Ever since I plaid the dragon shaman back in 3.5, I've loved him. My friend and I worked on modding a Dragon Shaman for pathfinder, and using that mod, I'm currently working on a Dragon Shaman for the card game. I myself won't have a chance to play test him until i can scrounge up money for sleeves, so bear with me on this.
First up is the new trait, aura. When designing him, I wanted his auras to be the big selling point for him. The best place for auras were under spell cards, but they weren't arcane or divine, so i created a new aura trait for them. The aura trait for the dragon shaman is listed under Constitution, as constitution is a valuable ability for the class. Because of having aura spell cards, I did attempt to create a bunch of aura cards as well, both basic and not basic... The only thing I really haven't done is the card and skill feats. Anyway, here he is.
Torke the Dragon Shaman (keywords: Male, Dwarf, Dragon Shaman)
Strength d6
Constitution d12 Aura +2, Fort +2
Dexterity d6
Intelligence d4
Wisdom d6 Perception +2
Charisma d8
Hand 5 (6)
Proficiency light armor
Special 1: Discard (recharge) a card to add 1d6 acid, cold, electricity, or fire to a combat check.
Special 2: Discard a card to reduce combat damage dealt to you by 1 (2)
Special 3: (aura spells can be used by characters at different location)
starter deck layout
Weapon 1 (Mace)
Spells 6 (Aura of Draconic Power, Aura of Lightning Strike x2, Aura of Vitality, Aura of Dragon Scales, Aura of Flight)
Armor 1 (Leather Armor)
Item 2 (Potion of Hiding, Codex)
Ally 2 (Night Watch, Sage)
Blessings 3 (Blessing of the Gods)
Alright, that's him. To explain the meaning behind his powers: Special 1 imitates his dragon breath, special 2 imitates his dragon scales which would increase his natural armor, special 3 imitates his aura changing from a 30' radius to 60'.
When it came to the basic auras, they function like most of the basic spells, but can be cast on any character at the same location as the dragon shaman since in the table top version, the dragon shaman's a party buffer. I can't remember if that's how non attack spells normally work at the moment or not...
Basic Auras
Aura of Accuracy (works like Guidance)
Aura of Dragon Scales (works like Arcane Armor)
Aura of Vitality (works like Cure)
Aura of Flight (works like Levitate)
Aura of Lightning Strike (works like Lightning Touch)
Aura of Draconic Power (works like Inflict)
Aura of Frightful Presence (works like Invisibility/Sanctuary)
Aura of Slumber (works like sleep)
Non-basic auras (where I'll probably need the most feedback because nothing seems too broken while I'm designing it.)
Aura of Prowess: is speed and strength as one aura, but can only give 3 to either a dex or str check, not both.
Aura of Energy Shield: adds 1d6 to a failed check after damage has already been done to the character. (how the actual aura works if you're wondering why I have it work this way)
Aura of Dragon Greed: Get a bonus dice when attempting to acquire a boon
Aura of Chromatic Resistance: Arcane Armor, but specifically for acid, cold, electricity, or fire damage
Aura of Motivation: Reroll a failed check, but you must keep the second roll.
Lot of stuff. That's all I have at the moment. The basic auras will have acquire and recharge checks that are the same as the basic card their emulating. The non-basic one's I'll figure out checks later when I have my cards to study. They're at home and I'm currently not. Hope everything here looks good to you guys and maybe will consider playing one.
I like the ideas but what's the difference between special 2 and just taking 1 damage? I can't see a difference. Maybe "discard 1 card to reduce combat damage by 2". Not too overpowered, but actually has a benefit.
oh wow, how'd I miss that. so yeah, it'll default to reduce by 2 but then that leaves an extra power feat floating around. I guess i can have special 2 increase to reduce damage by 3, but that feels borderline broken. There's also increasing his hand size again or maybe tack it onto special 1 where he can add other damage types like force or even magic. I dunno, I'll figure something out eventually.
You could change "discard" to "recharge".
Feat into recharge... yeah, I can see it being good. I mainly didn't want it to be too similiar to the rouge's power.
One of my friends pointed out that by adding an aura spell card I'm doing nothing but bogging down the game especially since no other class can use them. Instead, since I'm more or less copying the spells anyway, just make the aura ability into a power instead of a spell trait and give him +1 arcane and divine under con, kinda like how the bard gets +1 to both under his cha. This makes it a hell of a lot easier on actually play testing it since its less cards to deal with. Thoughts?
Alright, so here's my new layout. I think it may work better.
Torke the Dragon Shaman (keywords: Male, Dwarf, Dragon Shaman)
Strength d6 1, 2, 3
Constitution d12 1, 2, 3, 4 Arcane +1, Divine +1, Fort +2
Dexterity d6 1, 2
Intelligence d4 1
Wisdom d6 1, 2, 3 Perception +2
Charisma d8 1, 2
Hand 5 (6)
Proficiency light armor
Special 1: Discard (recharge) a card to add 1d6 acid, cold, electricity, or fire to a combat check.
Special 2: Discard (recharge) a card to reduce combat damage dealt to you by 2
Special 3: Spells can be cast on any character at your location (spells can be used on characters at any location)
starter deck layout
Weapon 1, 2 (Mace)
Spells 5, 6, 7, 8 (Inflict, Lightning Touch, Cure, Arcane Armor, Levitate)
Armor 1, 2 (Leather Armor)
Item 3,4, 5 (Potion of Glibness, Potion of Hiding, Codex)
Ally 2, 3, 4 (Guide, Sage)
Blessings 3, 4 (Blessing of the Gods)
I changed Nights Watch to Guide because since I've given the Dragon Shaman a bonus to Perception that he didn't when I written the roughest sketch, the Guide would be better since he needs more help with survival than perception.
If i recall correctly, Dragon Shamans weren´t that bad fighters.
More like Frontlinebruisers with lots of teambuffs.
So my suggestion would be to give him weapons as a powerfeat and cut the recharge for Special 2. (If the idea is interesting, i would suggest giving him 2 weapons to start with, and perhaps cut an item or a spell for it (most likely an item))
And after that i got a question, how excatly does casting on other chars work if it´s an attackspell?
Do you attack for them with magic + bonusdice, do they have to attack with magic + bonusdice, or do they attack with whatever they were attacking + bonusdice from the spell?
Another idea would be to focus more on the Aura-aspect.
Giving you the power to put a spell in front of you and be able to cast it ones per turn for half the effect (rounded up) for free without using the spell up. But you have to discard (without the possibility to recharge) the card if you want to have a new aura active.
This would simulate the persitent nature of the aura.
These are my thoughts on the matter, as you can see, i really like your idea of a dragon shaman (something like the dragonfire adept would be a great prestige class for him)
If i recall correctly, Dragon Shamans weren´t that bad fighters.
More like Frontlinebruisers with lots of teambuffs.So my suggestion would be to give him weapons as a powerfeat and cut the recharge for Special 2. (If the idea is interesting, i would suggest giving him 2 weapons to start with, and perhaps cut an item or a spell for it (most likely an item))
I had thought about too when I was first jotting down the notes in my notebook, but I felt that it would pull away from the aura aspect of the character I was trying to build.
And after that i got a question, how excatly does casting on other chars work if it´s an attackspell?
Do you attack for them with magic + bonusdice, do they have to attack with magic + bonusdice, or do they attack with whatever they were attacking + bonusdice from the spell?
Yeah, I guess i should edit that specaial to include "non-attack spells" instead of just "spells" in general. Sometimes I just assume that since I understand it, everyone will.
Another idea would be to focus more on the Aura-aspect.
Giving you the power to put a spell in front of you and be able to cast it ones per turn for half the effect (rounded up) for free without using the spell up. But you have to discard (without the possibility to recharge) the card if you want to have a new aura active.This would simulate the persistent nature of the aura.
That just feels slightly... broken to me. I don't know. Though doing it that way would lead me to needing fewer spells which means i could give him a couple more weapons. I'll mull it over some.
These are my thoughts on the matter, as you can see, i really like your idea of a dragon shaman (something like the dragonfire adept would be a great prestige class for him)
oi... i always forget about the prestige classes. i'll look into the dragonfire adept when the time comes around.
Yeah, I guess i should edit that specaial to include "non-attack spells" instead of just "spells" in general. Sometimes I just assume that since I understand it, everyone will.And after that i got a question, how excatly does casting on other chars work if it´s an attackspell?
Do you attack for them with magic + bonusdice, do they have to attack with magic + bonusdice, or do they attack with whatever they were attacking + bonusdice from the spell?
Wouldn´t that simple reduce you to a tank?
All buffs are already global playable, so the only new one´s with this power would be spells to reduce dmg, or spells to not have to deal with monsters. (And explore spells)Though doing it that way would lead me to needing fewer spells which means i could give him a couple more weapons. I'll mull it over some.
Not necessarily, nothing is keeping you from using your other spells as normal spells. (But giving him more weapons and less spells would give him more of a feeling of a fighter with auras than a caster.)
And i don´t know if it would be broken, the Display action is already in the game, the rest would need testing. (But giving the spell it´s full power would definitly be broken)
It was just the first thing that poped in my mind when i read aura.
About the dragonfire adept, that is a Core class from Dragon Magic 3.5, it primary focuses on the Breath Weapon.
I kind of always plaid my Dragon Shamans tanky. Make him able to take hits while distributing buffs to my allies. I have to look over the spells (forgot to do it yesterday and I don't have time right now). The exact wording for having spells work as a permanent aura would be tricky I think. Either that or i'm just over thinking it.
It would be kind of tricky, especially the ones with no numerical values like Detect Magic or Levitate.
Yeah, with primary consti, you are always tanky, but my Dragon Shaman always had his power-aura on to buff the dmg of the group. Wouldn´t be possible with only defensive spells.
I´m trying to word something for my aura idea in the next few hours, then you can tell me what you think of it.
I kind of always plaid my Dragon Shamans tanky.
I'm picturing your dwarf on the front lines of battle dressed in a kilt. :)
I would recommend against permanent effects. Look at the other powers that are ongoing effects in the RPG, and compare them with how they are treated in this game. IIRC, the longest effect is only until the end of the turn. If your character can just keep one active spell at all times, it would be the equivalent of auto-recharging and recalling the same spell over and over; you would need some sort of upkeep cost, such as discarding a card, as Fenris235 suggested.
A slightly different take:
When you play a spell that does not have the Attack trait, you may discard another card to return that spell to your hand instead of recharging it; the discarded card cannot be recharged.
Also, is the Dragon Shaman's magic power really based on Constitution? With a d12, that would make him at least as good as, or in most cases better than, any of the other casters with the added benefit of casting both Arcane and Divine spells (a benefit previously held only by Lem). I would either move that to a different skill, or have a power that says "When playing a spell that does not have the Attack trait, you have the Divine and Arcane skills." No bonus... no base die... just you have the skill so you don't have to banish the cards. Alternately, "... your Arcane or Divine die is 1d6."
So, here is my try for the wording:
(With half dicevalue i mean 1d12->1d6;1d8->1d4,etc. Is that the right word for that?)
This would make it able to cast the spells without even having the Divine or Arcane Skill. So it could be purely auras and no spellcasting.
Spellcasting could be reseved for one of his prestige classes.
And it wouldn´t have the non-attack spell restiction.
To balance it, you could add the cost of discarding [recharging] a card for the activation.
That are my thought, this wouldn´t make him a better caster than the rest of the chars and give him a unique aura-feeling.
But i think i went a bit overboard and it is too far away from your original idea.
@ Flat - Dwarf in a kilt, that's going into the character art if I ever get around to it. As for the d12, Yeah, I definitely need to tone it down to a d10 like Lem. For the original 3.5 dragon shaman, con is what was used for basing his saves for his dragon breath. His auras were just auras, they had a set value. If i change it, I'll change it to charisma because when my friend and I ported it to pathfinder, to make it stronger and therefore more aline with the standard pathfinder classes, we borrowed some spell-like invocations from another class that would derive its saves from charisma. I think that class was the Dragon Adept, what Fenris was talking about earlier. And I'm kinda liking his new post about to work the spells as auras and save spell casting for the a prestige class.
@ Fenris - see the end of what I said to Flat. I'm liking the wording but what about spells like acid arrow or lightning touch which are 2d6 and 2d5 respectively? Hell, what about inflict which is a bonus 1d6 (Does that have attack? I dunno). 1d6 and 1d4 is not half of 2d6 and 2d4 because 2d6 is not the same as 1d12 since 2d6's range is 2-12, not 1-12. Then again, maybe I'm missing something.
Yes Justin, you are absolutly right, 2d6 are better than a d12.
But i had to tone it down. And halfing the value of the dice was the closest to what i had in mind.
Otherwise i would have been something like, if it uses more than one dice, half the amount of dices, if it uses just 1 die, half the dicevalue.
If you want to be absolutly correct it would be something like, half the amount of the values you rolled with the bonus dices. And here it is starting to get ridiculous.^^
So i thought that making 1d12->1d6 or 2d8->2d4 would be the easiest solution. (And 2d4->2d2 for the Lightning touch)
lol, 2d2. Just flip two coins. Heads is 1, tails is 2... oi. But yeah, it'll just overly complicate things to not have 2d6 halve into 1d6, etc. Sometimes I just have to state the ridiculous before I can realize it is ridiculous.
(With half dicevalue i mean 1d12->1d6;1d8->1d4,etc. Is that the right word for that?)
What about d6->d3 and d10->d5? I think it would make more sense to divide the result in half (rounded up) instead of changing the base die; it's easier to say, and if you're dealing with 1d3 (few people have these) that's what you're doing anyhow...
You can Display a spell instead of playing it. A Displayed Spell can be activated once per turn for a character at your location [any location]. If activated this way, change Arcane die/Divine die to appropriate Combat die and half any dicevalue. If activated this way, the spell stays displayed. If you Display a new spell, you have to discard any displayed spell.
I would use "may" instead of "can" and "must" instead of "have to" (or leave off the "you have to" entirely) to be consistent with game terminology.
So if I wanted to display Stinking Cloud, anyone at my (or any) location could activate it, even without any sort of magical skill? That feels highly seems overpowered, even at half value. And then there's the fact that there is no cost to activate it. And then anyone at any location (after taking the feat) can use it.
this wouldn't make him a better caster than the rest of the chars and give him a unique aura-feeling.
However, what does make him a better caster than everyone else is having 1d12 +1 for both Arcane and Divine; Lem can cast either, but his versatility comes at the cost of a lower skill die (d8).
If you're trying to model an aura effect, I would take a closer look at Lem's Bard Song ability (the +1d4 to a check at current location on a Lem recharge). The power is coming from the DS, and should probably be powered by the DS (not anyone else). And unless your aura can span the entire town, limit it to your location only.
Lem only has a d8 for his charisma? I could have sworn it was a d10...
anyway. So maybe display the spell as an aura and it has to be activated by discarding a card, but can eventually be feated into recharging instead. This can only be used by the character of coarse and only once a round. Are there rounds in the card game, i can't remember off the top of my head.
Lem only has a d8 for his charisma? I could have sworn it was a d10...
You could be right; I don't have the cards/sheets in front of me. Maybe I'm thinking Lini...
Lini's the druid right? I would think with her being a full spell caster she'd have the higher die so if its either Lini or Lem, than lini has the d10. It's been awhile since I've plaid Lem so I guess i just assumed all spell casters had at least a d10 in their spell casting stat.
@Flat
Yes that was the idea, but saying to half the value you rolled (rounded up) just sounded worse than what i did. But effectivly, it´s what i meant.
And i meant that only you can activate the displayed spell. My bad.
And as i said a little bit later, adding a cost for balance should highly be considered.
New Version:
And he has the upgrade to all locations because the base class this here is based of can buff the range of his aura too. (Adjacent locations would be more apprpriate, but haven´t seen something like that in the Game)
(Lem is d10 and Lini is d10)
I downloaded the character sheets and they're both d10; that's what I get for not fact-checking. :)
who's to say we can't be trailblazers and have the aura feat into adjacent? It tames the aura upgrade while still mimicking the aura getting bigger as the dragon shaman gets stronger. It's the half thing... I think halving the total of the combat spell's combat dice might be better than halving the dice used. round down. it may seem a bit wordy but it stops his attack auras from being overly powerful.
@ Justin
but wouldn´t that wording cut the normal dice the person i´m trying to help is using in half too?
Not necessarily. the average of 2d6 is going to be 7. half of that is 3.5 which would be rounded down to three. If we halved the dice instead to 1d6 which has the average of 3.5, you halve that and you get some number i can't think of right now which is... 1.75 which is rounded down to 1. Unless I'm missing something again...
@Justin
But that wasn´t what i meant. If i help someone with an attack aura.
He has his basic combat dice + whatever he is using + my aura.
And what i said was, your wording isn´t clear enough that just the aura is cut in half, and not all of it. And that was my whole problem, to make it sound good and not to long that just the aurabonus is cut.
Rounding up has this effect:
1d6
1,2 -> 1
3,4 -> 2
5,6 -> 3
(1-3; the equivalent of 1d3)
Rounding down has this effect:
1d6
1 -> 0
2,3 -> 1
4,5 -> 2
6 -> 3
(0-3; uneven distribution)
As Flat said, my idea is the first one, the rounding up.
I just can´t put it in good words
min 1 bonus. Forgot to add that bit. They end up being the same ish since rounding down had three chances of 1 while rounding up has only two chances of it. Plus two chances of 3 instead of one. Yeah, i get it. rounding up wins this time.
The wording is just the mouthful part.
You may Display a spell instead of playing it. You may discarde [recharge] a card once per round to activate a Displayed Spell for a character at your location [adjacent location]. If activated this way, halve the total rolled for the spell's combat roll before adding it to the total combat check. If activated this way, the spell stays displayed. If you Display a new spell, you must discard any displayed spell.
better? worse?
I would put it like this.
You may Display a spell instead of playing it. You may discarding [recharging] a card once per turn to activate a Displayed Spell for a character at your location [adjacent location]. If activated this way, halve the total value rolled by the spells bonus-dices. If activated this way, the spell stays displayed. If you Display a new spell, you must discard any displayed spell.
Can´t argue with better or worse. We know what it should do, but it just doesn´t sound nice.
I cut the combat check part because it wouldn´t half Arcane Armor or Cure.
This would make it able to cast the spells without even having the Divine or Arcane Skill. So it could be purely auras and no spellcasting.
Spellcasting could be reserved for one of his prestige classes.
And it wouldn't have the non-attack spell restriction.To balance it, you could add the cost of discarding [recharging] a card for the activation.
That are my thought, this wouldn´t make him a better caster than the rest of the chars and give him a unique aura-feeling.
I think I misunderstood this the first time around...
By "one of his prestige classes" do you mean the Role card? And if so, then do you mean to also remove the Arcane and/or Divine skills from Constitution, then re-add it later, similar to how Harsk gains the Divine skill?
Just to make sure I understand your intent, you would not cast spells (if you did, you would banish them because you don't have the Arcane/Divine skill). Instead, you would only ever display them? And the only person who can power it you?
If the answer is "yes" to all of these questions, then I retract my over-powered statements.
@Flat
The answer is yes, to all of it. That is excatly what i meant.
It looks good to me, just long. Unfortunately there's no way to cut back on the wording, thus the curse of a new mechanic I think. I've yet to really look at the role cards, I only just got skinshaw murders last night and have yet to really play any of them and since roles to take effect to after the third adventure pack, I've been preoccupied with playing all the classes. I'm also currently at work so I can't even download the character sheets... wait, i have the character sheets on a usb on me, i'll just load them up that way to look at them.
so yeah, it looks like the base class is ready for play testing. Dragon Disciple will probably be an arcane spell focusing role while something else will fill the other role, maybe one that focuses more on melee instead of spells. give the two roles a distinct difference.
The wording "halve the total value rolled by the spells bonus-dice" still implies that you must roll dice for this effect, which in some cases you don't (Arcane armor, for example).
What about "If activated this way, determine the effect of this spell separately, then divide by 2 (rounding up) before applying it."
The intent being that you want to cut only the effect of the aura/spell in half, nothing else.
The more I think about it, I think you do have to limit it to non-attack spells. These spells start off with "for your combat check" so you couldn't activate them during someone else's combat check, and also because this would determine the die for the check (usually arcane or divine). I think you would have to limit it to support spells only.
And even though this feels like backtracking, here's a list of all the auras for my pathfinder dragon shaman. You'll see that they're all buffs except for maybe energy shield which i tried to create up there as a aura spell. when it comes to aura bonus, it starts as 1 and can get as high as 5.
Accruacy - Bonus on attack rolls
Act of War: Bonus on CMB attacks equal to your aura bonus.
Armor Training - Decrease Armor Check penalty for armor
Motivate Care – Bonus to AC
Demand Fortitude: Bonus on Fortitude saves equal to your aura bonus
Determined Caster: Bonus on rolls to overcome spell resistance equal to your 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.
Fervor - Spell Resistance 15+aura bonus
Force of Will: Bonus on Will saves equal to your aura bonus.
Improved Casting - Increase the caster level of all spells casted by you and allies by your aura bonus. Don't factor in the higher caster level when attempting to overcome spell resistance
Master of Tactics: Bonus on damage rolls when flanking equal to your aura bonus.
Motivate Ardor - Bonus on damage rolls
Motivate Attack - bonus on melee attack rolls
Motivate Charisma: Bonus on Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks equal to your aura bonus.
Motivate Constitution: Bonus on Constitution checks and Constitution-based skill checks equal to your aura bonus.
Motivate Dexterity: Bonus on Dexterity checks and Dexterity-based skill checks equal to your aura bonus.
Motivate Intelligence: Bonus on Intelligence checks and Intelligence-based skill checks equal to your aura bonus. Motivate Strength: Bonus on Strength checks and Strength-based skill checks equal to your aura bonus.
Motivate Wisdom: Bonus on Wisdom checks and Wisdom-based skill checks equal to your aura bonus.
Motivate Urgency - Allies base land speed is increased to 5x the aura bonus
Over the Top: Bonus on damage rolls when charging equal to your aura bonus.
Power: Bonus on melee damage rolls equal to your aura bonus.
Presence: Bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks equal to your aura bonus.
Ranged tactics - bonus to damage rolls for ranged weapons
Resilient Troops - Bonus on all saves
Resistance: Resistance to energy (fire, electrictiy, cold, acid or sonic) chosen when this aura is activated. 5*aura bonus.
Senses: Bonus on Perception checks as well as on initiative checks, equal to your aura bonus.
Toughness: DR 1/magic for each point of your aura bonus (up to 5/magic at 20th level)
Steady Hand - Bonus on ranged attack rolls
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.
Vitality - temporary hit points equal 3*aura bonus
Watchful Eye: Bonus on Reflex saves equal to your aura bonus.
wait, why did i need to do that, i forget. Anyway, but didn't you or someone else point out that most buffs can be plaid during anyone's turn anyway? we kinda then move full circle to then what's the point of the dragon shaman then? but wait, weren't we arguing that we could use the "for your combat check' for someone else. i think i was arguing that in the beginning. Even though I'm "casting" the spell you are the target. I'm starting to confuse myself over here...
i played through Skinsaw with 6 chars, and are curretly half through the first one with another 4.
My thought was one role that focuses on spellcasting and the aura, and one that focuses an melee and the breath weapon.
I think Flats wording is quite nice.
And i already had the change of the combat die in my first version, just forgot to copy, so all we need to change is the "your" to an "a".
And it was me that said that without the attackspells, you only add evade or explorespells.
Next try:
You may Display a spell instead of playing it. You may discard [recharge] a card once per turn to activate a Displayed Spell for a character at your location [adjacent location]. If activated this way, change "your Combat check" to "a Combat check", change "Arcane die/Divine die" to "appropriate Combat die" and determine the effect of this spell separately, then divide by 2 (rounding up) before applying it. If activated this way, the spell stays displayed. If you Display a new spell, you must discard any displayed spell.
You may Display a spell instead of playing it. You may discard [recharge] a card once per turn to activate a Displayed Spell for a character at your location [adjacent location]. If activated this way, determine the effect of the displayed spell separately, then divide by 2 (rounding up) before applying it and the spell stays displayed. If you Display a new spell, you must discard any displayed spell.
better? I dunno where to squeeze in the bit about attack spells being able to be used on other characters turns.
Oi... that special just keeps getting longer and longer. But what if it had all spells work like cure or something like that when you cast them on someone else. you still roll the dice but they get the result... or am I suppose to roll the die when someone else casts cure on me...
Are you sure it would be easier if two people have to roll for one check?
And would that wording really be shorter?
the mechanic of auras is too complicated to really shorten it. It's probably about as short as its going to be while still conveying its purpose clearly. As for the two rolls, I dunno. I guess its more thematic than anything since the aura power is coming from the Dragon Shaman to help the other character.
Sometimes the design process is circular...
My point was that while you may mean or expect it to be buffs only, the way it's worded doesn't limit you to buffs only, so when someone says "I want to display Force Missile" it breaks down pretty quickly.
You cannot play FM during someone else's combat, either to determine the die or to augment their attack. And since you are powering the ability, you cannot use this spell during their combat; they are not casting your aura. Somehow you need to limit it, which is why I recommend going back to non-combat spells.
I'll toss out another example that's a potential game-breaker... Consecrate (although not even the above limitation fixes it). You could spam this spell once per turn and extend the scenario almost indefinitely. Charm Person also comes to mind.
Not to be discouraging, but I tried to incorporate something along these lines in a custom character of my own and I ended up abandoning it because it was way too wordy.
I almost wonder if you shouldn't focus on 1 or 2 specific auras (as if you were selecting the option for your RPG character) and refine it/them. After all, none of the official characters represent the comprehensive list of class features.
Actually, Cure would be potentially game-breaking as well, since you'd be trading 1 discard for a guaranteed 1-3 cards of healing; worst-case you'd be trading even.
Hrm. Maybe we should abandon ship on the spells act as auras bit and look at it differently. What if instead the aura is the power? kinda like Lem and Harsk?
Hand 5 (6)
Proficiency light armor (weapon)
Special 1: Discard (recharge) a card to add 1d6 acid, cold, electricity, or fire to a combat check.
Special 2: Discard a card to add 1d4 (+1) to a check at your location.
One role will then add more to special 1 (new ways to work the dragon breath) while the other role will add more to special 2 (more auras).
actually since this would focus him a little more on weapons since the absense of spells, maybe "proficiency light armor (heavy armor) weapon" or "hand 5 (6) (7)". I personally think the proficiency one is better.
That was my first thought, but was to close to Lems for my taste.
But if you add adjacent location it would be a bit different. (as a power feat instead of handsize)
And i would change the discard from special 2 to recharge, both Lem and Harsk are only recharging.
so special 2: recharge a card to add 1d4 to a character check at your location (adjacent location).
It's actually a bit different than Lem and Harsk because they can only affect other characters, while Torke can affect himself aswell as others.
Torke the Dragon Shaman (keywords: Male, Dwarf, Dragon Shaman)
Strength d10 1, 2, 3, 4 Melee +2
Constitution d8 1, 2, 3 Fort +2
Dexterity d6 1, 2
Intelligence d4 1
Wisdom d6 1, 2, 3 Perception +2, Survival +2
Charisma d6 1, 2
Hand 5 (6)
Proficiency light armor weapon
Special 1: Discard (recharge) a card to add 1d6 acid, cold, electricity, or fire to a combat check.
Special 2: Once per check, you may recharge a card to add 1d4 (1) (2) to a check attempted by a character at your location.
starter deck layout
Weapon 3, 4, 5 (Mace, short sword, long sword)
Spells -
Armor 2, 3 (Leather Armor, light shield)
Item 3,4, 5 (Potion of Glibness, Potion of Hiding, Codex)
Ally 3, 4, 5 (Guide, Standard Bearer, Nights watch)
Blessings 4, 5 (Blessing of the Gods)
So that's what I'm looking at right now. Not 100% one the ally's, might wanna look them over again and maybe change them.
As for the roles, maybe the aura role will be able to use the boost on characters at his location and others as well as gain access to at least one new aura, possibly a healing one. The dragon breath role will add damage to the breath weapon as well as add back the damage reduction. I think instead of just being about dragon breath, i think i'll make it about being more like a dragon. Stronger breath, stronger defenses. Dragon Adept and Dragon Scion maybe?