Half-Dragony Goodness

[Dagredhel]

How do you qualify for Furious Inhalation if you're trading out Rage? (IMHO it's not a great use of a feat anyway.)

Hi Nifft!

The requirement for Furious Inhalation is literally the"ability to rage or frenzy".

But even if it only mentioned rage, I still believe that Whirling Frenzy would still qualify, since it is explicity described as "rage variant" and a "variant form of rage". So it is a different "flavor" of rage, but still a kind of rage nonetheless. It would therefore count as rage for the purposes of feats, spells, magic items, etc.

That's my take on it, anyways.

What other feats would you suggest as an alternative to Furious Inhalation - Dragon Breath combo? (Personally, I'm not so much interested in the "optimal" build so much as in a build that is dragon-themed but still decent.)

And since you're known wide and far as the authority on ToB, what would you do for the half-dragon using that book?

 

[Nifft]

The requirement for Furious Inhalation is literally the"ability to rage or frenzy".

Ah-ha! Well that does cover it.

What other feats would you suggest as an alternative to Furious Inhalation - Dragon Breath combo? (Personally, I'm not so much interested in the "optimal" build so much as in a build that is dragon-themed but still decent.)

I'm not the authority on anything -- go to the WotC CharOpt forums for those people.

But if you want a dragon-themed ToB guy, I'd go with some Tiger Claw maneuvers; probably Swordsage for mobility and Dragon-esque skills, but Warblade would be quite appropriate as well, and could make better use of the Int and Cha bonuses.

There's a Tiger Claw strike which gives you Pounce (full attack after a charge); there are Tiger Claw boosts which give you extra attacks, particularly if you dual-wield or have two claws (which you do).

Shadow Hand is nice if you plan on being able to flank, since +2d6 Sneak Attack becomes particularly brutal when you can deliver it many times each round.

Desert Wind has one very nice strike (Flashing Sun) which works like Flurry -- extra melee attack, all attacks this round are at -2. Combined with an extra damage boost (like Burning Blade or Assassin's Stance) it is very effective.


On the other hand, adding your Int bonus to damage when you flank is pretty darn good, too -- the Warblade is great for natural attackers. Early on, Punishing Stance is godlike when paired with Multiattack.

And you can get Weapon Specialization with your Claws, and then Melee Weapon Mastery with ... I dunno, slashing? Piercing? Does one of those cover both your claws and your bite?

So on further consideration, I'd take Warblade 6 / Swordsage 4 / Warblade ++. Swordsage will get you some Shadow Hand and Desert Wind maneuvers, and won't hinder your Tiger Claw acquisition much.


One last thought: get that Diamond Mind stance which gives you Blindsight. That's very Draconic.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Dagredhel]

Note: I added a *ton* of stuff to the initial post (a lot of magic item stuff, for one,) but I had trouble with the site, and it looks like it was all lost (which is really strange, since I saved it more than once while editing.) I'll redo it when I have the chance.