Dealing with the Dragonfire Adept

[Ian Morris 321]

I am a victim of my liberal character creation policy. I like giving the players choices and this particular player actually surprised me by creating an interesting back story. I was under the impression that it was just a dragon themed Warlock, which is reasonable. When he shows up with a Dragonfire Adept I was amused but after a day of play I am exhausted. I have reviewed the rules and they are vague at best.

He has taken the invocation that makes targets (the other players) immune to the ‘effects’ of his breath weapons. Does this include the damage and the other silly ‘breath effect’ he can add to the breath weapon.

He also used a (IMHO broken) constant detect magic ability that he could dismiss to cast identify. I am not a huge fan of the identify tax of 100 gp but completely circumventing this at a low level (5th) seems wrong.

I don’t have a problem with the constant elemental based damage and in my opinion the class is very one dimensional and frankly boring. My question is how do I interpret the two above abilities and does anyone have experience dealing with the Dragonfire Adept?

Thanks again,
Ian

[Evil Genius]

I've played the Dragonfire Adept. It's very one-sided and pretty weak in most situations. I'm not aware of any ability to exclude the party members from the breath effect, but in the end, the Adept's breath is very weak and probably not worth worrying about.

[Ian Morris 321]

I dont have my books with me but the invocation adds endure elements to the target and the real boon is the last line that says something to the tune of 'makes the target immune to the effects of your breath weapon'.

Ok here it is from the coboardwiki entry;

Endure Exposure (5): This is one of the very best Least invocations. Not only can you use this to make your whole party comfortable in extreme environments (it’s the equivalent of an endure elements spell), but it also makes them immune to your breath weapon This allows you to breathe freely without worrying about hurting your allies, which is hugely important. A must-have.

[The Black Bard]

Yeah, they are immune to your breath. Which he had to spend an invocation slot on. Opportunity cost. I had a guy not take it, took the one that lets you add wind effects, and his allies enjoyed free movement around the battlefield. To each their own.

As for the detect magic bit: if you dont like it, change it. Warlocks get almost the same thing, and at 5th level, its not much to brag about. A good bard can do pretty much the same thing with bardic knowledge. Most DM's I know will allow detect magic +spellcraft against DC 15+caster level to identify the powers of items.

But, I can see how it gets quirky. Without constant Nystuls Magic Aura, it becomes hard to magically pull the wool over their eyes. "Wait, I caught a glimmer, theres something in this room that's magical. I'm getting illusion magic on the floor, probably a trap." And the rogue shrugs and starts searching with a +2 for knowing where to look. Now, the mean DM has Nystyl's on the floor, with a proximity trigger for a falling ceiling trap. But like I said, can't overuse the Nystul.

[Korgoth]

well, instead of using fake auras all the time, why not have stacked traps? The party detects and disables the wail of the banshee trap, feels pretty good about it, and then falls into the simple pit trap right behind it. Also, I don't believe antimagic field has an aura, so throw one of those down there and make them fight a black pudding. (only use this once, and at high levels where they can usually make the save, because it is so freakin annoying.)

As far as the breath goes, my friend played a dragonfire adept once with entangling breath. It wasn't very effective. I wouldn't worry about it; with the resist energy invocation, it's like an archer with precise shot. (ie, they can hit enemies that their comrades are in melee with.) How much damage does his breath do? (I remember it was around 2d4 at 3-4th level, but it was a while ago.)

[Graynore]

Ian: The pertinent language in the Endure Exposure invocation is "immune to any effects of your breath weapon" which should mean any and all effects of the breath weapon.
As for the Magic Insight invocation, you are reading it correctly. I would stress that it works exactly like Detect Magic except for the full round action, touch Identify effect; hence, one has to concentrate for two rounds to identify locations of auras and one round to identify the pressence of magic. If your player wants to walk around checking for magical traps all the time, then let them while at the same time enforcing the concentration times.