Index -Introduction to Dragon Shamans -The Role of the Dragon Shaman --The Dragon Shaman and Combat --The Dragon Shaman and the Party -The Dragon Shaman vs. Similiar Classes -The Dragon Shaman's Abilities --Picking the Best Draconic Totem --The Dragon Shaman and Draconic Auras -Feats and the Dragon Shaman --Metabreath feats: What to pick, why, and when -Cross Classing with your Dragon Shaman -Dragon Shaman Character Options --Planar Dragon Shamans --Gem Dragon Shamans
Introduction to Dragon Shamans
The Dragon Shaman is a martial class that can harness the raw power and ability of true dragons. Thanks to their Draconic Totems, Dragon Shamans can wield a variety of different powers and roles, depending on your preferance. I am writing this handbook because I feel that many players feel somewhat unsatisfied when playing the Dragon Shaman, using the class as a primary combat support, but having this feeling that their just a "5th wheel". I hope that this handbook brings new light and breath to, what I feel, is the star of the 3.5Ed PHB 2 and one of the best all-around classes for starting characters.
The 3.5 PHB2 describes the Dragon Shaman as a combatant class, that your a melee combatant first and a party supporter later. This is, I feel, grossly inaccurate and the main reason most players feel that their Dragon Shaman character is out-shined by the rest of the party. Except for the Breathe Weapon ability, the Dragon Shaman is designed to be a prime party support character in his early levels, because of his Draconic Aura abilities. This isn't to say that the Dragon Shaman can't hold his own in battle, but he isn't as effective in the frontlines as a Fighter or Barbarian would be. Only in later levels do the true destructive power of the Dragon Shaman come to the forefront. This is amazingly similar tp playing the Paladin Class from Diablo 2 (Blizzard Ent.). The best thing to remember, when playing the Dragon Shaman class, is that your giving your party the "Edge" when it comes to combat. Your Draconic Aura's can give that extra bit of damage, grant that bonus needed to really get the drop on an opponent, or make your enemies pay for every hit they get one your companions. All it takes is smart selection of your Draconic Auras. The secondary role of a Dragon Shaman is as a melee combatant. While you aren't the master of melee combat that a Fighter or Barbarian might be, you do have a few tricks up your sleeve that will gives Dragon Shaman character a nice bang for your buck. Your main trick is, of course, your Breath Weapon. While it is nothing special when first gained, it can quickly become a real force of destruction when applied with the right feats and options. The next best trick is actually coming off two of your Draconic Aura's: Energy Aura and Power Aura. We will delve further into those latter in the Dragon Shaman Abilities section. The third trick is based off your Draconic Totems, specifically the special ability that you gain with your chosen Totem. Depending on which Dragon Totem you selected gives you access to several simple tactics that can be used, even if only once per combat.
-The Dragon Shaman and Combat-
Between the levels of 1 and 8, it is best to play your Dragon Shaman as a defensive, support character at the frontline, using a mix of smart combat tactics and your Draconic Auras. A very favorable tactic for a Dragon Shaman is, outside of battle, to activate your Senses Aura and leave it active. Then, after Initiatives have been rolled (your Senses Aura adds your Draconic Aura bonus to your INI), you can change your Aura to either the Power Aura (best suited if the entire team is going first), or the Energy Shield Aura (best used if enemies are going first, or if your Dragon Shaman happens to be the last in the party's initiative line-up). Now, it is true that you will only have a Draconic Aura of +2 by the time you are Lvl 8, but you shouldn't be facing anything signifiantly difficult where a +2 to damage rolls for the entire party or 4 points of elemental damage, depending on your Energy Shield aura, isn't a decent boon. If you wish to play the Dragon Shaman a bit more offensively at these levels, the you will want to take your first Metabreath Feat, something we are covering later, at LvL6. Your biggest offensive advantage, at this point, is going to be your Breath Weapon, which at LvL 6, is a 3d6 in Elemental Damage, depending on your Dragon Totem. The is really only one viable Metabreath Feat to take at that level, so again, it is best to play your Dragon Shaman as a defensive, support character first. Another advantage that the Dragon Shaman can take in combat, especially early on, is the fact that several Dragon Totems will provide you with Draconic Abilities, first attained at LvL3. Draconic Abilities can allow you to be able to make use of certain terrain features that can give the Dragon Shaman, and later, other characters, surprise tactical advantages that would be otherwise unavailable. Such tactical advantage possabilities are attacking from underwater, or dropping from a ceiling. Used wisely, these abilities will help make up for the somewhat slow ATK bonus progression that seems to vex many Dragon Shaman characters.
-The Dragon Shaman and the Party-
The Dragon Shaman is best used in a party that is all, or majorily, combat oriented characters. Sorcerer's, bards, and Wizards won't really gain the full advantage of having a Dragon Shaman in the party, primarily because they are not martial characters, but also because they are normally too far away for his/her aura's to effect them. There are some caster classes that can benefit from having a Dragon Shaman as a party member, the two most likely being the Warlock and the Warmage, both which can be found in the Complete Arcane book. This is because both classes are considered Martial Casters, meaning that while their magic is their primarily ability, they are more frontline oriented then most of the other casters. Another class with arcane abilities that will do very well from having a Dragon Shaman companion is the Hexblade. It is a great boon for early Hexblades to use their Curse ability successfully when in the radius to gain the benefits of a Power or Energy Shield aura. Martial Characters gain the greatest benefit of having a Dragon Shaman party member. Power Aura and Energy Aura are great benefits to group of Martial Characters, because it adds to the collective damage done to your opponents. Also, in later levels, a Dragon shaman can grant the benefits of his Draconic Abilities to the entire party, giving an entire party of martial characters great surpise tactical advantages. Having two Dragon Shamans in the party isn't a bad idea either, since Aura bonus's from seperate Dragon Shaman's stack, allowing both Dragon Shamans can take slightly seperate roles. One Dragon Shaman can have the Power Aura active, and the other can have the Energy Shield active, give bonus's to be both offensive and defensive damage. Also, to really add a punch either way, the effects of one aura isn't negated by the effects of another, so it is completely legal to run two Power or two Energy Aura's, as well as any other Aura's you would wish, both inside and outside of combat.
There have been several times, during games that I am personally involved in, that I have heard arguments for other classes over the Dragon Shaman, simply because they were more "flexiable". While in some aspects this is true, only the Dragon Shaman makes the FULL use of a Dragon's power and ability without being heavily modified.
-The Dragonfire Adept-
This is probably the class that gets the most arguement, and one of the ones that gets the most modification to match the Dragon Shaman. Much of the arguement comes in the form of discussion over Breath Weapon abilities. While it is true that the Dragonfire Adapt (Dragon Magic) gets his breath weapon sooner, and that it advances quicker, it looses some flexiablity, in the form of Metabreath Feats, without modification. The Breath Weapon ability of a Dragonfire Adapt can be done at will, as well as it's area modified at will, and later, the type of elemental damage. This makes the Dragonfire Adapt highly desired as a class, and I will admit, it is a very nice effect to be able to change the damage type and area of your breath weapon. I know that the DFA Handbook states that there are ways around taking Metabreath Feats for a DFA's breath weapon, but the handbook is partially incorrect. It states that you can take Dragonborn as your race, from Races of Dragon, which gives you a natural breath weapon as a racial ability. If you then couple that with Dragonfire Adapt class, you can apply the metabreath feats to your Breath Weapon from DFA as well. This is incorrect.
The Breath Weapon given from the Dragonborn are of a different version then the Breath Weapon you gain from DFA, and because only your Dragonborn breath weapon ability has a 1d4 wait time, just like any true dragon's breath weapon, your Dragonfire Adapt Breathe Weapon ability isn't affected by Metabreath Feats, because it can be done by will. Breath Effects that can be done are will, and do not have a wait represented in rounds, are unable to have Metabreath feats applied to them. Also, the Breath Weapon ITSELF, unmodified, is an instantanious effect...and therefore not applicalbe with the Power Surge feat that the Dragonfire Adept talks about. Now, to clear confusion on this. I stated that the Breath Weapon itself is an instantanious effect. The BREATH EFFECTS...which can be applied to the breath weapon...those aren't instantanious, but the effects aren't what we are talking about...we're talking about the base of the Breath Weapon itself..and that is instantanious.
Also, Focusing on making the Breath weapon more powerful, through Metabreath Feats, is a waste of feat selection for a Dragonfire Adapt, who should concentrate of increasing his arcane feats (because of his invocations), or learning the VERSATILITY of his Breathe Weapon ability, which can be used much more often, and has many more effects then that of a Dragon Shaman.
Another point on which the Dragonfire Adapt looses is the fact that it doesn't gain the Wings that a Dragon Shaman gets later on, nor does it get a Draconic Ability that it can use, or later share with the party
Another arguement is that, to have Draconic Aura's, a DFA has to take feat, and then learn upon that. Even if that is ok to the player, your still wasting feat slots, and still don't have the kind of access a Dragon Shaman has, nor the Draconic Abilities that they gain from their repective totems.
-The Dragon Disciple-
As a prestige class, the Dragon Disciple is very tempting to those that take a Caster character, especially if your starting off as Dragonfire Adapt. However, once again, you face the same Metabreath Feat challenge that you do with Dragonfire Adapt. A Dragon Disciple's Breath Weapon can only be used once per day, and therefore makes Metabreath Feats unavailable to it. Also, a Dragon Shaman's Breath weapon advnaces much faster, and becomes much more powerful then a Dragon Disciple can hope for.
Again, The Dragon Disciple's are unable to take Draconic Aura's without taking the feat, and at that level, it is just so much better to concentrate on defensive or offensive spells then taking Draconic Auras.
Incorrect on the metabreath feats. To take the feat you need a breath weapon that is recharged in rounds ... not to use them. It is an important distinction and is very similar to Divine Spell Power in that regard (requires turn undead, doesn't have to use turn undead).
Also, the best metabreath feat (entangling) has no such restriction.
Incorrect on the metabreath feats. To take the feat you need a breath weapon that is recharged in rounds ... not to use them. It is an important distinction and is very similar to Divine Spell Power in that regard (requires turn undead, doesn't have to use turn undead).
Also, the best metabreath feat (entangling) has no such restriction.
If the breath weapon isn't applicable to take the feat, then it isn't applicable in using the feat. A breath weapon that requires rounds to recharge is required to have Metabreath Feats. It's only common sense that they are only applicable to such breath weapons, unless the particular Metabreath Feat states differently. Also, the flaw built into the Metabreath feat is that it adds to the rounds you must wait to use the breath weapon again. If a breath weapon does not have such restrictions, then the flaws for the feats are null. While this would be remarkable, it states, very plainly and clearly, that Metabreath Feats are only applicable to Breath weapons that are represented in rounds.
Also, I believe that what you are talking about is Entangling Exhaltation, from RoTD, correct?? That IS NOT a Metabreath Feat. It is what is known as a Breath Channeling Feat, and you are correct...it has no such restriction. It's only restrictions are having the Dragonblood Subtype, and a breath weapon...but again, it is NOT a Metabreath Feat, which is what is being discussed.
In spite of possible mistakes, let him go on with the handbook, please. I'm very much looking forward to learning more about this class, since it seems mechanically quite strange, and I couldn't find the motivation to research possible optimisation on it, so far.
Breath weapons that DO NOT have rounds of recharge CANNOT have Metabreath Feats applied to them, UNLESS you take the Dragon Breath Feat from RoTD, which then turn your breath weapon into a "recharged by round" Breath Weapon.
The restrictions are very plain, stated in the Draconomicon, and I will quote them here for clarification.
Dracomonicon, pg.66]To take a Metabreath feat, a creature must have a breath weapon whose time between breathes is expressed in rounds. Therefore, a hellhound (who can use it's breath weapon once every 2d4 rounds) can take metabreath feats, whereas a behir (breath weapon usable 1/minute) cannot.
To further clarifiy this, for those who wish to argue with the books themselve wrote:
To take a Metabreath feat, a creature must have a breath weapon whose time between breathes is expressed in rounds. Therefore, a hellhound (who can use it's breath weapon once every 2d4 rounds) can take metabreath feats, whereas a behir (breath weapon usable 1/minute) cannot.[/quote] To further clarifiy this, for those who wish to argue with the books themselves
Dracomonicon, pg.66]Using a metabreath feat puts stress on a dragons mind and body, increasing the time it must wait until the dragon can use it's breath weapon again. Using a metabreath feat increases the wait time by 1 round or more.
The book specifically states ROUNDS, several times, when talking about Metabreath feats. Therefore, the breath weapons must have ROUNDS of recharge, or the Metabreath feats do not apply to them.
with that being said, there is a way to MODIFY your breath weapon to be correct for Metabreath feats. You can take the Dragons Breath feat from RoTD, which turns your breath weapon into a "recharged by round" breath weapon, as I stated above.
You can also, with taking a Dragonbloods Subtype, have access to Breath Channeling Feats, which are different from Metabreath feats in that they don't REQUIRE the breathe weapon to be "rechargeable by round".
To end my statement, I ask that ANYONE who wises to challenge this, please, find me somewhere, either a statement from WoTC staff on the forums wrote:
Using a metabreath feat puts stress on a dragons mind and body, increasing the time it must wait until the dragon can use it's breath weapon again. Using a metabreath feat increases the wait time by 1 round or more.[/quote] The book specifically states ROUNDS, several times, when talking about Metabreath feats. Therefore, the breath weapons must have ROUNDS of recharge, or the Metabreath feats do not apply to them.
with that being said, there is a way to MODIFY your breath weapon to be correct for Metabreath feats. You can take the Dragons Breath feat from RoTD, which turns your breath weapon into a "recharged by round" breath weapon, as I stated above.
You can also, with taking a Dragonbloods Subtype, have access to Breath Channeling Feats, which are different from Metabreath feats in that they don't REQUIRE the breathe weapon to be "rechargeable by round".
To end my statement, I ask that ANYONE who wises to challenge this, please, find me somewhere, either a statement from WoTC staff on the forums; in an official Errata; or in one of the official WoTC books, that it states different. EVERYTHING I have written, concerning Breath Weapons, Dragon Shamans, Dragonfire Adapts, and Metabreath Feats, is from information DIRECTLY from the books...and I look over the books FULLY, on those subjects, before posting. Again, if you can find an OFFICIAL WOTC statement that CHANGES THE NATURE OF METABREATH FEATS, please, let me, and the rest of the board, know...because otherwise your using Metabreath Feats incorrectly. I ask this only because I wish for this handbook to be complete as possible.
Look, you need a breath weapon expresssed in rounds to take them. Right? So, as long as you have one, then yes, you can take them. Once you have them, there are no relevent texts that say you can only apply them to that same breath weapon. Thus, DFAs that have any breath weapon expresed in recharge time of rounds can take them, but then theres no text that stops him from applying it to his DFA breath weapon. Now, the Rules Compendium nerfed this, saying that any use of the feats delays all breath weapons, but it didn't prevent the DFA from taking them.
Its ok to state your opinion on the matter in the handbook, but you should note that some people disagree, ie report both sides of the story .
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