I like the stormborn sorcerer.
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If you're interested in Necromancy, have you considered the Sanguine bloodline? (UM Wildblooded Undead Bloodline) Nice and creepy. Fun for wierding out the normals.
If you're interested in Blasty, I think Stormborn is a great idea. Particularly when you can afford an Elemental Metamagic Rod. (Turn damaging spells into Sonic damage.. virtually nothing is resistant/immune! :)
As much as I like the DD myself, it will result in an even slower spell progression, which I understood would not be following your maxime (more firepower). Can't say much on the others.
Ruyan.
If you end up doing the Stormborn bloodline, Ear-piercing Scream seems like an awesome first level spell for you. Sonic damage, debuff, higher DC from bloodline.
Also, it should be noted that Tattooed Sanguine is not a possibility. The Sanguine bloodline and the Tattooed Sorcerer both alter the first bloodline power, making that combo a no-go. I was so pumped to have a Tattooed Sanguine sorcerer until I noticed that.
Tattooed is good for jacking up caster level if you take the Voratalo (Necromancy) tattoo, because all of your bloodline spells get another +1 to caster level. Plus you get a familiar tattoo, which can help boost any weakpoints you think you have, lke HP or initiative bonus. Sure, it's not all necromancy spells like if Tattooed Sanguine were possible, but it's still pretty good.
I personally chose Sanguine for the self-heal 1st level power, and the flavor of my character.
The other difficulty I'm having is balancing casting boosts like SF and survival boosts like Def Combat Training, Dodge, or Toughness. Human would make it much easier, but half-elf is my self-imposed restriction.
Choose one or the other, is my advice. Unless you plan on actively seeking to get into combat, you aren't going to need to the defensive abilities so much unless the rest of the party drop the ball completely.
Half Orc don't take a charisma penalty anymore. And Dwarves can take the Wildblooded (Empyreal) Bloodline, so spellcasting can go on wisdom rather than charisma.
I can vouch for Draconic Sorcerer (Green)/Dragon Disciple. You don't need to multiclass with Ranger (or anything else) unless you just really want to do it. Normally, you lose out on 9th level spells, but you trade that for increased survivability and improved bloodline powers. You also get your bloodline feats a lot sooner that way. There are some new acid spells in Ultimate Magic, too, if you haven't checked them out.
Oh, also... that build was a half-elf.
If you're up for playing a gnome (some aren't for some reason) and are willing to focus your spell list on illusion spells, then take the... wait for it... Arcane bloodline. No, seriously.
Gnomes add +1 to the DC of illusion spells that they cast. Get another effective +1 for their racial Charisma buff. Eventually get +2 from a bloodline power ('School Power'). Toss on Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus (Illusion) for another pair of +1s to DC.
If you've been counting, the race, the bloodline, and two feats net you a +6 to illusion DCs... and you twist the perceptions of all who oppose you, until they trust nothing to be real...
Anyway, this probably doesn't rival some of the uber combos out there... but I've had a lot of fun stacking up the Illusion DCs this way... plus max ranks in Bluff, just to cap the concept.
I'm all for Dragon Disciple. Here's my Guide.
If you go draconic, from those two choices, go green. Imo.
Linnorm (definitely green) is good if you don't think you'll ever use your claw attacks. I hardly ever do except for when I'm without a weapon and want to threaten so as to provide a flanking bonus for my Rogue. But Stormborn has such a cool flavor. I can see why you can't decide.
There's always the option to get the best of both worlds (arguably) and be crossblooded. Or you could choose one and take the Eldritch Hertiage feats to get the powers of the other. Just some suggestions if you really can't narrow it down to one.
For the cestus idea, I think it depends on who you ask. Technically, it's a glove, so your hand is still free to hold items. I don't see why you couldn't also cast spells. Some people might say it counts as wielding a weapon either way. As a compromise, you could self-impose a 5% arcane spell failure chance when you cast with that hand. It really depends on your GM, though. Just ask.
Any particular reason for Defensive Combat Training? Do you plan to get tripped or grabbed a lot? Did you mean Combat Casting instead?
As for the Dragon Disciple, by itself it's not so much of a gish. As I mentioned earlier, it just adds some survivability to your Sorcerer and pumps up your bloodline powers. You don't have to be more melee focused if you don't want to be. If you won't miss (or even make it high enough to get) 9th level spells, then it's a good choice for a draconic Sorcerer. Unfortunately, you can't use your half-elfiness to claim that as your second favored class. Which I think is a dumb rule. A prestige class is still a class. But there's always the Arcane Training alternate racial trait in that case.
For EH, the prereq is Skill Focus (bloodline skill)... perhaps change your bonus SF feat to open the door to EH? Not like SF-Perception is a bad choice, either, since it's both useful and also qualifies for EH-Dragon (or EH-Accursed, if you have a change of heart).
I think that what you have here is a good base for a future Dragon Disciple. I'm 8th level now, and it didn't really start coming together for me until 6th level. Once you actually start taking those DD levels, you'll notice a difference right away. Also, are you allowed to take traits? If so, you should take Magical Knack. The effects of it wouldn't kick in until your 5th DD level, but your effective caster level would increase by +2 at that point. It somewhat makes up for the few levels of spells that you lose. I don't think my DD would function as well without it since I also took two levels of Fighter.
As far as Linnorm Ray and Dragon Bite, I think there's a disconnect between them. Personally, I would say that the Linnorm bloodline doesn't count as the Draconic bloodline for claws. You would get claws at your 1st DD level, and they would progress from there as if you were a 1st level Sorcerer. Either that, or it just doesn't work at all and you never get claws or a bite attack. Since you want to be a DD, though, I'd suggest just keeping the claws. They do come in handy every once in a great while. And you should have plenty of Magic Missile uses later on that will be better than the ray attack.
Looking at your group setup, I prefer the caster route or, if DD is really stuck in your mind, go Sorc10/DD10. That's more favored class bonuses and more spellcasting.
Well, as I have a very gracious GM, my character has been retconned and homebrewed a lot. Also, individual Dragon Disciples may vary. I wanted a scary, intimidating shadow dragon lady. I'd be happy to share, nonetheless. I'll put it under a cut so no one else has to read a wall of text.
You guessed correctly about the levels. I started out as a Fighter for two levels, then three levels of Sorcerer, and then another three levels of Dragon Disciple. Half-elf was mostly for campaign flavor reasons, but I'm glad I chose it. The free Skill Focus and two favored classes really helped out. As for stats, we don't do point buy. I don't even know how it works, honestly. If we roll poorly, we use the Heroic NPC array. It's what I ended up using, which is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8. My stats ended up like this at 1st level (and currently at 8th level):
STR 15 (20)
DEX 14 (14)
CON 10 (10)
INT 12 (12)
WIS 8 (8)
CHA 15 (18)
For feats, I wanted to take advantage of Intimidate. I used Skill Focus for Intimidate. I also took Fighter feats such as Weapon Focus (great sword, but at first I used the lucerne hammer), Power Attack (bloodline), Dazzling Display, Intimidating Prowess... then some more magical feats such as Arcane Strike and Arcane Armor Training. One of my bloodline feats is Toughness. I left my Con as 10 because I knew I'd eventually get the extra hp somewhere else.
I try to stick to a theme rather than go for the more obvious, powerful spells. I choose mostly illusion and necromancy spells for this character. Also, since I'm a gish, I try to pick things that help me in combat. This is what I have so far:
Cantrips: Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead, Ghost Sound, Light, Ray of Frost, and Read Magic
1st level: Magic Missile, Shield, Silent Image (homebrew draconic), Touch of Gracelessness, and True Strike
2nd level: Darkness (homebrew draconic), Glitterdust, and Mirror Image
Shield + Mirror Image is the best combo ever for a gish. If you only have time to cast one, then go for Mirror Image. It has saved me from certain doom on more than one occasion. I'd take it asap if you plan on going into melee at all. If you don't, then any blasty stuff should be fine, too.
I'd use Skill Focus for Spellcraft or Perception. Definitely Spellcraft if you want to easily identify magical properties of things. You seem to have a good grasp on things already, so I'm sure you'll do fine. Just remember to have fun with it! =D
If you're up for playing a gnome (some aren't for some reason) and are willing to focus your spell list on illusion spells, then take the... wait for it... Arcane bloodline. No, seriously.
Might have something to do with the fact that you're playing a tiny man spraying the colors of the rainbow at your enemies. Some people tend to find this character particularly ridiculous. . . even though it's a classic D&D character.
(Disclaimer: this is exactly my current character in my game.)
If you're up for playing a gnome (some aren't for some reason) and are willing to focus your spell list on illusion spells, then take the... wait for it... Arcane bloodline. No, seriously.Might have something to do with the fact that you're playing a tiny man spraying the colors of the rainbow at your enemies. Some people tend to find this character particularly ridiculous. . . even though it's a classic D&D character.
(Disclaimer: this is exactly my current character in my game.)
Then you know the joy of high-DC phantasmal killer, and nigh-impenetrable major image, shadow evocations that work Just Like The Real Thing [tm].
Really, Gnome+Arcane Bloodline just rocks... let 'em laugh. Until they realize that Really Hot Chick they were flirting with in the tavern is a trained monkey covered by a seeming...