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

[Psion]

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

1) I don't. If you read some of my recent posts in the Paladins of Wee Jas thread, you can see I pretty much loathe the idea.
2) Even if I did, why aren't they divine casters with the dragon domain or something? The inconsistency irks me.

If not then either they should be specialty priests of some of the dragon gods,

Again, why aren't they divine casters?

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.

I'm thinking something sort of close to this. Expounded up, this sort of angle has the best potential, but I want to expand it for campaign potential.

 

[Psion]

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.

I use a Shaman class in my game. I would make it a shaman. The dragon shaman doesn't even fit the shaman mold to me, mechanically.

 

[Psion]

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.

That's sort of the angle I was going at. Just north of where the campaign is occurring right now, there is a "dreaming dragon" (a brass) of greater than great wyrm age and of great mystical power whose dreams shape the land. I had imagined a cadre of dragon knights who guard him in his slumber. I was thinking about extending this such that some beings are, purposefully or inadvertently, able to tap into the essence of the dreaming dragon.

 

[I'm A Banana]

That's sort of the angle I was going at. Just north of where the campaign is occurring right now, there is a "dreaming dragon" (a brass) of greater than great wyrm age and of great mystical power whose dreams shape the land. I had imagined a cadre of dragon knights who guard him in his slumber. I was thinking about extending this such that some beings are, purposefully or inadvertently, able to tap into the essence of the dreaming dragon.

Yeah, that's pretty perfect. It goes in step with the shamanic ideal of The Brass Dragon, being something more than mortal with powers that others can sense and feel. The Dragon Shamans IYC might tap the essence of these dreams, or even the dragon's own memories. The dreams contain some pieces of the dragon itself, laden with magic as they are, and the Dragon Shamans manipulate these dreams. They also probably take part of the dreams "with them," so that in foreign lands, they can channel the essence.

I'm also a fan of them being something like shamans worshiping a Bear Spirit or a Stag Spirit or a Wolf Spirit. These dragon shamans worship a Dragon Spirit, but since dragons are hardly mundane natural creatures, it doesn't exactly result in the same kind of abilities.

 

[Terwox]

I gotta say, having dragon shamans be channelers of dreaming dragons, or ridden by them at times, is tremendously more entertaining than the normal fluff for this class.

Definitely stealing this if anyone ever goes that route.

 

[Cam Banks]

I'm playing a half-orc brass dragon shaman right now in an Eberron campaign. He has the Mark of Finding from House Tharashk, but to be honest I haven't explained why he has any of the powers that he has.

I like the dreaming dragon idea. I also like the idea that the dragon shaman is drawing on some dragon ancestor and is essentially unlocking his abilities through an ascetic or mystic practice, just like monks do. It's not divine by any means, and no spellcasting comes about as a part of it (if it did, it'd be arcane, like the sorcerer) but it approaches it from a rigorous spiritual and emotional angle that differs from, say, the dragon disciple.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Joshua Randall]

Dragon shaman is just a fun class to play. The ability to switch your aura every round as a swift action is sweet, and gives the class a lot of flexibility. The auras are pretty strong at low level, then become relatively less strong at mid-high levels, but I'm OK with that mechanical 'flaw', if you will.

I agree that the flavor of the class is kind of blah, but you can always make up some mystical mumbo-jumbo to cover where the powers come from. I mean, D&D is a game with wizards hurling fireballs because they learned some words out of a book -- that doesn't make any more or less sense than dragon shamans, to me.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Well, given that I don't have that book right here right now, and I've skimmed over that class every time so far, I only really know what I've read on forums and stuff.

So, I'd suggest going with something like the Marshal (from the Miniatures Handbook. . . or the WotC website, I believe), but maybe with a good BAB progression, as they're not quite up to par, according to most people.

I honestly dislike everything I've heard about the Dragon Shaman, and what little I've glanced at. I can't think of a less appealing base class in a WotC book (that I've heard of), off the top of my head.

So yeah, I'm perhaps a bit biased here.

 

[Klaus]

That's sort of the angle I was going at. Just north of where the campaign is occurring right now, there is a "dreaming dragon" (a brass) of greater than great wyrm age and of great mystical power whose dreams shape the land. I had imagined a cadre of dragon knights who guard him in his slumber. I was thinking about extending this such that some beings are, purposefully or inadvertently, able to tap into the essence of the dreaming dragon.

There you go. On top of that, instead of saying "it's magic", you can always say "it's psionics"!

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

I don't like the flavor for this class either. In my current game, the character is a "half dragon" who is evolving in his draconic powers as he gains levels.