Dragon Disciple Help(also help with a magic item)

Hello all
This is my firt post here...and I'm seeking help with something. One of my players is playing a sorcerer, and has begun taking levels in Dragon Disciple. The problem is he's starting to lag behind the rest of the party in ability. I mean REALLY lag behind. I've been running ideas through my mind wondering how I might power him up just a ''tiny'' lil' bit to bring him back on the level. They just achieved 9th level, and he is about to get his 3ed level in Dragon Disciple(yay! breathweapon). I was thinking, how they recieve bonus spells and then every third don't get anything...allowing him to have "+1 to caster level" at these levels. I'm not sure how serious he is about continuing with the class, but it has been his goal with this char(when he was 1st level he said his char had reocurring nightmares of falling from great hights, and as he went up levels he realized he was flying). Anyways I was seeking opinions on that part....or if any of you had done anything to increase the effectiveness of the dragon disciple.
I know he could have just started as a half-dragon but that wasn't what he wanted, so I'd appreciate just help with increasing the effectiveness of the prestige class.

Also he has lofty goals of ceating(or having somebody else create him) a circlet that will let him use his breathweapon more often. Like a dragon actually...every d4 rounds. I'm not letting him get by with that quite yet. But I was wondering how Uins would handle it. I've been thinking that maybe make him have to get a dragon to craft the item for him...seems like a logical idea being is they'd have a pretty good idea how their breath weapon works . I was wondering what spells or such you'd require to have this item made. This is my first time at DMing so I'm not quite up to par as I'd like to be, but I'm loving it so I'd appreciate all the help I can get.

Well thanks fer ur help...

ASTA

Welcome to the boards by the way...

Maybe drop the whole enlargement thing, and add +1 caster level, every other level (oh, and get rid of the bonus spellstuff also). But be a nice guy and do this stuff retroactively... from the beginning of the PrC.

He didn't realize ahead of time that this PrC was going to nerf his spellcasting progression? IMO, the DD is more for multiclassed sorcerers, big on fighting - less on spellcasting. All in all a very poor choice for a straight sorcerer.

OR let him have a do-over and pick a different, more appropriate PrC that'll help his spellcasting. i.e. Elemental savant, the mindbender...

Just my $0.02... which with the conversion rates into US... I guess I owe you money...

[edit]...must edit...

I can't help with your magic item, I really haven't thoroughly studied the item rules yet.

However, on the matter of the DD - If you nerf the extra spells, and replace them with a + 1 caster level at levels 2, 5, ,7 and 10 you'll end up with a slightly improved increase in spells/day, as well as increases in known spells and caster level.

Alternately (and this is what I'm doing IMC), increase effective caster level by 1 with each level that gives a bonus spell. (ie, the specific character in question would cast as an 8th level sorcerer, even though he only has the spells of a 6th level sorcer, plus two bonus spells).

As mikebr99 said, the DD is not really a spellcasting PrC. It does offer a lot of potent increases though, and I would be very cautious about adding too much to the class. (At 9th level, your DD character should be the only one in the party with 3 attacks per round, without using a feat - and if he uses claw as his primary, he gets two of them at his primary bab). At sorc10/DD10, his hp will outstrip virtually all pure arcane spell users, he'll have unarmed attacks of around +16/+16/+11, breath weapon, undispellable flight, reach...

I like the idea of the +1 caster level at 2, 5, 7, and 10. Pretty much what I was thinking of there. I don't think he's going to go past 3ed level in the class now anyways...he has is eyes set on mage of the arcane order also. Said he just wanted a lil' of the draconic blood manifsted . I am going to make the changes to the class anyways since somebody else may get interested in the class. I'm actually revamping it and cutting it down to a 5 level prestige class...I'll post it when I complete it all(some time later today).

The circlet though, I'm deffinately going to let him make it now. With the help of a dragon that has fire as its breath weapon type . Only prob with that is I already introduced a brass dragon with 2 lvls of dragon mystic as a kind of mentor for the party. Oh well live and learn. I still need to know what would be good for the item though, which spells and such. He's wanting the breath weapon to be used ever 1d4 rds. Well since it's kind of weak I don't have problems with that...specially since I'm sure this circlet will be a large chunk of his funds.

Ok well I'm off to scour the boards till 4(then my g/f gets off work! )

ASTA

When you can show him the epic dragondiscipel.

I would suggest as an alternative.

Allow the enlargement bonus, and give him the benefit from going up one size larger as per many people's interpretation of the MM. Soi he would get an extra +4 (or whatever) to STR, and +4 (or whatever) to CON, -2 to dex, etc.

That way, if he has endurance. and he takes all 10 levels of DD he starts to become a capable fighter type, if he wants to or not.

With the right con bonus (from items, spell, or ability score raises) his HP go through the roof.

The higher STR might not give him extra attacks, but those he has are powerful.

Dragon feats also help make this a very playable (well, more so) class. Fly by attack when you STR is 26 is pretty good.

As for the breath weapon magic item he wants, I would suggest heavily borrowing a feat from FR that allows you to "spend" a spell slot to power a lower level spell 3 times per day.


g!

I've changed teh Dragon disiple to gain 3 effecting casting levels, at 2, 6, and 8. and I find the class to work best with few levels of Sorcerer.. the Monk4/Sorc1/DD10 I made once was pretty badass.


Grom