually be 'cashing' in his spirits at a high level.
exaggeratedly simple model:
For a theist to reach 1W2 in 3 affinties with, say 8 feats apiece, will take 168 HP.
For an animist to capture 24 spirits at 1W2 will cost 24HP, plus the skills needed to obtain those spirits, perhaps another 40 - 50 HP. Total cost 64 - 74 HP, under half the time needed for the theist to reach same level in numerical terms.
another element is the use/day restrictions. i've never noticed them for multiple-use fetishes. not sure why, but perhaps because we don't have similar contests coming up one after the other. If Ian ran four combat scenes in a row Arnell would probably be in big trouble, frex, but the stories haven't worked out like that.
>
> How have you (or has the player) found this to be competitive with
a
> Theist's bag of magic tricks?
yep.
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