Dragon Magic & the Dragonfire Adept base class

[Barak]

Yeah. I'm sorry. I failed to realize that saying that something gave a bonus to natural armor but didn't stack with existing natural armor made sense.

I'll be right out buying the book, because the editing was excellent.

 

[frankthedm]

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 said I felt a lot of the art was “meh” [Meant indifferent to, rather than in apathy of]. The “thrown together to make a buck” was meant to refer to the title and content being chosen for marketability purposes.

If you take two of the most popular words in the D&D game and put them together, you've got a 50% chance to come up with the title of this 160-page hardcover supplement.

And

According to Wotc staff they had a hole in the schedule and found they have had their best sales from items with the words dragon or magic in the title, so they quickly developed a book with those two words as the title.

Back to the art since I will elaborate on my “meh”.

Eric Deschamps's dragons necks at a thickness of ‘just right’ and his take on the metallic dragons wings* gets a thumbs up.

. IMHO Mr. Deschamps's work looks like it belongs in a D&D book On this http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dmag_gallery/100244.jpg , I’ll question the beak serration and jumbo spine-plates, maybe the grass too, but the subtle scales were incredibly good on this beasty’s flanks. Eric Deschamps's rogue who has little hope of hiding due to flaming weapon is good and subtly humorous. This pic http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dmag_gallery/100234.jpg, I am too biased against humans and dragons working together to fairly critique, though if one can make out a humans knuckles, scale detail should be visible.[though I understand scale, after scale, after scale, after scale, etc can get tedious].

David Bircham’s work can be pretty darn good and I loved his work on the Far Realm article, but unless the book is being made with humor in mind like the Old Castle greyhawk book, I am biased against comic style art, plus the white outline humanoids in “Sunscorch hobgoblin and blue dragon; viletooth lizardfolk and black dragon; frostblood orc and white dragon” gives the appearance that the humanoid may have been copied and pasted. If I open a D&D comic book or an April issue of Dragon and see http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dmag_gallery/100249.jpg , I’d be thrilled, less so if I am opening a hardcover.

Wayne England…Never been thrilled with his work, he makes a mighty fine skull and delightfully Damned Evil Book, but most of his critters fall outside my tastes [his MM4 Pomeranian Gnolls get a mention here as some of his better work IMHO]. His war banner was great and I might use it on a mini*.

Lucio Parrillo, Has the best and least male looking Ember I have seen so far. The Black dragon’s jaw looked a little odd and too close in style to England for my tastes.

David Wahlstrom, I’ve seen canes made from a bull’s ‘bit’, so a dragon’s “blood” was not the first things that came to mind when I saw…http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dmag_gallery/101277.jpg

Eva’s work has quality, but slides outside my tastes. Her dragon necks seem to thick to me and I am sorry, but this cause me to LOL at work.

Though now that I have used my search on the pictures rather that spot, I’ll withdraw the general Meh since i am now more away and have fewer illos I am on the fence about.

*Membranous wing and facial tentacles are usually right up my alley. But not on good dragonkind.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Edited because response no longer applies to edited original post.

 

[Acid_crash]

Besides the bickering going on in here...

Can someone tell me what is all in the book besides the new Adept class and the mistake in the writing of the natural armor bonus (which, IMHO, should stack with other natural armor a person of any race would already have).

What else is in the book?

 

[guardianfallenangel]

does this class seem overpowered compared to others? or is it just about right?

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

If the examples given are the worst of the editing issues, then WoTC editing has improved.

Ken

 

[Barak]

If the examples given are the worst of the editing issues, then WoTC editing has improved.

Ken

Realize that those are examples garnered from a quick look at the previews from WotC's website.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

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.

I gotta be honest with you, I support the following opinion.

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.

This thread caused me to go over to WotC art gallery to check out the art in the book and I've gotta say, I'm impressed. I haven't gotten to see the actual book yet - something I hope to rectify shortly. But if the art on WotC is any representation of what I'll find in the book I'll be happy.

I'll admit, when I went through them there were 1 or 2 of them that I didn't much care for. But there's 1 or 2 in any book that any one person isn't going to care for.

Anyway, Moridin - for what it's worth, I'm excited to get a first glance at the book. Especially after seeing the art.

 

[snowcone]

Some new prestige classes, spells, magic items, invocations, totem stuff, and a vestige.

It also has some stuff on how to run a dragonish campaign, haven't read through all that yet.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Besides the bickering going on in here...

Can someone tell me what is all in the book?

Happy to. If there's something specific you'd like to hear more about, let me know. Forgive my typos, I'm working on a tiny laptop keyboard.

One of the core concepts of Dragon Magic is the question "What happens when dragons are a common, active, influential part of a campaign world?" So the book opens with ideas for showing where dragon influence may be around, but not to the same degree as half-dragons and dragon shamans.

New draconic subraces are presented, as examples of cultures that have absorbed draconic culture, blood and magic. These are silverbrow humans, depwyrm drow, fireblood dwarves, forestlord elves, stonehunter gnomes, glimmerskin halflings, viletooth lizardfolk, sunscorch hobgoblins, and frostblood orcs.

Then there are draconic clas features. These are class features for core classes that replace the existing features. These are easy ways to make classes more dragonish, without going as far as taking templates or PrCs, though many are just as sweeping. For example, druids can take aspects of dragonkind instead of being able to wildshape. There are draconic class features for the barbarian/rogue, bard, cleric/paladin, dragon shaman, druid, druid/ranger, favored soul, hexblade/sorcerer/wizard, monk, rogue, and any class with proficiency with heavy armor

Then there are feats. They focus on expanding draconic feats, including making non-sorcerers eligible for some. There a whole list of them in the TOC.

Then classes. People are discussing the dragonfire adept elsewhere, which is a core class. The PrCs are diamond dragon (psionic tapping into psionic dragon powers), dragon descendant (monks able to call on the power of honorable dragon ancestors), dragon lord (commanders who have learned the draconic arts of combat), hand of thw winged masters (spies who work for dragons), pact-bound adept (arcane spellcaster who learn to use magic as dragons do, and tie themselves to dragons through dragonpacts), swift wing (good or neutral cleric or paladins who believe dragons are iconic servants of their god and thus take on draconic aspects to better serve their church), and wyrm wizards (who delve into the draconic secrets of arcane magic).

The draconic campaign has new spells for most classes (though not too many, this territory has been well tread before), new psionic powers based on the psionic dragons, dragonfire adept breath effects, the dragonfire adept invocations, new warlock invocations developed to fight dragons in a world where they're common, draconic soulmelds, a new vestige (Ashardalon for those paying attention), dragonpacts (a system allowing sorcerers to make deals to gain dragon magics), draconic companion spirits, magic items that imitate, augment, or oppose dragon powers (including dweomered dragonscales).

Draconic beasts adds a few allies, a few foes, and things like the drakkensteed so you can have a a paladin riding a dragonlike creature without breaking the game. For those that care there is only a single spawn of Tiamat, the redspawn berserker. Then there are variant dragon abilities, which allow dragons to swap out innate powers for new options.

Finally, draconic campaigns looks at what a world with more active campaigns actually looks like. There are ideas for dragon rulers and how they interact with their domains, dragons as religious figures, and dragons as the BBEG. Then there are there new organizations (The First Scroll, who seek to understand the connection between dragons and arcane magic, the Harrowers, who seek to kill dragons, and the Shadow's fang, who work for dragons). The chapter is topped off with some draconic locations with maps, and a short adventure that leads t0 a way to introduce all this stuff to a ongoing campaign world.

Owen K.C. Stephens
Poorspawn Dragonwriter