Half-dragon as a class

[RUMBLETiGER]

No, I want the whole wading into the battle and ripping orcs apart barehanded thing to be an option. Come on who doesn't love a good face biting?

Consider this to be the Barbarian of the dragon classes. Minimal training required, lots of smashing and shouting.

One thing I really want to do is tie the fear affects into melee attacks, maybe for example: If you score a critical hit, or drop an enemy, every enemy in range of the fear aura has to save or be shaken for one round. Maybe even hand out free enchantement abilities to the natural attacks based on your breath type (acid, faming, etc, and the bursts for example).

OH!

Kinda like reskinning the Complete Warrior's Bear Warrior PrC?

I could get behind that.

So, full BAB, gradual dragon-like physical characteristics, rage-induced-wildshaping into more dragonlike forms?

Is this more what you are looking for?

I second [MENTION=6683450]cjosephs1s[/MENTION] in saying it's been a confusing journey, but I understand how sometimes it takes a few false starts and lots of talking to accurately flesh out a concept.

 

[Rampant]

Yeah, the feedback has really helped me refine the idea, thanks guys.

As for polymorphing... I don't think so, I was debating whether or not a size boost would be a good capstone ability at level 20.

In fact here;s a list of ideas I'm unsure of:

1. Size increase
2. Ability to ignore energy resistance and treat immunity as resistance
3. automatic elemental enhancement abilities for the natural weapons ( the various -ings and bursts)
4. Spell Resistance
5. Improved armor, weapon, shield profs

 

[cjosephs1s]

Ok so we got some ideas to work with.

For attack use fighter BAB as this looks like a front line, charging, rip your guts out and bite off your head type. If this isn't the case then then go to cleric BAB to start with.

So how do you handle attack progression. lets start out at level 1 with BAB of +1 (for now no other bonuses just BAB to keep it simple) They get one main attack: Bite So +1 to bite and full STR bonus to damage. For dice damage I'd start small and get larger as you progress. Say 1d6 to start with.

Now they get claw attacks too. Both at same penalty to make it easier: -10. So these are at a -9 BAB at level 1. I'd say start small here too. Use 1d4 + 1/2 STR damage (basically two weapon fighting rules for off hand attacks).

Wings take another -5 penalty and use like a 1d2 or 1d3 to start

Finally tail: another -5 penalty and use 1d4.

Over time make these attacks increase in damage some but I'd cap it at like 2d6 for a bite if the size is medium. Also apply two weapon fighting feats at various intervals to reduce iterative attack penalties until you have full attack progression that uses all 5 attacks (bite, claw, claw, wings, tail).

As you grow in size use the chart for Monk to determine damage progression. I would go at least large and probably huge with this guy. The extra dice damage combined with the extra tail attack should be about on balance with a full fighter attack progression considering you are giving up threat range, and STR bonus on all but one attack.

More to come later.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I struggle with the idea that a class can grant wings by level 1.

 

[Rampant]

@ Tiger: I ripped off the raptorans and just used the levels where they gained their flight abilities. The wings natural attack doesn't have anything to do with when you can fly.

@ cj: I think you're a bit out of date, the class already uses fighter BaB. Also natural attacks don't progress like that. At level 1 it's +1 with bite, but say at level two you pick up the claws it then becomes either +2 with both claws and -3 with the bite, or +2 with the bite and -3 with both claws.

Natural attacks (with a few exceptions) don't get extra attacks from leveling up. But you can use as many as you have as long as you designate one as primary and the rest secondary, in addition to using half-str mod for secondaries they take a -5 penalty. THe multi attack feat drops this to -2, improved knocks it out entirely.

My current system allows the character to cherry pick whichever natural attacks they want as they level up and essentially trade in any others they don't want for extra natural armor. So instead of giving them a bunch of attacks they may or may not want they grab the ones they want at full damage but they don't get all 4 signature draconic natural weapons until they're pretty high level.

I'm not entirely opposed to having the natural weapons improve as the class progresses, but I want them to be able to hold their own in melee even at low levels, so my thinking is the initial natural attacks have to be about as good as martial weapons. Plus it seems simpler.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

@ Tiger: I ripped off the raptorans and just used the levels where they gained their flight abilities. The wings natural attack doesn't have anything to do with when you can fly.

Ah, ok I get that mechanically, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this from the perspective of within the game world.

How do you take a single level of a class and receive such drastic physical alterations? "Yesterday I was a man, today I'm a winged man!"

When a commoner-turning-adventurer becomes...
...a first level Bard, he's developed some speaking talent and sparks an awareness of spells.
...a first level Warlock, he just begins to harness raw arcane power into blasts, and can begin applying arcane power to grant abilities.
...a first level Cleric begins learning how his prayers connect him to his faith and channel Divine power into spell effects.

...a first level Half-dragon, wings sprout out his back. Seems a bit of a jump. More like a 5th level ability or something.

 

[Rampant]

Well the idea is kinda that you're born with those wings. You just need practice and experience to make full use of them. For a multiclass character taking their first level of this class there is a bit of an issue, especially if they didn't make any reference to wings earlier.

I don't wanna make a weird rule were you have to take this class as your first level, so we may need an alternative method for gaining the class...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Well the idea is kinda that you're born with those wings. You just need practice and experience to make full use of them. For a multiclass character taking their first level of this class there is a bit of an issue, especially if they didn't make any reference to wings earlier.

I don't wanna make a weird rule were you have to take this class as your first level, so we may need an alternative method for gaining the class...

Well, Sorcerer and Warlock have a precedent of "Born with the class within you", but since it's not a physical manifestation, it's easier to get away with in-world.

Yeah, keep working at it, I'm sure when this is all over you'll have what you want.

 

[Rampant]

What i want is a good idea on how to implement fear effects.

Aura? Single target? triggered? special action? severity? I mean I know I can't use the same formula as the true dragon because most of the time PCs are facing opponents with several more HD.

 

[Empirate]

The wing thing can easily be incorporated if you include a special ritual of metamorphosis. "The Quickening" awakens your dormant dragon blood, and once you come out of the chrysalis, you're changed. Or something like that.

If fear effects are this class's schtick, how about taking an existing mechanic and expanding on it? Demoralize (using the Intimidate skill) seems like a good candidate. How about at an early level, you just gain Skill Focus (Intimidate) as a bonus feat. A bit later, you can demoralize an opponent as a move action, then as a swift action whenever you make an attack, cast a spell, or fly overhead (once wings are functional). By degrees, your demoralize attempts target more than one enemy, and gain longer duration. At some arbitrarily high level, your demoralize attempts can panic low-HD enemies. At that point, it's basically similar to a true dragon's frightful presence, except the effects are based on your Intimidate skill.

For further short-range battlefield control, I'd try and add rider effects to your natural weapon attacks. This would work like a tech tree of sorts: once you've selected wing attacks for your Natural Armament ability, you can select Wing Buffet for your next increase in that ability. Wing Buffet allows you to knock prone an opponent if both wing attacks hit. Next up is Double Wing Strike, letting you daze a prone opponent for a round. Similar things could be added to your other natural weapons: entangle with bite attacks, eventually gaining Improved Grab with you not being considered grappled; shred armor with claw attacks, eventually gaining the Wounding special ability; stunning and knocking out with tail attacks.
Balancing these effects will be a bit of a task, but this might give your Half-Dragon a unique feel, mechanically speaking.