Talk:Dracomancer (4e Class)

What's Draconic power source?! --PokeLinkEs (talk) 07:26, 30 November 2012 (MST)

The Draconic Power Source

The draconic power source means that when a dracomancer uses his powers he isn't channeling arcana or primal energy. He is using the power that a dragon or dragon deity like Bahamut has bestowed upon him for his dedication or service.

The draconic power source is not just for flavor, in that it can lead to important story developments rather than just change how a power looks. In my campaign the draconic power source has definitely come into play and made the story take a very different route. The dracomancer has sold his soul to the dragon who bestowed him his power so when local dragon slayers make it their goal to kill the dragon, the dracomancer must stop them. Not only to protect his master but because if the dragon is slain, his soul will die with it and he will lose his powers. This has guided his interests and the direction of the campaign toward not only stoping the dragon slayers, but also usurping their order.

Another example is that in my homebrew setting the draconic power source is almost entirely ignored by the contemporary civilizations, but served as the basis of the ancient human cultures there. I even have some things left over from that culture that can change the class of the character to an equivalent draconic sourced class.

Not all of the power differences need be significant, but they certainly provide some interesting story opportunities.

Here's some examples we've used:

You can use power sources to put thematic handles on things.

One of the adventure groups we set up last year had all the PCs as students at a magic academy. We did it by making it a requirement that all of the PCs had to have an Arcane power source. All roles were covered- strikers, defenders, controllers and leaders.

Another time we had an all drow group- an underdark house-- although it's reaching a bit outside of canon, we thought it would be cool that only female drow PCs could have the divine power source. Because Lolth only truly blesses female characters.

In Dark Sun there are no divine character classes, but the roles can still get filled.

Thematically, that really has an effect on the campaign.

As a DM the power sources are great ways to shine a spotlight on different types of characters. We've definitely had games where a PC had to have a certain power source in order to attempt a certain task. For example, in one game, the PCs had to recruit, train, and lead a militia.. it's a diplomacy check, but I further restricted it to martial characters only- because I assumed martial characters would not only have the necessary experience, they'd have credibility. Cleansing a shrine might require a divine source, speaking to an ancient elemental- maybe primal. Attempting to interface with an intelligent alien crystal in a dungeon? Maybe that's arcane or psionic only.

Anyway with a draconic power source you can take your campaign in a different direction by making it dragon themed or including dragon oriented quests where the unique power source of a dracomancer will matter.

-Dragonite

Well you put forth a good argument, but this is still Arcane. Warlocks have pacts with devils, fey creatures, the Far Realm, but their power sources aren't "Devil", "Fey", "Far Realm". The dragon build sorcerer is also Arcane. Of course you are free to do as you wish with this in your home games. Marasmusine (talk) 02:07, 11 February 2013 (MST)

Images

I have right-aligned the images. The first two look okay on my screen (1440 pixels) but it will look awkward on smaller resolutions. #3 and #4 are an acceptable width. There are still too many images; the entire right side is a column of pictures. It seems that some still do not have attribution because the site that is hosting the image is not the original source (and presumably breaking copyright). You can use Google Image search to track down the originals. Marasmusine (talk) 01:46, 13 February 2013 (MST)

Hello I am viewing this page on my desktop computer and right aligned images have ruined the display of the page. I tried viewing it on my mobile device as well and right aligned messes up the text so I can't read it. I am changing it back so I can view the page better. Dragonite please give credit to the artists for these images but keep them aligned as they are please or viewing this page will look messed up

Looks Good To Me

left aligned looks good on my small resolution computer. although nobody on the internet cares where images came from if marasmusine insists then the name of the image should be included underneath it with the artist. i hate all the other pages on d&d wiki that have right aligned images with the boxes around them to separate from the text they always get cut off and it turns the text into a long bar with hyphenated words I have to read down the left its really annoying.

Presumably the artist would care, and I hate pages where I have to scroll down past an image that fills my whole page just to read the next paragraph of text. At Wikipedia, image width is limited to something like 300 pixels, thumbnailing if necessary, so that it aligns with the text nicely. This page has too many images, and the images are too large.

I like the image size and how they are formatted left on the page but if Dragonite can make the first 2 smaller he should. The rest of the images are fine on my desktop. Anything is better then right aligned with those infernal boxes that mess up the text. Having the images placed like they are now is a huge improvement in page layout

It might be worth seeing what half-dragon images are on Flickr, since in most cases they will also provide a link to a reduced-size image for the purpose of external linking.

I agree, external linking is better for this page. If Dragonite cant find the same images on Flickr there is a way to select an image on Google Images and find the same image in more sizes. I would like to add that the pictures Dragonite has chosen for his page greatly enhance the depiction of this class like the pictures in a Player's Handbook

Also, I need to take a look at some of the pages you've seen with right-aligned boxed images that "always get cut off" and "turns the text into a long bar with hyphenated words" so I can see what the problem is. I will find out from Green Dragon what guideline we should be adopting for image placement. Marasmusine (talk) 01:54, 14 February 2013 (MST)

I am still awaiting examples of "infernal boxes that mess up the text". Marasmusine (talk) 00:31, 17 February 2013 (MST)

Thanks

Thank you everyone for your impute. I'm glad you are enjoying my class and the pictures I've illustrated it with. I'm going to resize them but keep them linked externally. This class I created is dear to me and I am so happy you are taking an interest in it. One of the reasons I decided to illustrate this page the way I did is because I am an artist that illustrated Adventures Dark and Deep

Adventures Dark and Deep

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623939691/adventures-dark-and-deeptm-a-curious-volume-of-for

I believe that pictures speak a thousand words. I could spend paragraph after paragraph writing fluff about dracomancers, but it is more powerful for the imagination of the player if they can see what a dracomancer is like. That way when they are playing at the table and calculating for damage the visualization of their character decapitating a monster or assuming half-dragon form and incinerating their enemies is strong. Thats what D&D is all about

-Dragonite

Please check the copyright on the images you intend to resize (and presumably re-host yourself). If it is under a creative commons license that allows derivatives, that's fine. If it's just a flat copyright, then you can't do that.

Green Dragon often states he wants our pages to follow the formatting of the official books as closely as possible, so I encourage you to look at the Player's Handbook and see how many images they feel is sufficient for people to see what the class is like. Marasmusine (talk) 02:00, 14 February 2013 (MST)

Since you seem to have made resized derivatives of work under copyright, and linked to them like I said we shouldn't, and still haven't attributed the source, I have replaced them with links to thumbnails generated by deviantArt per guidelines. I could not locate the original source for the final image - the blog address in the image did not appear to be that of the artist. I have also right-aligned them without using the "box" that I believe was the issue before (I still haven't been given an example as requested above). You get all the images you want, and I can read up and down the text without tearing my hair out. Hopefully you will accept this compromise. Marasmusine (talk) 02:51, 24 February 2013 (MST)

Flight

I have removed the Fly speed from Dragon Shape again. PC should not have access to unlimited flight at Heroic tier. The class already has powers that facilitate flight - see Dragon Wings at Dracomancer Powers (4e Power List). Marasmusine (talk) 02:09, 4 July 2014 (MDT)