Dragon Disciple Remix

[Timely Drought]

DRAGON DISCIPLE

Hit Die: d12.


Requirements

To qualify to become a dragon disciple, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Race: Any nondragon (cannot already be a half-dragon).

Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks.

Languages: Draconic.

Spellcasting: Ability to cast arcane spells without preparation.


Class Skills

The dragon disciple’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Speak Language (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: The Dragon Disciple

Level     BAB      Fort     Ref      Will
1st       +1       +2       +0       +2 	
2nd       +2       +3       +0       +3 	
3rd       +3       +3       +1       +3 	
4th       +4       +4       +1       +4 	
5th       +5       +4       +1       +4 	
6th       +6       +5       +2       +5 	
7th       +7       +5       +2       +5 	
8th       +8       +6       +2       +6 	
9th       +9       +6       +3       +6 	
10th      +10      +7       +3       +7

1- Ability boost, Low-light vision
2- +2d6 breath weapon, 1/day; +1 spellcaster level
3- Ability boost, Darkvision 60'
4- +2d6 breath weapon, 2/day; +1 spellcaster level
5- Ability boost, Blindsense 30'
6- +2d6 breath weapon, 3/day; +1 spellcaster level
7- Ability boost, immunity to sleep and paralysis effects
8- +2d6 breath weapon, 4/day; +1 spellcaster level
9- Ability boost, Blindsense 60'
10- +2d6 breath weapon, 5/day, immunity to breath weapon energy type; +1 spellcaster level


Class Features

All of the following are Class Features of the dragon disciple prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dragon disciples gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Ability Boost (Ex): As a dragon disciple gains levels in this prestige class, his ability scores increase and stack as if through level advancement

Each time the dragon disciple has an ability boost, he can choose to add 2 points to the following ability scores: strength, constitution, intelligence, or charisma.

Breath Weapon (Su): At 2nd level, a dragon disciple gains a minor breath weapon. The type (acid, cold, fire, lightning) and shape (line or cone) are determined by the dragon disciple.

Every even level, the breath weapon gains 2d6 damage and an extra use per day.

Use all the rules for dragon breath weapons except as specified here.

The DC of the breath weapon is 10 + class level + Con modifier.

A line-shaped breath weapon is 5 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 60 feet long. A cone-shaped breath weapon is 30 feet long.

Blindsense (Ex): At 5th level, the dragon disciple gains blindsense with a range of 30 feet. Using nonvisual senses the dragon disciple notices things it cannot see. He usually does not need to make Spot or Listen checks to notice and pinpoint the location of creatures within range of his blindsense ability, provided that he has line of effect to that creature.

Any opponent the dragon disciple cannot see still has total concealment against him, and the dragon disciple still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects the movement of a creature with blindsense. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see. At 9th level, the range of this ability increases to 60 feet.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Unfortunately I think it is too good. A martial class with a level or two of bard would qualify easily. Then d12 hit dice, good BAB, two good saves and a +2 to strength or con every other level... it's way too much. The breath weapon, improvement to spellcasting ability and blindsense are all just icing on a very thick piece of cake.

 

[Timely Drought]

True. I'll probably dump extra spellcasting. Spread ability boost to str, con, int, cha, str, in that order.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Spreading out the ability boosts the way you describe goes a long way to balancing it. If you boost the pre-requisites to include 3rd level spells, that might be enough to go the rest of the way. If someone wants to take 6 levels of sorcerer first, let them have the BAB and the half spellcasting advancement.

 

[Timely Drought]

Isn't much different than the standard dragon disciple with full BAB and str +4 instead of 3/4 and str +8. Breath weapon is made worthwhile, as opposed to completely useless.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Was that your goal with the class, to make the breath weapon more useful?

 

[Timely Drought]

Yeah, it seemed like the most distinctive feature of the class, but also least useful because of limited to once per day and damage dice were not good enough for levels. I don't like the random mechanic for dragon breath weapons (1d4+1 rounds), so I went for a uses per day. Maybe I should have went for a once every 5 rounds mechanic (equivalent to the worst result of the random roll to catch breath weapon for dragons).

I needed them to look human since it'll be a secret cult, so no natural armor or wings etc.

I'm not sure about the BAB thing. Obviously this is a melee class but BAB was cut short simply to compensate for the str boost it seems. I prefered full BAB to reflect what it should be used for. And boosting str to +8 at level 10 instead of +4 str with full BAB would be overkill.

 

[Scion]

I dont think you would really have to make the order predetermined, I think it throws off some of the use of the class.

If, however, you make it so that the same one cant be picked twice in a row and no stat can have a higher bonus than +4 that would definately help. Or possibly if you allow the +2 to any stat but no stat may be picked more than once.

I would also suggest disallowing them from useing their breath weapon two rounds in a row. The random roll would be a decent way to go about it or you could just pick a number. 5 times per day at higher levels tends to be much more useful than the trash it was before (although I'd probably start at 2 and go up from there, maybe even put up a feat which allows X more uses per day)

All in all, I think comparing it with an eldritch knight build would be interesting. Mainly just to see how they compare (as one is more of a caster than the other it wont be a perfect comparison, but it should show something intersting)

Given that you dont want them to look very draconic this probably isnt helpful, but I remade the class for my game awhile ago as well. Feel free to ignore it, I'm just putting it up in case it gives ideas somewhere else for you (oh, toughness in my game is +1hp/hd, and I use action points so the characters can turn in 2 action points to get an extra breath weapon a day, that is why it stopped at 1)


Dragon Disciple
HD: d6
Race: Any nondragon (cannot already be a half-dragon)
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks
Languages: Draconic
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 3rd level arcane spells without preparation
Feats: Dragon Blood
Special: The player chooses a dragon variety when taking the first level in this prestige class, subject to DM’s approval.

Class Skills:
Concentration (con), Craft (int), Diplomacy (cha), Escape Artist (dex), Gather Information (cha), Knowledge (all) (int), Listen (wis), Profession (wis), Search (int), Speak Language (int), Spellcraft (int), and Spot (wis)
Skill points: 2

Weapons and armor prof: None are gained

Breath weapon (su): At first level a breath weapon with the appropriate elemental descriptor is gained. It deals 1d6 damage per level in dragon disciple and has a reflex save for half of 10 + levels in dragon disciple + con mod. This ability may be used 1/day. A character may choose which shape of breath weapon they will have.

Dragon variety Breath Weapon
Black Acid
Blue Lightning
Green Acid (corrosive gas cloud)
Red Fire
White Cold
Brass Fire
Bronze Lightning
Copper Acid
Gold Fire
Silver Cold
Amethyst Force (this breath weapon deals d4 damage instead of d6)
Crystal Light (on a failed save foes are blinded for d4 rounds, d4 damage instead of d6)
Emerald Sonic (on a failed save foes are deafened for d4 rounds, d4 damage instead of d6)
Sapphire Sonic (on a failed save foes are deafened for d4 rounds, d4 damage instead of d6)
Topaz Dehydration (creatures without liquid in their bodies take no damage, regular creatures take d6, creatures made completely of liquid take d12)

Line-shaped breath weapon is 5’ high, 5’ wide, 60’ long.
Cone-shaped breath weapon is 30’ long, 90 degree arc.
Burst-shaped breath weapon extends 10’ from the character in all directions.

Natural armor increase (ex): At 1st, 4th, and 7th level a dragon disciple becomes more draconic in appearance. Skin develops tiny iridescent scales of the appropriate color which start off almost invisibly small at first but gain in size with level increase. At each of these levels the characters natural armor increases by 1 point. Having no natural armor to begin with is counted as starting with a natural armor of +0.

Claws and bite (ex): At 2nd level the dragon disciple gains a bite/claw/claw natural attack routine. On a full attack the bite is made with full attack bonus and str damage bonus and the claws are made at -5 to attack and half str damage.

Size Bite damage Claw damage
Small d4 d3
Medium d6 d4
Large d8 d6

Spells per day: At 2nd level and each even level beyond that the character gains new spells per day as if they had also gained a level in whatever spellcasting class the dragon disciple already has levels in. Essentially adding every even level in this prc to a former spellcasting class to determine spells per day and caster level.

Ability Boost (ex): As the dragon disciple gains levels in this prc his ability scores increase as the table indicates. These increases stack.

Toughness (ex): At levels 3, 6, and 9 the dragon disciple gets toughness as a bonus feat.

Bonus draconic feat: At levels 3 and 7 the dragon disciple may choose a draconic feat if he has the prereqs for it.

Blindsense (ex): At 5th level the dragon disciple gains blindsense 30’. Using his acute hearing the dragon disciple notices things it cannot see. This ability does not function in areas of silence or when the dragon disciple is deafened. He usually does not need to make spot or listen checks to notice and pinpoint the location of creatures within range of his blindsense ability, provided that he has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent that the dragon disciple cannot see still has total concealment against him, and the dragon disciple still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still effects the movement of a creature with blindsense although he gets a +2 bonus on checks to navigate these hazards. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to AC against creatures it cannot see, but if he has uncanny dodge that works vs invisible creatures he is treated as being 2 levels higher for purposes of who can bypass the ability. At 10th level, the range of the ability increases to 60’.

Enlargement (ex): At 5th level or thereafter the dragon disciple may permanently lose a 4th level slot to gain a single size category above his normal size. This increase does not count as a magical increase in size.

Wings (ex): At 9th level the disciple gains a set of wings and a flight speed equal to his normal land speed with average maneuverability.

Dragon Apotheosis: At 10th level the dragon disciple fully realizes his draconic heritage and looks just like a full blooded half-dragon. He gains the Dragon blood trait of his dragon (much like how elf blood works for half elves). He gains darkvision of 60’ and lowlight vision along with immunity to sleep and paralysis effects. In addition, he gains the elemental subtype of his dragon. The dragon disciple also gains an additional +2 to str, con, and cha.

Level BAB F R W Caster levels Special
1 0 +2 +0 +2 - Breath weapon, Natural armor +1
2 1 +3 +0 +3 +1 Claws and Bite, Ability boost (str +2)
3 1 +3 +1 +3 - Toughness, bonus draconic feat
4 2 +4 +1 +4 +1 Ability boost (str +2), Natural armor +2
5 2 +4 +1 +4 - Blindsense 30’, Enlargement
6 3 +5 +2 +5 +1 Ability boost (Con +2), Toughness
7 3 +5 +2 +5 - Natural armor +3, bonus draconic feat
8 4 +6 +2 +6 +1 Ability boost (int +2)
9 4 +6 +3 +6 - Wings, Toughness
10 5 +7 +3 +7 +1 Blindsense 60’, dragon apotheosis



Dragon Lineage (draconic)
Choose a dragon type. You now associate with this dragon type. You gain a +2 bonus on sense motive and diplomacy checks when dealing with a dragon, halfdragon, or another character with the same dragon heritage.

Dragon Blood (draconic)
Prereq: Dragon Lineage, Draconic heritage
Benefit: Gain Energy Resistance 5 to the energy type that the dragon you chose has as a breath weapon.

Dragon Casting (draconic)
Prereq: Any 5 other draconic feats
Benefit: Add the domain spells from the domain of your dragons element to your spell list. Also, gain the spells from the domain of one of your alignment types (lawful, chaotic, good, or evil).

 

[Sledge]

Scion as I read it your version requires level 6 sorceror...
At ten levels of your DD you have a 16th level character with +6 Str and a BAB of 8. So you get from this +11 to attacks vs +16 full bab. Obviously not effective in melee despite the Str boost. Meanwhile the spellcasting is abandoned for a weak breath weapon (10d6 max damage could be had a lot more often with just a couple more Sorceror levels). It seems a little weak so I tried it out with my replication tests. Core and with prestige.
To replicate this with core classes, I would make it a level 10 Sorceror and it will do more magic damage, and a level 6 fighter which will give 4 fighter feats. Total BAB of 11 and all that toughness built in if you allow that feat for fighters. Other buff abilities are nice but not fabulous. Flying without magic will be nice once or twice, but I'm sure all those extra spells will more than make up for it. Even the draconic feats are mostly replicatable by spells.
To replicate this with prestige classes is the same except replace much of the Sorceror with EK giving us 6 Sor, 4 Ek, 6 Fighter. Same feats allowed, but with 5 fighter feats now. One less caster level, but use a feat for practiced spellcaster and you are rocking with way more magic damage than you could get with a breath weapon. Better hit points because of all those fighter feats, and a BAB of 13 which might actually hit. (You could also compare to Sor6, Fight1, EK9, for BAB of 13, 2 feats, and 7th level spells.)
All in all I think that your class is rather underpowered, and I would add some spellcasting, dramatically improve the breath weapon, or up the BAB. However the thing about Prestige Classes is that they all need to be done to taste.

 

[Scion]

yeah it definately has some issues in a few areas, it is mainly for npc use.

Sorry, I didnt mean to offtopic the thread with it, just showing another spin on the same sort of idea to possibly help for other ideas with Timely Droughts guy. I will delete it if it causes issues here or he asks me to.