Dragon Shaman: does anyone have any in-game experience playing one?

[Sollir Furryfoot]

There's a 5th level human Dragon Shaman (blue) in my campaign and he's doing pretty well for himself. He's got 16 Strength, Martial Weapon Prof. (Falchion) and Power Attack. He generally power attacks for 2 at a time and when he does hit he does a lot of damage, which combines with his Energy Shield quite nicely to give my bad guys a hard time.

Recently the party was far outmatched, but they had a lot of low level warrior's on their side to act as cannon fodder. I could swear, because of that energy shield those warriors did just as much damage as everyone else in the party was doing combined (though they did lose a good 8 NPCs or so).

We'll see how he looks at higher levels, but because he has a decently high strength I imagine he'll do fine.

 

[Nifft]

But I think dragon shamans also get a Lay on Hands, don't they? So there's that as well.

... at or after level 6, yes there is.

At level 3? Not so much.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Wraith Form]

It was Vigor. Fast healing every round, as a constant aura left "on" for hours at a time until 1/2 hit points are reached, is kinda powerful.

:: embarrassed :: ....course, it doesn't help that as DM I really didn't remember that they had to be at 1/2 HP or less. My player, while normally very trustworthy, either forgot and used the power anyway, or "forgot" and cheated. *sigh*

Lesson learned? Don't be a crap DM and not read the rules carefully. (I only blame myself for not knowing, and enforcing, this rule.)

Energy Shield too seems kinda overwhelming, where the opponent takes 2 points of damage (in the case of my player, with a copper dragon, acidic damage) for each successful (natural or non-reach melee) attack "against you or your ally". After a few rounds of good hits, my NPCs were starting to get kinda roughed up, especially when they're low-HD critters.

 

[Nifft]

It was Vigor. Fast healing every round, as a constant aura left "on" for hours at a time until 1/2 hit points are reached, is kinda powerful.

:: embarrassed :: ....course, it doesn't help that as DM I really didn't remember that they had to be at 1/2 HP or less. My player, while normally very trustworthy, either forgot and used the power anyway, or "forgot" and cheated. *sigh*

That is a huge difference in power. Vigor aura would be totally broken without the "half or less" restriction.

Cheers, -- N

 

[roguerouge]

What I don't get is the fluff. I've never really gotten the dragon PC fluff for the other classes either. With clerics, the goal is to get closer to your god by remaking the world in his or her image. With druids and rangers, it's getting closer to nature. Bards and barbarians, it's all about the good times. Paladins fight the good fight without question or pause. Rogues are about treasure or parent issues, at least in the campaigns I've played in. You get the idea.

But with dragon shamans.... I don't get it. The book fluff is TERRIBLE, saying that dragon shamans are all about acquiring power for no real reason other than the fact that they identify with big lizards who like to sit on gold. That makes them good NPC fodder, I suppose, but it's a trifle generic. Can you help?

When you play the dragon shaman, are you trying to become a dragon? Are you trying to get closer to a dragon that you worship, as a PC? Are you trying to make the world a more dragon-friendly place? Why become a dragon shaman in the first place? What's your hook?

Why do dragon shamans identify with big lizards?

And I've tried keeping the mechanic while changing the fluff to something like a spirit shaman, but every time I do, the breath weapon gets in the way by making it about dragons rather than spirits or the fey. (The white wolf suggestion above works for arctic campaigns, though. That was a good one!)

 

[Klaus]

Question:

What if the breath weapon was replaced with eldritch blast?

 

[kigmatzomat]

Easier answer: just make them elementalists or geomancers, drawing power from the elemental planes or ley lines. Make the natural armor look a bit more like rock, ice, glass, whatever than scales. Then the breath weapon is just an elemental exhalation. If you want to add a bit of consistency to the breath weapons, gives cones to chaotics and lines to lawfuls (neutrals get to choose at 1st level but stick with it, like clerics & turning).

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

That is a huge difference in power. Vigor aura would be totally broken without the "half or less" restriction.

Cheers, -- N

Ah right, yes. Never played one and haven't picked up my PH2 for a while, so I'd forgotten about the level requirement. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Wolfwood2]

But with dragon shamans.... I don't get it. The book fluff is TERRIBLE, saying that dragon shamans are all about acquiring power for no real reason other than the fact that they identify with big lizards who like to sit on gold. That makes them good NPC fodder, I suppose, but it's a trifle generic. Can you help?

When you play the dragon shaman, are you trying to become a dragon? Are you trying to get closer to a dragon that you worship, as a PC? Are you trying to make the world a more dragon-friendly place? Why become a dragon shaman in the first place? What's your hook?

Why do dragon shamans identify with big lizards?

I did a write-up for dragon shamans in a desert culture because I wanted to use a dragon shaman in a friend's campaign world.

The point I emphasized was that they don't worship dragons as such, but rather are a group of folks who have learned to tap into the power that dragons represent. In the fluff I wrote up, you can be initiated as a dragon shaman at certain wonderous locations where a dragon laired for a long time, with the aid of strongly dragon-associated artifacts, or (of course) in the presence of an actual dragon.

There were two groups of dragon shamans in the desert culture, the Brass and the Blue.

The Blue represent an organization that's a cross between an assassin's guild and a mercenary company. They tend to work in small squads of exclusively Blue, coordinating their auras to work together. Most of them are your typical evil-but-honorable sort, and their known goals are to carve out a power niche for themselves in the local culture.

The Brass are not organized and operate on the apprentice system, secrets being passed down from master to student. They prefer to work with non-shamans and are welcome additions to the warrior bands of any tribe.

In general, I think dragon shamans do a much better job of representing the temptations of arcane power for your warrior types. Let's face it, multi-classing with an arcane spell-casting class isn't all that tempting for your average fighter. Sure if you work you can come up with a powerful build, but it takes work. On the other hand, your average fighter can benefit a lot from taking a few levels of dragon shaman.

The motivations of dragon shamans resemble the motivations of fighters much more than the motivations of arcane or divine casters.

 

[Darklone]

Thanks for the fluff replacement ideas everyone. The breath weapon will be turned IMC into a spell-like ability.