pawsplay
Hero
So, the PF Dragon Disciple is rather different than what has come before. Before, the DD was basically a "template class" in slightly disguised form, with dragon hit dice features to be cute, and a really messed up bonus spell slot system. The new DD is like the extreme sport edition of the dragon sorcerer bloodline. You still get some ability score increases, but not nearly as much. Most noticeably, DD has gone from being a fighting class to a caster class. Before, a mix of fighter or ranger levels with sorcerer was usually the way to go. The new version is less of a melee monster, grants some spellcasting advancement, and, I notice, is still accessible to level 5 sorcerers. Int and Cha bonuses are gone, but the character eventually gains a decent natural armor increase, Str and Con, and a fairly nasty dragon form for those times when they want to melee.
As a prestige class, and an odd one at that, I realize that some rules might be bent, but it looks really odd to me that they get d12s for hit dice but average BAB.
So for the loss of three caster levels, you gain:
+4 Str, +2 Con
natural armor +3
blindsense 30, then 60
additional uses of breath weapon
more bonus draconic feats than otherwise
dragon form 2/day, which you get as a spell normally
+30 hit points
+2 Fortitude
+2 BAB
a bite
That seems fairly balanced. Still, it's a very specialized niche, so I think the class succeeds in the way I would expect a PrC to. However, it looks like this class really does not replace the old DD, instead, it morphs the old concept and throws in a heavy dose of the flavor of the old draconic heritage feats, dragonfire adept, and dragon shaman.
As a prestige class, and an odd one at that, I realize that some rules might be bent, but it looks really odd to me that they get d12s for hit dice but average BAB.
So for the loss of three caster levels, you gain:
+4 Str, +2 Con
natural armor +3
blindsense 30, then 60
additional uses of breath weapon
more bonus draconic feats than otherwise
dragon form 2/day, which you get as a spell normally
+30 hit points
+2 Fortitude
+2 BAB
a bite
That seems fairly balanced. Still, it's a very specialized niche, so I think the class succeeds in the way I would expect a PrC to. However, it looks like this class really does not replace the old DD, instead, it morphs the old concept and throws in a heavy dose of the flavor of the old draconic heritage feats, dragonfire adept, and dragon shaman.
