Dragon Magic

Dragon Magic turned out to be something I was not expecting. I was expecting more of a focus on, well, dragon magic - magic of draconic origins. But it turns out it's more of a sourcebook for dragon-themed options.

The basic premise of the sourcebook is a “what-if” scenario - what if dragons had a more prominent role in humanoid societies? What if dragons are much more influential in what exactly happens in the world? Such a setting would basically justify the greater amount of draconic “magic” (read: side effects) out among the civilised races. The focus here is on varied player options, unlike Draconomicon (more DM options) and Races of the Dragon (more focused on kobolds and half-dragons).

Chapter 1 kicks us off with new racial variants, where common or popular races are matched off with a specific colour of dragon and given a draconic heritage (and thus, draconic abilities or influences). These are the dragonblood races, a new subtype. The standard character classes each, as expected, also get variant levels with a draconic bent. Add in draconic feats and that's the chapter. Personally, I'm not particularly fond of the races (they're flavourful, it's just that I don't like this kind of clear-cut lines/pairings), but the variant levels are fine.

Chapter 2 gives us a new core class and seven prestige classes. A pretty weak chapter for me. The new dragonfire adept can be described as “like a warlock but with a draconic bent”. The prestige classes are as generic as they come, with poor flavour. One of them is a psionic prestige class (some sort of obligatory inclusion of psionics I suppose). One of them utilises a new type of pact... with a dragon obviously. They're not “bad” per se, I just found them either forced or weird from a flavour point of view.

Chapter 3 gives us what I had initially thought was the focus on the sourcebook - magic options. What I didn't expect was that it has a little bit of everything - even new soulmelds (Magic of Incarnum) and vestiges (Tome of Magic)! Of course, expect new arcane spells, new invocations, the dragonfire adept breath weapons, new magic items, and even a new magic item type - magic imbued into dragon scales. There's also a legacy item - a helm.

Chapter 4 brings us new draconic monsters, including dragonblood animals (named collectively as drakken) and new dragon species. I found many of them rather creative. There's also an interesting option of having variant dragon abilities - mutations if you will - much like the idea of variant races. It helps buck player expectations when they see dragons of a certain colour.

The fifth and last chapter closes with ideas on how to integrate these options into existing campaigns and explores different ways that dragons can play a greater role in humanoid socities (whether they are openly in control, or acting behind the scenes, things like that). There's a few locations and maps (very basic) and a campaign idea to build around. It's not exactly a meaty chapter.

If you were looking for dragon-focused options, from themes, influences, to having actual draconic characteristics and abilities, then this could be a good sourcebook to have. But some of the options are a bit derivative.