Can Dragons take Dragon Shaman auras?

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Can a Dragon possibly take a Dragon Shaman aura? Is there a feat for that, or an alternate racial feature of some kind?

And where can I find the rules for Dragon cohorts?
You'll have guessed it: I want to take Leadership and get a Wyrmling of some kind as a team mascot type of character. But to avoid making it entirely useless, I'd like to try to give it the Dragon Shaman aura that gives fast healing one to reduce party expenses.

And would that sort of cohort gain XP? The last time I ever had a dragon cohort I was still playing 3.0, and it's specified in the 3.0 DMG that Dragon cohorts don't gain XP. Is there a similar rule in 3.5?

[Grod_The_Giant]

You're looking for Dragon Cohort in the Draconomicon, and Draconic Aura in Dragon Magic. The former grants you a cohort that...doesn't really explain how it advances, though we know from Leadership that cohorts don't gain xp. Presumably you'd get a Very Young or Wyrmling dragon when you first take the feat, then have it grow to the next size category when your Leadership score gets high enough. The latter grants access to a set of scaling auras that are similar to Dragon Shaman ones, though sadly not the healing aura.

[Malimar]

Dragons, like everyone else, can take the Draconic Aura feat from Dragon Magic, which can give them the Aura of Vigor, yes.

The default rules for cohort XP are in the SRD under the Leadership feat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#leadership) and in the DMG in the allies section. Cohorts don't take a share of party XP. They gain XP based on how much the character they're affiliated with gains XP, at a rate of ( ( their level / master level ) x master XP gain ).

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Wait, so arguably any PC at level 3 can take a feat and get free fast healing 1 if under half HP?
That's insanely good! I'll probably be taking it on all my sorcerers now :)

Sadly this does make my idea for a Draconic cohort rather redundant...
And reading the Draconic Cohort feat, it really just seems like it's not necessary. It really just allows you to take a more powerful cohort than you could with just Leadership, right?
On the other hand, it doesn't require Leadership at all to get apparently. So that way I won't have to deal with followers...

[Grod_The_Giant]

Wait, so arguably any PC at level 3 can take a feat and get free fast healing 1 if under half HP?
That's insanely good! I'll probably be taking it on all my sorcerers now :)
Unclear-- the feat points to to page 86, which lists 10 auras not including Toughness. Dragon Shamans may take any of them in place of one of their class-based auras, but it's not clear if you can use the feat to pick a Dragon Shaman aura. I'm inclined to say "no," though.

[Malimar]

Unclear-- the feat points to to page 86, which lists 10 auras not including Toughness Vigor. Dragon Shamans may take any of them in place of one of their class-based auras, but it's not clear if you can use the feat to pick a Dragon Shaman aura. I'm inclined to say "no," though.
...Huh. This appears to be correct. It says "pick a draconic aura (see page 86)", not "pick any draconic aura", which would more clearly include the ones in PHB2.


Wait, so arguably any PC at level 3 can take a feat and get free fast healing 1 if under half HP?
That's insanely good! I'll probably be taking it on all my sorcerers now :)
If it works, then even worse better is having your psicrystal, familiar, animal companion, or special mount take it (depending on your DM's interpretation of whether each of those gets feats). Then you don't even have to spend one of your feats on it.

[The Viscount]

True dragons can also gain auras by exchanging a spell slot for an aura. The exact details are on page 86 of Dragon Magic.

[Jowgen]

...Huh. This appears to be correct. It says "pick a draconic aura (see page 86)", not "pick any draconic aura", which would more clearly include the ones in PHB2.

On the other hand, page 86 itself does not actually contain the list of Draconic auras. That starts on 87. What page 86 does have is an entry on Dragon Shamans, making reference to the auras from PHBII and establishing their interchangeability for Dragon Shamans. So one can argue that by telling you to see page 86, and page 86 talking about PHBII auras, that they're fair game.

Personally, I think either ruling is equally fine, likely and correct.

[Nifft]

Since we're talking about Dragon Magic page 86... in answer to the original question: yes a True Dragon can take a Draconic Aura without needing to spend a feat. Instead, the Dragon loses one Sorcerer spell slot and one Sorcerer spell known.

The rules are on page 86, in the right-hand column.


This seems like a bad trade for a PC, but might be cool for a BBEG Dragon-boss with minions.

[Fouredged Sword]

Since we're talking about Dragon Magic page 86... in answer to the original question: yes a True Dragon can take a Draconic Aura without needing to spend a feat. Instead, the Dragon loses one Sorcerer spell slot and one Sorcerer spell known.

The rules are on page 86, in the right-hand column.


This seems like a bad trade for a PC, but might be cool for a BBEG Dragon-boss with minions.

Bad trade for a low level dragon, but a great wyrm with a few rune staffs starts looking at those 1st level spells as not all that useful. He has a lot of hp even at half hp.

[Nifft]

Bad trade for a low level dragon, but a great wyrm with a few rune staffs starts looking at those 1st level spells as not all that useful. He has a lot of hp even at half hp.

2nd minimum.

Aura strength is HALF spell level.

[TalonOfAnathrax]

At low level, trading spells for auras allows a Dragon to actually heal itself without using some of its precious treasure. And obviously, there will be Dragons stingy enough to try this.

[Lazymancer]

You'll have guessed it: I want to take Leadership and get a Wyrmling of some kind as a team mascot type of character.
Take Pseudodragon (ECL 1 with Dragon Cohort), advance it as a Dragonfire Adept, and grab Draconic Aura feat.

[Mr Adventurer]

Take Pseudodragon (ECL 1 with Dragon Cohort), advance it as a Dragonfire Adept, and grab Draconic Aura feat.

This is an amazing idea. A proper tiny dragon buddy!

Who you could potentially have change shape into any humanoid!