Does Wisdom really matter for shaman?

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The game says they have a minimum wisdom score of 12. Knowing they get no bonus spells for wisdom, does it really matter if I make a shaman with a wisdom of 12?

 

Not really - like you said, shamans do not benefit from wisdom, so there's no real reason to get more then 12 (besides roleplaying)
Same thing goes for Intelligence, the only benefit they gain from it is some lore, which makes it easier to identify items - but chances are you'll have a party member with better lore, or even a mage that can use identify anyway.
You'll want to have at least some intelligence so you don't die from the mind flayers' intelligence drain, but other then that the stat is wasted on shamans.

I'd roll my stats until i got at least a 90+ score, then max out Dex, Str, Con, and Cha.

Dexterity - good for the AC bonus, since shamans cannot wear anything better then leather armor. the bonus to ThAC0 for shortbows is nice too.
Strength - For those instances when you want to go into melee battle. And having a high carry weight limit enables you to carry around a lot of stuff, which is nice.
Constitution - More HP is always good. Technically you'd only need 16 points here - with 16 Constitution you get +2 bonus to hit points on level up, which is the maximum. getting 17 or even 18 con does nothing for non-warrior classes.
One exception is if you are going half-orc : Half orcs can get a natural con of 19 - at 20 constitution you gain a slow regeneration effect which is super helpful, you basically get back up to full health every time you travel to a new area or rest. so going half orc i'd go with 19 con and grab the +1 score A.S.A.P; Either by starting your character in bg1 and using the tomes there, or by rushing the machine of lum the mad in watcher's keep in bg2.
Charisma - Since you are the party face and dialogue checks are made with your charisma score, you might as well bump it up. maxing it out also means you don't have to waste a ring slot on the ring of human influence, so you can equip something better.
Intelligence - Not useful, you'll still want a minimum of 9 here to be able to use wands (wand of the heavens FTW) and 10-12 here doesn't hurt, so you can survive mind flayer intelligence drain.
Wisdom - Like i said, not useful so keep at 12



Here's my half-orc shaman, i was really lucky and got a total stat roll of 100 :



And made this character :



The 19 STR puts me at +3 to hit, and +7 damage.
My 18 DEX gives me +4 To AC for a base AC of 6, without armor on. I also gain +2 to hit with missile weapons.
Once i grab the Manual of Bodily Health (+1 CON) i'll have 20 CON total and gain the regeneration effect, which is sweet.
My INT will be a total of 14 after the +1 from the tome at the end of bg1 - more if there's any stat increases in Siege of Dragonspear - i haven't played through it so i wouldn't know; This should be more then enough to survive battles with mind flayers in BG2.
Since there's a total of 3 wisdom tomes available, my endgame WIS will be 16. Not that useful to have, but hey - i'll take it.
And with my CHA score of 18 (19 endgame after tomes) i shouldn't have any trouble of making any of the relevant dialogue checks as i come across them, and i don't have to use the ring of human influence in BG2.

For my proficiencies i went with 1 pip in two-handed style (+1 damage and critical on rolling a 19 and 20, so double the crit chance) and 1 pip in quarterstaff, since you can grab a Quarterstaff +3 from the tavern shopkeeper in ulgoths beard pretty much from the beginning of the game, assuming you have the gold to buy it.

 

I always like to play a half-orc for the 19 strength. Especially with non-fighter types that get no percentage rolls.
My best roll is a 99 that I almost clicked by because I got so excited I jumped and clicked at the same time. Luckily the mouse moved off of the re-roll again button.
Dex likes to be maxed for AC = 18
Con of 16 is all I need for the shaman
Wis hits an 18
Int maxes at 16 which is fine for Mind Flayers
Cha is usually a bad score as well but turns out to be a 12. Nothing great but not too bad I guess. The ring takes care of that

I'm loving this new shaman class!

 

If you're just gonna roll ad nauseam, you might as well just press Ctrl+8 and set the scores to what you want them to be or use Keeper.

There's nothing more legit about rolling without any limits.