ae few things to think about
I understand this is not d&d but i would just like to throw these ideas out anyway. Most of which is taken out of the Draconomicon.
First i would like to say that in horizons dragons have fit a one class role that has a lot of generalism. It has a lot of everything without the specialization in anything that makesthat class stand out and be usefull to others.
We hitfor little damage, yet our claws huge. We sharpened them in the adult rop, yet they remained dull. If the same processs is followed in ancient, dragons will remain in their same useless role unable to compare to other classes.
Wing attacks
Here are a few combat abilities i think dragons should have taken from the draconomicon.
One of the more important additions would be our wings. Just taking their size in relation to other races/npcs one may imagine how much damage they could do. Even the hollow bones of a bird are extremely strong on the wing. I don't know if anyone reading may have ever pissed off a swan but those wings can knock you out, and a swan is smaller than a gnome would be. Taking this into account, we should have another set of attacks along the lines of utilizing the power of our wings. Either two wing attacks in association with our claws or an ability on timer such as tail whip.
Shapeshifting
One of the more interesting aspects of the draconomicon is the varrying amount of shapeshifting dragons can do. Yet we are limited to the khuit which does not enhance our power, simply put it is a penalty.
I would suggest to allow dragons the ability to use biped equipment while in dragon form.
Obviously not to the entire arsonal that biped characters enjoy, but the dragon race/class is severly limited by only having access to 10 techable equipment slots. Compounding the problem is that dragons cannot armor tech an armor scale.
Another issue on this shapeshifting topic is the fact that when we change rougly 1/6 our size we gain no added dex or land speed. I believe the khuit form should not penalize us it should be a benefit in other areas.
More equipment issues
the following is taken right from the d&d book.
"dragons can wear magic rings without difficulty, even if the dragon does not know exactly what it does, it's likely he would wear it for the decorative value alone."
Rings and other jewlery is exclusive to bipeds but plenty would have the ability to fit on a dragon as well.
other equiptment is detailed to have no use other than the hoard except while in a shapeshifted form i.e shields swords(i wish) mauls etc.
Dragon classes in the form of single choice quests.
The larget difference between dragosn and other classes is lack to sustainted damage and healing that can save you. This leads to a bad combo for dragons in battle.
In my opinion it's a shame the dragon classes were removed. I understand that the new single class is what ae/tulga will stick with, but possibly for the future think about this.
Add in one-time-choice quests that add in many abilities/spells that are accessable to that dragon line of abilities. It would be broken into two different lines per faction.
In dralk one would follow the pure warrior path, thus it would lead the dragon to have harder natural scales/hit harder etc.
Next would be a paladin style adding in some heal abilities/access to a few heal spells and buffs.
In Chic you could choose the wizard or cleric paths. Both shoud be self explainatory.
Just for a splash of flash i think dragon wizards should gain access to the weapon sucket they can hold a staff in, and have the choice to walk upright withthat staff as some do in D&d lore.
Dragon crafting.
On the surface i would like to state a few things about dragon crafting. Biped characters have the ability to raise their stats through crafting above their natural numbers without training points or multiclassing. I believe if a dragon chooses to time the time to raise a 100crafter/drag adv they should benefit through added str and or power. These are the two basic stats that seem to be effected more often by crafting and dragons should have the same access. The dragon craft school has stats per level but they are lower than the adv numbers and for a dragon to sit around forging and digging they should have higher strength, or if they were spell creators they should be increasing intelligence to some degree above that of an adv.
In terms of what we can make for our hoard and for bipeds is severly limited.
I think dragons should be the only class possible that can take up a gemcrafting crafter class school.
I understand we have jewlers i am referring to the gems one would socket intheir armor.
Bring them in various forms, but have these gems remain untechable for stats etc.Instead, the techs available would give the gem an added effect such as the wd gems gave.
Heal spells.
Just as a little comparison biped characters either in warror or cleric form have access to the two basic heals that trump and dragon heal.
My biped character has only reached the level 50 to compare with tier 2 techs. Nevertheless the gap is already extreeme when compared to my lvl 100 dragon.
The dragon breeze lines at lvl 100 can heal for about 480 which is the basic average of the spell. Granted it is a nice benefit and is superior to the spells prior to merger they are still nothing compared to others.
The lack of ability to tech them is one major problem. I understand being able to tech them with biped techs would create an overpowered pulse heal. So then the idea of dragon only heal techs should be explored.
These can take two forms
pulse Heal increase
just as the biped but much less to accomodate to an already low heal that runs on a pulse.
Pulse heal recycle
This should take the form as reducing the time inbetween pulses and the time it takes for the whole spell to be reused.
Pulse heal purify
Just as the increase it would be less of a % because of amount of pulses that go off in the duration of the spell.
lunch time, My Final Thoughts!
I know i forgot a lot i read about in the draconomicon, but if i actually get positive feedback rather than ranting ill try and exemplify on some issues because this was just a spur of the moment thing.
As some who play bipeds may not agree with the amount of attention me and other dragons demad for our class you must understand that the choise to remove the multiclass ability from dragons has made us trapped and unable to branch out like the other races can. No matter how weak a monk/sorcerer/wizard etc is you can still add power to that character by multiclassing while retaining your character. We cannot this is the difference.
I would like to end by saying to ae the dragon class so far has fit a nich where it imitates the other races in the world, but it does so in a feeble attempt,and by your very own lore bipds have basically imitated dragons, should we not then have the more potent magics/combat abilities?Dragons thus far have a lot of abilities, but everywhere in the other class trees it is done better and more efficiently. I believe all the hardships to reach ancient status should bring us up to par with the other races.
You are not only as usefull as you make yourself to be when your core and continuous abilities are so much lower in relation to those around you.
The two most important things that need attention for this to occur is sustained damage and reliable sustained healing. Until we get these two very important things dragons will remain the same, no matter what abilities they gain through the ancient rop, because once you use them until they reopen you are once again a low damage, low tanking abilitiy, and low healing liability to a group.
