Looking for Dragon Hunting Party

[Jack Simth]

Hey all,

I've got an upcoming game, and I need a party of four LN professional dragon hunters - CR 5 individually, for an encounter level of 9. A cooperative, balanced party would be ideal. These will be NPC's - I'd like full builds, including spells prepared, if possible.

Any suggestions?

 

[ardentmoth]

ooh, ooh, i'll go first! lol...

1) what books are you using? core classes and variants of them might be good to list.
2) what's the relationship betwee psionics and magic like in your world?
3) savage species?

Off the top of my head I would say ranger, bard, cleric/sorc, barbarian/rog, just for simplicity's sake. Pretty predictible builds honestly:
-favored enemies dragon and reptilian for the ranger, go bows bows and more bows.
-bard should focus on crowd control most likely; glitterdust, ottos, grease...
-cleric should have some sort of protection domain (spells like energy resistance), and a couple all-purpose ranged spells like magic missile.
-the barb/rog should pack focus on rage, con, and trap removal. He is first a meatshield, and second a meathead .

my 2 cents... but honestly there are any number of better builds than those that come off the top of the head, so let us know what sourcebooks you're using.

 

[Jack Simth]

I'm the DM. As long as it's not overly broken (and most of the overly broken stuff comes after 3rd level spells, and PrC's that you can't take until 6th level, minimum), any source will do, really.

 

[moritheil]

Ranger, druid, ranger, beguiler would be my suggestion. If you allow Lords of Madness, Darkstalker is very nice, and essential for this sort of thing.

 

[Nifft]

Level 5 Dragon Hunters? Hmmm. So they're egg thieves, or wyrmling wranglers (single wyrmlings only)?

Is the party 5th level, or 9th level, or somewhere in between? Builds will differ significantly.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Jack Simth]

Wyrmling wranglers.

You see, the party is a pair of Wyrmling dragons (Silver, Gold) with a couple of class levels (Rouge and Beguiler, respectively). They've been "noisy", and there's a bounty on dragon corpses (which they knew about when they got noisy). It's okay if the NPC's are a bit above standard wealth.

 

[Darklone]

Hmm.

I'd call them the Oerlikon Flak :
Bard archer heading for haste (or boots of speed) plus rapid shot and optimised Inspire Courage (a +3 should be possible), swift hunter scout4/rgr1 with favored enemy +4 dragons, cleric archer with zen archery, good Cha, a bane bow and Divine Might. And a druid archer (don't forget Produce Flame with these nice multiple ranged touch attacks) who's heading for wildshape into some grappling monstrosity in case a dragon wants to go toe to toe with his archer buddies.

All of them except the scout should have PBS and Rapid Shot, the druid needs Improved Grapple.

 

[Derro]

Wyrmling wranglers.

I won't get into builds but somebody should most definitely have these spells. They're both Sorc/Wiz3, right at your cap.

Sensory Deprivation(DR324 p72)
<Ill(phantasm)[mind], VSM(black silk cloth), 1StdAct,
Medium-range, 1rnd/lvl, WillNeg, SR applies>
– The target becomes Blind, Deaf, and cannot use its Blindsense, Blightsight, Scent, or Tremorsense abilities.

Shadow Binding(CArc p122)
<Ill(shadow), VSM(iron chain), 1StdAct, Close-range,
1rnd/lvl, WillNeg, SR applies>
– All creatures in a 10’ radius Burst who fail their save are Dazed for 1 round and Entangled (DC 20 Strength or Escape Artist check to get free).

The key to dragons is keeping them on the ground and both of these spells can accomplish that. They are best as the lead salvo and can result in a very quick defeat of the affected creature so BE YE WARNED.

 

[Animal]

consider earthbind and suppress breath weapon spells from Draconomicon.
dragonhunter and dragonfoe lines of feats from the same source.
bane bows, nets, mancatcher [CW] will also be handy for low-level dragon hunters.

 

[Herobizkit]

Dwarf Warrior (Barbarian and Paladin were out due to alignment, Barbarian otherwise), Wood Elf Ranger, Halfling Druid, Half-Elven Monk/Rogue... basically, races that offer any bonuses to any saves.

The Warrior-5 is your typical "sword-and-board" meat-shield. He should follow the Weapon Focus > Specialization > Imp. Critical chain with the Dwarven Waraxe. It's the most decent one-handed weapon you can get for a warrior without blowing a feat.

The Wood Elf Ranger-5 (for the juicy +2 Str AND Dex) can spend feats to get both TWF and the Bow chain, giving him ultimate versatility. Naturally, his first favored enemy will be Dragons.

The Halfling Druid-5 rocks, because Druids rock harder than Clerics for pure versatility. Period. An interesting combo that I've been using IMC is a Druid/Warlock. 3 levels of 'lok nets you a 2d6 all-the-time ranged TOUCH attack plus some all-day abilities. Be sure to max out UMD and then go all Druid from there. Wands will be your friend...

The Monk 3/Rogue 2 combo is to get that 2d6 sneak attack, quick movement to get that sneak attack bonus, saves through the roof, plus Evasion to avoid that nasty breath weapon.

Many people will hate hate HATE my choices, but my mileage definitely varies.