Martial 1 Sorc 6 DD 8 EK 5 - Question about when to transition into DD


Advice


For the DD, do you dip into it as soon as possible or do you front-load all of your sorcerer levels first?

I am planning on trying to do a beast caster type, where my melee and magic are balanced. Even though I've planned out to 20, we likely won't get that high. I am guessing AP goes to 15th to 17th. So,

is it 1 martial 4 sorc then immediate dip to DD or go 1 marital 6 sorc then start the dip at 8th?

Also, is going cross-blooded too much of a hit to the casting capabilities. I was either going to do Draconic/Abyssal or Draconic/Orc

Shout out to Oterisk's guide to the Dragon Disciple

Sovereign Court

Well what exactly is it that you want your character to do? Melee and Magic can go hand in claw and so forth but do you have a particular goal you want to achieve?


I want a pretty balanced mix since we're a 3 man party, our casters are exposed. One of our players already lost two characters both arcane casters. So, he went oracle of metal, so this would fill in the arcane caster slot. My current character is a paladin so this is a potential back-up. With the full 20 level build, my BAB is 15 and CL is 16 though again I doubt we'll make it to 20. We're playing RotRL and are about mid in book 3.

Sovereign Court

Hmm, it seems like your picking up a more sorcerer then your bloodline is going to need. Plus if your going to be arcane, and on top that a sorcerer you're going to be pretty far behind for accessible spell levels. Not really arcane caster slot filling. Of course your building it at a higher level so that isn't likely so much of a problem so long as you know what your giving up.

That can be pretty dangerous, especially at higher levels when having access to a lot more of the powerful utility spells is what you need.

If you wanted to go melee combat DD/EK you might be better off going Magus/sorc/DD/EK and just push everything into the Magus levels with just 1 level of Sorcerer, or better yet a level of Bard instead. High strength, decent intelligence, constitution and dexterity...


I had a funky character that's been pretty fun to play, Sorc 1/Wiz 5/DD 8/wiz the rest of the way, as a primary fcaster for the party. We had one guy that's aa decent optimizer, so it's not really a big deal to be kinda suboptimal and sacrafice so much caster-level.

Going magus (hex-crafter, cause hexes are cool) with Sorc 1/Magus 4/DD 8/EK 5 gives you the Hex arcana thing at 4th level, and you stack Magus casting, take extra arcana for hexes and arcana, and enjoy your d12 HD and sorc bloodline. Your arcane-pool will suffer a LOT, but that's the trade-off.

And the Sorc dip, if you can go with Cross-Blooded Sage/Draconic, so you can qualify for DD (draconic) and have your sorc stuff key off int (valuable for the magus). You'll only get 1 sorc spell, so Blood Money to ignore material components is convenient to have access to, as long as the oracle knows Restoration.


I played a sorc/DD/diabolist to level 12, he was a beast. Half-orc, with draconic crossblooded with Orc bloodline, itemized and feats/traits for quickcasting fireball, and attacking with a ridiculous amount of natural attacks through Monstrous Physique with his strength close to 40 as far as I recall. He took a level in Diabolist, so he had an imp familiar as well. A reanimated dragon (blood skeleton) and reanimated giant (fast zombie) provided good filler space on the battlefield :-). I believe he was lawful neutral...

His man stat was strength, with Charisma coming in second.

It was a super high powered campaign, and we had great fun, with a lot of good roleplaying.


I have a melee build (1/2 orc) with cross blooded (Dragonic/Orc), my chassis for that was Barb 4/ sorc 1 DD 2. I might retool to Barb 4/ 1 Bard. As filling the caster slot, going cross blooded removes one spell known per level. I don't think I can take that hit. The whole concept with that was more focused as a natural weapon monster with spells focused on buffs before activating rage and going to town. This build is more about switching modes from caster to reasonably able melee presence. Due to our party size, I will be exposed to melee often.

@Morgen. One of my questions, is when do I dip into DD? I like that I have 3rd level spells before I hit the dead caster level of DD1. I did take magical knack to shore up the CL discrepancy. Right now, I sit at CL 7. I guess I could go 1 Fighter 4 Sorc 2 DD at 7th. Eventually I need to bring back those two caster levels. BAB 15 CL 16 at 20 seemed pretty balance. Although I think I get 4 of that BAB with the last dip in EK.

@Waiph. Appreciate the idea

I already have several pure magus built so I don't want to muddy those waters. I am just trying to see how best to get to a balance of caster/melee with what the DD seems to offer. I don't like to dip magus myself, but cool idea.

@Tandriniel. I am not sure if the Diabolist is on the table as a PRC that I could choose. I take it you had no martial class in that build then? What was your level progression past Sorc 5? Sorc 5/DD4/ Diabolist 3?


I'd get into DD as soon as possible. Getting to 3rd level spells first will only benefit you at level 7. Starting on DD sooner will benefit you at all levels above that. And you might as well get used to being seriously behind on caster levels right away.

Personally, I don't buy into the 'get out of DD after level 8' philosophy. Yes, you get another level without CL or BAB increase at DD 9, but come on, you're a dragon disciple, surely you must want the second dragon form ability? It seems like you're foregoing a lot of fun in exchange for being one caster level fewer behind, but still nowhere near a full caster. Although I guess I can see why you would do it for a 'balanced hybrid' type of character.

On the other hand, I don't really see why you'd want sorcerer 5&6 instead of EK 6&7, as you get most of your bloodline powers through the DD levels anyway, so you might as well take the higher BAB.

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