Couldn't it be an option for runts/weak dragonlings that would otherwise not likely survive? It wouldn't be a common thing (depending on the world/campaign setting), but it's another way to flavour the class.Given that dragons with that much interest in humanity are those who tend to be magically adept enough to just simply shapechange themselves to be humanoid, why bother submitting to a human for such desires?
Plus you get a sweet human body to do all the stuff you couldn't do in a dragon body, like eat those things humans make, dance, play an instrument, whistle, partake in alcohol and the bartender's daughter. I know that's the third time I mentioned human tail but considering how rare dragons are that's definitely a big deal.
In the explanation it seemed like weaker and less patient dragons would be the main culprits for Dragonrider steeds. I also imagine weak dragons would be more vulnerable to competition so go the Dragonrider route for protection and power. Assuming that its more like a Trill (Star Trek) relationship than a subservient relationship there are a lot of benefits to a weak dragon with minimal loss of dignity. I know my players didn't like Dragonrider until I explained the Focus ability as a trill merging personalities with it's host. Honestly it makes me wish the class wasn't a 'dragonrider' and more of a proto-sorcerer 'Monster Bonder' class. It would give the class way more options if it could choose a monster bond from the bloodline list and get powers in exchange for being a host to a monster hoping to gain power/experiences through leveling as a humanoid. It would also be interesting that the character does essentially have to give up half his personality to make that kind of bond.
On the subject of Machinesmith; Sad to hear that it's on the weak side. What exactly makes it weaker?
I'd also like to put out there concern about Runic Might from Super Genius Games and Fistful of Denarii classes.
I haven't looked too hard at Fistful of Denarii but the classes do seem at first glance fairly ability heavy when compared to the core martial characters and the scholar class a bit weak.
Runic feats make me want to make a Fighter more than Talented Fighter does but how good are they really?
The machinesmith definitely looks interesting. Fits my image of an updated Artificer class, though only being able to upgrade the mechanus (I think that is what it is called) only 4 times over the 20 levels (or 2-3 times for most games) seems a bit... blah.
I would think that being given the choice at gunpoint, spearpoint, or arrowpoint, comes under the category of "forced upon them", but that's me.Historically speaking? Millions.
How many Humans would tolerate being a slave for a year, or a decade, if such a choice wasn't forced upon them?
There are actual records of Ancient Egyptians who sold themselves into Temple Slavery for a year. The exact reasoning isn't given, but the contractual documents survived. (This was one of the temples further south, near Philae, which practiced the old religions much longer.)
Additionally, the idea of voluntarily submitting oneself into a (temporary) ritual slavery to the temple as a part of a mystery initiation or service to the temple was not unknown in Antiquity. (I'm nowhere near my copy of Cults of the Roman Empire and cannot verify, but do remember.) Heck, there was a whole group of people who voluntarily castrated themselves as a part of their religion, enough that they were considered a third gender, so I would be unsurprised.
-Ben.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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Ooh, speaking of awesome 3rd party stuff, if you like Eastern-y martial arts goodness, Legendary Games has a .pdf called The Way of KI that just rocks.
Thanks for the shout-out. If you like The Way of Ki, I'd also encourage you to check out its sequel, Meditations of the Imperial Mystics!
Design Manager
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Ooh, speaking of awesome 3rd party stuff, if you like Eastern-y martial arts goodness, Legendary Games has a .pdf called The Way of KI that just rocks.Thanks for the shout-out. If you like The Way of Ki, I'd also encourage you to check out its sequel, Meditations of the Imperial Mystics!
I just picked this up per your recommendation, so far it looks amazing! I'm thinking about building a Sensei Monk to try some of this stuff out. I went on a little bit of a 3pp spree and Picked up Meditations of the Imperial Mystics, Super Genius Game's Shaman and Death Knight, and Rite Publishing's In The Company of Fey.
I haven't looked too hard at Fistful of Denarii but the classes do seem at first glance fairly ability heavy when compared to the core martial characters and the scholar class a bit weak.
I hope I'm not spilling any trade secrets here, but most of the Fistful of Denarii classes are built on a core class "skeleton" with some abilities swapped out for new abilities. I did reshuffle the Beastmaster's low level abilities in the most recent revision. As for the Scholar, I can't promise it's the most powerful class around, but it's certainly one of the most popular things from the book.
My favorite 3PP class is actually just an Archetype for the Antipaladin from Fire Mountain Games.
The Lord of Darkness is a work of subtle genius that feels way more like an evil overlord than the regular antipaladin.
Great for use as a BBEG or as a PC in an evil campaign.
I haven't looked too hard at Fistful of Denarii but the classes do seem at first glance fairly ability heavy when compared to the core martial characters and the scholar class a bit weak.I hope I'm not spilling any trade secrets here, but most of the Fistful of Denarii classes are built on a core class "skeleton" with some abilities swapped out for new abilities. I did reshuffle the Beastmaster's low level abilities in the most recent revision. As for the Scholar, I can't promise it's the most powerful class around, but it's certainly one of the most popular things from the book.
I think that's because it's the best one in terms of interest.
While the Fighter is supposed to be 'the fighting man', class features-wise he comes off more like a 'build your own dude' class. Scholar feels like he mirrors the fighter in that respect making him feel like he complements the game more.
Let me put it this way; In one blog someone said that if Pathfinder had one class, it would be Fighter and if it had two classes it would be fighter and Wizard. I agree, you could accomplish a lot with just those two classes, but if Pathfinder only had two classes I'd personally replace Wizard with Scholar. The scholar class feels much more like a 'guy studying magic' than wizard does and can get more varied because of it.