Empires crumble, eons pass, and even gods wither and die, but dragons remain. Mortal but eternal, the races of true dragons weather the roll of the ages because of their unsurpassed might. Few creatures can match a dragon in its full fury, whether in a combat of arms or battle of wits. Dragon shamans recognize this fact and see true dragons as more than powerful beings. To a dragon shaman, the passing shadow of a dragon flying overhead isn't a sign that invokes fear; it's a blessing that reveals you to be in the presence of greatness.

Dragon shamans respect true dragons as power incarnate. Some worship dragons, but most simply aspire to gain dragon powers for themselves. In assuming the abilities and the likeness of a dragon, a dragon shaman seeks to emulate that might and embody that power within himself.

If you gaze at dragons with awe and aspire to share their power and majesty, then the dragon shaman is the class for you. By choosing a totem dragon, you partake of a true dragon's power and take on aspects of a particular kind of dragon.

As a dragon shaman, you function most effectively on the front lines of any combat. Your class abilities allow you to boost your combat effectiveness and that of your party, and the touch of vitality ability provides you with the power to heal others and remove negative conditions that affect them, giving you more reason to take the fight to your foes and stay close to those melee-oriented allies most likely to need your aid.

MAKING A DRAGON SHAMAN

As a dragon shaman, you primarily act as a melee combatant, but your class features also allow you to grant benefits to those fighting around you. In a standard group of adventurers, you can stand in for the fighter or the cleric. Your combat prowess isn't quite as great as a fighter's, but you can employ special attacks and special defenses a fighter can't access. Although you lack many of the cleric's specialized spells, you do possess the ability to heal and remove negative conditions. As a dragon shaman, you can grow tough scales, breathe fire or another type of energy, and soar on dragon wings - and that barely scratches the surface of the powers at your command.

As with any melee-oriented class, Strength is a key ability for dragon shamans. Constitution provides you with increased hit points as usual, and it also increases the save DC of your breath weapon. If you want to make good use of the dragon shaman's ability to heal and remove negative conditions, you'll need a high Charisma.

Although humans make up the majority of dragon shamans, any community of people with a close connection to true dragons can produce dragon shamans. Typically, dragon shamans come from savage societies that live near the lairs of dragons, but even highly civilized populations can produce dragon shamans. In any race or society, dragon shamans tend to dedicate themselves to the dragons native to the area. Thus, elf dragon shamans from a forest nation often aspire to the qualities of a green dragon, whereas the dwarf dragon shamans of a high mountain citadel would seek to gain the qualities of a silver dragon.

Attaining the abilities of a true dragon requires a deep understanding of the chosen kind of dragon. An aspiring dragon shaman must make a study of the dragon's typical mindset and emotions; adopting these for himself opens the door to the dragon's power. Thus, dragon shamans align their morals to suit the outlook of the color of true dragon to which they dedicate themselves. Each kind of metallic or chromatic dragon has a particular alignment with which it is associated. A dragon shaman who turns away from the alignment of his chosen dragon type loses many of his powers unless he can successfully adopt another dragon type as his chosen dragon (see Ex-Dragon Shamans, below). Neutral individuals with no preference for law, chaos, good, or evil cannot properly attain the outlook of a true dragon and therefore cannot become dragon shamans.

PLAYING A DRAGON SHAMAN

As a dragon shaman, you believe the acquisition of power is a worthy end in itself. By having power, you can effect your will in the world, be it beneficent or malign. Those who have or seek power deserve your respect, while those who have power but fail to use it earn your derision.

Your strength comes from devoting yourself to dragons, the primal embodiment of the principle of power, but you worship dragons in the abstract, honoring them much as a cleric might honor light as a symbol of purity and goodness. Dragons gather power to themselves simply by living and aging, but you must actively seek the influence and might you desire. As a dragon hungers for flesh to feed itself or for treasure to enlarge its hoard, so you hunger for power.

You adventure out of a desire to test yourself and prove your worth; whatever the specific inducement, the urge to gain more power underlies every quest. Drawn by your power, others follow your lead, and you are happy to command them. Being a great leader is just one of the many ways you can manifest your power.

Dragon shamans can worship any deity, but most worship divine powers that encourage their worshipers to be proactive in pursuit of the deity's goals. Dragon shamans often worship Erythnul, Gruumsh, Heironeous, Hextor, Kord, or St. Cuthbert, as well as dragon deities such as Bahamut and Tiamat. They rarely find much to admire in more passive or protective deities such as Boccob, Ehlonna, Fharlanghn, and Yondalla.

Dragon shamans from more primitive societies sometimes worship true dragons. These savage dragon shamans might worship all true dragons, assigning each color or metallic hue its own place in a crude pantheon of totemic spirits. Or they might worship a single color or metal as the best among all the true dragons, finding it the most representative of pure power. In rare cases, a dragon shaman worships and serves a particular true dragon. How the dragon reacts to such worship depends on that individual dragon; even good dragons might take advantage of a dragon shaman's worship to achieve their own aims.

You work well with melee-oriented allies such as fighters, duskblades, barbarians, rogues, and even druids. Those characters value the benefits a dragon shaman can grant them and rarely make an issue of their source. Clerics, paladins, knights, and monks are often suspicious of your moral outlook unless you have dedicated yourself to a kind of dragon that associates itself with a code of ethics similar to their own. Wizards, bards, and beguilers view you indifferently, whereas sorcerers might seek you out to learn more of the source of your power and your connection to dragons. Rangers might or might not take issue with your abilities; a ranger whose favored enemy is dragons might attack you on sight.

Dragon shamans lead from the front, rather than directing battles from a safe position behind others. Keep as many allies as possible within the range of your draconic aura, but focus on those in melee with your foes. Pick a draconic aura that grants your allies the best benefit for the situation, and don't hesitate to switch it during the fight should conditions change and another aura prove more useful. Outside combat, employ the senses or presence aspects of your draconic aura. If you have a cleric or other healer in your group, save your touch of vitality for removing conditions or for emergency healing. If no other healer is present, use it to heal yourself and your allies after combat.

You profit most from remaining a dragon shaman throughout your advancement, so that your breath weapon and draconic aura continue to improve as you gain levels. If you do multiclass, a level of barbarian is an excellent choice; the benefits it grants help you in combat regardless of when you take that 1st level. Alternatively, you might consider beginning your career as a 1stlevel barbarian for the greater hit points and skill points that option offers, then multiclassing into the dragon shaman class at 2nd level. The fighter class might seem like a strong second choice, but unless you need a fighter bonus feat for a particular kind of character, you'll see better long-term advantages from the barbarian class. The bard class can be an interesting multiclass option, since the benefits provided by bardic music stack with those provided by your draconic aura.

DRAGON SHAMANS IN THE WORLD

Dragon shamans put the power and appeal of dragons in players' hands while providing DMs with a new way to put dragons in the D&D game. The class provides an uncomplicated way to have a new play experience, and each NPC dragon shaman could provide the nucleus for an interesting cult or villainous organization the PCs must face.

A dragon shaman remains ever ready to face the challenges of a new day. Without the need to rest, study, or pray for their powers, dragon shamans can leap up in pursuit of power whenever they desire. This capability causes most dragon shamans to be decisive and swift to act. Chaotic dragon shamans are often impetuous and energetic, while lawful dragon shamans tend to be more ready to improvise and less rigid in their thinking than some might expect. Dragon shamans desire power and constantly seek the means to gain it. To dragon shamans, life and adventure are one and the same.

Dragon shamans often possess the charisma and takecharge attitude required of great leaders, but many suffer from an inability to empathize with those they lead. Dragon shamans respect the pursuit of might and its use, and they often minimize the value of those who adhere to other philosophies. Even among themselves, dragon shamans tend to be contentious, and a single dragon shaman rarely takes a leadership role over a group of his fellows for any length of time. Although dragon shamans give great respect to one another, each is always trying to outdo the others in all pursuits. The most powerful dragon shaman leaders arise among savage tribes that worship dragons, where a single dragon shaman relies on his forceful personality and impressive powers to win the hearts of comrades.

The pursuit of power garners notoriety for a dragon shaman, but it also can bring about his death or force him into exile. A powerful dragon shaman warlord might suddenly arise and terrorize an area for a time, only to fall from power as swiftly as he appeared. A case in point would be the history of a barbaric human named Kalia. Under her leadership, her tribe of red dragon worshipers raided and razed hundreds of elf and human towns on the border between two nations. Then she vanished, and soon afterward her leaderless tribe was caught in an ambush and exterminated. Some say she died in a squabble with a fellow dragon shaman, but other believe she left her tribe to directly serve a red dragon wyrm that laired in distant mountains.

Dragon shamans rarely work together for long unless they are led by a dragon of the type to which all the shamans present have dedicated themselves. In such cases, the dragon is either worshiped or leads because the dragon shamans see it as the embodiment of all they seek; thus, obeying the dragon's edicts presents the swiftest path to that desired goal. Rank and privilege rarely have much meaning in such groups. Instead, the dragon decides each shaman's duties according to his or her merit, changing such assignments as necessary. Such a group exists among the Ironscale clan. Tied to a long-dead silver dragon by blood, the dwarf clan fosters sorcerers and is led by a half-dragon. Despite these firm ties to dragonkind, the clan views its dragon shaman members with some suspicion, since they follow the orders of an unrelated silver dragon that lairs near the clan home.

Dragon shamans who don't show aspects of their affiliation with dragons rarely elicit an unusual reaction from others. To most they seem like simple warriors or perhaps barbarians. Those who know of their pursuit of draconic power or who see evidence of it, such as scales or a dragon shaman's breath weapon, react depending on their attitude toward the dragon shaman's totem dragon. This reaction is one step closer to hostile if the dragon is of a kind feared or hated by that individual. The reaction is one step closer to friendly if that individual is directly associated with a dragon of that kind. Clerics, paladins, and others who are deeply entrenched in a particular moral outlook view the dragon shaman's devotion with suspicion, and their reaction is one step closer to hostile regardless of the dragon shaman's totem dragon.

DRAGON SHAMAN LORE

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can research dragon shamans to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: Dragon shamans devote themselves to dragons and aspire to their power.

DC 15: A dragon shaman devotes himself to a particular kind of true dragon and gains powers based on the dragon chosen. He can use the dragon's breath weapon and grow dragonlike scales. Very powerful dragon shamans can grow dragon wings and fly.

DC 20: In addition to the details above, this result allows the PC to know that a dragon shaman projects an aura that can bolster himself and his allies in a number of ways and can heal damage or remove negative conditions somewhat like a paladin.

DRAGON SHAMANS IN THE GAME

Dragon shamans fit easily into any ongoing campaign because true dragons are a cornerstone of nearly every D&D game. The PCs might first learn of dragon shamans by encountering a cult of dragon worshipers near a dragon's lair. Alternatively, a more civilized group of dragon shamans might serve a dragon who rules a city. A lone dragon shaman makes an excellent new villain, a powerful temporary ally, or an eager participant in an ongoing plot because his focused pursuit of power can get him involved in anyone's scheme to gain it.

Dragon shaman PCs should present no more difficulty than introducing a monk or cleric of a lesser-known deity. Although the character's abilities might be somewhat foreign, the idea that an individual is so dedicated to one philosophy that it grants him powers should be easily understood. The player of a dragon shaman usually finds the character's association with dragons to be the most entertaining part of the class. Before featuring adventures that deal with dragons, ask that player about her character's philosophy concerning dragons. Does the character admire dragons in the abstract, worship them as living gods, or hold to a philosophy between these extremes? The answer should inform your adventure planning and inspire new adventure ideas. Be careful about using the PC's dedication to dragons to manipulate the character's actions: Occasional use of this idea might provoke some interesting roleplaying, but the player won't enjoy your game if a dragon shows up every session to boss her PC around.

You can alter the dragon shaman to suit your game in a number of ways. You could decide that all dragon shamans are barbaric, or that all them are civilized and sophisticated disciples of dragons who prefer to work behind the scenes through such agents. You might decide that only good dragons are available to your players for their totem dragons, or that a particular organization fosters dragon shamans devoted to a single kind of dragon. If you feature other dragons prominently in your game, such as the gem dragons from Monster Manual II or the deep dragon and the shadow dragon from Monsters of Faerun, you might consider changing the class's features to allow a dragon shaman to follow other kinds of dragons as well.

Dragon shamans make excellent villains and tricky allies. As a villain, a dragon shaman dedicated to an evil dragon can be paired with a cult of followers, half-dragons, and dragons of all ages to make for exciting themed encounters. As an ally, a dragon shaman's blind pursuit of power could create interesting friction with the PCs and turn an ally into an enemy. A dragon shaman might become embroiled in the PCs' pursuits if they come into possession of an item of great power, if both the PCs and dragon shaman seek the same source of power, or if the dragon shaman's attempts to gather power endanger the PCs or those they care about.

EL 7: Thane(LN male human blue dragon shaman 7) has admired blue dragons ever since he witnessed a blue dragon's attack on his city when he was a child. The power of the dragon and the futility of the defenders' efforts against it frightened him, but he also found the spectacle strangely thrilling. When he was older, Thane learned all he could about blue dragons. With each new bit of knowledge, his respect for them grew. In his search for information he met a dragon shaman, and that encounter changed his life. Now a dragon shaman himself, Thane seeks ever greater power and hopes one day to have enough to challenge the dragon that laid waste to his childhood home and prove himself the stronger of the two. Thane seems single-minded and focused. He always has a mental list of goals he wants to achieve in any situation and doggedly pursues them. Although outwardly calm and cold, he explodes into action in an instant when thwarted.