Dragon Shaman - Gimme something to go on here...

[Psion]

Alright, it has happened. Someone wants to play the dragon shaman. A class on my "wouldn't you rather play something else list."

Okay, in the spirit of letting players play what they want, I am willing to give it a go. My main problem with the Dragon Shaman is that it gives no justification for why a dragon shaman would get these abilities. As some other recent threads might tell you, "cuz its magic" is rarely good enough for me.

So, what's your take on what a dragon shaman really is, why it actually gets any special abilities?

 

[Megatron]

a shaman.

 

[Andor]

If you allow non-deific clerics then it's the same sort of thing, they gain power by venerating the ideals of dragons.

If not then either they should be specialty priests of some of the dragon gods, or perhaps they are the draconic equivalent of Warlocks. They made a pact with an elder dragon, or mayve an ancestor did. Or maybe they bonded to a tribal relic that is a totem of a dragon.

Or if you have incarnum, think of them as channeling dragon soul incarnum.

Or they are actually monks and it's all Ki, projecting their personal power in an expanded aura and breathing fire like the various PsiWar powers. What explanation do you use for the marshal auras?

Possibly it's a parallel to a druid, but they come from an area where a dragon bonded to the land when it expired, thus changing what happens when a human venerates the land in that area.

Need more?

 

[kaomera]

I think it has a lot to do with the nature and place of Dragons in your game. If Dragons are simply big, flying, (element)-breathing lizards, then there is little to no justification for the class. If they are powerful magical creatures that have a special influence on the world (IMHO, typical D&D; and I consider "have there own gods, can get to CR 10+ easily, usually used as the 'boss monster' of a dungeon" as "special influence", YMMV) then the Dragon Shaman makes more sense, but is still a bit shaky. If Wizards in your game are wont to spout such lines as "Dragons are Magic.", stroke their beards, and nod knowingly, then the class should fit right in.

The thing is, "cuz it's magic" is exactly the reason why the Dragon Shaman exists, it's just a matter of what kind of magic. Dragons shouldn't be able to fly, breath fire (or whatever else a given dragon might breath), or do any of the other things that they do that make them Dragons. So, how do they do these things? Magic. Not Arcane or Divine or Incarnum or any other typical kind of magic, but there's got to be something there... Now, as I said, I think in your typical D&D game, the Dragon Shaman is on a bit shaky ground, there. Really, there's no reason (other than the existence of the Dragon Shaman class) why a Dragon's "draconic" magic should be expected to be anything but internal. Yet, somehow, the Dragon Shaman taps into that power... Personally, the concept is the same as for the Dragon Adept, but it (IMHO) makes a bit more sense as a PrC, especially given the prereqs... You could also work the Dragon Shaman as having some kind of "Dragon bloodline", like has been suggested for (some) Sorcerers...

 

[I'm A Banana]

What, specifically, is the issue with it?

Anyway, here's how I wrap my mind around the thing:

The dragon shaman is effectively "ridden" by a dragon wyrm spirit who works through him. So when he generates these auras, he's actually channeling the dragon spirit's energy through him. As they increase in level, the bond grows tighter and the spirit becomes more material. The dragon spirit is something like a second personality that grants the spells, but the relationship isn't just one of supplication, but of *demanding*. The shaman binds the dragon to himself, attempting to be something a bit more than human.

I wasn't happy with the auras at first, but I take it as the spirit dragon having a connection to the raw stuff, which the dragon shaman then wrings out, letting it spill into the area around him. Since everything except vigor is a good iconic "things that dragons do" (and even vigor kind of works, since a d12 hit dice certainly gives rise to lots of durability), the rest fell into place pretty nicely.

How do dragons do the things they do in your campaign? Dragon shamans probably do about the same thing.

 

[Stalker0]

You could go that the mimic aspects a dragon pantheon or something.

 

[der_kluge]

I'm with you Psion. Someone asked about playing one in my PbP over at CM.

I just told him no. It didn't fit in with the feel of my game. Dragons should be rare, dangerous, and mysterious, not the embodiment of folks walking around downtown.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I agree witht he above poster who puts a ton of emphasis onthe role of dragons in your campaign.

If dragons are just big scaly creatures who live in isolation and come out to destroy things, then honestly I can see your frustration with the dragon shaman class and it is justified. I wouldn't let a player play one in that case because the connection between normal life and the dragon is just not there.

However, in my homebrew dragons (especially males0 are prone to trying to set up villages of their own breeding. Essentially they get a small number of humans together and bred with a female (or a number of females. The resulting halfdragons then breed with more of the non-dragon opposite sex until the dragon blood becomes diluted. In this case it would make sense that the dragon shaman's powers are a leftover residual effect of breeding with dragons. They don't have to be identical abilities to the original dragon because of the way that magic and evolution and genetic mutation interact with one another.

But, that's an explanation that works for my campaign because of the way I set up how dragons interact with the world. How do dragons interact with the world in your game?

 

[Piratecat]

a shaman.

... to dragons!

This is a class where I like the general mechanics, but don't care for the fiction. If someone wanted to play one in my game, I'd probably change the theme but allow it.

 

[Klaus]

Don't really see what's the problem.

A Tiger Shaman channels the power of Tiger. Not "a" tiger, but rather "Tiger", the spiritual ideal made up by all the tigers in the world, plus the image other creatures have of tigers. Ditto for a Raven Shaman, or a Wolf Shaman.

The same goes for a Dragon Shaman. He is in touch with the spirit of, say, Blue Dragon.

It might help if you came up with traits associated with a Dragon type, much like Wolf is associated with Courage and Loyalty, Lion in associated with Royalty and Leadership, Raccoon is associated with Craftiness and Opportunism. For instance:

Black Dragon - Fatalism (see the decay of things), Solitude
Blue Dragon - Pride, Discipline
Green Dragon - Prudence, Envy
Red Dragon - Arrogance, Passion
White Dragon - Impulsiveness, Survival