Bloodlines from Unearthed Arcana.

[Gez]

Or a set of feats like the Draconic Feats from Complete Arcane...

But there's choices to be made. And none of the paragon levels are interesting for spellcasters.

UA is a lot of variant and optional rules, so of course there's going to be different ways to do the same thing. Paragon levels and bloodline are similar in a way, but they provide different methods.

I personally prefer the bloodlines, with one caveat -- in a party where everybody's bloodlined, I'd suppress the "bloodline levels" entirely, as they're clumsy. It would be no worse, balance-wise, than a gestalt party...

 

[Silveras]

Or a set of feats like the Draconic Feats from Complete Arcane...

But there's choices to be made. And none of the paragon levels are interesting for spellcasters.

UA is a lot of variant and optional rules, so of course there's going to be different ways to do the same thing. Paragon levels and bloodline are similar in a way, but they provide different methods.

I personally prefer the bloodlines, with one caveat -- in a party where everybody's bloodlined, I'd suppress the "bloodline levels" entirely, as they're clumsy. It would be no worse, balance-wise, than a gestalt party...

And for that, I must add another caveat: It does not work as well if the party bloodline levels are not the same (all Minor, for example); in a mixed party, some are definitely getting more from it than others. Also note that some bloodlines do not *have* full progressions (Janni, for example).

 

[ecliptic]

We've been using them, but the downside is they still hurt dedicated spellcasters a lot more than they hurt combat-oriented characters.

We liked them enough that we have written a bunch of new ones, four of which will be in an upcoming product.

Andy Collins said on his forum that UA bloodlines weren't meant to interupt a spellcaster's spell progression.

I personally would make them pay 1 spell level and that is all.

 

[SWBaxter]

To me, these bloodline things look like they take the place of Aasimar and other ECL +1 sub-races. They also look like a pretty sane and reasonable alternative. What do you guys think?

I like them a lot better than ECL. But I'm not so sure about the mechanics of trading one dead level for a bunch of abilities that are spread out throughout a character's advancement. I've been toying with the idea of making them more like a single level racial paragon class - you don't get any abilities until you take the bloodline level, and then you get a bunch of them at once. Haven't had a chance to playtest it, but it looks a bit cleaner to me.

 

[kirinke]

hmmm. and what of the opin on the alternate ECL reduction method in UA

 

[Crothian]

I wanted to use them, but my DM vetoed the idea. So, my Earth Dwarf Stonemaster with the Earth Elemental Bloodline and a pet rock familar didn't actually happen.

 

[kirinke]

I wanted to use them, but my DM vetoed the idea. So, my Earth Dwarf Stonemaster with the Earth Elemental Bloodline and a pet rock familar didn't actually happen.

Hee. Closet munchkin are we?
Ain't we all tho -> includes self in that category.

Mebbe we should start a club.

The Yellow Brick Road Gang.
Have +5 Vorpal Holy sword and Celestial Armor, will travel.
We do dungeons, bar mitzvas and demon-bashing.
Prices vary. Ask our face-man for details.
Located in the tavern nearest the house of healing.

 

[Crothian]

Hee. Closet munchkin are we?
Ain't we all tho -> includes self in that category.

:\

taking a weak race, combining it with a weak prestige class that his classes can't take advantage of and stacking an okay bloodline would be a munchkin?

It is just a theme character

 

[kirinke]

Heheh. Sorry Cro. Was jus bein silly. No offense. ^_^

Hmmm...
To be a proper member of the Yellow Brick Road Gang, you must switch out the Stone Master PRC and replace it with an Earth Dwarf Paladin with an appropriate mount. Now that would be kewl. ^)(^

PS:
Sorry, I just gotta indulge in the silliness sometimes. Tis just my nature you know?