Dragon Shaman

[blargney the second]

Sorry, I got the name wrong: it's Entangling Exhalation from Races of the Dragon p101. You can choose to do half damage with your breath weapon, and any foes that take damage are entangled and take 1d6 damage for 1d4 rounds. It's a doozy of a condition to impose on enemies!

Edit: MarkB beat me to it.

 

[James McMurray]

Nice. Haven't read Races of the Dragon, which explains why I missed it.

 

[Victim]

If you routinely use low level wands for out of combat healing, then the dragon shaman's fast healing aura doesn't seem nearly so special. It's surprisingly cheap to buy or make hundreds of HP worth of healing that many characters can use. You don't really need infinite healing, since plentiful is basically enough.

 

[James McMurray]

Stabiling automatically is a huge plus.

 

[gnfnrf]

I DM a game with a Dragon Shaman 11/Barbarian 1, and play in a game that until last seesion had a Dragon Shaman 9.

Observations I have made are as follows.

-Dragon Shamans are HARD to kill. Good HD, encouraged to have a good con, and utterly demoralizing healing abilities. Our DS (in the game I play in) was kidnapped by a greater barghast and mauled for several rounds, fighting back all the while. It looked like the barghast would win the hp chase until she healed herself of 64 points of damage in one fell swoop.

-Auras are powerful, but not overwhelming. It really helps to have cards or some kind of indicator on the table to remember what aura is up. Power is less useful than it initially appeared, and energy shield is more useful. Vigor is helpful, but not useful as the only source of healing.

-The breath weapon is good damage for its level (behind an eldrich blast by one level) as long as you can hit more than one foe (to make up for the save). 30 ft lines seem easier to aim than 15 ft cones.


Overall, I'd say the class is a pretty good compromise secondary fighter/healer type. The important thing to consider is what you will actually do in combat, other than offer an aura. (One guy rages and hits things, the other fought with a spiked chain from a mount.)

--
gnfnrf

 

[Mistwell]

You may find these two threads useful

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=639105

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=739761

 

[satori01]

In my secondary campaign on of my players is playing one. I like the class, I might like the class more than the player, probably because I see the total effect the class has.

Like the Bard, the larger the group, the more effective the class is. With strategic positioning the Dragon Shaman in my group has done 16 points of damage at 3rd level from the Aura that deals Energy Damage alone, before he takes his attack action.

Likewise being able to switch Auras as a free action, very well means he might deal the damage and then switch to the Vigor Aura on his round to stabilize a comrade, and still be able to make an attack. The Power Aura stacks with Inspire Courage from a Bard, so this group is often walking around w/ a +1/+2 damage at 3rd level, and possibly more if the Bard is twinking her Inspire Courage.

The Aura of Vigor should be self explanatory to most. Those that say that being able to make wands mitigates the healing power of the aura are missing the point. If you have a Dragon Shaman in your group, you can cut down on the cure wands, and spend the money on other types of wands/ items. Likewise the class also lets your cleric use their spell slots for other spells, as a good portion of healing after the battle will be complete.
My own group has no healer, but between a Dragon Shaman and Bard, and potions has been all right.

The Dragon Shaman also can perform quite a few different roles as well, skill wise, depending on the Totem Dragon. A Black Dragon Shaman could for example qualify for the Assassin PrC. Moreover the special abilities of the Dragon Shaman are fairly interesting. The one in my secondary campaign is a Green Dragon Shaman, and thus he has Water Breathing, pretty useful for a Savage Tide Campaign. At higher levels he will share that with the group. Even in medium armor this Dragon Shaman is pretty sneaky, due to the free Skill: Focus Move Silently feat.

The breath weapons are nice, especially when combined with the Metabreath Weapon Feats from Draconomicon. If you get yourself the Dragonblooded racial type the fun can really start.

Overall, a pretty good Front Line Character. The class seems worthy to take until the end, but is useful enough at any level to dip into.

2 Thumbs up.

 

[Darklone]

At low levels in combats, I wouldn't use the Fast Healing aura but the DR aura... much better IMX but I admit it depends on the choice of opponents.

That single level barbarian build is extremely promising. He only needs Extra Rage and perhaps Weapon Focus and a high strength, and he will be a good damagedealer for the first 15 levels.

 

[evilbob]

There are some good ideas and observations in this thread - I second satori01 and gnfnrf.

Another thing to mention: Heavy Armor Proficiency. None of your abilities are dex-based or require a certain type of armor, so why not go for a low dex and full plate for even more front-line goodness?

The 1 level of barbarian dip is really an interesting idea, and seems like it would make it possible to actually do damage... (How odd!)

In the threads Mistwell linked, some folks talked about getting breath-weapon-enhancing feats... Personally, I see this as a waste, since your breath weapon will never be that useful unless you burn almost every feat you have on it.

 

[Machiavelli]

...untrue, evilbob. Your breath weapon's DAMAGE will be useless unless you focus on it (which will make it only mediocre). The Metabreath feats are very nice for battlefield control, and the extra damage is just gravy. Blargney and MarkB have the truth of it, but check out those other threads Mistwell posted for more info.