Dragon shaman build? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Dragon shaman build? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Britt
12-08-06, 02:50 AM I'm playing CC for the first time this weekend and was planning on building a dragon shaman. I'm having a hard time coming up with a good concept though. Any suggestions for a good CC themed dragon shaman?
Istaran
12-08-06, 04:33 PM 1) Being a dragon shaman makes you CC themed by default. Yay.

2) Take Vigor aura. No matter how high your levels and HP goes, your party will never bleed to death while you are concious, and will get back to half life after every battle before touching the healing spells and items. The aura that gives DR is a great one at low levels and later on can combo with anyone who can do str damage, etc. 1 damage hits no longer count at all. Wee. I've had over half a dozen hits against my party (including 2 swarm hits that would hit 3 people and Dex poison all of them) nullified by DR 1/magic aura. At higher levels that will be less useful.. but at higher levels you get more auras to play with anyways. And one less damage per hit is never a -bad- thing...

3) Con is your friend. A high con means you will have the hit points to stay on your feat and keep that vigor aura going (or at least available when needed) and at the same time means your breath weapon (starting level 4) will be doing full damage more often rather than half.

4) Pick your dragon color carefully. I recommend line types over cone types, because you'll typically hit fewer enemies, but be able to get around allies more easily. But the choice is yours. I think fire types seem like they'll get more use out of the energy resistance aura if you choose to use it.. I certainly never see any use for my electricity resist showing up, but then the campaign is young.

5) Look at the metabreath feats in draconomicon and races of the dragon. At least look at them. You can't get them until level 6 anyways. The most universally useful one is the one that gives you one less round of charge time between breaths. Can't go wrong with that one. Another handy one might be the one that lets you switch a line to a cone or vice versa.. I think it adds a one round extra delay between breaths, but I don't have the source on me. Look at the other ones though.. in this campaign Dragon Shamans are about the only people who can make use of them, so you might as well see if any of them are for you.

6) Charisma? At higher levels, dragon shamans get some nifty healing abilities for having a high charisma bonus. If you're going to focus on a skill or three that use charisma, this might be worth it. Otherwise, I'm not sure they're worth the stat points.

7) Intelligence? You are playing CC, so you can always use your int bonus to get free knowledge skills as class skills, and be able to know some stuff for your party's benefit. Certainly helps with the whole "CC themed" thing.

8) Racial substitution? I hear rumors Dragon Magic has a racial sub. for Dragon Shamans.. which grants them a warlock invocation at level 5. That'd be one more thing your dragon shaman can do all day long. (Part of their strength to begin with is that they don't run out of uses for any of their abilities.) Worth taking a look at, at least.

------

Character wise..
You are on the path to becoming more like a dragon. This is the path of power, greatness, glory.. That makes you better than your peers. You can play this condescendingly, or helpfully (using your power to aid your lesser allies, since they clearly need it and you're happy to help someone in need). Spellscales, however, are at least your equal, as the blood of dragons flows through them from birth, and sorcerers deserve some respect. Others will have to earn it from you.
Greed suits your adopted nature. Make sure you have masterwork equipment as soon as possible, since regular equipment is beneath you. Keep some cash on hand, preferrably in gem form, to play with.. a kind of mobile hoard. But don't fret over the share of wealth your allies are walking off with.. concider it an investment. Dragons are nothing if not patient.
While Eberron treats dragons a little differently, it wouldn't hurt to read through the Draconomicon's entries on different dragon colors, and pick one color that suits you, and use their characterization as a guide to how to play your own character. From the uncompromising golds to the merciless reds there is a whole rainbow of inspiration there to start off from.
You also might want to put some thought into what got you into dragon shamanism to begin with.. has your character been involved with dragons previously in some influential way? Or has he/she only been an admirer from afar up until now?

Hope this gives you some ideas on where to go.
Britt
12-08-06, 05:05 PM Thanks for the reply. The latter part was the most helpful as I'm mainly looking for interesting roleplaying approaches or funky builds that are abnormal but probably fun. I've done my share of powergaming in the past and don't get any fun out of that now. I prefer to get something interesting and then invariably make it powerful just by nature :)

So to clarify, can you think of some build that that is interesting, not necessarily broken, but fun to play and a good roleplay fit for CC? For example, a build that exemplifies the roleplay notes you provided in the latter part of your message. I'm having a hard time coming up with a concept and don't really feel like playing a straight class dragon shaman with no PrCs or anything, unless maybe I had an interesting combination of feats to focus on.
Rewth
12-08-06, 08:44 PM also, if you are human, you could be from Seren. Each tribe of barbarians on Seren is in service to a dragon or small group of dragons. Dragon Shamans to them are tribal leaders or at least very high ranking individuals, considered marked or blessed by the patron dragon. It would be quite possible for a shaman to be sent out to Xendrik to investigate the increasing bits of draconic prophesy that is coming out of the country. Or, considering the dragons are part of the reason Xendrik is in the state that it is, they could be wanting to keep tabs on thingsd there. so while you are faithful to the Codex and its goals, you still probably report back to your dragon with intersting tidbits now and then.
Britt
12-08-06, 08:53 PM That's interesting. In what book is Seren discussed?
Istaran
12-09-06, 01:46 PM You could also consider going Spellscale (race from Races of the Dragon) and/or part sorcerer. Of course, this is coming from a player of a crimson codex spellscale dragon shaman(1)/sorcerer(1) so.. take it as you will. If you do go the spellscale rout, consider randomly choosing which dragon god (constellation in Eberron) to meditate on each session, and try to adjust your character's personality to suit that focus. That will help keep things interesting and unpredictable, as they should be with a spellscale in the group. And for added layers.. while spellscales breed true, it is also possible for any humanoid to be permanently transformed into a spellscale by another spellscale (they must be willing, and it takes a week to do, but it could have happened in your backstory...). A spellscale that was previously another race would have some vestigial traces of their old outlook combined in with their new nature..

And sorry for going on about stats and stuff.. you weren't clear on what you were looking for.
Britt
12-09-06, 01:51 PM No problem at all; you're right that I wasn't clear :)

I didn't know that a spellscale could turn another into a spellscale. That could be an interesting backstory for a dragon shaman. I give up the CON points, but I'll see what I can do with it. I don't think I want sorcerer, but I'll see what other CHA builds I can come up with that aren't too face oriented (my last main was a face). Thanks for the input!
Britt
12-09-06, 02:30 PM What about a spellscale marshal/dragon shaman (without motivate dex, I hate that). I could take auras that are dragonish to help with roleplay. I can spend my expansion slot at first level on Marshal, right?
Britt
12-09-06, 03:13 PM Ok, so I'm looking at a Spellscale Dragon Shaman/Marshal with either of the following stats (final):

12/10/12/14/8/18
14/12/12/14/8/16

I'll start out as Dragon Shaman, but I'm not sure what feats yet. I was also considering the alternate class abilities. The Marshal ability would synergize well with the Dragon Shaman vigor aura, but with splitting my levels between the two, it wouldn't be quite as good. I don't have the book for the Dragon Shaman ability, so I'll have to look at that tomorrow.

Thoughts? Feat suggestions? I was thinking of the Educated feat that makes all Knowledge skills class skills, so I get the book as the beginning of my horde :)
Britt
12-09-06, 05:46 PM Look, Britt's spamming his own thread :)

How about a 3 Dragon Shaman (gold), rest Healer? I'm not sure what feats I'd take, other than maybe Augment Healing and Dragon Steed. With gold dragon shaman, I can take Skill Focus (Healing) and then get a free feat out of Healer. The problem I'm having is running out of expansion slots after 3 for Healer and 2 per feat. I'm also not sure how much to put into Wisdom :/
Fiery_Fighter_Drake
12-18-06, 12:54 AM The most effective dragon shaman build is a single-class dragon shaman. Depending on your totem dragon, you can fufill a myriad of roles in a party as the 5th member and you can cover for one of the four main classes. Dragons shamans make great frontline combantants as they have access to the all armors, shield and good HD. Their weapon selection may be limited to simple, but there are some good weapons in that catergory, such as the morningstar.

My own dragon shaman has the Bronze Dragon as his totem, which gives him access to Disguise, Survival and Swim. I invested full ranks in Search and Survival and took the Track feat, so not only is he a good frontline fighter, he also doubles as the party's tracker.

Also consider your draconic adaptation when choosing your totem dragon. Some are always useful, but there are a few that you find will have mainly r/p application or a very situational. I prefer the use of passive adaptations that are always on, since you may not have the time to activate or may not even be concious to activate your adaptation.

I'm not confident of the dragon shaman/healer build. Unless you are the parties primary healer, then it'd be best to be a pure dragon shaman. This will allow you access to more auras as well as the breath weapon, which is a dragon shaman's greatest weapon in my opinion.
Harliquinn
12-18-06, 09:36 AM Depending upon your preferences, a single dip into another class *could* help you be a more effective Dragon Shaman, depending upon your goals.

If you really want to be melee oriented, a dip into Fighter (feat/heavy armor/martial weapons), Barbarian (rage/fast movement/martial weapons and a CON boost for breath weapon DC), or marshal(aura/weapons/armor) would make for nice synergy.

A level of ranger would get you Track, more skills, Wild Empathy and a ranger spell list for wands, scrolls. A level (or 2) of paladin would give you some nice synergy with your CHA, heavy armor, and a few added benefits for healing/curing.

A level of cleric gets you turn undead and divine casting (2 domains) to help with healing. Divine Metamagic could be used to augment your combat or casting.

A level of bard or sorcerer opens up CHA synergy with casting, as well as some potential feats that really go towards the prophecy (Dragon Prophet, Dragon Totem feat chains, etc.)

THe reason I say that a 1 level dip might be useful is that the campaign is likely to not go to 20th therefore you will probably never see your last boost to your aura and therefore, helping in the 1-X (somewhere in high teens) level range might be worth a level of another class. I wouldn't go more than 1 other class (or 2 if you go Paladin) though otherwise your really diluting Dragon Shaman.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Britt 12-08-06, 02:50 AM	I'm playing CC for the first time this weekend and was planning on building a dragon shaman. I'm having a hard time coming up with a good concept though. Any suggestions for a good CC themed dragon shaman?
Istaran 12-08-06, 04:33 PM	1) Being a dragon shaman makes you CC themed by default. Yay. 2) Take Vigor aura. No matter how high your levels and HP goes, your party will never bleed to death while you are concious, and will get back to half life after every battle before touching the healing spells and items. The aura that gives DR is a great one at low levels and later on can combo with anyone who can do str damage, etc. 1 damage hits no longer count at all. Wee. I've had over half a dozen hits against my party (including 2 swarm hits that would hit 3 people and Dex poison all of them) nullified by DR 1/magic aura. At higher levels that will be less useful.. but at higher levels you get more auras to play with anyways. And one less damage per hit is never a -bad- thing... 3) Con is your friend. A high con means you will have the hit points to stay on your feat and keep that vigor aura going (or at least available when needed) and at the same time means your breath weapon (starting level 4) will be doing full damage more often rather than half. 4) Pick your dragon color carefully. I recommend line types over cone types, because you'll typically hit fewer enemies, but be able to get around allies more easily. But the choice is yours. I think fire types seem like they'll get more use out of the energy resistance aura if you choose to use it.. I certainly never see any use for my electricity resist showing up, but then the campaign is young. 5) Look at the metabreath feats in draconomicon and races of the dragon. At least look at them. You can't get them until level 6 anyways. The most universally useful one is the one that gives you one less round of charge time between breaths. Can't go wrong with that one. Another handy one might be the one that lets you switch a line to a cone or vice versa.. I think it adds a one round extra delay between breaths, but I don't have the source on me. Look at the other ones though.. in this campaign Dragon Shamans are about the only people who can make use of them, so you might as well see if any of them are for you. 6) Charisma? At higher levels, dragon shamans get some nifty healing abilities for having a high charisma bonus. If you're going to focus on a skill or three that use charisma, this might be worth it. Otherwise, I'm not sure they're worth the stat points. 7) Intelligence? You are playing CC, so you can always use your int bonus to get free knowledge skills as class skills, and be able to know some stuff for your party's benefit. Certainly helps with the whole "CC themed" thing. 8) Racial substitution? I hear rumors Dragon Magic has a racial sub. for Dragon Shamans.. which grants them a warlock invocation at level 5. That'd be one more thing your dragon shaman can do all day long. (Part of their strength to begin with is that they don't run out of uses for any of their abilities.) Worth taking a look at, at least. ------ Character wise.. You are on the path to becoming more like a dragon. This is the path of power, greatness, glory.. That makes you better than your peers. You can play this condescendingly, or helpfully (using your power to aid your lesser allies, since they clearly need it and you're happy to help someone in need). Spellscales, however, are at least your equal, as the blood of dragons flows through them from birth, and sorcerers deserve some respect. Others will have to earn it from you. Greed suits your adopted nature. Make sure you have masterwork equipment as soon as possible, since regular equipment is beneath you. Keep some cash on hand, preferrably in gem form, to play with.. a kind of mobile hoard. But don't fret over the share of wealth your allies are walking off with.. concider it an investment. Dragons are nothing if not patient. While Eberron treats dragons a little differently, it wouldn't hurt to read through the Draconomicon's entries on different dragon colors, and pick one color that suits you, and use their characterization as a guide to how to play your own character. From the uncompromising golds to the merciless reds there is a whole rainbow of inspiration there to start off from. You also might want to put some thought into what got you into dragon shamanism to begin with.. has your character been involved with dragons previously in some influential way? Or has he/she only been an admirer from afar up until now? Hope this gives you some ideas on where to go.
Britt 12-08-06, 05:05 PM	Thanks for the reply. The latter part was the most helpful as I'm mainly looking for interesting roleplaying approaches or funky builds that are abnormal but probably fun. I've done my share of powergaming in the past and don't get any fun out of that now. I prefer to get something interesting and then invariably make it powerful just by nature :) So to clarify, can you think of some build that that is interesting, not necessarily broken, but fun to play and a good roleplay fit for CC? For example, a build that exemplifies the roleplay notes you provided in the latter part of your message. I'm having a hard time coming up with a concept and don't really feel like playing a straight class dragon shaman with no PrCs or anything, unless maybe I had an interesting combination of feats to focus on.
Rewth 12-08-06, 08:44 PM	also, if you are human, you could be from Seren. Each tribe of barbarians on Seren is in service to a dragon or small group of dragons. Dragon Shamans to them are tribal leaders or at least very high ranking individuals, considered marked or blessed by the patron dragon. It would be quite possible for a shaman to be sent out to Xendrik to investigate the increasing bits of draconic prophesy that is coming out of the country. Or, considering the dragons are part of the reason Xendrik is in the state that it is, they could be wanting to keep tabs on thingsd there. so while you are faithful to the Codex and its goals, you still probably report back to your dragon with intersting tidbits now and then.
Britt 12-08-06, 08:53 PM	That's interesting. In what book is Seren discussed?
Istaran 12-09-06, 01:46 PM	You could also consider going Spellscale (race from Races of the Dragon) and/or part sorcerer. Of course, this is coming from a player of a crimson codex spellscale dragon shaman(1)/sorcerer(1) so.. take it as you will. If you do go the spellscale rout, consider randomly choosing which dragon god (constellation in Eberron) to meditate on each session, and try to adjust your character's personality to suit that focus. That will help keep things interesting and unpredictable, as they should be with a spellscale in the group. And for added layers.. while spellscales breed true, it is also possible for any humanoid to be permanently transformed into a spellscale by another spellscale (they must be willing, and it takes a week to do, but it could have happened in your backstory...). A spellscale that was previously another race would have some vestigial traces of their old outlook combined in with their new nature.. And sorry for going on about stats and stuff.. you weren't clear on what you were looking for.
Britt 12-09-06, 01:51 PM	No problem at all; you're right that I wasn't clear :) I didn't know that a spellscale could turn another into a spellscale. That could be an interesting backstory for a dragon shaman. I give up the CON points, but I'll see what I can do with it. I don't think I want sorcerer, but I'll see what other CHA builds I can come up with that aren't too face oriented (my last main was a face). Thanks for the input!
Britt 12-09-06, 02:30 PM	What about a spellscale marshal/dragon shaman (without motivate dex, I hate that). I could take auras that are dragonish to help with roleplay. I can spend my expansion slot at first level on Marshal, right?
Britt 12-09-06, 03:13 PM	Ok, so I'm looking at a Spellscale Dragon Shaman/Marshal with either of the following stats (final): 12/10/12/14/8/18 14/12/12/14/8/16 I'll start out as Dragon Shaman, but I'm not sure what feats yet. I was also considering the alternate class abilities. The Marshal ability would synergize well with the Dragon Shaman vigor aura, but with splitting my levels between the two, it wouldn't be quite as good. I don't have the book for the Dragon Shaman ability, so I'll have to look at that tomorrow. Thoughts? Feat suggestions? I was thinking of the Educated feat that makes all Knowledge skills class skills, so I get the book as the beginning of my horde :)
Britt 12-09-06, 05:46 PM	Look, Britt's spamming his own thread :) How about a 3 Dragon Shaman (gold), rest Healer? I'm not sure what feats I'd take, other than maybe Augment Healing and Dragon Steed. With gold dragon shaman, I can take Skill Focus (Healing) and then get a free feat out of Healer. The problem I'm having is running out of expansion slots after 3 for Healer and 2 per feat. I'm also not sure how much to put into Wisdom :/
Fiery_Fighter_Drake 12-18-06, 12:54 AM	The most effective dragon shaman build is a single-class dragon shaman. Depending on your totem dragon, you can fufill a myriad of roles in a party as the 5th member and you can cover for one of the four main classes. Dragons shamans make great frontline combantants as they have access to the all armors, shield and good HD. Their weapon selection may be limited to simple, but there are some good weapons in that catergory, such as the morningstar. My own dragon shaman has the Bronze Dragon as his totem, which gives him access to Disguise, Survival and Swim. I invested full ranks in Search and Survival and took the Track feat, so not only is he a good frontline fighter, he also doubles as the party's tracker. Also consider your draconic adaptation when choosing your totem dragon. Some are always useful, but there are a few that you find will have mainly r/p application or a very situational. I prefer the use of passive adaptations that are always on, since you may not have the time to activate or may not even be concious to activate your adaptation. I'm not confident of the dragon shaman/healer build. Unless you are the parties primary healer, then it'd be best to be a pure dragon shaman. This will allow you access to more auras as well as the breath weapon, which is a dragon shaman's greatest weapon in my opinion.
Harliquinn 12-18-06, 09:36 AM	Depending upon your preferences, a single dip into another class could help you be a more effective Dragon Shaman, depending upon your goals. If you really want to be melee oriented, a dip into Fighter (feat/heavy armor/martial weapons), Barbarian (rage/fast movement/martial weapons and a CON boost for breath weapon DC), or marshal(aura/weapons/armor) would make for nice synergy. A level of ranger would get you Track, more skills, Wild Empathy and a ranger spell list for wands, scrolls. A level (or 2) of paladin would give you some nice synergy with your CHA, heavy armor, and a few added benefits for healing/curing. A level of cleric gets you turn undead and divine casting (2 domains) to help with healing. Divine Metamagic could be used to augment your combat or casting. A level of bard or sorcerer opens up CHA synergy with casting, as well as some potential feats that really go towards the prophecy (Dragon Prophet, Dragon Totem feat chains, etc.) THe reason I say that a 1 level dip might be useful is that the campaign is likely to not go to 20th therefore you will probably never see your last boost to your aura and therefore, helping in the 1-X (somewhere in high teens) level range might be worth a level of another class. I wouldn't go more than 1 other class (or 2 if you go Paladin) though otherwise your really diluting Dragon Shaman.