Dragon Disciple vs. 1/2 dragon?

[pallandrome]

Yeah, true strike + 30 (or more) strength + power attack = dead everything.

 

[Wolfwood2]

The half-dragon template eats up 3 levels and gives you no BAB, Save increases, or HD.

The Dragon-Disciple prestige class eats up 10 levels, and gives you everything that the half-dragon template gives you plus 10d12 HD, +7 BAB, Save increases, a few extra spells (You need one level of a spontaneous spellcasting class (bard, hexblade, sorcerer, spelltheif) to get in), and wings (the half-dragon template doesn't normally give you wings if you are smaller than large size).

The proper comparison is half-dragon plus 7 levels of barbarian vs. 10 levels of Dragon Disciple.

Half-dragon + 7 barbarian levels gives you:
Dragon Type
+4 Natural Armor
Claw/Claw/Bite attacks
6d8 breath weapon 1/day
Darkvision 60 ft.
Low light vision
Immunity to Sleep & Paralysis
One energy immunity
Str +8, Con +2, Int +2, Cha +2
7D12 hitdice
+7 BAB
7 levels of Good Fort, poor will & reflex saves
+2 Rages /day
+2 Trap sense
7 levels further in your DR progression
7 levels further in the various Rage-enhavning class features
2 & 1/3 feats

Dragon Disciple gives you:
BAB +7
10 levels of Good Fortitude, Good Will, poor reflex saves
3 & 1/3 feats
Flight
Natural Armor +3
Claw/Claw/Bite attack
Str +8, Con +2, Int +2, +2 Cha
Blindsense 60 ft
Dragon Type
6d8 breath weapon 1/day
Darkvision 60 ft.
Low light vision
Immunity to Sleep & Paralysis
One energy immunity
A few extra first level spells

Conclusion

So what you have to ask yourself is which is worth more to the concept?

7 levels of barbarian class abilities

or

Flight + Blindsense + Better saving throws + 1 feat + extra first level spells

I'd argue that often the answer is going to be 7 levels of barbarian class abilties.

 

[The Grackle]

I'd thought of battlecaster, but I'll check out Hexblade. I can't keep all those fighter/wizard-type-classes straight.

My real problem is I can't decide which is better in the long run and right NOW. I'm making the meatshield for RtToEE and he has to survive in the mean time.

 

[pallandrome]

Ewwww, in that case, Only take a single level of your chosen spontanious casting class. Everything else should be Barbarian until you go into Dragon Disciple. You'll need every damn hitpoint you can scrape together...

 

[Deset Gled]

So what you have to ask yourself is which is worth more to the concept?

7 levels of barbarian class abilities

or

Flight + Blindsense + Better saving throws + 1 feat + extra first level spells

I'd argue that often the answer is going to be 7 levels of barbarian class abilties.

There's a few more benefits to the DD that you're missing there. Most important being 3 extra HD. Also, you get access to scrolls and wands with that one level of spells. One penalty that you missed is that the DD also requires a Cha of at least 11, so you can't use it as an all-out dump stat (and also hurts dwarves a bit more).

IMO, the extra HD alone make the DD a better deal for someone who wants to be a front line fighter. I also happen to think that flight, blindsense, and access to True Strike a couple of times a day is pretty freakin' awesome.

 

[saucercrab]

I'm making a new ECL 8 character. Probably a TH power-atacker w/a reach weapon.

Is is it worth it to take ltheDragon Disciple prestige class? Or should I just use the 1/2 dragon template and suffer the LA?

Does your group use/have access to Unearthed Arcana? In it are guidelines for gradually reducing LA through expenditures of XP. If used, this would be a mark in favor of taking the template (especially in the long run).

(IIRC, you could reduce the LA from +3 to +2 at 12th ECL, then from +2 to +1 at 14th ECL, then from +1 to 0 at 16th level.)

 

[PallidPatience]

It would be +3 to +2 at 9th, +2 to +1 at 15th and +1 to +0 at 18th.

 

[Funkthis]

I played a half-dragon fighter in a campaign recently and he was very effective especially at mid lvls. The only time I had issues was at the very beginning (1st lvl) because a lucky roll can drop you. While everyone keeps bringing up the loss of 3HD no one brings up the mitigating factor that your HD is increases to the next size...so for a fighter you get d12 per lvl. Doesn't seem like much but it adds up. Early on the breath weapon is very nice and the elemental immunity can be used in many ways. Our fav was to run my fighter (1/2 red dragon) in the room with the baddies and the wizard would cast fireball....

The campaign ended at about 12th lvl so I never saw how things were at high lvls. So from my own experience a half-dragon tank works well in the 3rd to 12th lvl range beyond that you got me.

 

[Sithobi1]

It would be +3 to +2 at 9th, +2 to +1 at 15th and +1 to +0 at 18th.

He's including ECL, so it should be ECL 12, ECL 17, and ECL 19.

 

[Korak]

While everyone keeps bringing up the loss of 3HD no one brings up the mitigating factor that your HD is increases to the next size...so for a fighter you get d12 per lvl.

unfortunately not

Hit Dice

Increase base creature’s racial HD by one die size, to a maximum of d12. Do not increase class HD.