"Bonus Spells" for Dragon Disciple PrC?

[Thanee]

So each of those extra slots is a full power attack True Strike, then?

Yep, that or Enlarge Person, or Shield, or Identify (Hey, if there is no wizard, that might be a good choice! ).

With Complete Adventurer, there are also some nifty swift spells to consider. Critical Strike comes to mind and Swift Expeditious Retreat.

In any way, the class is probably best entered with a really low caster level (like one level of sorcerer and four levels of barbarian or fighter or both).

It's then a pretty decent fighter class, if you utilize the high Strength (i.e. Improved Trip comes to mind). The good Will save and high hp really help, too. Moderate BAB isn't great, but at least your attack bonus won't suffer too much, because of the higher Strength.

Bye
Thanee

 

[IcyCool]

I am intrigued by the class- it looks really cool at first glance. But, having looked more closely last night and with my follow-up questions this morning, I am really skeptical if it is not downright underpowered. I get that focusing on the melee abilities instead of spellcasting helps (in fact, it is utterly worthless as a caster class), but it is still pretty weak IMO. The problem is that the tactical advantages (i.e. flight) come so late in the class that it would be really suffering to get there. The dragon apothesis at level 10 is phenomenal, but again, it takes so long that your chance of survival is low to last that long (assuming a melee focused character, anyway). Adding sorcerer levels makes your hit points stink. Using hexblade levels makes your spell choices near-useless, since he has no useful 1st level buff spells.

I'm not sure how a Dragon Disciple looks weak to you. Take a basic two-hander or sword and boarder. Start out with Sorc 1, then go fighter for the next 4 levels. Hop into Dragon Disciple for the next 10. Neither of those builds really falls behind a plain fighter. The only bad thing is that you get your iterative attacks a few levels later than a straight fighter. The upside is you get better hit dice, good will save, natural armor, natural attacks, a 1/day breath weapon, and a slew of useful (for a fighter) attribute mods and abilities.

Am I missing something?

 

[Shin Okada]

In any way, the class is probably best entered with a really low caster level (like one level of sorcerer and four levels of barbarian or fighter or both).

Or maybe from Hexblade 5 or Hexblade 4/something 1. Can make a warrior with good saves against spells. And Phantom Threat is not a bad spell.