Half-dragon as a class

[Shin Okada]

Just a random thought, but how about making a class which can treat it's class level as if it was racial HD of dragon type creature?

There are several interesting dragon only feats in Draconomicon. But many of them are useless for most PCs as they are using racial HDs for determining DC and such.

Regarding ability score boost, be careful. Strength boost is..... strong. There is a prestige class called Warhulk in Miniatures Handbook which gives +2 str per level. But that prestige class has no BAB (!) and a huge drawback (no time to think).

 

[Rampant]

That's an interesting idea on the HD thing, I like it.

As for strength, yeah, A lot depends on how often I end up giving them the ability or if I set any upper limits on it. (for example I could say they can't use this power to grant a total bonus of more then 1/3 their level to any one score)

 

[Gray Lensman]

Or, if any of you remember my thread on making an all draconic NPC party,
don't screw with the racial levels just take the template. If you as well pick carefully the race you apply it to you can come up with as strong as a (already existing) class as you will.

A simple example is a half dragon/Gray elf sorcerer. Tough, Spell Using, oh, Gee isn't that what most spell users want?

just my opinion, and I am sure that I am gonna get yelled at.

Bring it on Munchkins, for me it's about the role, NOT the mechanics.

 

[Rampant]

I've been waiting for this argument.

I'm not trying to make a more powerful half-dragon. If that's All I wanted I'd take the template, the unlimited breath feat, and then go D-samurai, good Gygax the damage output on that build is insane once you take a few feats for breath recovery. (eat it warlocks!)

My goal here is to build a class, a useable balanced class based on the idea of the half-dragon. In doing so I want to introduce elements that will make it distinct from both the template and the existing draconic classes. Will this make it easier to play half-dragons, yes, am I trying to set up some sort of god-mod, no.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I think I would have better understood what you were trying to do if you phrased your goal as "My goal here is to build a class, a useable balanced class based on the idea of the dragon"

A dragon flavored class for PC's makes sense, when you say "Half-Dragon", my poor brain get's locked into the template and has a hard time moving from there.

Of course, then I'd jump to the existing Dragon flavored classes.

So tell me if I get this correct...

"My goal here is to build a class, a usable balanced class focused on close range battle field control based around the idea of dragon-flavor in a humanoid PC"

???

I also have gotten the impression that this class is more melee than caster focused, is that correct?

 

[Rampant]

Pretty much, yeah. That's were I'm at right now. Calling it half-dragon just makes it easier to imagine elves and orcs and such taking levels in this class.

Admittedly the idea has been gaining focus as I've fiddled with it and taken in feedback (thus why I posted it in the first place). So it didn't start out with a nice clear cut idea of where it was going.

I initially wanted to include some casterish stuff, but have pretty much decided to drop it. (unless you count the breath or the fear abilities I wanna include).

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Pretty much, yeah. That's were I'm at right now. Calling it half-dragon just makes it easier to imagine elves and orcs and such taking levels in this class.

Admittedly the idea has been gaining focus as I've fiddled with it and taken in feedback (thus why I posted it in the first place). So it didn't start out with a nice clear cut idea of where it was going.

I initially wanted to include some casterish stuff, but have pretty much decided to drop it. (unless you count the breath or the fear abilities I wanna include).

Ok, so a Base class mimicking dragon-like abilities for humanoid PCs, that includes a Breath Weapon, Fear effects, Melee combat, and Battlefield control.

My next question is, does there already exist a Class that does this?

In my mind, a Dragonfire Adept (Dragon Magic p.24) could pull this off.
-A breath weapon usable each turn (With serious customizability!)
-A wide variety of Battlefield control Invocations (Breath of Night, Darkness, Deafening Roar, Scalding Gust all as abilities to choose from at first level, just goes up from there)
-Dragonlike abilities from Invocations (Draconic Flight for wings, Frightful Presence and Terrifying Roar for fear effects, Energy Resistance and Energy Immunity, etc)
Dragontouched feat at level 1 permits dragon-like modifications through feats.

You do get a crappy BAB with this class, but it's attacks are about the breath weapons, so BAB isn't really necessary. d8 HD makes you decent in surviving. While you can't wear armor, you get a natural AC bonus and DR, which is better for touch attacks anyway.

Is this what you're essentially trying to make?

 

[Rampant]

No, I want the whole wading into the battle and ripping orcs apart barehanded thing to be an option. Come on who doesn't love a good face biting?

Consider this to be the Barbarian of the dragon classes. Minimal training required, lots of smashing and shouting.

One thing I really want to do is tie the fear affects into melee attacks, maybe for example: If you score a critical hit, or drop an enemy, every enemy in range of the fear aura has to save or be shaken for one round. Maybe even hand out free enchantement abilities to the natural attacks based on your breath type (acid, faming, etc, and the bursts for example).

 

[cjosephs1s]

No, I want the whole wading into the battle and ripping orcs apart barehanded thing to be an option. Come on who doesn't love a good face biting?

Consider this to be the Barbarian of the dragon classes. Minimal training required, lots of smashing and shouting.

Maybe I misinterpreted this but first you say you want the "barbarian combat style to be an option (suggesting this class can do several other things besides this) and then you say you want this to be a barbarian style combat class.

I"m so confused!!!!

Ok so after 30+ posts what you want is finally starting to be a little more clear. I think we are trying to help you but here's the main problem most of us are having as I read this forum. You're not being clear on what you want this class to do and we are trying to effectively read your mind on what you might have envisioned.

Example: I wanna start a business..help me figure out how to do it.

Ok.not a problem I have a MBA I can help you by saying things you need a business plan, money to get started, I would incorporate, you need a business license. I can tell you what a business looks like with this information but I can't help you get money, find a target market, do market research, advertise, hire employees or do anything functional until you make specific goals and have a specific product/idea in mind

Same holds true for your dragon class. We need some more specifics other than I want to start a dragon class. We need to know specific things on what's its purpose? What's its role in combat/non combat? Is it melee? Spellcaster? Balanced with both? Is it a class or a racial progression or a hybrid. This is where your character concept (business plan) comes into shape. Once this happens and you make specific goals and have a specific product/idea in mind (even if its just here is what it looks like at level 20 and what it can do) then we can help you solve functional problems of how to get there. Until you can do this, it is very very hard to help you other than saying very general things about dragons and other classes that do dragon stuff.

It really looks like everything is trying to help, but you have to help us, help you.

 

[Rampant]

I specifically mentioned in what manner the class should resemble the barbarian. Any other similarities are not implied.

It's role in combat is to control an area centered on itself, it has several tools with which to do so. Natural attacks, breath weapon, and eventually fear effects. Any other abilities will probably end up being in support of those. (like flight or dragonspawn)

Here's a specific problem for you: I need some advice on balancing the natural attack options, on the one hand they need to be pretty damned good in order to make up for the lack of normal weapons, on the other hand you can potentially wield all of them at once so I'm loathe to make them too good.