Anyone else disappointed by the dragon shaman archetype?
I thought it would be nice to have a class that as its main feature can turn into a dragon. (before anyone asks, yes Skyrim has awakened my dormant obsession with dragons)
So here are my ideas:
Dragonshifters are a branch of druids who turned their focus away from nature and towards reverence of dragons.
Languages: Dragonshifters do not belong to regular druidic circles, they prefer to associate with true dragons, instead of Druidic, a dragonshifter gets Draconic as a bonus language.
Alignment: Any. May not differ more than one step on either axis from her totem dragon's (see below). For example a dragonshifter with Gold Dragon as her totem dragon can only be Lawful Good, Neutral Good or Lawful Neutral.
Totem Dragon: At 1st level a dragonshifter chooses a chromatic or metallic dragon as their totem dragon. She gains abilities based on their totem dragon. This ability replaces Nature bond.
Draconic empathy: This ability functions the same as wild empathy but instead of animals a dragonshifter uses it to influence dragons with intelligence scores of 1 or 2.
Whem making a diplomacy check to influence a dragon with an intelligence score of 3 or higher the dragonshifter gains a +2 circumstance bonus made on the check, if the dragon influenced understands the same language as the dragonshifter. This ability replaces wild empathy
Dragon shape: A dragonshifter counts her wild shape ability like that of a druid of her level -4 when using it to take any form that is not reptilian, a dragon or an elemental of the same elemental subtype as her totem dragon.
At 8th level a dragonshifter can use Wild Shape to change into her totem dragon, if she does this ability functions as Form of the Dragon I.
At 10th level, when changing into a dragon the dragonshifters wild shape functions as Form of the Dragon II.
At 12th level, when changing into a dragon the dragonshifters wild shape functions as Form of the Dragon III.
A dragonshifter can never change into a dragon other than her totem dragon nor into a plant.
How does this sound to you? Still too powerful or okay?
I was thinking of also replacing Woodland stride and trackless step and maybe changing up a few spells based on the totem dragon. But I think before I go into that I wanted to post this draft for review.
Here are some more things, little more drafty:
- Maybe spellcasting replaces all energy damage in elligible spells for the totem dragon's breath energy type.
- Directly nature related spells don't seem to fit. Summon nature's ally should probably become summon monster. Calm animal, speak with animals, entangle, etc. don't work that well with the theme either, I guess so they need either replacement or to be removed entirely.
Opinions and suggestions are still welcome.
I realize that form of the dragon as a spell is a pretty high level thing, that's why i removed nature bond and plant shape and reduced the choice to one particular kind of true dragon.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to go about balancng it?
I'm a little stuck.
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Why not create Form Of The Dragon, Least and Form of The Dragon, Lesser versions of the spell?
School transmutation (polymorph); Level sorcerer/wizard 4
You become a Medium chromatic or metallic dragon, unless you are a small creature, then you assume the form of a Small dragon. You gain the following abilities: a +0 size bonus to Strength, +0 size bonus to Constitution, a +0 natural armor bonus, fly 30 feet (clumsy), darkvision 30 feet, a breath weapon, and the resistance to one element is reduced to 5 if the normal resistance is 20 or 10 if the normal resistance is 30. You also gain one bite (1d6 or 1d4 for Small size), two claws (1d3 or 1d2 for Small size), and no wing attacks. You can only use the breath weapon once per casting of this spell. All breath weapons deal 2d8 points of damage and allow a Reflex save for half damage. Line breath weapons decrease to 20-foot lines and cones decrease to 10-foot cones. The additional movement type and the spider climb abilites are not granted.
School transmutation (polymorph); Level sorcerer/wizard 5
You become a Medium chromatic or metallic dragon. You gain the following abilities: a +2 size bonus to Strength, a +2 size bonus to Constitution, a +2 natural armor bonus, fly 60 feet (clumsy), darkvision 60 feet, a breath weapon, and the resistance to one element is reduced to 10 if the normal resistance is 20 or 20 if the normal resistance is 30. You also gain one bite (1d6), two claws (1d4), and two wing attacks (1d3).You can only use the breath weapon twice per casting of this spell. All breath weapons deal 4d8 points of damage and allow a Reflex save for half damage. All breath weapons deal 4d8 points of damage and allow a Reflex save for half damage. Line breath weapons decrease to 40-foot lines and cones decrease to 20-foot cones. The additional movement type is reduced by 1/2 and the spider climb ability grants a speed of 10 feet.
REVISED
Removed fey and added dragons, while still being all druid-like.
Dragon's Tongue: A dragonshifter's bonus language options include Draconic, the language of dragons. This choice is in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.
A druid also knows Druidic, a secret language known only to druids, which she learns upon becoming a 1st-level druid. Druidic is a free language for a druid; that is, she knows it in addition to her regular allotment of languages and it doesn't take up a language slot. Druids are forbidden to teach this language to nondruids.
Druidic has its own alphabet.
This ability replaces languages.
Alignment: A dragonshifter's alignment must be within one step of her totem dragon, along either the law/chaos axis or the good/evil axis (see Additional Rules).
Skills: Add Fly (Dex) to the list of druid class skills.
Dragon Bond: At 1st level a dragonshifter chooses a chromatic or metallic dragon as their totem dragon. A dragonshifter must select a domain that matches the alignment or the breath weapon of the totem dragon (for example a Blue Dragon Totem could select from the Law, Evil, or Earth domains). This ability replaces nature bond.
Draconic Insight (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a dragonshifter gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against the extraordinary, spell-like and supernatural abilities of dragons. This bonus does not effect spells cast by dragons. This ability replaces resist nature's lure.
Dragon shape: At 6th level, a dragonshifter's wild shape ability functions at her druid level – 2. If she takes on the form of her totem dragon, she instead uses her unmodified druid level. A dragonshifter can never change into a dragon other than her totem dragon. A dragonshifter can use Wild Shape to change into her totem dragon, if she does this ability functions as Form of the Dragon, Least. Elemental resistance from a domain stack with the resistance granted by Form Of The Dragon.
At 8th level a dragonshifter can use Wild Shape to change into her totem dragon, if she does this ability functions as Form of the Dragon. Lesser.
At 10th level, when changing into a dragon the dragonshifters wild shape functions as Form of the Dragon I.
At 12th level, when changing into a dragon the dragonshifters wild shape functions as Form of the Dragon II.
At 14th level a dragonshifter can use Wild Shape to change into her totem dragon, if she does this ability functions as Form of the Dragon III.
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I think if you use the spell levels as equivalents you can get:
Form of the dragon I at level 10 (same level as plant II an elemental III).
Form of the dragon II at level 12 (same level as plant 3 and elemental body IV).
So levels 10 and 12 are covered.
Levels 4-8 I think the easiest fix is just using beast shape as a base.
Level 4:
1) You turn into a small or medium dragon, but you gain only the special abilities listed in beast shape I and appropriate ability scores.
Level 6:
1) You gain level 4 ability plus any special ability of the bast shape 2 list the creature has.
2) Small dragon with darkvision, resistance 20, flight (all of which are available on elemental body 1), +2 Dex, +2 NA.
Level 8:
1) Any of the above, OR
2) Medium dragon, +4 str, +5 NA, darkvision, resistance 20, flight
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The changes still fail by far to balance this archetype with the other shamanic archetypes. There's simply nothing you can do that balances the ability to remain a dragon... a spellcasting dragon at that with the other animal archetypes. Anyone who thinks a dragon shaman can be balanced with a bear shaman is simply refusing to look at both in perspective.
What I posted above is more like a new archetype rather than an add on to the dragon shaman. I think this falls into one of those areas where the rules are not very explicit. If anything they are biased towards humanoids.
A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.)
Implies you can still speak normally while in a plant or elemental form since it is not specifically ruled out. Neither plant shape or elemental body are listed as restricted from speaking. While the spell beast shape does not say you can't speak, the druid is specifically pointed out as making sounds of the animal. So by the rule, any other caster could cast while in beast shape. But I don't see any rule saying a druid can't cast a spell while in beast shape.
A verbal component is a spoken incantation. To provide a verbal component, you must be able to speak in a strong voice. A silence spell or a gag spoils the incantation (and thus the spell). A spellcaster who has been deafened has a 20% chance of spoiling any spell with a verbal component that he tries to cast.
I don't see a requirement as to what language you must use. And obviously animals are able to speak to one another in their own language, so why can't you cast spells using howls? How do aboleths and other creatures that breath water cast spells if they can't exhale air? Intellignet plants speak by rustling their leaves, moving branches, etc.
A somatic component is a measured and precise movement of the hand. You must have at least one hand free to provide a somatic component.
Now here is another tricky bit in the rules that are borked. How do creatures without hands cast spells? Aboleth again as a good example creature.
Any spell requiring a material component could not be cast, since gear is transformed when you are. But just set down your spell pouch/focus before changing. Using Still Spell, Silent Spell, and Eschew Materials would let you cast anyway no matter the form.
@Thomas LeBlanc
I like what you put together. Looks a lot more thought out than my draft.
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@Thomas LeBlanc
I like what you put together. Looks a lot more thought out than my draft.
5 minutes of inspiration, 2 hours of looking through rules to make sure it was not too far out of line with similar levels, about an hour of maths sampling Least and Lesser with similar level spells and other new bilities, and 15 minutes of typing. I should have spent a little more time formatting and clarifying, but eh...
The only 2 items I were not very sure about balance wise:
1) Draconic Insight +4 bonus. There are more fey than dragons and added the extraordinary abilities to list since dragons don't have a very large list of Ex, Sp, and Su abilities that effect other creatures. +2 was original number until I really looked at the number of dragon abilities versus number of fey abilities a PC would need the saves for.
2) Dragon Shape -2 to other wild shapes. Was pretty sure this was appropriate since only one dragon type was allowed to be selected and has a limiting factor on the dragon form. A -4 is a big loss for all other shapes compared to just one dragon form was able to be selected and the druid being unable to select dragons to target different elemental weaknesses or be mechanically better in different environments.
There is the difference, I see. For me it was just looking over druid archetypes and the class itself and then some time at 4 in the morning, deciding I should write something down on the paizo boards.