Dragon Magic & the Dragonfire Adept base class

[RodneyThompson]

The art gallery seems quite meh. There are a few good ones, but mostly it feels lacking, giving credence to the thrown together to make a buck insinuations.

Those are some pretty offensive insinuations. I can assure you, the book went through the normal design and development process, with no slapdash work on anyone's part.

 

[Cam Banks]

Those are some pretty offensive insinuations. I can assure you, the book went through the normal design and development process, with no slapdash work on anyone's part.

I agree, I'd be pretty upset to have anybody level those sorts of charges at me for my own work on a project.

It's one thing not to like the content of a book, but another thing to impune the designers, developers, and artists for their professional work.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Sammael]

Erm... I thought that WotC pretty much admitted at GenCon that Dragon magic was a last-minute project that was comissioned because of an opening in the product schedule? Something about a product with words "Dragon" and "Magic" being a guaranteed bestseller?

 

[MadMaxim]

Ambrus. I don't know if you're answering any questions, but I'd like to know whether the Dragonfire Adepts invocations are available to the Warlock as well? Perhaps not the dragon-oriented ones, but perhaps some of them are? Thanks in advance.

 

[Barak]

Of course kobolds aren't mentioned, since they aren't a base RAW race.

And it does seem like the book was somewhat rushed, since I saw two stupid wordings by simply perusing the preview.

First, under Abilities they say

this is especially true for a dragonfire adept. She lacks skill with heavy armor,

And then under Weapon and Armor Proficiency they say

Dragonfire adepts are proficient with simple weapons, but not with armor or shields.

That's just sloppy. But at least it's in two different sections.

But then, under Scales (Ex)...

Scales (Ex): At 2nd level, your skin becomes thick and scaly, granting you a +2 bonus to your natural armor. The scales can be of any color or metallic hue; they are often (but not always) of a draconic hue that matches your outlook and alignment. This bonus improves to +3 at 8th level, to +4 at 13th level, and to +5 at 18th level.

If you already have a natural armor bonus, use the higher of the two values.

Well then it's not a +2 bonus to your natural armor, but a +2 natural armor bonus to your AC, you fools!

If that's indicative of the editing in the whole book, it's way too likely to annoy me for me to spend money on it.

Edit: Having found one editing error even worse in the Soulmelds excerpt, I'm definitively annoyed enough to pass on this one.

 

[Ambrus]

Ambrus. I don't know if you're answering any questions, but I'd like to know whether the Dragonfire Adepts invocations are available to the Warlock as well? Perhaps not the dragon-oriented ones, but perhaps some of them are? Thanks in advance.

I can answer some questions if anyone is curious enough to ask them I suppose. The answer to your question is: no. Warlock and adepts each have their own list of invocations and there's nothing to indicate that they're meant to be interchangeable. Dragon Magic however does add a few new Warlock specific invocations in keeping with the draconic theme of the book.

 

[Ambrus]

If you already have a natural armor bonus, use the higher of the two values.

That sentence left a bad taste in my mouth. Why is it there at all? Why shouldn't the adept's natural armor bonus stack with preexisting natural armor? Other natural armor bonus that I've seen in other classes normally stack. It's not like the adept is going to become unbalanced with a high armor class considering they can't wear armor. Poor kobolds loose one of their few perks if they take this class. Shouldn't reptilian adepts have a leg up on their mammalian peers in channeling dragon magic?

 

[Zaukrie]

I don't recommend making your buy/no-buy decisions on editing. If you did, you may never buy another WotC product. They couldn't even get the paragraph promoting the product on their website correct. We've seen numerous examples of bad stat blocks. Even minis cards can have the wrong faction symbol on them. If you have problems with editing, you may want to get into another hobby.

That said, I think we should keep pestering/annoying WotC over this. At some point professional pride has to kick in, doesn't it?

This is probably my most negative post on these boards, but I just couldn't hold it back anymore.

 

[Ambrus]

And speaking of loopy details in the adept class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dragonfire adepts are proficient with simple weapons, but not with armor or shields. Like arcane spellcasters, a dragonfire adept wearing armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure (all invocations have somatic components).

and...

A dragonfire adept's invocations are spell-like abilities; using an invocation is therefore a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity..

but...

A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component

Did I miss something here?

 

[Crothian]

Did I miss something here?

Invocations are an exception. It seems pretty straight forward.

These examples of problems are pretty nit picky.