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With everyone in the party now at 2nd level, at least one other arcane spellcaster has been added to the party- a Cleric of Boccob 1/SpecWiz 1.
Thus, I can get this guy a bit closer to his original inspiration.
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PC background exerpt
Adragon Von Basten, born the child of a part-Succubus courtesan and a Half-Dragon mercenary Captain, grew up in the Pleasure District. The brothel's garden was his haven, the bars and back-alleys the forge that tempered his manhood...largely because of his combination of (vaguely Half-Elven) good looks and a lack of common sense. Eventually, his mother employed him as a bouncer in her brothel (The Moonlit Rose), where he also found love with a young seamstress (Kassea) who made and repaired the whores' loungewear and lingerie. Life was good...
So, he'll be going back to the Draconic build with his Feat selection.
In addition, his potential spell list will contain almost nothing but Electrical or Sonic based damage spells, Enchantments, Illusions and those that are lacking somatic components.
The damage spells will take advantage of the HR I mentioned above- some will be EnSubbed spells that will be electrical now, like Flaming Sphere (now "Adragon's Ball Lightning) or Blistering Radiance (now "Adragon's Electrical Airburst"). Others will actually address weaknesses in his spell selection caused by his obsessive nature, like Orb of Electricity (now at 5th level as the Transdimensional "Adragon's Spectral Sphere") or Lightning Bolt (now at 6th level as the Sculptable, Explosive and Born of the Three Thunders "Adragon's Thundering Doomstrike")
In concord with his lower than average Wis, few spells (and none of the Electrical ones) will be Stilled, despite his preference for wearing armor...
hornedturtle
Duh he was built by a dragon Artificer.
Dude, I was in the ER a week ago or so, and the treatment I received afterwards had me spending a lot of time flat on my back watching TV.
I was lying there in a vicodin-induced haze thinking about Adragon and watching Hellraiser: Bloodlines and your post suddenly sprang to mind. I thought of another PC design, inspired by your post, that movie, and a bit of Hellboy.
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BOX
Warforged Ftr/Sorc
Using the basic Mage-brute theory, he takes Adamantine Body as his first level feat, maximizing Str, Con, and especially Cha. His weapon should be the spiked chain.
Instead of the Draconic Heritage & BW feats, take Infernal Heritage and Infernal Sorcerer's Howl ASAP.
Describe him as having an adamantine body, somewhat darkened by blackish-red enamel paint, with elaborate golden filigree.
That's right- he's a walking, talking LeMarchant Box, a living Lament Configuration- contstructed to be an autonomous key to the gates of hell.
Like Hellboy, however, he rejects his intended destiny, and seeks to travel a different path.
It also looks like, after that, I'm going to concentrate more on spellcaster themed feats...Empower spell, Craft Wonderous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Forge Ring.
Once you can make a magic sword, I suggest you add the Skillful special quality from Complete Arcane (pg. 144) to it. Sure, it's a +2 hit but what it gives your PC is worth it.
The caster level requirements are a bit high, so you might have to pay an NPC arcanist to enchant one for you if you want the higher BAB sooner.
__________________ World of Kulan:http://www.enworld.org/forum/world-kulan/
I may have to apply it to a later PC, though. The current guy- someone I've gamed with for 20+ years- has been a bit off of his game the first few sessions. Essentially, he's been more wooden than a Shambling Mound named Al Gore.
Part of it could be the module he's running- only time will tell if the group gives him enough time to shake it off.
Just had to mention the obvious option: Bard: Dragon Touched, Draconic Heritage, Dragon Breath at 3rd. Nets the same result but with better casting, bab, skills, (music) 'roar' etc. A blasting bard pops eyes and isn't competing against spells she can cast at diminished returns as their current damage spells are puny.
tho for a fire breather I have to say a Cleric with the earth and fire domains and 'dragon fire chanelling' (Dragon Magic) has always been hard to beat.. 1st level and a chr of just 14 nets 15x breath weapon at 1st level with half of the damage being 'sacred'. Elemental slaves sooner or later thru turn/rebuke elementals just round out the charm.
The main flaw there is that the Heritage (Draconic, Infernal, Fey, etc.) feats have Sorcerer as a prereq- once you have 1 level of that, though, you can apply the feat to any arcane spell slot.
The Sorc also has better casting, at least in the sense of a faster progression into higher-level spells (which do correspondingly more damage). Zero-level spells don't work with the Draconic Breath feat, and the Bard doesn't get a 1st level spell until 2nd level...and that one is a bonus based on a high casting stat.
As for spell competition, the PC in question has 3 basic criteria in spell selection:
1) Spells without somatic components, so they can be cast in armor without penalty.
2) Spells that are otherwise useful- he's generally got blasting covered by his BW.
3) Blasting spells that do things he can't do with his BW AND fit his self-image.
4) Electrical spells in general.
The third one is made easier in that the DM approved a HR that lets casters learn variants of spells that have already been modified by some kind of metamagic without having to know that feat. This lets us have flexibility in spell selection, but still locks down the mechanics of our known spells unless we actually know metamagic feats.
IOW, since he sees himself as a human descendant of a blue dragon (hence his preference for scale mail), and has a lightning BW, he prefers electrically themed blasting spells. (And since he's somewhat of an idiot, he doesn't realize the value of learning energy-based attack spells that AREN'T electrically themed.) So nearly every energy-based attack spell he learns is going to be "metamagically" learned as an electrical spell.
What that all boils down to is that he really doesn't have any "competition" on his spell list- at least not from HIS perspective.
Don't get me wrong- I like the blasting bard idea, and thought about MC into that class. But mechanically and thematically, MC into Marshal (had it been allowed) or Fighter were more on target.
You are correct with the the Heritage (Infernal, Fey, Celestial) feats you indeed need Sorcerer level as a prereq.
However with Draconic Heritage there is another option. As stated the feat 'Dragontouched' from dragon magic (if you lack the book can be viewed at http://realmshelps.dandello.net/datafind/feats.shtml). The Dragonfire Channeling feat is also it this book.
It specifically states 'you can select draconic feats as if you were a sorcerer of your character level'. It even opens up some of the draconic feats to clerics.
1. Bards can wear armour without penalty (any armour if you take the 'battle caster' feat from complete arcane and rely on mitheril)
2. Use spells the bard is hard to beat, they even can cure (thus wands).
3. Granted 'Shout' and 'Greater Shout' is about it for the ole bard.
4. Bards are hard pressed for electric spells, but thats what the breath is good for.
But DMstraight.. gotta go with what makes you fuzzy at the end o the day.
I personally have used Dragon Heritage (Bronze) as a beguiler once having qualified with 'Dragontouched' part due to a like of ..death with sparkles.. part cause I like picking up 'Track' (Few use track as much as they should without tiresome urging, its nifty, and I like feeling I can survive and wont get lost and bested by a forrest at 20th level) and bronze heritage gets you survival as a class skill.
As for electricity madness check the 'Stormcaster' from the environmental book 'Stormwrack' its far too awesome without the goofy rort factor of the Raptorian Cleric/'Skypledged' (races of the wild). Stunning with lightining attacks rocks. I have a Darfellan Druid 6/Stormcaster 4 cohort who as an eagle swoops to the rescue of my group often and inbetween just pinks away with call lightining (flying and minor target combined with 1 spell used per encounter to attack means more healing and ofsets the lower cohort level). His sadly more fun, effective and flexible than my main character.
I had no idea there was another way to do the Draconic Heritage feat chain- I'm not sure, but I don't think I bought Dragon Magic (my books are in storage while doing a renovation).
That feat opens up a lot of possibilities for the use of other Arcane casters in this build- not just the Bard!
Consider the Battle Sorcerer (assuming the DM rules they don't count as "Sorcerers" for the purposes of the DH prereq), WarMage, Beguiler and Duskblade. Each has Armored Spellcasting and some kind of martial weapon use...and most have more spells and/or acquire them more quickly than the Bard.
Admittedly, they don't match up as well with the "idiot" part of the PC I was designing when I first got the concept in my head, but that just means I can have a little bit more fun and flexibility for future PC designs.
Pretty sweet toy... loose a top level spell to get a bunch o (sp) abilities... no more spell faliure or other nonsense holding you back then. Great flavour fodder for a DM to story synergise/arc as well.
I searched that site- I didn't see any mention of "Dragonpact" or "dragon" and "pact" that seemed to be what you were talking about. Do you have a link and/or page reference?
That site was mentioned specifically for the looking up of feats if you don't have your books.
'Dragonpacts' aren't feats and so not on that site. They are an option in the (Dragon Magic) book that allows you to trade a high level slot to a dragon thru a ritual getting in return spell like abilities with draconic theme.
Need the book for elaboration.. or an hour in your rpg shop.. or shifty book downloading corrupt powers!
EDIT: Post removed by Admin. Insanogeddon, I know you meant to help, but we don't allow links to illegal file-sharing sites here; nor do we allow posts recommending them. I've removed your link as a result. ~ Piratecat
I had it inwisble just in case. Dam your true seeing !!
consider me spanked
Last edited by insanogeddon; 19th March 2009 at 06:39 AM..
Reason: facing the music
Upon further reflection, I'm not sure that the Dragontouched feat works the way you think it does- the way I wish it did.
I say that because Dragontouched does give you access to any Feat that has "dragonkind" as a prereq, but the feats from CompMage- as well as several in Dragon Magic itself- have "Draconic Heritage" as a prereq, as opposed to the more general "dragonkind" prereq.
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