Few creatures inspire greater awe than dragons, and Pathfinder Player Companion: Legacy of Dragons dives into the ripples left in these mighty creatures' wake. Whether they help or harm, dragons make a lasting impression, from the legends and philosophies they inspire to the bloodlines they foster.
Inside this book you'll find:
New archetypes ranging from the dragonheir scion to the wyrmwitch, allowing
players to access draconic appearances as well as lore, powers, and spells.
Ways for characters to enlist drakes and lesser dragons to serve as allies, improved
familiars, and even flying mounts.
New draconic bloodlines for bloodragers and sorcerers, allowing eldritch abilities
based on esoteric, imperial, outer, and primal dragons.
This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but can be easily incorporated into any fantasy world.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-853-3
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
For a game based on Dungeons and Dragons you would expect more dragons stuff and here it comes, but beware.
This book is chalk full of poorly done work. If someone submitted these archetypes in the RPG superstar they would be bashed and ridiculed. So how could paizo make a book they charge people for and put there name on it? There is one with the obvious error of replacing a feature it does not have. The others replace key features highly needed for the class with garbage. These seem like someone that just started playing the game and did not understand the class well made.
But you can have a drake pet! To bad it is poorly done too! You have to convince to not endanger itself or not be lazy. Someone tried to thematically write how to limit the equipment they can have, and honestly is very horribly done. So they are excited to get treasure but will one wear one magical ring or amulet?!?!!? That is dumb at best. It already has other limitations why pile on stupid ones?
This is the worst Book I purchased from Paizo. Honestly I feel people love dragons so much they reviewed it much higher than it deserves.
So this book is decent. Better then several of the previous ones. I love the concepts in this book but for the most part they are blah. I really liked the drake companion. Then after further reading and stating the character out, the more disappointed I got. At higher levels they have crap saves and won't do anything that harms them unless you use diplomacy or intimate. What other purpose do they serve at higher levels?
Now the Paladin Archetype is horrible. you give a lot of the Paladins for a drake companion and for what? At 5th level when you get them you get a small companion. Then it says if your drake companion is one size bigger than its charge it gets the mount power for free. This means you have to be a tiny race in order for that to work. Will never work in society unless you have some sort of boon.
The other drake companion archetypes are just as bad and give no real benefits.
Feats on this book are awesome. A style feat that gives you WIS to damage. But it has its strings but several good concepts that works really well with other style feats, which makes the Master Of Many Styles still a phenomenal archetype.
Over all this was a let down. So like a lot of the recent companions. That don't offer a lot of benefits and are mediocre. I think the player companions need to slow down with the releases and stop putting subpar stuff. If feels like they aren't even trying anymore and only care for the money. This is sad.
Firstly, let me say something. I am not actually the biggest fan of dragons. When it comes to powerful fantasy foes I'm much more likely to look to some raving demon or something chthonic with lots of eyes and mouths rather than a big fire-spitting lizard with wings.
That having been said, this is still a pretty solid book. One of its biggest selling points is that it lets sorcerers and bloodragers finally have official rulings on how to handle all the bloodlines that might come from all the new dragon types that have been presented in Bestiaries 2 through 5. Likewise, it's also got a few fun archetypes, such as a Cha-based monk and a dragonborn-ish fighter, which is something I personally have been interested in for a while, fan in dragons or no. Add in a smattering of spells, including two new Form of the Dragon varients which feel different enough from the base version to be interesting, as well as some rather nifty style feats and a feat for fluffing out your draconic heritage, and you have a pretty solid book with a fair number of options to pick through.
However, like the title suggests, it's also got some drawbacks that stop the book from being four or even five stars. That nifty fighter archetype above? It's written so that its big ability, free Arcane Strike, doesn't scale with your level, and it misprinted powers replacing bonus feats at levels when the fighter does not, in fact, get them. Some of the other archetypes are, strictly speaking, worse than the base class' options (I'm looking at you, dragonblood chymist). Finally, the biggest draw to this book, at least for me, turned out to be something of a letdown. The drake companion seems much too restrictive to be worth taking, and its progression turns the cavalier archetype, the dragonrider, into something more akin to a dragonwalker or dragongroomer until ninth or thirteenth level depending on your size, which was seriously disappointing when you consider you can get other mounts, such as a griffon, for much less effort and much more reward.
Is this book an amazing resource? No, honestly I'd say it isn't. It doesn't have me coming back again and again like some other Player Companions do. It does, however, bring a bunch of new draconic items, spells, and feats into the game though, and while I may not be the biggest fan of scales, blistering breath, and sleeping on gold, I also recognize that they are iconic as Hell and having options devoted to them is not a bad thing.
I feel rather conflicted. I absolutely love the good parts of Legacy of Dragons. For the bad parts, I absolutely hate to the point of feeling insulted.
Legacy of Dragons has a great premise that deserves a larger book and possesses plenty of awesome options like variant draconic heritages and a feat that lets you get dragon-themed powers without having to be a sorcerer. The new Form of the Dragon spells were something we really needed, and the other spells are really cool.
However, Legacy of Dragons has some content that absolutely infuriates me. The drake companion rules and some of the archetypes are absolutely poorly designed. This isn't just the case of content missing the mark - there's major flaws here that render the archetypes totally worthless and unplayable. There's a fighter archetype that replaces bonus feats at levels the fighter doesn't get any feats. This archetype also gives Arcane Strike, but forgets to indicate the fighter's effective caster level.
The alchemist archetype is also particularly baffling in that I honestly don't see any reason to ever take this archetype. It severely weakens your mutagen without giving you anything in return. It takes away your 2nd level level discovery and gives you a worst version of feral mutagen. It restricts you to using breath weapon bomb for all bombs AND takes away Throw Anything, the class feature vital to an alchemist's damage. All but one ability this archetype gives are literally just worst versions of discoveries you can take as a vanilla alchemist -- except the ability granted by the archetype all come at a hefty cost of other class features for no explicable reason.
I absolutely cringe whenever I see flaws like this, and I don't know why it happens. Does Paizo hire inexperienced freelancers? Do they not have anyone checking for errors like this? Are their deadlines so tight that designers can't QA their work sufficiently? Whatever the reason, it leaves me feeling like Pathfinder RPG products are created by a company that fails to understand how its own game works. This is the main reason I only sparingly buy Player Companions. More often than not, I can get higher quality work from reputable 3rd Party Publishers and get it cheaper.
The real question is: Do I condemn the book for a few pages of terrible work? I don't know. But overall, I do feel positive about the purchase. I honestly wouldn't feel so bad about the bad content if we got a larger volume. With only 32 pages, a few pages of poor quality content can become a massive stain on an otherwise good product.
There's a lot of little good things in this book, such as the section on Wyvarans (if you're into that), Draconic Heritage being a feat anyone can take and use, the variety of traits, both normal and racial, which can widely expand variety in characters, the addition of various dragon types for bloodlines and in new spells, and the flavorful new Oracle curse which requires you to wear bling or take minor penalties. The new Style feats are pretty alright too, although the only one I really have eyes for is Tatzlwyrm Style. Linnorm Style's base feat is alright but the higher level ones have an effect that only triggers if you would be knocked out (and the 3rd feat focuses on that), and Wyvern is some kind of Monk/Brawler-only Whip thing.
But there's a heap of bad too. I'm particularly annoyed by the Dragonblood Chymist which trades out a ton of class features, and replaces them with worse class features. It's almost as if it was made by someone who isn't aware how the class actually functions, because every feature it grants is one that you could already get as a discovery in a better form. The Dragonheir Scion is similarly bad, because not only does it lack a caster level (meaning that the built-in Arcane Strike never powers up), it also requires the Fighter to replace "the bonus feat gained at 3rd/5th level", and since it's a Companion book it's likely that the poor Fighter will never be able to qualify for this archetype since it's unlikely to ever be fixed. The other archetypes, while not as obviously bad (besides the Sovereign Blade) are still a bit shaky, such as a Monk that gets Cha as their main stat, making it great for dips as a Sorcerer/Oracle (and even better as a Paladin going into Champion of Irori) but not so great when your Will save has been lowered. The Wyrmwitch is probably my favorite archetype in the book because of the hoard familiar which is both hilarious and flavorful, but if a few gold pieces go missing the Witch suddenly finds themselves unable to prepare spells.
Drake Companions are also something that were hyped up, and they don't live up to the hype by any means. Imagine yourself riding your faithful dragon ally into battle, spearing foes from his back while he breathes torrents of flame before you take to the skies and fly off into the sunset. Riding isn't possible before level 9 for a Small rider, 13 for a Medium one, and takes 2 of the 5 available drake powers. Gaining a breath weapon is another one, although that's a 1/day low-damage glob until level 15 when it becomes a 3/day low-damage glob, at the cost of three total drake powers. And that's not including how you need to use a Diplomacy or Intimidate check just to get the Drake to do anything. Imagine if a Paladin had to really nicely ask the nebulous forces of good for a Smite, or if a Wizard had to threaten his spells just to make sure they actually targeted the right creatures, or if a Fighter had to bribe his sword to deal damage. A class feature with a mind of its own that in most cases is counter to your own agenda isn't a good class feature, and it's made worse by the fact that each archetype trades out massive numbers of features just to get a drake.
tldr: Don't get it for the archetypes unless you're willing to put a lot of work in to make dragonriding work. Get it for the feats, traits, and spells, which are decent and make up the majority of the book. There might not be enough with just those for a given buyer though, so be warned.
Thoughts several months later: Blood of the Beast released and included the "Feline" Wildsoul Vigilante natural course, which was an excellent idea which also opens the door for more similar archetypes (and archetype updates) in the future. Why am I bringing it up? Because this book would have been the perfect place for the very first one, with a Dragon natural course for Vigilantes. Instead we have the Dragonblood Chymist, which I am STILL mad about months after the fact.
Edit 2: It's been two and a half years. I'm STILL mad about the Dragonblood Chymist.
Edit 3: It's been almost 5 years. I'm STILL mad about the Dragonblood Chymist.
I can't wait to see post from the people at Paizo for managing our expectations.
I have to say this one of the most vague product descriptions to date. When I first say it I thought it was a campaign setting book not a player compendium book.
I so love dragons!!! I wish this was somehow connected to the Dragonrider Class from SSG or Rite Publishings In the Company of Dragons but I'll still purchase this for all its scaley goodness.
Not to get your hopes up unnecessarily, but the Genius that wrote the Dracomancer and Dragonrider classes for RGG just happens to work at Paizo.
ARGH! You keep thinking up stuff I want just so I won't cancel my PC Subscription, right?! You're targeting me!!!
And I love it! Thank you so much. :-P
I 2nd Set's call for some more Dragon-themed Bardic Masterpieces! Please! The few we have are interesting but it sure would be cool to have something that gives dragon-like abilities for a short duration (or protection from said Dragon abilities...).
And we are looking for a hardcover book in Player Companions? Either I am confused or others are...
Just in case some do not know: Player Companion line are soft cover 32 page expansions of the Pathfinder game with Golarion influence usually aimed at players and their characters.
While it would be nice to get a hardcover on dragons in Pathfinder, that is not what this is.
Hmm, I hope for an animal companion archetype that lets you pick up a draconic animal companion in some fashion, as well as a summoner or an eidolon archetype that lets you have an eidolon that's a dragon rather than an outsider. Perhaps a spiritualist archetype who gets a phantom that's a ghost of a dragon, instead? Some feats or magic items that help out the dragon disciple prestige class would also be nice, as well as perhaps some that help someone using form of the dragon spells. And, of course, I would also like some rules for selecting other dragons (primal, imperial, outer, etc.) for form of the dragon spells, draconic sorcerer bloodline, draconic bloodrager, etc.
I'd definitely also like some new spells that grant various draconic powers, though some of those certainly exist already...or perhaps some occult rituals? An occult ritual that could turn you into a half-dragon, whether permanently or just for a time, would be pretty interesting. As well as one that awakens you as a draconic bloodline sorcerer or bloodrager, allowing free retraining, perhaps?
I'd also be interested in seeing some stuff for those who worship Smiad, Apsu, Dahak, and other dragon-associated deities and demigods, I think.
Anyhoo, Legacy huh. Sounds like new line. I wonder if its like Blood of lines for ancient things or if its chronicling effects on world by super ancient beings xD
"Blood of" wouldn't be an accurate description of this book, because it's not about playing a dragon or half-dragon or presenting some new dragon PC race. It's more about how the influence of dragons may impact people, places, and things.
And yes, obviously, if we thought we had a good idea for another book that similarly looked at the influence some other group has on Golarion and its protagonists, we'd likely use a Legacy-style title.
For example, and confidentially, I pitched "Legacy of Otyughs" as a follow-up, but for some reason no one's gotten back to me about that idea yet...
I so love dragons!!! I wish this was somehow connected to the Dragonrider Class from SSG or Rite Publishings In the Company of Dragons but I'll still purchase this for all its scaley goodness.
As much as I love the Dragonrider (and I accept my admitted bias), I don't foresee us ever adding a 3pp character class in a Player Companion book.
WotC released a book for 3.5 called Dragon Magic. Supposedly they called it that because the two highest selling categories of books for them were ones with either "Dragon" or "Magic" in the title.
Oh, would you look at that. One of the two main authors of that book is also developing this one. Gee.
Eh, bring it on anyway. Can't get enough draconic-y goodness.
WotC released a book for 3.5 called Dragon Magic. Supposedly they called it that because the two highest selling categories of books for them were ones with either "Dragon" or "Magic" in the title.
The origin of the book's title had no impact on how seriously we undertook writing it. :)
Kvantum wrote:
Oh, would you look at that. One of the two main authors of that book is also developing this one. Gee.
And we are looking for a hardcover book in Player Companions? Either I am confused or others are...
Just in case some do not know: Player Companion line are soft cover 32 page expansions of the Pathfinder game with Golarion influence usually aimed at players and their characters.
While it would be nice to get a hardcover on dragons in Pathfinder, that is not what this is.
It got way over your head isn't it? People want so many different things for this book that it would require an Hardcover to fit at least 30% of them. Player Companion being a mere 32 pages will make a lot of people complain.
And we are looking for a hardcover book in Player Companions?
It got way over your head isn't it? People want so many different things for this book that it would require an Hardcover to fit at least 30% of them. Player Companion being a mere 32 pages will make a lot of people complain.
May 2010, Adventurer's Armory is the most successful Player Companion ever.
September 2012. Ultimate Equipment.
I'm not saying making Legacy of Dragons the most successful PC ever would mean a hardback for dragons would follow... but we'd sure notice!
WotC released a book for 3.5 called Dragon Magic. Supposedly they called it that because the two highest selling categories of books for them were ones with either "Dragon" or "Magic" in the title.
The origin of the book's title had no impact on how seriously we undertook writing it. :)
Hey, I loved Dragon Magic. Lots of cool stuff in there. It gave us the only other invocation-using class in all of 3e.
But like I said, bring this one on, and then get to writing the hardback followup for Gencon 2017.
Anyhoo, Legacy huh. Sounds like new line. I wonder if its like Blood of lines for ancient things or if its chronicling effects on world by super ancient beings xD
"Blood of" wouldn't be an accurate description of this book, because it's not about playing a dragon or half-dragon or presenting some new dragon PC race. It's more about how the influence of dragons may impact people, places, and things.
And yes, obviously, if we thought we had a good idea for another book that similarly looked at the influence some other group has on Golarion and its protagonists, we'd likely use a Legacy-style title.
For example, and confidentially, I pitched "Legacy of Otyughs" as a follow-up, but for some reason no one's gotten back to me about that idea yet...
I actually started a draft for a 3rd party Legacy of Otyughs, but I trashed the project. Honestly, it was mostly garbage.
I recently came up with an Alchemist themed character that uses SCIENCE to replicate "draconic powers" and goes around claiming she is a half-dragon. Perhaps this book would help with that? Maybe some dragon themed discoveries or archetypes? Draconic mutagens?
Those of you who are writing this player's companion sure have your work cut out for you, because it is going to be hard to meet all these expectations with a mere 32 pages, lol. Considering how good the last few player's companions have been though, I am looking forward to this one :)
How about making bloodlines in a format that works for both bloodragers and sorcerers?
It´s about urgent time though sorcerers get some new and especially shiny stuff. Between bloodragers and arcanists they have a real hard time and been treated like unloved stepchildren too long!
And what would be a more thematic book for sorcerers than this?
I recently came up with an Alchemist themed character that uses SCIENCE to replicate "draconic powers" and goes around claiming she is a half-dragon. Perhaps this book would help with that? Maybe some dragon themed discoveries or archetypes? Draconic mutagens?
You can actually already get some of that even without this book. Draconic Reservoir and Dragon's Breath formulae, and the Master Chymist prestige class's Draconic Mutagen ability. Now the enhanced mutagen does require a minimum 16th character level, so lower-level options for draconic alchemy would be needed.
Hopefully that's one of the things this book can provide.
[People have been asking for a "dragon themed AP" for a long time. We listen, and when the idea is right and doable, we do it. We've actually had a few dragon-themed APs on the to do list, and they still lurk there in the wings of possibility, but frankly... there's a lot of weird problems facing a dragon-themed AP. First and foremost, an AP where you fight a new dragon each time gets repetitive. Second, an AP where the main bad guy is a dragon isn't really a "dragon themed AP" if you have to wait five adventures to get to the dragon. Third, Golarion isn't really built to be a setting like Krynn where dragons are relatively commonplace and are woven deeply into the fabric of the world's nations and societies.
There are other reasons as well, not the least of which being that in order for an AP to go, it needs to have a champion on staff who is passionate enough about the story to carry it through, and so far, the stories we've tried to get going for a "dragon themed AP" have not ignited that passion, either because they're simply not good enough, or more commonly, they're stories we've seen D&D do a thousand times.
So, while a dragon themed AP isn't a likely possibility anytime soon, it's also not a "We'll never do it!" We just have to have the right story and right timing and all that.
Dragon's Demand, in the meantime, was our attempt to present a strong, classic, dragon-themed adventure. We'll continue to do those now and then, INCLUDING in adventure paths where we get the chance, but a full on start-to-finish "dragon AP" is a strangely difficult nut to crack. We've been at this for over 100 volumes now. If it were easy to do without feeling like a cliche or a blatant rip-off of another company's story, we would have done it by now.