Dragon Shaman
- Thread starter Shadeydm
- Start date
Engilbrand
First Post
My group has used it extensively recently for Gestalt games. By itself, it's still pretty nifty. I played one with a casual attitude who just took whatever came his way and laughed it off. I had 3 Immovable Rods. When he fell into a pit that started to fill with water, he laughed and used them to climb to the top of the pit. He then turned the Rods into a chair and casually tried to break the covering. He didn't need to care about the water that was coming in. It couldn't have killed him. I just find the class to be incredibly nifty. It's ok when it comes to combat, but it has a lot of flavorful options. Options are the key.
James McMurray
First Post
Our group started at 7th and is 8th now. The Dragon Shaman in the party has been really useful. The Energy Ward and Fast Healing auras are amazing, and his double lay on hands is really useful too.
He doesn't do a lot of damage, though, so if you don't like being a support character I wouldn't recommend it.
He doesn't do a lot of damage, though, so if you don't like being a support character I wouldn't recommend it.
starwed
First Post
They absolutely don't replace a cleric; going into each battle at half health isn't fun at all, and a lack of healing in combat is also bad.
The easiest role to fill is that of the tank; concentrate on defense and a high Constitution, and let your breath weapon make up for a lack of other offensive options while you stand at the front-line.
The feat which lets you add Con to will saves becomes a nice choice, and don't forget metabreath feats, many of which use Con as a prerequisite. (There's one which shortens the cool-down period by 1 round, which is probably worth it.)
The easiest role to fill is that of the tank; concentrate on defense and a high Constitution, and let your breath weapon make up for a lack of other offensive options while you stand at the front-line.
The feat which lets you add Con to will saves becomes a nice choice, and don't forget metabreath feats, many of which use Con as a prerequisite. (There's one which shortens the cool-down period by 1 round, which is probably worth it.)
lukelightning
First Post
starwed said:
Don't forget that DSs get a healing pool, and can even counter things like ability damage with it at higher levels.
evilbob
Adventurer
We've had a dragon shaman in our group for over 8 levels now, and the class certainly has its own flavor.
First: forget any hope of ever doing damage. This is not what the class is about. The breath effect is there for kicks, but it will never do significant damage and the 1d4 rounds/use limits it even further. (The main time its useful is when you're fighting things that don't have evasion or immunity to your breath, but are hard to hit normally.) Plus, you get a 3/4ths BAB and no cleric buffs to boost you, so you'll never hit very often and won't do much damage when you do. Bards will out DPS you.
However, you make an incredible meat shield. With tons of Con, a d10 hit die (wow) and full armor and shield (our shaman even took shield-AC-boosting feats) nothing will ever hit you and if it does you'll never go down. This is really important because the entire party will be relying on you to stay conscious for your primary function, which is:
No one will (almost) ever die with a dragon shaman in the party. The healing aura IS the class; that's the best ability they get and they can take it at level one. You'll keep it on 90% of the time at low levels, and it is great for keeping folks from bleeding to death. It also helps fallen folks jump back into the fray. And as for starting each battle at half health - that's actually quite AMAZING. No cleric can keep up with you for healing, because you will never run out of healing aura. Add to that your lay-on-hands ability to top folks off, and you'll heal even better than a cleric out-of-battle (and not too bad in-battle). (Although others are right: you are not a cleric.)
Later your other auras get better, too. The +damage one is nice, and makes you more like a bard in some ways - except, again, bards have a limited (although high) number of times per day they can sing. The bonus to init checks is a GREAT aura to leave on while you're not healing; everyone starts every battle just a little better off.
Overall, the dragon shaman is like a cross between a bard and a cleric, except more useful than most hybrids of the two because they never run out of their abilities. I will underscore again, however, those who have said that this is a support character. Do not believe you'll be turning the tide with DPS - your job is to keep everyone up and ahead of the game.
All that said: the most important thing you can do if you're going to play a dragon shaman is to go out and buy Dragon Magic. That book has TONS of goodies for shaman, and it will help boost and round out your character tremendously. In particular, there's a level 12 feat that allows you to turn on two auras at once - this is spectacular.
First: forget any hope of ever doing damage. This is not what the class is about. The breath effect is there for kicks, but it will never do significant damage and the 1d4 rounds/use limits it even further. (The main time its useful is when you're fighting things that don't have evasion or immunity to your breath, but are hard to hit normally.) Plus, you get a 3/4ths BAB and no cleric buffs to boost you, so you'll never hit very often and won't do much damage when you do. Bards will out DPS you.
However, you make an incredible meat shield. With tons of Con, a d10 hit die (wow) and full armor and shield (our shaman even took shield-AC-boosting feats) nothing will ever hit you and if it does you'll never go down. This is really important because the entire party will be relying on you to stay conscious for your primary function, which is:
No one will (almost) ever die with a dragon shaman in the party. The healing aura IS the class; that's the best ability they get and they can take it at level one. You'll keep it on 90% of the time at low levels, and it is great for keeping folks from bleeding to death. It also helps fallen folks jump back into the fray. And as for starting each battle at half health - that's actually quite AMAZING. No cleric can keep up with you for healing, because you will never run out of healing aura. Add to that your lay-on-hands ability to top folks off, and you'll heal even better than a cleric out-of-battle (and not too bad in-battle). (Although others are right: you are not a cleric.)
Later your other auras get better, too. The +damage one is nice, and makes you more like a bard in some ways - except, again, bards have a limited (although high) number of times per day they can sing. The bonus to init checks is a GREAT aura to leave on while you're not healing; everyone starts every battle just a little better off.
Overall, the dragon shaman is like a cross between a bard and a cleric, except more useful than most hybrids of the two because they never run out of their abilities. I will underscore again, however, those who have said that this is a support character. Do not believe you'll be turning the tide with DPS - your job is to keep everyone up and ahead of the game.
All that said: the most important thing you can do if you're going to play a dragon shaman is to go out and buy Dragon Magic. That book has TONS of goodies for shaman, and it will help boost and round out your character tremendously. In particular, there's a level 12 feat that allows you to turn on two auras at once - this is spectacular.
James McMurray
First Post
starwed said:
I have to disagree on this. The Shaman's breath weapon is way too weak to waste any feats on. With very low damage for his level and a low save DC it's good for spreading a little damage around every now and then but not good enough to focus on.
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
I mostly agree with this. The one exception is Entangling Breath, which is a HUGE bonus to your allies.James McMurray said:
-blarg
James McMurray
First Post
Which one is that?
MarkB
Legend
Entangling Exhalation is a breath channeling feat from Races of the Dragon. It requires a dragon blooded character (kobolds do nicely) and causes your breath weapon to deal half damage, but entangle each creature it damages.James McMurray said:
One neat feature of using this feat with a Dragon Shaman is that your breath weapon will, on average, do less damage once halved than your Energy Resistance aura provides protection against, so with this feat you can breathe into melee and stand a very good chance of entangling all your opponents while leaving allies in the area unharmed.
