Are Dragon Shamans Good? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Are Dragon Shamans Good? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
PolishNinja01
04-30-07, 08:40 PM Are Dragon Shamns good, or is it better to pick a class and go into dragon disciple?

Also, would they be better if you had the Draconomicon book or Dragon Magic? Also what do those 2 books offer?

Thanks in advance.:)
Sleepwalker13666
04-30-07, 08:48 PM Dragon Shamans are good support characters, though they do not replace clerics or spellslingers.
Draconomicon doesn't have anything directly related to dragon shamans, but some of the meta-breath feats may prove useful to you. Dragon Magic does have new auras specificly for Dragon Shamans (Marshals may take them as major auras as well) plus they have a new class called the dragonfire adept which has it's own breath weapon attacks and invocations, but not the auras if I recall.
In one of the Gestalt games I ran a player was a Dragon Shaman/Dragonfire Adept and thanks to the healing aura of the dragon shaman the party was able to survive many fights they may not have otherwise been able to.
Anguish2
04-30-07, 08:58 PM Sleepwalker is telling it as it is. I personally really enjoy including Dragon Shaman in many of my builds (most of which are gestalt). The DS isn't an oomph-y class though. Most of what they do is BE in the battle. You won't change auras very often in combat, and most of your other abilities are fairly situation-specific, so most battles will look like "barf, swing/shoot, swing/shoot, barf, swing/shoot, swing/shoot, barf".

Energy barf is fun, I grant, but it's not the uber goodness it might seem.

Currently I have a Dragon Shaman/Sorcerer, who is pretty darn fun to play. The aura offers the party more survivability while he does the arcane nasty. A good gestalt.

Bottom line is that DS is a really great gestalt option, or a fifth party member, much like the bard is, only... more... "manly".
Munchmausen
05-01-07, 10:27 AM Dragon Magic also includes the hard-to-miss feat wherein you can use two auras simultaneously.
Grand Theft Otto
05-01-07, 10:47 AM Decent at low levels, they kind of suck at higher levels. Their auras need to scale better and they could use some more bonus feats. Dual Aura and Meta Breath feats are a must IMO for the dragon shaman.
Chimaera2000
05-02-07, 04:09 PM I personally like the dragon shaman a lot, but wouldn't want to play one in a high-level game; neither the aura benefits nor the breath weapon damage scale very well at these levels. One level is excellent for grabbing the Vigor aura and possibly some proficiencies, however.

If you like dragon-themed classes, you may like the dragonfire adept base class from Dragon Magic. It allows you to use a breath weapon at will (not every 1d4 rounds!), and gives good Fortitude and Will saves alongside some excellent invocations like one that gives you identify (with no material components) and detect magic at will or another that gives you +6 on all Knowledge and Spellcraft checks and the ability to use them all untrained.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
PolishNinja01 04-30-07, 08:40 PM	Are Dragon Shamns good, or is it better to pick a class and go into dragon disciple? Also, would they be better if you had the Draconomicon book or Dragon Magic? Also what do those 2 books offer? Thanks in advance.:)
Sleepwalker13666 04-30-07, 08:48 PM	Dragon Shamans are good support characters, though they do not replace clerics or spellslingers. Draconomicon doesn't have anything directly related to dragon shamans, but some of the meta-breath feats may prove useful to you. Dragon Magic does have new auras specificly for Dragon Shamans (Marshals may take them as major auras as well) plus they have a new class called the dragonfire adept which has it's own breath weapon attacks and invocations, but not the auras if I recall. In one of the Gestalt games I ran a player was a Dragon Shaman/Dragonfire Adept and thanks to the healing aura of the dragon shaman the party was able to survive many fights they may not have otherwise been able to.
Anguish2 04-30-07, 08:58 PM	Sleepwalker is telling it as it is. I personally really enjoy including Dragon Shaman in many of my builds (most of which are gestalt). The DS isn't an oomph-y class though. Most of what they do is BE in the battle. You won't change auras very often in combat, and most of your other abilities are fairly situation-specific, so most battles will look like "barf, swing/shoot, swing/shoot, barf, swing/shoot, swing/shoot, barf". Energy barf is fun, I grant, but it's not the uber goodness it might seem. Currently I have a Dragon Shaman/Sorcerer, who is pretty darn fun to play. The aura offers the party more survivability while he does the arcane nasty. A good gestalt. Bottom line is that DS is a really great gestalt option, or a fifth party member, much like the bard is, only... more... "manly".
Munchmausen 05-01-07, 10:27 AM	Dragon Magic also includes the hard-to-miss feat wherein you can use two auras simultaneously.
Grand Theft Otto 05-01-07, 10:47 AM	Decent at low levels, they kind of suck at higher levels. Their auras need to scale better and they could use some more bonus feats. Dual Aura and Meta Breath feats are a must IMO for the dragon shaman.
Chimaera2000 05-02-07, 04:09 PM	I personally like the dragon shaman a lot, but wouldn't want to play one in a high-level game; neither the aura benefits nor the breath weapon damage scale very well at these levels. One level is excellent for grabbing the Vigor aura and possibly some proficiencies, however. If you like dragon-themed classes, you may like the dragonfire adept base class from Dragon Magic. It allows you to use a breath weapon at will (not every 1d4 rounds!), and gives good Fortitude and Will saves alongside some excellent invocations like one that gives you identify (with no material components) and detect magic at will or another that gives you +6 on all Knowledge and Spellcraft checks and the ability to use them all untrained.