Alternate Totems for Dragon Shaman

[freyar]

Well, as I mentioned in an earlier thread, I have a player who's going to be a Dragon Shaman with a Battle Dragon Totem. Just for giggles, I've gotten a bit carried away with working out the class features for Dragon Shaman with non-core totem dragons (see the link in my sig to get the nice HTML version), and I'd like your opinion on them (are they balanced, etc?). I'm most of the way through the planar dragons at the moment. All comments welcome!

(Format is Totem; reference; allowed alignments; class skills; draconic adaptation; breath weapon (notes about associated immunity)

Planar Dragons

• Battle Dragon; Dra 176; LG, NG, CG; Concentration, Diplomacy, Perform; Courage (Ex): You gain a +2 morale bonus to saving throws against charm or fear effects. Always active.; Cone of sonic energy
• Chaos Dragon;Dra 179; CG, CN, CE; Bluff, Hide, Move Silently; Entropic Shield (Sp): As the spell, except you can target yourself only (at will).; Line of random energy (20% chance of acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic chosen randomly each breath; your resistance aura and immunity are chosen randomly at character creation but do not change after)
• Ethereal Dragon; Dra 179; NG, LN, N, CN, NE; Appraise, Hide, Spot; Ethereal Vision (Ex): You can see ethereal creatures as if they were visible. Always active.; Cone of force
• Howling Dragon; Dra 180; CN, CE, NE; Bluff, Listen, Move Silently; Feral Hunter (Ex): You gain a +5 bonus to Spot checks and to Survival checks made to track a creature. Always active.; Cone of sonic energy
• Oceanus Dragon; Dra 181; LG, NG, CG; Spot, Survival, Swim; Water Breathing (Ex): You can breathe underwather indefinitely and can freely use spells and other abilities underwater (always active).; Line of electricity
• Pyroclastic Dragon; Dra 183; LN, LE, NE, CE; Bluff, Jump, Spot; Resist sound (Sp): As the spell resist energy, sonic energy only, except you can target yourself only, (at will).; Cone of ash (damage is half fire and half sonic; associated immunity is to fire only)
• Radiant Dragon; Dra 185; LG, NG, LN; Diplomacy, Heal, Sense Motive; Protection from Evil (Sp): As the spell, except that you can target yourself only (at will).; Line of force
• Rust Dragon; Dra 186; LG, LN, LE, NE; Knowledge (dungeoneering), Move Silently, Survival; Improved Sunder (Ex): You gain Improved Sunder as a bonus feat. Always active.; Line of acid
• Styx Dragon; Dra 187; LE, NE, CE; Spot, Survival, Swim; Water Breathing (Ex): You can breathe underwather indefinitely and can freely use spells and other abilities underwater (always active).; Line of acid
• Tarterian Dragon; Dra 189; LE, NE, CE, CN; Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive; Strength of Will (Ex): You gain a +2 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and compulsion effects. Always active.; Line of force

 

[AnonymousOne]

Oooooh me like the Ethereal variant....

 

[freyar]

Oooooh me like the Ethereal variant....

Looks a bit powerful, or just fun?

 

[AnonymousOne]

Lets just say that all of those sneaky ethereal creatures are in for a force jaunt through the nine hells. I really like this variant because it's powerful and useful.

Unlike the water one, I don't like water based campaigns and have no reason to pick a totem based entirely on water if I'll only be dipping my flippered feet in once or twice....
Still you've done a nice job of broadening the field. But then I'm a fan of an absurd number of options/variants/ability swaps.

EDIT: One thought on the Oceanus Dragon ... mightn't electricity in water be a .... bad idea?

 

[freyar]

EDIT: One thought on the Oceanus Dragon ... mightn't electricity in water be a .... bad idea?

You know, you'd think so, but I'm pretty much doing as straight of an adaptation from the dragons' descriptions as I can (some of the skill choices are a bit of a stretch, though). In particular, the breath weapons are exactly the same as the dragons'. So I can't take the "credit" for that particular combination.

I'll keep putting more up as the mood strikes. I certainly want to get the Draconomicon ones done.

 

[sirwmholder]

... One thought on the Oceanus Dragon ... mightn't electricity in water be a .... bad idea?

Think Electric Eel... odd but true.

Back on point, I'm liking the totems so far. Keep 'em coming.

William Holder

 

[freyar]

Glad you two like these. The planar dragons are done, and more will follow at some point!

 

[Aleolus]

What about the Gem dragons? The ones with Psionic powers, like Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, and the like? You should come up with stuff for them too. I would, but I don't have access to much dragon stuff, so I don't know much about the Gem Dragons.

 

[freyar]

What about the Gem dragons? The ones with Psionic powers, like Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, and the like? You should come up with stuff for them too. I would, but I don't have access to much dragon stuff, so I don't know much about the Gem Dragons.

Yeah, I plan to do those sometime, too, when I can get around to it. I just got started on Faerunian dragons and then went on vacation. Anyways, the gems will come along at some point; I just got MM2 (what timing!) and will need to look at 3.5 conversions (EN World member RavinRay has a web page with unofficial conversions) to try to figure those out.

 

[freyar]

I've edited the chaos dragon a bit for simplicity... Next, Faerunian dragons!