Dragon Disciple... Worth it?

[Tric]

NO! I made a sorcerer who ended up a dragon deciple and it turned out to be a horrible choice. I lost seven levels worth of spell casting for nothing worth mentioning. If you do feel compelled to pick it up here is a suggestion: Take up ranks in Craft (firearms), make a flintlock pistol, put it against your temple, pull trigger. Repete as many time as needed to kill your character.
FYI, my character was a 11 sorc/7 DD. He turned out to be such a tool, I am turning him evil next time my group plays these characters. Yeah, thats the plot. He attempts to become a god because he has compensation issues. He is not a good spellcaster and he still sucks at combat. But it's also worth mentioning that he was my first character for 3rd ed.
Please, think of your character...

I did the same thing, except I misinterpreted the class and gave myself a full caster progression, lol. It was my first character so I didn't know better. The DM I had at the time was oblivious.

 

[Thanee]

Dragon Disciple is a pure fighter class. Arcane spellcasting is only used as an entry requirement.

It's not a bad class, lower BAB is a bit of a hindrance, but higher Str makes up for that and increases damage and grapple/trip, also the other attribute bonuses are nice, as are the higher hit points and the better Will save.

The breath weapon really just is a gimmick. It's incredibly weak. It's just for coolness sake.

Bye
Thanee

 

[likuidice]

use it for pure strength builds: trips, grapples, bull rush etc. Spiked chains are lethal in the hands of a DD.
Also remember the number of slots for items you can save on, no need for an item of flying, or blindsense, you have a one shot weapon you can use to burn away bindings, many of your abilities work inside antimagic (being the only party member who can operate inside a beholders cone while flying is pretty cool.) and you can use the true strike/power attack combo 10 or 11 times a day.
Some good builds are: hexblade 8/DD 10/hexblade 2 (ton of 2nd level spells, all of which are useful for melee types, good combat abilities, mettle, and cha bonus to saves vs spells)

Paladin 8/sorc 1/DD 10/whatever with fighter BAB. (again lots of 2nd level spells, cha bonus to lots of things, which goes up once DD gets a cha bonus, good combat abilities, bit stat heavy, requires 12 wisdom on top of reasonable charisma, con and strength)

Fighter 4/sorc 1/DD 10/Whatever 5 (easy to make, good basis for trip fighter etc)

 

[Thanee]

Bard also works fairly well...

Bye
Thanee

 

[Scharlata]

Dragon Disciple is a pure fighter class. Arcane spellcasting is only used as an entry requirement.[...]

Hi!

Thanee (and others) got it right, I think.

IMC, a player has made up her DD with 1 level as sorcereress and 4 levels as fightress. She chose the spiked chain and the Enlarge Person spell. That's how to impress foes.

Kind regards

 

[Thanee]

The perfect 1st level spell for a DD is Identify.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Tetsubo]

How about a Goliath DD? Would the natural attacks be larger because of the Strong Build racial ability?

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

The perfect 1st level spell for a DD is Identify.

True Strike. No Somatic component, so you can throw it in Full Plate, and you have all the Strength and BAB you need for the lethal true strike/Power Attack combo. Dragon Disciple bonus spells synergize with it beautifully, too.

 

[beaver1024]

In core, the best class to use with sorcerer to get DD is ... monk!

Monks have knowledge arcana as a class skill. They desperately need all the strength and armour boosts they can get and they get huge mileage out of mage armour and enlarge which a mere sorcerer 1 will provide.

Hence Sor 1/Monk 4/DD 10 will give you the fastest entry and the best milage out of Dragon Discple (using core only).

I wonder if the monk can flurry with the DD's bite and claw attacks?

 

[Corsair]

I like Hexblade4/Barbarian1/DD10/AnythingElse5