Dragon Shaman {{Please Critque}}

[ngilop]

Dragon Shaman
\n\n\t
[tr]
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Auras Known


[td]1st
+0
+2
+0
+2
Draconic Aura, Totem Dragon
3


2nd
+1
+3
+0
+3
Skill Focus, Energy Resistance
4


3rd
+2
+3
+1
+3
Lesser Draconic Adaptation
4


4th
+3
+4
+1
+4
Breath weapon (15-ft. cone or 30-ft. line), draconic resolve, Draconic Resolve
5


5th
+3
+4
+1
+4
Dragon Touched
5


6th
+4
+5
+2
+5
Draconic Magic
5


7th
+5
+5
+2
+5
Natural Armor+1
6


8th
+6/+1
+6
+2
+6
Skill Focus
6


9th
+6/+1
+6
+3
+6
Energy Immunity, Draconic Wings
6


10th
+7/+2
+7
+3
+7
Draconic Adaptation
6


11th
+8/+3
+7
+3
+7
Frightful Presence
7


12th
+9/+4
+8
+4
+8
Breath weapon (30-ft. cone or 60-ft. line), Natural Armor +2
7


13th
+9/+4
+8
+4
+8
Draconic Ascension
7


14th
+10/+5
+9
+4
+9
Commune With Dragon Spirit
7


15th
+11/+6/+1
+9
+5
+9
Greater Draconic Adaptation
8


16th
+12/+7/+2
+10
+5
+10
Skill Focus
8


17th
+12/+7/+2
+10
+5
+10
Spell Resistance, Natural Armor +3
8


18th
+13/+8/+3
+11
+6
+11
Dual Aura
8


19th
+14/+9/+4
+11
+6
+11

9


20th
+15/+10/+5
+12
+6
+12
Breath weapon (60-ft. cone or 120-ft. line), Dragon Form
9


Alignment: Any; A Dragon Shaman must have an alignment at most one step away from his chosen totem dragon
Hit Die: 1d8

Class Skills:
Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge(nature) (Int), Knowledge(arcana) (Int), Search (Wis)
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dragon Shamans are proficient with simple weapons, with light and medium armor, and with shields (except tower shields).

Bonus Languages: A Dragon Shaman's bonus language options include Draconic.

Class Abilities

Draconic Aura {Su}: You can channel the mighty powers of dragonkind to project an aura that grants you and nearby allies a special benefit.

Projecting an aura is a swift action (see page 4), and you can only project one draconic aura at a time. An aura remains in effect until you use a free action to dismiss it or you activate another aura in its place. You can have a draconic aura active continually; thus, an aura can be in effect at the start of an encounter even before you take your first turn.

Unless otherwise noted, your draconic aura affects all allies within 30 feet (including yourself) with line of effect to you. Your aura is dismissed if you become unconscious or are slain, but otherwise it remains in effect even if you are incapable of acting.

The bonus granted by your aura begins at +1 and increases to +2 at 5th level, +3 at 10th level, +4 at 15th level, and +5 at 20th level. As a 1st-level dragon shaman, you know how to project three auras chosen from the list below, the number of auras known increases as per above table. Each time you activate a draconic aura, you can choose from any of the auras that you know.

Courage:The aura of courage allows the Dragon Shaman and her allies a bonus to saving throws against fear effects equal to aura bonus.

Energy Shield: Any creature striking you or your ally with a natural attack or a nonreach melee weapon is dealt 2 points of energy damage for each point of your aura bonus. The energy type is that of your totem dragon's damage-dealing breath weapon (see below).

Focus: Bonus to Concentration checks and on saves against charm, compulsion, paralysis, and sleep effects equal to aura bonus.

Insight: Bonus to Knowledge, Decipher Script, and Spellcraft checks equalto aura bonus.

Power: Bonus on melee damage rolls equal to twice your aura bonus.

Presence: Bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks equal to your aura bonus.

Resistance: Resistance to your totem dragon's energy type equal to 5 × your aura bonus.

Senses: Bonus on Listen and Spot checks, as well as on initiative checks, equal to your aura bonus.

Stamina: Bonus to Constitution checks and Fortitude checks equal to your aura bonus.

Swiftness: Bonus to Climb, Jump, and Swim checks equal to your aura bonus. In addition 5 times the aura bonus feet to all movement speeds. This does not give you a movement speed if you do not already have it.

Toughness: DR 2/magic for each point of your aura bonus (up to 10/magic at 20th level).

Vigor: Fast healing 1 for each point of your aura bonus, but only affects characters at or below one-half their full normal hit points.

Totem Dragon: You must choose a totem dragon from among the true dragons appearing in the Monster Manual (black, blue, brass, bronze, copper, gold, green, red, silver, or white). You must choose a dragon whose alignment is within one step of yours, as described in the following table. You gain additional class skills and a particular sort of breath weapon based on the dragon you select as your totem.

{table=head]Totem Dragon |Acceptable Alignment |Class Skills| Breath Weapon Energy Type
Black| LE, NE, CE, CN, CG |Hide, Move Silently, Swim |Line of acid
Blue| NE, LE, CE, LG,LN |Bluff, Hide, Spellcraft| Line of electricity
Brass| NG, CG, LG, CE, CN| Bluff, Gather Information, Survival| Line of fire
Bronze| NG, LG, CG, LE, LN| Disguise, Survival, Swim |Line of electricity
Copper |NG, CG, LG, CE, CN| Bluff, Hide, Jump| Line of acid
Gold| NG, LG, CG, LE, LN| Disguise, Heal, Swim| Cone of fire
Green| NE, LE, LN, CE, LG |Bluff, Hide, Move Silently |Cone of acid
Red |NE, CE, LE, CG, CN |Appraise, Bluff, Jump| Cone of fire
Silver| NG, LG, CG, LE,LN |Bluff, Disguise, Jump |Cone of cold
White |NE, CE, CG, LE, CN |Hide, Move Silently, Swim| Cone of cold
[/table]


Skill Focus: At 2nd level, you gain Skill Focus as a bonus feat. You must apply the feat to one of the three class skills granted by your chosen totem dragon. For example, a blue dragon shaman can select Skill Focus (Bluff), Skill Focus (Hide), or Skill Focus (Spellcraft).

At 8th level, and again at 16th level, you gain Skill Focus in another of the class skills granted by your chosen totem dragon. If you already have Skill Focus in all three of the skills associated with your totem dragon, you gain Skill Focus in any other dragon shaman class skill.

Energy Resistance: The Dragon Shaman gains energy Resistance 10 to the energy type assiciated with her totem dragon. This increases to energy resistance 20 at lvl 6

Lesser Draconic Adaptation {Ex or Sp}: At 3rd level, you take on an aspect of your totem dragon. Some adaptations are extraordinary abilities that are always active; others are spell- like abilities that you can activate at will. Spell-like abilities have a caster level equal to your class level and a save DC equal to 10 + spell level + Cha modifier.

Black—Water Breathing {Ex}: You can breathe underwater indefinitely and can freely use spells and other abilities underwater (always active).
Blue— Ventriloquism {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Brass— Endure Elements {Sp}: As the spell, except you can only target yourself (at will).
Bronze—Water Breathing {Ex}: You can breathe underwater indefinitely and can freely use spells and other abilities underwater (always active).
Copper— Spider Climb {Sp}: As the spell, except you can only target yourself (at will).
Gold—Water Breathing {Ex}: You can breathe underwater indefinitely and can freely use spells and other abilities underwater (always active).
Green—Water Breathing {Ex}: You can breathe underwater indefinitely and can freely use spells and other abilities underwater (always active).
Red—Treasure Seeker {Ex}: You gain a +5 competence bonus on Appraise and Search checks (always active).
Silver— Feather Fall {Sp}: As the spell, except you can only target yourself (at will).
White—Icewalker {Ex}: You can walk across icy surfaces without reducing your speed or making Balance checks (always active).

At 13th level, you can choose as a swift action to share the effect of your lesser draconic adaptation with any or all allies within 30 feet. In the case of spell-like abilities, you must make this decision when you activate the ability. The benefit lasts until you spend a free action to rescind it or (if the effect has a limited duration) the effect ends, whichever comes first.

Breath Weapon {Su}: At 4th level, you gain a breath weapon corresponding to your totem dragon. Regardless of the area one affects or the type of energy damage it deals, all breath weapons deal 2d6 points of damage, plus an extra 1d6 points of damage for every two additional class levels (3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 8th level, and so forth). A successful Reflex save halves the damage dealt; the save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 your dragon shaman level + your Con modifier. A Dragon Shaman must wait 2 minutes before she can use her breath weapon again.
Cone-shaped breath weapons extend out to 15 feet at 4th level, increasing to 30 feet at 12th level and to 60 feet at 20th level. Line-shaped breath weapons are 30 feet long at 4th level, increasing to 60 feet at 12th level and to 120 feet at 20th level.

Draconic Resolve {Ex}: At 4th level, you gain immunity to paralysis and sleep effects. You also become immune to the frightful presence of dragons.

Dragon Touched: At 5th level the Dragon Shaman gains Dragontouhced as a bonus feat.

Draconic Magic {Su}: At 6th level a Dragon Shaman is capable of using very limited form of draconic magic. She may as a full-round action, cast any of the following spells as supernatural abilities 3 times per day plus a number of times equal to Charisma modifier with a caster level equal to her dragon shaman class levels: detect poison, detect magic, read magic, dancing lights, flare, light, ghost sound, mending, message, prestidigitation. At 9th Level she gains the ability to cast a 1st level spell 3 times per day, at 12th a 2nd level spell three time per day, at 15th a 3rd level spell three times per day, and at 18th a 4th level spell three times per day. A Dragon Shaman must select spells from the Cleric of Wizard spell list. These spells are considered arcane.

Natural Armor {Ex}: At 7th level, your skin thickens, developing faint scales. Your natural armor bonus improves by 1. At 12th level, this improvement increases to +2, and at 17th level to +3.

Draconic Wings {Ex}: At 9th level, you grow a pair of wings that resemble those of your totem dragon. They allow flight at a speed of 60 feet (good maneuverability). You can even fly while carrying a medium load, though your fly speed drops to 40 feet in this case.

If you already have wings, you can choose whether these draconic wings replace your own.

Energy Immunity {Ex}: At 9th level, you gain immunity to the energy type of the breath weapon of your totem dragon.

Draconic Adaptation {Ex or Sp}: At 10th level, you take on an additional aspect of your totem dragon. These adaptations are spell- like abilities that you can activate at will. Spell-like abilities have a caster level equal to your class level and a save DC equal to 10 + spell level + Cha modifier.

Black—Darkness {SP}: As the spell (at will).
Blue— Destroy/create Water {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Brass— Speak with Animals {Sp}: As the spell, except you can only target yourself (at will).
Bronze—Alter Self {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Copper— Stone Shape {Sp}: As the spell, (at will).
Gold—Alter Self {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Green—Suggestion {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Red—Locate Object{Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Silver— Alter Self {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
White—Fog Cloud {Sp}: As the spell (at will).

Frightful Presence {Ex}: At 12th Level 3 times per day plus a number of times equal to Consititution modifer a Dragon Shaman can project a Frightful Presence in a 60 foot radius that lasts 6 rounds. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 Dragon Shaman levels + Dragon Shaman's Cha modifier) remains immune to frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failure, creatures become panicked for 1d6 rounds and those with 5 or more HD than the Dragon Shaman become shaken for 2d6 rounds. If the Dragon Shaman is in her Dragonform, the DC of Frightful Presence increases by 2.

Draconic Ascension {Ex}: At 13th level the Dragon Shaman takes on the half-dragon template. She gains +4 to Strength and +2 to Charisma. Her natural armor bonus increases by +4, and she acquires low-light vision, and 60-foot darkvision.

Commune with Dragon Spirit {Sp}: At 14th level, you gain the ability to contact your dragon totem directly to ask questions of it. This is the equivalent of casting a commune spell, except that it has no material component, focus, or XP cost and allows only one question per three class levels. After using this ability, you cannot use it again for seven days.

Greater Draconic Adaptation {Ex or Sp}: At 15th level, you take on an aspect of your totem dragon. These adaptations are spell- like abilities that you can activate at will. Spell-like abilities have a caster level equal to your class level and a save DC equal to 10 + spell level + Cha modifier.

Black—Plant Growth {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Blue— Ventriloquism {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Brass— Suggestion {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Bronze—Fog Cloud {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Copper— Transmute rock to mud/Transmute mud to rock {Sp}: As the spell, (at will).
Gold—Aid {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Green—Plant Growth {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Red—Suggestion{Sp}: As the spell (at will).
Silver— Cloud Walking {Sp}: As the spell (at will).
White—Freezing Wind {Sp}: As the spell Gust of wind but also deals 20 cold damage, Fortitude save for half. (at will).

Spell Resistance {Ex}: Beginning at 17th level a Dragon Shaman gains spell resistance to detrimental spells and effects. The SR is equal to 10 + the Dragon Shaman’s level, plus her widsom modifier.

Dual Aura {Su}: At 18th level the Dragon Shaman may project 2 different Auras simultaneously.

Dragonform {Su}: At 20th level the bond between a Dragon Shaman and her totem dragon is so strong, she can actually take the form of a dragon. The Dragon Shaman becomes a dragon of her totem dragon type, increasing her size my one category. Gaining the following abilities: a +8 size bonus to Strength, a +6 size bonus to Constitution, a +6 natural armor bonus, blindsense 60 feet, she also gains one bite (2d6), two claws (1d8), two wing attacks (1d6), and one tail slap attack (1d8). This ability last for 1 minute for every 2 Dragon Shaman levels, and must be used in 1 minute increments.

[ngilop]

Hey everybody.

I made this class because once upon a time somebody posted a thread asking what 'tier'3 version of a class would you like to see (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=322941). AWW YEAH I FOUND IT A WEEK LATER

my thought was ' ive never seen a dragon shaman re-work.

so here I am trying my best. I really do not know the full short commings of the dragon shaman class.

I just know what I envision when I think of a dragon shaman.

Why did it take 19 levels for the poor dragon shaman to fly.. why don't he get the half dragon template.

what the heck is up with that kay on hands rip-off..?

SO i changed some things around, breathe attack is supposed to be the realm of the dragon breatyhe adept guy, so I made teh dragon shamans breathe a bit more powerful, but put a longer cooldown period.
I see the dragon shaman as a more supportaive class, I increased the number of Auras ( still thinking i could make another 3 or 5 ) and increased the number known.

ALso i said why stop at half dragon Self?
well Ngilop.. lets go all the way!!

so POW capstone dragon shaman can be a dragon.. for a limited time :)

as alwasy im up for suggestions, constructive criticism and of course proof reading :)

[Mighty_Chicken]

Wow, I'm impressed. From level 10 onward the class gets really cool. You did a good job with levels 1-10, but the class looks much more interesting at the highest levels... not sure what I'd advice to fix it.

My remarks on this and that:

Skill points: ok.

Draconic Aura: the new auras were a good idea. I think Swiftness needs some tweaking - compare it to Insight and Senses. Swiftness is much more powerful. Also movement bonuses already increase Jump checks... I think that enhancing movement alone would justify an aura, and maybe even one with a level prerequisite.

Also, you increased the raw power of two auras - why them, why not the others? Or why increasing it at all? I'm skeptic about your decision here, but I'm willing to think more about it.

Alignment: What's in the table isn't one step or two steps away from the dragon's alignment - it's two leaps away! Not complaining, you just need to edit the Alignment entry.

Energy Resistance: Niiice touch! And damn early, too, but I'm totally for it. Just one thing, though: all the Shaman's most powerful abilities are passive. Both in vanilla and in your fix. Supportive doesn't need to be passive.

Breath Weapon: Extra damage: I'm ok with it. However, maybe you should rethink... isn't the Shaman stepping on other classes' toes here? Is damage dealing its role?

And 4 minutes? This is almost the same as once per encounter! Even a 1 minute cooldown would be a huge nerf.


Dragontouched: Nice... touch :smallcool:


Draconic Magic: Good idea, but why not just go at-will with the cantrips? It's a big list of "three times per day" spells...

And why take away touch of vitality? I don't think it would be unbalanced to have both. Your feature here gives a little, and just a little, of utility - it's almost flavor text. I say, either enhance Draconic Magic, or bring touch of vitality back, or both...

Draconic Wings: yes! Here's where things start getting reeaally interesting. Congrats.

Draconic adaptation: Great idea. Two extra adaptations really help to make the chosen dragon type more relevant. Also, utility!

Frightful Presence: I like the intention here. But first let me criticize it's execution.

First, 3+Con bonus a day, ok. For 6 rounds? Why six? There must be a more elegant equation for this. Why not 3 times per day for Con mod rounds? 3+Con mod times per day for Cha mod rounds? For half level rounds? IMHO an arbitrary number makes things more difficult.

Second, dragons cause panic to any creature bellow 5 dice and shake any creature with 5 hit dice or more. Real dragons do not panick creatures who have as much HD as them! Your Shaman's presence is more powerful than the original ability from the Dragon.

I don't think it needs to escalate. The monster's ability doesn't escalate - actually, it just shakens everyone who has a chance to kill it. Come on: the ability to cause panic to creatures with 4 HD is almost flavor - young adult dragons, the first to receive this ability, have 16 HD...

I think Shamans would be pretty fine with a Presence equal to dragons.

Also, maybe it would work better as an aura?

Ascension: Good. One of the best changes. I just think it's too... numerical. But that's not too important.

Spell Resistance: Thank you.

Dual Aura: Great, the class should definitively have it. But it really needed to be that late? Maybe it could come earlier, but you'd have to divide the auras bonuses. For example, if you have Draconic Aura +3, you could activate Courage+1 and Energy Shield +2. Then, in 18th level (or a little earlier), you could have two auras working at full.


Dead Level: Think of something funny. Becoming an ally of important dragons? Aging like a dragon? Becoming a blood relative of a black dragon?


Dragon Form: Good capstone. Sounds great in my mind. Needs clarification. It "lasts" for 10 minutes, but can I use it 1 time or 10 times a day?

Also the option of becoming a Huge dragon wouldn't be unbalanced at 20th level... maybe an epic feat could allow it? Because right now I feel that Dragon Form basically just boosts your stats, something that allowed a slight gameplay change would be nice.


****

My general opinion on your fix is: I'm not sure about power, it's probably more useful than a Tier 4 class now; but the main thing people complain about vanilla Dragon Shaman is its excess of passivity. Its main ability is to make a difference by standing there doing nothing. Your fix makes the class much stronger, but not much less passive.

Sorry if I'm missing something but the non-passive abilities you added are: earlier Wings, Frightful Presence, two extra adaptations, Dual Aura, Dragon Form. Hey, I agree, that's a lot of cool active stuff. But from levels 1-8 you added no new active ability. And most campaigns don't ever go beyond 8th level. So my veredict is positive, you did a good job, but you didn't fix the most important problem with the Dragon Shaman, which is, not being fun enough to play with.

Hope this helped!

[ngilop]

To me the class is supposed to be mostly passive. It a front line support class

The alignment one step is completly one step for example; a Red Dragon totem dragon shaman can be any Chaotic or any Evil, since Red Dragons are Chaotic Evil. Just one step away from chaotic evil means you can be neutral evil, lawful evil, chaotic neutral, chaotic good, and lastly of course chaotic evil

I guess I can make breath weapon be once per encounter.. i just didn't want the dragon shaman stepping on the dragon fire adpets' toes.

Touch of vitaltiy makes no sense at all to me, leave the laying of the hands to the paladin.

If i made the Dragon Shamans frightful presnece the same as a regular dragon's nothing would ever be affected, becasue nothing you go aganst (cept classed NPCs) have the same amount or less HD than you do as a PC.

Dragonform last for a total of 10 minutes, which must be spent in 1 minute increments.

SO you can go dragon for 1 minute then 3 hous later go dragon for 6 minutes, and right before bedtime dragon it up for 3 minutes.

I think the dragon shaman is more for the player who wants to be group support but still contribute by himself not just stand still the whole game.

Yeah sometimes I just don't know why WoTC don't go far enough with classes that aren't about casting spells as their main focus. that why I gave 3 differn progressions for draconic adaptation. now the dragon shaman can do neat-o things.

plus he can use his spells gain from draconic magic to fuel the dragontouched feats

[Mighty_Chicken]

Just let me copy paste Frightful Presence from SRD:


Frightful Presence (Ex)
A young adult or older dragon can unsettle foes with its mere presence. The ability takes effect automatically whenever the dragon attacks, charges, or flies overhead. Creatures within a radius of 30 feet × the dragon’s age category are subject to the effect if they have fewer HD than the dragon. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ dragon’s HD + dragon’s Cha modifier) remains immune to that dragon’s frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failure, creatures with 4 or less HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with 5 or more HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds. Dragons ignore the frightful presence of other dragons.

It doesn't escalate with the dragon's HD. Actually, it never panics anyone except NPC peasants. The description about creatures getting panicked is flavor text, it's never gonna happen in a game. What the dragon's Presence does is making both more powerful and less powerful enemies shaken.


On alignment:


The alignment one step is completly one step for example; a Red Dragon totem dragon shaman can be any Chaotic or any Evil, since Red Dragons are Chaotic Evil. Just one step away from chaotic evil means you can be neutral evil, lawful evil, chaotic neutral, chaotic good, and lastly of course chaotic evil.

That's not what one step means, but let's not argue over semantics. Your rule is fair enough.

Touch of vitality really makes no sense, lol - I mean, not for all dragons, but it would do for Gold dragons, for example. But Draconic Magic is all utility - why not have a buff/debuff/healing ability depending on your totem?

[Blue_C.]

RE: Touch of Vitality, I think the intent for this class, and this ability, was that Dragon Shaman would be a warlockish buff/leader class, and part of that role is being able to heal up the rest of the party. Not just raw health, but status effects. Actually, status effects are probably more important in a world that has wands of cure light wounds.

While that intent was laudable, why they decided to make such a class dragon themed is much sillier. PHB2 came out during Wizard's themed "Year of the Dragon," which included Races of the Dragon and Dragon Magic. Personally, I'd have set it up as either planar or nature themed, particularly with Dragonfire adapt coming out only a couple months later, but whatever. It was certainly different.

With Dragon magic I second the motion for at-will cantrips. With Pathfinder, most spellcasters have at-will cantrips or orisons, and have a lot more options per day than this class. It wouldn't be game breaking for this class to have them all as supernatural abilities without it grossly affecting their power level at the level they get them. If you'd rather dial it back a bit, make them spell-like abilities when they first get them, and maybe make their 19th level class feature a conversion to supernatural. For the rest of the spells, you should probably specify what spell list they get to pick from. *I'd* choose cleric, but Sor/Wiz would certainly fit this version's draconic theme better.

[Blue_C.]

I guess I can make breath weapon be once per encounter.. i just didn't want the dragon shaman stepping on the dragon fire adpets' toes.

Yeah sometimes I just don't know why WoTC don't go far enough with classes that aren't about casting spells as their main focus. that why I gave 3 differn progressions for draconic adaptation. now the dragon shaman can do neat-o things.


Truncated your reply to get at the important bits.

In reverse order, you absolutely succeeded at your goal to get the dragon shaman neat things to do. Really, great job, especially with Dragon Magic. I was ambivalent about the change from Touch of Vitality to Dragon Magic, but after thinking about as I typed the last reply, you've won me over. From a design standpoint, I could see why touch of vitality was there, but even I'll admit it never fit with theme. If you added Use Magical Device as a baseline skill, I'd have no qualms whatsoever.

Perhaps instead of a breath weapon as a class feature (they'll get one anyways once they become half-dragon), maybe a burst of elemental damage on weapon strikes? Maybe scale the damage back down to d6s (or even d4s), make it activate as a swift action that affects all your first successful attack that round, but once used you have to wait 1d4 rounds before using it again. At 12th and again at 20th level, they gain the ability to affect an additional attack in the round they use it. That way they keep a lot of the damage of the original ability, but it better suits their role as melee combatants instead of the Dragonfire Adept's ranged schtick.

Edit: oops, found a typo. Corrected.

[ngilop]

Oh.. I like the idea of adding elemtal damage to weapon attacks. I think thats awesome!

I can fajiggle draconic magic to be better :) at will is a bit too much for me though

[Blue_C.]

It's fine as is. As Mighty_Chicken said, it's mostly a flavor ability at first. I'll admit, I had misunderstood your intent, and thought this was a PF rewrite. In the pathfinder system, cantrips are at-will by default. For 3.5, 3/day your choice of any of those spells, and cast as a supernatural ability, seems pretty good.

[ngilop]

Woo i found the thread that prmpted me to make this re-tool :)!!! (Its now in the second post)

i think i just went up a level:smallamused:

[XionUnborn01]

Overall I think the class is fine. Nothing amazing but it's a good enough class. I have a few nitpicks though.

Totem Weapons: Going from 1d4 to 1d8 over 16 levels might as well not happen. The average damage bonus at 4th level is 2.5, and at 20th level it's 4.5 damage. It's energy damage, why not at least have it go from 1d4 to 3d4 at least. If I were to make this class, I'd want it to be at least 1d6 to start though.

Natural Armor: In the same vein of totem weapons, this just doesn't make a difference. +3 AC at 20th level is basically nothing, even the monk gets +5. This is natural armor so it's ignored probably 25% of the time when you get higher level, so give them a number that they'll notice.

[ngilop]

LOl relaized that i had 1st instead fo auras known in the table heading.. can't blevie i didn't pick up on that earlier /facepalm

I know the damage is low for totem weapons but it stacks with other elemtal enchantsments

and natural armor.. rembmer they do get a +4 bonus when the hit 10th level and go half dragon. so really they get a nice +7 to natural armor and unlike the monk, can wear armor.

[Blue_C.]

This is what I had in mind when I made my suggestion:

Totem Weapon (Su) At 4th level, a dragon shaman gains the ability to sheathe her weapons with the energy of her totem dragon. As a swift action, she can fill a weapon that she wields with energy, which on the first successful attack with that weapon strikes her enemy for 2d6 damage. This damage increases by +1d6 every two levels, to a maximum of +9d6 at 20th level.
At 12th level, and again at 20th level, she gains additional charges when she uses this ability. At 12th level, the first two successful attacks she makes using a charged weapon gain the extra damage. At 20th level, the first three successful attacks gain the damage.
Like her totem dragon's breath weapon, a dragon shaman must wait 1d4 rounds after charging her weapon before charging a weapon again. When she uses this ability, if any charges remain on any weapon from previous uses of this ability, they are lost.
Only the dragon shaman herself can use the energy this way. If any other character attempts to use a weapon the dragon shaman has charged, the charges are expended without effect.



At first glance, this might seem OP. But, compare it to Sneak attack. It does the exact same damage, and unlike the charge/cooldown system I outline for the Dragon shaman, a similarly leveled rogue can do this every attack on every round, provided she is positioned properly. Which means with a high enough attack she can do two sneak attacks per round at 8th and 3 at 15th, ages before Totem weapon chimes in with its extra attacks.

On the other hand, unlike sneak attack, this ability doesn't rely on positioning or precision, just a willingness to attack her enemies and a hope that those enemies aren't resistant or immune to her chosen energy damage.

Also, compare this ability to the breath weapon of the original dragon shaman. It again does the exact same damage, of the same type even, but unlike the previous ability trades a Reflex save for AC, and is not an AOE. Which is why I felt it could be allowed to happen more often. In fact, I may be overly conservative. 90 damage every other round (or thereabouts) at 20th level isn't exactly the stuff of legends.

[Mighty_Chicken]

Indeed - Totem Weapon instead of the usual Breath Weapon is a nerf, rather than a buff. Take notice guys, Draconic Ascencion description says nothing about getting a breath weapon.

Remember you're trying to get it to Tier 3. If you like your d4/d6/d8 version better, I think having it as an at-will swift action would be slightly more powerful than what you have right now, and it would be much simpler, specially for the DM, than the 6 rounds restriction.

A detail about Draconic Magic - you probably forgot to say that though they're arcane, they suffer from no spell failure chance due to armor. Right?

[ngilop]

Ok i playtested the last version of dragon shaman. and its a litle much with the gaining of a lot of nautral AC d10 HP and being a dragon (eventually) it put a bigger gap between it and the figher and marshal than I had wanted.

I worked a few things and decided that since i kinda rolled the dragonfireadpet and warlock into one class, that giving the dragon shaman back his breathe weapon back, and lowered his HD to a d8 ( which while only being an average fo 20 HP down at lvl 20 from before) i know some people on GiTP think that anything below a d10 is glass canon.

but for me the dragon shaman is suppose to be a support and semi jack of all trades class. able to cast some spells and get in the thick of fighting as well.

[Dragodar]

Forgive my seemingly shameless advertising of my own work, but I thought perhaps you would like to take a look at the Dragon Shaman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?324417-3-5e-Base-Class-Dragon-Shaman-2-0) I whipped up a while ago.