Dargon Shaman...broken?

[Ashrem Bayle]

In my opinion, this is the right analysis. The Dragon Shaman is in the same boat as the bard. They work really well when they focus on making others better ... not so well when trying to do it all themselves. There is a reason the PHB says that the bard is almost always the best fifth addition to a party. I would suppose the same would be true for the Dragon Shaman.

The problem with most parties is that they are filled with players who want to play the "glory" role. Big swordsman ... Powerful caster ... Jack of All Trades ... Divine Agent. The Dragon Shaman isn't any of these. But the Dragon Shaman is about making all of these better. People who want to play the self-centered glory role don't see the power of a bard or Dragon Shaman. Theses type of classes are best left for people who get satisfaction from making other people better. That's a rare gamer in my book.

The Dragon Shaman class is a cool class, but not for everyone.

Agreed.

However, a good way to counter this is to make the DS have interesting flavor. In the setting I'm creating, each nation is ruled by a great wyrm. In those nations, people born on a certain date, or under a certain sign, (or whatever, I havn't decided yet), are taken at the age of nine and begin their training in a monastic order created by each dragon.

At the age of 18, they are given a potion containing their leige dragon's blood, and begin the change into a dragon shaman. The dragon shamans serve as the elite leaders of each dragon's personal guard and army. Think of it as officer's school with a dragon tainted fantasy twist.

 

[Bihor]

All-in-all how many shaman does it make?
I know that Kalamar has one, the complete divine as one, and Arcana Evolve as one I think.
That makes 4.

 

[Eytan Bernstein]

I've been pondering the effectiveness of an all-support party. The party would consist of a bard, marshall, dragon shaman, healer, and perhaps a war weaver. Everyone gets tons of bonuses, but rely on each other, rather than hogging all the glory.

All-in-all how many shaman does it make?
I know that Kalamar has one, the complete divine as one, and Arcana Evolve as one I think.
That makes 4.

 

[lukelightning]

I don't really like too many "restbreaks" in a dungeon. It doesn't matter to me that they can clear out the dungeon in 3 days rather than 3 weeks; it'll still take the same number of game sessions, same number of combats, etc. and give the same amount of fun.

 

[Particle_Man]

I find it an interesting concept, this healing aura to 50%. It would mean that a party with only a DS as the healer would lose their full hp status after a few battles, and would enter battles after that "partially wounded", but almost never "desperately wounded/near death". Mind you, the non-hp conditions can't be removed by the DS until higher levels, and they can be nasty too.

I would like to try a world in which the only classes are the 4 base classes from the PHB II and the 5 NPC classes from the DMG.