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CHAPTER 2
DRAGON
ASPIRANTS
52
PLAYING A SWIFT WING
You are more than just another servant of your god. As part
of a holy dragon, you can find your deity’s foes with keen
senses, run them down with swift speed, and destroy them
with purifying force. Although you might spend more time
supporting your allies than striking down foes directly, you
do it from the front of every battle. You have powers beyond
those of typical priests, and you are dedicated to using them
to further your church’s goals. You might not appear to be a
dragon, but spiritually you have adopted that role as much
as your religious vocation.
Perhaps your church considers you a blessed champion,
granted powers by your deity as a sign of special favor. In
this case, church leaders call on you to undertake especially
dangerous missions that others have failed to carry out. They
expect you to be self-sufficient, taking on any threat without
the assistance of common church members. Alternatively,
your superiors might view you with suspicion. Although
you feel that you are a dragon in service to a higher calling,
others in the church don’t understand why a divine agent is
drawn to such an arcane symbol. In this case, your church
constantly tests you, wary of your true intentions and unwilling
to extend you the benefit of the doubt. But no matter what
your relationship with your church, you are largely cut off
from its aid—and that’s fine. You have learned to depend on
yourself and some close allies, and you don’t need the help
of other church members to carry out your deity’s goals.
Combat
As a swift wing, your place is in the forefront of any conflict,
but you must use your superior senses and mobility to keep
yourself from being cut off or overrun. If you were a front-line
fighter before becoming a swift wing, you need to remember
that you’re not quite as tough as a full-fledged paladin. If you
came to this class as a cleric, your basic function remains
unchanged—heal and aid your allies, harm undead, and
support the primary combatants. You can do this while
flying, even in heavy armor, and you now have the defenses
to survive longer if you draw enemy fire. Don’t stand in one
place and let yourself get bogged down. Rather, you are most
effective when you choose your targets carefully, felling
wounded foes, healing comrades near death, and casting
spells to strike at enemies beyond hammer’s reach.
Advancement
You set foot on the path of the swift wing the first time you
heard an elder of your church describe the faithful as a holy
dragon in your deity’s service. Most of the people listening
heard nothing more than an analogy of the power of faith,
but to you, a deeper truth had been revealed. The gods had
servants in the form of archons and other celestials—why
not dragons, too? Not all dragons would be appropriate, but
the image of one particular type of dragon acting as a mortal
warrior for your deity stuck in your head. You began to see
every ecclesiastical role as part of the draconic whole of the
church, with paladins as claws, divine magic as a cleansing
breath weapon, and yourself as a swift wing who brings the
power of the church to its foes.
You sought out lore about dragons, studied examples of
priests and dragons working together, and imagined yourself
as a mighty, draconic assistant of your god. In time, you
realized that your faith in this role was well placed. Your
affinity for dragons grew, and you began to receive not just
divine magic from your deity, but gifts of dragonlike powers
as well.
At first, these changes seemed minor. While you had access
to a few new spells and could spot things you once would
have overlooked, there was little to set you apart. But as you
have grown and advanced, you’ve learned that you truly are
different. Listen and Spot are class skills for you, allowing
you to increase your keen senses to be the match of anyone
in your group. You eventually gain a natural fly speed as
well, allowing you to take Flyby Attack (MM 303) and similar
flight-augmenting feats.
Resources
You’ve stepped outside the traditional role of an agent of the
church, embracing a symbol generally associated with arcane
spellcasters. Even if your deity has ties to dragons or arcane
magic, others in your church are unsure how to assist you.
Your faith sets you apart from fellow clerics and paladins, and
you must be prepared for the solitude that choice brings. You
can forge close alliances to protect your back, but as far as
others of your faith are concerned, you’re on your own.
SWIFT WINGS IN THE WORLD
“I cannot condone the interpretation of a silver dragon as a representative
of the light of Pelor. I also can’t argue against the effectiveness
of members of our congregation who believe that interpretation.”
—Prelate Phelan, High Priest of Pelor
Swift wings are crusaders driven to seek out and eliminate
enemies of their church. Not content to sit and wait for
reports about foes to filter in to them, they scour the world
looking for wrongs to right. As long as a swift wing has the
slightest clue that an enemy of her deity is active or the faithful
of her religion are in trouble, she will bring her force to
fight wherever she can do the most good.
Organization
The relationship between a swift wing and the official
hierarchy of her church is strained at best. Because she still
commands the divine powers granted by her deity, a swift
wing rightfully claims to be following the tenets of her faith.
However, her unorthodox belief structure makes it hard for
typical priests to comprehend her. In many cases, a swift wing
is treated like a loose cannon, allowed to fight for the church
but not accepted as a member of its inner circle.
Excluded from the normal authority structure of her
organization, a swift wing is more likely than many clerics