Help equip a 21 ECL Gold Dragon PC.

[Zaruthustran]

I'm playing in an epic campaign and have decided to play as a gold dragon. We were given 21 character levels to play with and I chose a Very Young gold dragon (11HD, LA +5) with 3 levels of Paladin and 2 levels of Fighter.

For money, we were given 975,000 gp with the following restrictions:
Max item cost for any one item: 240,000gp.
No more than three items may cost more than 97,500gp.

Here's what I came up with. Comments and suggestions much appreciated.

Monk's Belt. This gives the unarmed damage and AC abilities of a 5th level monk. It puts the dragon's high Wisdom to good use and increases the dragon's natural attack damage.

Headband of Perfect Excellance. +6 to Str, Dex, and Wis. A steal at 180,000.

+5 animated adamantine large shield of fortification and frost resistance. Takes care of pesky critical hits and sneak attacks, and soaks up nasty cold damage. Animated, so can use while flying, clawing, etc and still keep Wis bonus to AC. This is the most expensive item.

Holy amulet of natural wounding weapons +2. This is from savage species, and gives the holy, wounding, and +2 enhancements to two natural weapons (most likely bite and tail).

+2 cold iron Beast Claws. Another one from savage species. These give a +2 magic enhancement to claws, and add 1d6 to claw damage. (this means the claws each do 1d8 + 1d6 +2, +16 from 1/2 Str bonus)

Bracers of armor +8. Armor bonus to armor class is good.

Ring of protection +5. Deflection bonus to armor class is good.

Dusty Rose ioun stone. +1 insight bonus to armor class is good.

Ring of growth. This lets you increase one size 1/day for 9 minutes. For a dragon, this increases all natural attack damage and adds a crush attack. Since you can't wear more than two rings, he'll use this to grow, then replace it with the ring of protection.

2 gloves of storing. He'll store a wand of bless weapon and a wand of healing in these, what for to enable quick healing (without having to spend a move action to draw these items).

Ring of Evasion.

5 beads of force (does 5d6 force damage and traps subject).

2 of the greater spell-absorbing ioun stones (one is a backup)

2 brooches of shielding (again with the backup)

A few uses of Stone Salve

Potions of healing

Boots of speed

Cloak of charisma +6

Vest of resistance +5

+1 adamantine ghost touch greatsword (for use while in human shape).

+1 adamantine full plate armor (for use while in human shape).

Heward's handy haversack. (never leave home without it!)

Bunch of stuff like holy water, oil, rope, and other gear.

About 3,000gp in cash.

His final stats will be AC 52, with a 34 Str and saving throw bonuses of around Fort 38, Ref 34, Will 36. He doesn't have any displacement, spell resistance, or an escape plan (dimension door, ethereal, teleport, or whatever) so I'm still tinkering with the item list. Hopefully the wizard and cleric characters can help with some of those. I might ditch the ring of protection in favor of a ring of displacement or something similar.

16 HD (including 2 fighter levels) gives 8 feats. His final feats are:

Multiattack, Power attack, Improved Bull Rush, Awesome Blow, Divine Might, Flyby Attack, Hover, and one feat that I'm forgetting. Hover is fun because if you hover close to the ground you create a dust cloud that blows out fire and obscures vision. The dragon can breathe fire into the cloud (4d10 with an unfortunately easy reflex save) or attack into it with his 10' reach. Good times!

-z

 

[XCorvis]

Watch your item slots. You have 3 rings and pairs of 2 gloves (claws and gloves). If you remove the ring of growth, you'll shrink (or at least you SHOULD shrink.) Get a wand or something instead.

Why full plate? Aren't you much better off with your bracers and dex and other stuff? Make your human form a lightly armored fighter.

Also figure out exactly what you're wearing in each form.

 

[Technik4]

I would recommend the ring which lets you store spells. Get the cleric to give you a heal spell to put in it.

Overall I would be wary. You don't have SR, your DR is magic (pretty much weakest one to bypass), and your HD are 5 less than an average encounter.

Why 2 levels of Fighter and 3 paladin? Wouldn't it be more fun to get a "mount"?

I also highly recommend Leadership, perhaps you can have a young bronze or copper with you.

Technik

 

[Nifft]

My advice for Dragons:

1) A level of Monk is always welcome;

2) A level of Sorcerer lets you use wands and such;

3) Paladins are really, really good for the Lawful Good smackdown, and for the Charisma bonus to saves;

4) You have plenty of Feats, and your HP are pretty good already. Don't bother with Fighter levels.




So, here are my suggested builds:

A) Monk2/Paladin3: you have an Insight bonus to AC, Charisma bonus to Saves, and free Evasion. Keep going up in both of the classes (if your DM allows it). Very little need of armor, and your Monk abilities will be cool when mixed with your Paladin abilities: you can Stunning Fist and Smite Evil at the same time!

B) Paladin5: Straight up Paladin. Instead of a special mount, ask for an advanced lantern archon companion. They're very good at getting messages back & forth.

C) Sorc1/Paladin4: True Strike is your friend. So is Shield.

D) Sorc1/Monk4: Many of your items seem to benefit Monks more than Paladins. As above, Shield and True Strike are your friends.

E) Monk1/Paladin1/Sorc3: ULTRA-MUNCHKIN!!! 'Nuff said.

F) Sorc1/Paladin2/Monk2: Awesome, but less munchkin looking. Your DM may allow it.



Magic Items for Sorcerers: obviously, Wands are going to rule -- especially utility wands! Dimension Door, Haste, Slow, Blur, Mirror Image, Displacement, Fog Cloud (since you have Blindsight), Improved Invisibility, and a Cold-Substituted Fireball Wand -- who in the Abyss expects that from a Gold Dragon?


Magic Items generally: Monk's Belt is a sucker item. It lets you fight in human form okay, but does NOT give you an AC bonus from Wisdom! One level of actual Monk is significantly better.

Headband of Perfect Excellence is a great choice for Monks and Paladins, and obviously for Monk/Paladins, too.

Cloak / Collar of Resistance +5: worth all 25,000 GP.

Ring of Deflection +5 & Bracers of Armor +8: you can't go wrong.

Ring of Wizardry I (20k GP): doubles your normal number of castings (before Cha bonus), so for one level of Sorcerer, you can get 6+Cha bonus castings of Shield or True Strike. Power Attack + True Strike = serious damage, especially under 3.5e.

Don't neglect Inherent ability bonuses -- +2 Manuals are only 55k GP, and +5 are 137,500 GP each. I think that Dex, Wisdom and Charisma are good candidates.


My builds grant six Feats (since no Fighter levels). Here's what I'd pick:

- Power Attack
- Hover
- Multiattack
- Combat Reflexes
- Flyby Attack
- Quicken Spell-Like Ability (so you can Polymorph as a Free Action) OR Quickdraw (so you can get your Wands out & use them in the same round)

-- Nifft

 

[Derren]

Hm, can't dragons use wands al by themselves because they already have spellcasting in their (monster) class?

Also, don't forget that you can't fly when wearing any armor other than light and that when you polymorph back into dragon form your fullplate either squishes you or gets destroyed.

 

[Nifft]

Hm, can't dragons use wands al by themselves because they already have spellcasting in their (monster) class?/B]

Since they don't get a caster level until their next age category, it's possible that a DM would not allow it.... but hey, if your DM will allow it, take Quickdraw, skip the Sorcerer level, and go be a Paladin/Monk.

-- Nifft