A player has requested to play a Dragon Shaman in the RotRL campaign I am running. He will be playing the role of the healer/support within the group which so far has: a dwarf fighter spec'd for defense and battle field control, a half-orc ninja based on the play-test for ultimate combat, and a half-elf summoner. He is wondering if this class can make a competent healing/status removal contribution to the party as he does not like the flavor of the cleric, druid, or oracle. If not, is there another option for healing and party support beyond the aforementioned?
Lastly, I have just read a player made conversion of this class by 'Smilodan' and I found some of the aura feats that he had created to be extremely powerful for the level you could take them. Does anyone have any experience running one of his converted Dragon Shamans or have any thoughts on the conversion itself? Overall I liked it, but being able to fast heal and augment damage at the level you could with his improved aura feats seemed like it could be an issue.
I am currently playing a dragon shaman in a Pathfinder game. I made only the obvious conversions. I see three problems with Smilodan's conversion:
1) Combining a d8 hit die with adding charisma to hit points is awkward and unnecessary. I could have sworn that the correlation of hit die size to BAB was a floor, not a strict correlation (as noted with the Barbarian exception in the core rules).
2) He did not convert the Touch of Vitality to work like the Pathfinder version of the Paladin Lay on Hands ability that it is based on.
3) Finally, those aura feats are too good. The fact that I would not hesitate to take certain of them if they were available is enough to put them under suspicion. No feats should be such obvious no-brainers.
A dragon shaman + a bard in the same party could be an issue. However, a single dragon shaman in a party of 4 (5 with the eidolon) won't cause you any problem. The summoner's eidolon can also learn some healing spell-like abilities and there's nothing a character with ranks in UMD and a rod of cure light woumds cannot heal.
Thank you both for the input. I'm not entirely familiar with the class, however, I have attempted a conversion which I have posted in the 'conversions' message-board that takes into account your input Davidknott242. The mention of the Paladin's 'lay on hands' was an excellent suggestion. I felt that the dragon shaman should have a bit more healing utility because it isn't nearly the high defense, front rank, damage dealing machine that a paladin can be.
Also the input about the bard was something I hadn't considered, thank you for that Maerimydra. The many buffs on the eidolon, let alone the party could become an issue, thankfully none of the party in my game have realized this. Though several of my characters have a high charisma score and will be getting near the 'leadership' feat level soon. Hopefully they haven't realized that 'Pathfinder' hasn't done away with that yet...
Thank you both for the input. I'm not entirely familiar with the class, however, I have attempted a conversion which I have posted in the 'conversions' message-board that takes into account your input Davidknott242. The mention of the Paladin's 'lay on hands' was an excellent suggestion. I felt that the dragon shaman should have a bit more healing utility because it isn't nearly the high defense, front rank, damage dealing machine that a paladin can be.
Also the input about the bard was something I hadn't considered, thank you for that Maerimydra. The many buffs on the eidolon, let alone the party could become an issue, thankfully none of the party in my game have realized this. Though several of my characters have a high charisma score and will be getting near the 'leadership' feat level soon. Hopefully they haven't realized that 'Pathfinder' hasn't done away with that yet...
I cannot help you if you modify/convert the dragon shaman class, but if you take it as it is written (except for the skills, of course), I can assure you that this is not a "game breaking" class.
For what it's worth, we did a simple conversion for our table.
Full bab to go with the d10.
Altered its touch of vitality to operate identically to lay on hands.
That's all. Simple, straight forward, decent but not brokenly good.
It's cool people are checking out my Dragon Shaman conversion!
I haven't playtested any of those aura feats, so it's great to hear feedback about them. If they're too powerful or no-brainers, then they should certaintly be altered or given pre-requisites or something to tone them down.
I kind of wish the dragon shaman got its wings earlier. Maybe something like 9th level, with a one minute per level per day duration, usable in non-consecutive one minute parsels, like the witch's flight hex. Then at 19th level it can get the fly at will all day ability.
In play, I have a gnome dragon shaman, and the combination of slow speed and Small weapons have been a bit of major handicap, especially since the rest of the PCs have a speed of at least 40 feet, and my dragon shaman only has a speed of 20 (30 with boots of striding and leaping). This wouldn't be so bad in a dungeon, but most encounters have been wilderness or city encounters, with lots and lots of room to run around. But this might be a problem with Small and slow races, not the dragon shaman... I digress....