Dragon Shaman joins Mafia: HELP! (thieves' guild related)

[Wraith Form]

Recall that the plots for this PC don't have to come entirely from his abilities (though having a chance to show off your skills is always good). I'd think first about including bits dealing with his personality and background, and tweaking for his abilities from there.

I'm trying to include these things. The player is a bit...ehh...light on the role-playing and heavy on the roll-playing. (Not very creative, but certainly tactical-minded.)

The problem is that there's not a lot of info about dragon shaman to use aside from the PHBII write-up, and even that's...skimpy.

I think I have some ideas...but please feel free to continue to add comments.

 

[Wik]

I have a copper dragon shaman in my Savage Tide arc. The sub-plot I introduced was fairly simple.

Another dragon shaman (a Red) is also an assassin who was hired to hinder the Pcs. Even after he finished that job (successfully), he's been hounding the group. Once he saw another dragon shaman, he's been out to "finish the job". See, our dragon shaman saw his entire family get eaten by a red dragon when he was young. At the time, he thought "that's scary, but impressive". He was taken in and raised (and trained) by a copper dragon who had a feud with the red. Now, the scions of both dragons are engaged in a little bit of a battle. The red has a bunch of barbarians in his employ that he uses his buffs on (mostly to make them very costly to engage in melee combat), while the copper is based more around defence and keeping his companions alive. It's eben fun so far.

Also, his auras can make him an excellent combat leader. Why not have the dragon shaman rise through the ranks of the mafia (even unwillingly) due to his ability to enhance the abilities of his crowd. Hell, a great idea would be to have him be assigned to a group of mafia warriors under the command of a leader who hates the dragon shaman. The rest of the group likes the dragon shaman, so when the leader dies, they start following him (while still loyal to the mafia). The dragon shaman has to make a choice - betray his new companions in his fight against the mob, or serve the mob to protect his new friends.

 

[Wraith Form]

Sweet, thanks Wik!!!!! I was actually going to create a rival, much like the one you created for your player. And thanks for the idea regarding his aura.

 

[Whimsical]

What if dragons were the ruling royalty of the game world? Such as it is in the Dragonstar campaign setting? Dragons are royalty, half-dragons are nobility, and kobolds have an elevated status in this society.
Also, this is a setting that mixes D&D with high-tech. If you check out the link you can see how dragons and technology can mix.

Perhaps the guild wants to make peaceful contact with a known dragon. But to gain audience, the PCs need to get past all of the traps and sneak by the guardians. After that, the PCs can try to negotiate a deal that gives the dragon things that are difficult for it to get on its own to get in exchange for treasure or obscure knowledge. After the initial deal, the dragon shaman would be the liason.

Also, the Dragon Magic is a great book to find dragon-themed adventure ideas. It even has more auras, feats, and prestige classes for the Dragon Shaman.

 

[Wik]

Sweet, thanks Wik!!!!! I was actually going to create a rival, much like the one you created for your player. And thanks for the idea regarding his aura.

No prob. Our Dragon Shaman is an armour monkey, with a level of fighter. He's 5th level - Fighter (1)/Shaman (4). His arch-enemy, Ruadeth, is a half-elven rogue(1)/shaman (4). Ruadeth's group is one level lower than the PCs (to keep things in their favour), and consists of 2 barbarians, a sorcerer, and a cleric/fighter with the destruction domain. I haven't actually had a chance to try the enemy adventuring party out, yet. The whole point to the encounter, though, is to use the dragon shaman auras. Of course, the enemy sorcerer will make heavy use of monster summoning spells, simply due to Ruadeth's melee damage aura (if every time you hit it, you take 2 points of fire damage...). Should be fun fight.

 

[Wraith Form]

Perhaps the guild wants to make peaceful contact with a known dragon.

Ooooh, good idea! Thank you! * wrings hands together like Mr. Burns *

 

[cthulhu_duck]

You may or may not find the Temeraire series of novels useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temeraire_(series) -

Temeraire is a series of novels by Naomi Novik, comprising His Majesty's Dragon (released as Temeraire in the United Kingdom), Throne of Jade and Black Powder War. The novels are works of both fantasy and alternate history: they are "a reimagining of the epic events of the Napoleonic Wars with an air force— an air force of dragons, manned by crews of aviators".[1]

Happy Holidays!

 

[Wraith Form]

You may or may not find the Temeraire series of novels useful:

Thank you! I'll check it out.

 

[Storyteller01]

Give us some more info on your campaign world. Where do dragons stand in it?

 

[Wraith Form]

Give us some more info on your campaign world. Where do dragons stand in it?

I've "borrowed" the map of the western core of Ravenloft. The land is primarily 16th century France (Richemulot, in the Ravenloft setting) mixed with the tech of the Iron Kingdoms setting. Ultimately, if I like an adventure or a location, I steal it, "tech it up," and slot it into my world.

The players don't know this, but the world USED to be Greyhawk, before it got tossed into the Ravenloft setting. (Long story.) I'm allowing the PHB races, although it's very human-o-centric. I don't tend toward the silly, frivolous stuff (like kobolds on hang gliders or goblin wedding parties that need their bridesmaids retrieved from flumph raiders).

Dragons in my setting, much like IK and Ravenloft, tend to be ultra-rare and very private, having retreated from the encroaching press of civilization and industry. The dragon shamen look at dragons as ideals rather than actively seeking them out to worship them. Some dragon shamen might not even realize that dragons still exist!

In fact, I've even given consideration to the idea that dragon shamen fight each other, covertly, in a vaguely Highlander-like fashion. (See the Dragon entry in the Iron Kingdom's Monsternomicon regarding dragons' tendency to consume each other to absorb the other's power.)