Contributor
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First, let me say that I enjoyed the two Mike McArtor articles on Dragon PCs very very much. Thoroughly.
Thanks. ^_^
I have a few questions, however.
First, it seems to me that a Dragon in the party has a rather...narrow role. Their class skills aren't terribly diverse and, aside from some nice bonuses, they're basically muscle.
That is if I'm correct and (for example) a Gold Dragon doesn't start casting as a 1st level Sorcerer until 16th level.
They're essentially very interesting, very colorful fighter types.
That is essentially the dragon's role in a party, yes. Even a non-PC dragon focuses mainly on its physical attacks, using spells and breath weapon to augment its potent and excellent melee attacks.
Can someone help me find some other roles for a Gold Dragon in a party? One of my Players has a 4th level Gold Dragon...and I can already see the novelty wearing thin for both her and the rest of the party.
Also, not being able to multiclass until 11th or 12th level further nails down the Dragon's focus as muscle.
Hmm... I would recommend acting as the Face of the party. At 2nd level she gains a Charisma bonus, Bluff is a class skill for golds, and Diplomacy is a class skill for all dragons. At 5th level she gains another Charisma bonus. If she then wants to multiclass after 12th level I'd recommend bard, cleric, or another class with Diplomacy as a class skill. It should be pretty easy for a dragon to coerce a humanoid into seeing her way. Dragons are usually respected and feared by people.
If she wants to remain the party's muscle beginning at 13th level and wants to multiclass from there, she should look into a couple levels of fighter and then finishing off her level progression with paladin.
Finally (and maybe y'all can't help with this one), did I read correctly in Races of the Dragon (disappointing book, sadly) that one can reflect a child of two different Dragon species by simply adding the half-dragon template to a Dragon?
Does that make sense? Isn't that like saying that Dragons SHOULD breed outside their race cuz their children will automatically be far more powerful?? That seemed a bit odd to me....
Umm... wow! I hope it doesn't say that!
Edit: Of course now I can't find that in RotD...so maybe I was dreaming
Let's all hope. ^_^
Thanks for any help you can provide.
I'm not sure if what I wrote counts as helping, but if it does then to you I say: "You're welcome." :)
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Contributor
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It certainly did help, Mike. If nothing else, you confirmed my assessment of the Dragon as a PC.
Couple more questions for ya;
1)How badly do you think it would unbalance things to allow a Gold Dragon to begin multiclassing as a Sorcerer earlier than 13th level?
That restriction is as much about balance as it is about logic and verisimilitude in your campaign world.
First, the verisimilitude discussion: Imagine, for a moment, that a dragon PC who has taken all her levels to achieve full wyrmling status (in the gold's case, 12th level) takes another level in dragon before deciding she wants to multiclass. If you as the DM allow such a multiclass you probably aren't going to break the character or the game, but you do break the believability of the world (or at the very least force questions you might not have wanted). What is such a character? A wyrmling? Technically: yes, but because she has one level toward very young doesn't that make her partially very young? It's easy enough to explain away the idea when the dragon only takes dragon levels (or only takes normal class levels in the level after one age category), but when a character is part-way through an age category and then takes up a level in a standard class how do we define her? What if she never goes back to taking any more dragon levels? What, then, is she?
Now for the rules discussion: The restriction about multiclassing out of a dragon class before the character finishes her age category comes from the concept's original home, Savage Species. It's a rule I can back 100%. The restriction is there to prevent a player from taking one level in a monster class in order to get the benefits of that creature's type before taking levels in other classes. In some ways you should think of each dragon's age category progression as a separate monster class. Taking one level in the class should force you into taking further levels in that same class.
Now, having said all that I'll answer your specific questions. I don't think a sorcerer dragon would upset or unbalance your game too much, although as you might guess I wouldn't allow it.
And would the innate level stack at that point, or would that still, realistically, have to wait until 16th level?
It would have to wait.
2)So...*looks about shiftily* Any chance of getting that Steel Dragon PC Class worked out? ;-)
That's really up to Jason and Erik to decide. I'd certainly be willing to continue doing articles like those. So you'll need to email them. :)