Race as Class: Half Dragon

[Morgenstern]

Something that came up on the otehr list and seemed kinda cool, so I thought I'd post it here to see if anyone noticed .

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Racial Classes
Many characters of mixed parentage come into their full inheritance slowly, developing the full extent of their powers over time. Racial class levels may never exceed one half of the character’s total levels. Like prestige classes, racial classes are not considered when checking for XP penalties.

Half-Dragon

Base Race (human parentage)
+2 Strength
Medium sized creature
Speed: 30 ft.
Natural Armor +1
Natural weaponry: Claws (1d4)
Immune to sleep and paralysis
Lowlight vision 60 ft.
Favored Class: Sorcerer

Half-Dragon Heritage (Racial Class)

Hit points: d8 + Constitution modifier per level

Class skills: As last non-racial level (as sorcerer if no previous non-racial levels).

Additional skill points per level: 6 + Intelligence modifier per level

Bite: At 1st level, the half dragon’s form grows more draconian, granting the character a bite attack which causes 1d6 damage.
Darkvision: At 1st level, the half dragon gains darkvision 60 ft.
Dragon Scales: The half-dragon’s scales take on the luster and toughness of his parent. At 1st level, the character takes only one half damage from the energy type associated with his dragon parent (see Monster Manual, page 215).
At 4th level, the half dragon become immune to that damage type.
Natural Constitution: As the half-dragon’s body thicken, he gains additional stamina and toughness. At 1st level, the character gains a +2 racial bonus to Constitution.
Dragon Size: At 2nd level, the half dragon’s size increases to Large. The character also gains the Dragon type for purposes of spell targeting (but does not lose the humanoid type).
Natural Armor: At 2nd level the half dragon’s skin thickens, increasing his natural armor bonus to +2.
At 4th level, this bonus increases to +4
Natural Strength: As the half dragon embraces his heritage his Strength grows. At 2nd level the half dragon’s racial Strength bonus increases to +3. This bonus increases by +1 for each half-dragon level gained hereafter.
Natural Charisma: At 2nd level the half dragon begins to display the presence of their draconian parentage. The character gains a +2 racial bonus to Charisma.
Wings: At 3rd level, the half dragon sprouts reptilian wings, granting him a new movement rate of Fly 30’ (poor). At 5th level the half-dragon’s expertise with these new appendages grows until he achieves average maneuverability.
Breath: At 5th level, the character gains the breath weapon described in the monster manual, page 214.
Natural Intelligence: At 5th level, the half dragon gins the cunning intellect of their draconian parentage. The character gains a +2 racial bonus to Intelligence.

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +0 +2 +0 +0 Bite (1d6), darkvision, dragon scales (1/2 damage), natural constitution +2
2 +1 +3 +0 +0 Dragon size, Natural armor +2, natural strength +3
3 +1 +3 +1 +1 Natural charisma +2, natural strength +4, wings (poor)
4 +2 +4 +1 +1 Dragon scales (immunity), natural strength +5, natural armor +4
5 +2 +4 +1 +1 Breath, natural intelligence +2, natural strength +6, wings (average)


New Feat:
Blood Will Tell
Your heritage runs strongly through your veins, allowing you to come into your birthright more quickly.
Prerequisites: Character level 1 only.
Benefit: You may now take level in a racial class in excess of one half of you character level.
Normal: Your level in racial classes may not exceed half of your total levels.

 

[Fenes 2]

In Tome & Blood there is a prestige Class "Dragon Disciple" that covers such a concept pretty well.

 

[Morgenstern]

True, but a couple of points are in order here. First, the Dragon disciple is designed to turn a character of any race into a half dragon- this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Second, the Dragon Disciple assumes you are a spell caster- you want to do a half-dragon fighter you are outa luck. Third, while the Dragon Disciple gives out dribs and drabs of magical power (a few extra spell slots) it takes 10 levels to get to the point. Half Dragons aren't ECL 10 are they? Put bluntly, the class takes too long.

Basically this class is a compacted Dragon Disciple. The rule for racial levels not being more than half your level slows down the acquisition rate (unless you dump a feat slot for the sole purpose of getting to the 5th level as fast as possible)- and at the end of the day you've got an ECL +5 character that can adventure alongside parties far more managably than slaping the template directly on.

Partially I was playing with this as a prototype of other conversions. As you can see in part II, half-celestials can be dropped into this mold fairly easily (half fiends are just about as simple). You're giving up other potential racial advantages to do this, and unless you toss that 1st level feat on the fire, you won't have the full template until 10th character level.

I'm hoping the idea will prove valuable in play, so that for instance a party starts off at 1st level, and they have a half-dragon cleric in their midst (for example), but he's not grossly more powerfull than the human or the dwarf, and as the party gains in levels the character can either develope his powers as a priest or call forth the powers in his blood.

 

[Fenes 2]

Makes sense, imho. I do believe, however, that 6 skill points is grossly overpowered for such a class. 2 + int modifier would be sufficient, especially considering that the character gains +2 to int after 5 levels.

I do not have the MM with me atm, but if the normal template is just spread out over 5 levels, then it should pose not many balancing problems (apart from the mentioned skill points).

 

[Morgenstern]

It's pretty much the half-dragon template spread over both 5 levels and your racial stuff. I agree the 6x skills is rather brutal, but that was pulled from the template too, which gives them 6x skills for each of their "generic" levels. The only other difference is this class gives you 2 point's less Strength bonus than the MM template (a whoping +8 !!).

I can see dropping the skill rate to 4x. They're still plenty formidable (and yes, I deliberately stashed the +2 Int bonus at the end where it would do the -least- good). I do wan these to be more 'playable' than 'desirable'. The best optional rules are ones that get used ...

 

[Fenes 2]

IMC they would be pretty much underpowered. All the charisma raises in the world would not be able to cancel out the stygma of being a half-reptilian freak. A player of a half-dragon would lose out on many social and intrigue scenes.

 

[Morgenstern]

Heh. Just looked through Savage Species. Looks like I was on the right track, though SS uses levels that don't give HD. I'll be tuning this class up to official standards shortly now that the method is clear .

Biggest item with addapting a template under the SS rules is picking something to apply the template too before divding up the abilites into levels. With the half dragon generally counting as a +3 level adjust, I'll probably go with two versions to demonstrate the technique - base creature as a 3rd level human fighter, and as a 7th level human sorcerer. I always thought the dragon adept was underpowered, apparently SS thinks so too .

 

[Khaalis]

One question though (feeling Racialy Discriminated against here).

Why in both of your templates is only HUMAN parentage listed as "the Base Race"? What about Dwarf, Elf, etc.?

 

[Morgenstern]

Ultimately, because human adavantages are easily ignored, reducing the power level of the resulting race. These things end up being way powerfull, so droping stuff makes them less overkill. If you wanted to strip off a feat and adding all the asorted dwarven bonuses...

 

[Khaalis]

I have yet to have time to sit and Read my SS (got it yesterday and the whole V-day thing)...

Why would anyone bother taking this Racial Class if they "lose" abilities, when they can simply apply the normal Template then?