Hi guys
After looking on these very pages for THE archetype i wanted, a warrior that use the power of dragons to win the day, i end up empty handed. So i decide to create one...
"At some point in your family's history, a dragon interbred with your bloodline, and now its ancient power flows through your veins." this is true to a sorcerer, but not all who are gifted with dragon's blood decide to wield spells and magic! For some, a sword and the power of the mightiest creature is enough. They are called: Dragon Warrior.
At 1st level, you must select one of the chromatic or metallic dragon types. This choice cannot be changed. A number of your abilities grant resistances and deal damage based on your dragon type, as noted on Table: Breath Weapons, so choose wisely...
Dragon Senses (Ex) Starting at 1st level, you gain Low-Light Vision, if you already have this ability, you can now see 3 times better than normal (instead of 2 times). At 5th level, you now gain Darkvison 30', if you already have this ability, you add 30' to your range. At 10th level, you add another 30' to your Darkvison. Finely, at level 15, you gain blindsense 30'.
This feature replace your 1st and 10th level bonus feat.
Perception is a class skill for you.
Dragon Resistances (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain resist 5 against your energy type and a +1 natural armor bonus. At 7th level, 11th level, and 15th level, these bonuses increases by one step each.
this feature replace armor training 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Breath Weapon (Su): At 5th level, you gain a breath weapon. This breath weapon deals 1d6 points of damage of your energy type per level. Those caught in the area of the breath receive a Reflex save for half damage. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 your fighter level + your Charisma modifier. The shape of the breath weapon depends on your dragon type (as indicated on the above chart). You can use this ability once per day. At 9th level, you can use this ability 1 more time per day and the shape of your Breath Weapon become larger. At 17th level, you can use this ability 3 times per day.
This feature replace weapon training 1, 2, 4.
Table: Breath Weapons
Dragon Type Energy Type Breath Shape (5th) (9th)
Black Acid 30' line -- 60' line
Blue Electricity 30' line -- 60' line
Green Acid 15' cone -- 30' cone
Red Fire 15' cone -- 30' cone
White Cold 15' cone -- 30' cone
Brass Fire 30' line -- 60' line
Bronze Electricity 30' line -- 60' line
Copper Acid 30' line -- 60' line
Gold Fire 15' cone -- 30' cone
Silver Cold 15' cone -- 30' cone
Wings (Su): At 13th level, leathery dragon wings grow from your back as a standard action, giving you a fly speed of 60 feet with average maneuverability. You can dismiss the wings as a move action. The wings last for 1 min per level + you CHA modifier.
This feature replace weapon training 3
Dragon Toughness (ex) you gain Damage Reduction 5 and your energy resistance increase to 25.
This feature replace armor mastery.
Power of Wyrms (Su): At 20th level, your draconic heritage becomes manifest. You gain immunity to paralysis, sleep, and damage of your energy type. You also gain blindsense 60 feet.
Anyone, critique?
About the wings...for the Sorc, they're permanent...that and Fighters usually use CHA as a dump stat. I think that ability may need a little revising. Nice concept though. I will be lurking here...
dragon powers are generally based of of con modifiers(at least for things like breath attacks)
You should name him TROGDOR!
Why not just update the dragon shaman from 3.5? This seems similar to it, yet I think it might be a bit too much for a fighter.
Thanks guy for comments..
Luna: it's a figther, didn't want to be to powerful for archetype.. so gave him a limeted time.
Trogdar: hhummm tempting, CON instead of CHA, make sense since his abilities are comming from him, i mean not buy magic (like sorcerer) but from his own personal energy.
Borthos: i taugh of that... but ya, dragon shaman is a full class, not an archetype for sure.
Thanks guy for comments..
Luna: it's a figther, didn't want to be to powerful for archetype.. so gave him a limeted time.
Trogdar: hhummm tempting, CON instead of CHA, make sense since his abilities are comming from him, i mean not buy magic (like sorcerer) but from his own personal energy.
Borthos: i taugh of that... but ya, dragon shaman is a full class, not an archetype for sure.
True, but the way this is looking, this is going to be an alt class, not just an archetype. Some of these abilities are really good and better than they're bloodline counterparts for sorcerers.
Have you considered the Dragon Totem of the Barbarian class?
Petty: i did but mheeeee, seems ordinary to me. The rage power - dragon are weak (compare to the rogue counter part) and the first one is meaningless, waste of power. I see them as thematic and what-nut, but that's about it! Mind you... wings are good :)
Borthos: you're right, it's a bit powerful for just an archetype. I can tune it down, but i'm afraid it would ruin it. I would follow Trogdar advice and put Constitution instead of Charisma for abilities dho, easy fix :) and i think Dragon Resistance is ok at 3rd level. Will look into it and repost.
Thanks for comment and keep them coming.
I generally don't think it's too powerful, actually I'd say that it might be a bit underpowered, but it depends on a few things. Several of the abilities are powered by Cha, which is usually a dump stat for fighters, so either the abilities are going to be weak or the fighter is going to have less damage/to hit/hp/saves/iniative than usual.
Dragon senses is a very strong ability, far stronger than two feats. However, I would say dragon resistances is a fair bit weaker than armor training, and breath weapon is far weaker than weapon training.
There's no balance reason not to have the wings be on 24/7 - at this point you can usually fly when you want to in combat regardless, and the wizard is rocking it's overland flight. And for flavor purposes I dislike abilities that are like "temporarily morph into dragon form" on something like this, but YMMV.
Dragon toughness, is the DR intended as DR 5/-? Because dragons don't have DR /-, they have DR /magic. I'd consider swapping DR 5/- to DR 10/magic just to be the same as dragons.
Power of Wyrms: Is this intended to replace weapon mastery? Having two capstones sounds weird and very late blooming, but if it's intended to replace I find it a bit weak considering what you give up.
I think the archetype is fine from a flavor perspective, but I also think it's a bit weak. Especially, I think dropping weapon training for a mediocre area attack (area blasts are mediocre for wizards - your breath weapon will be the same damage but worse range and FAR worse DC) just a few times per day.
It gains a little versatility for a big drop in offense. If versatility is the goal, may I suggest giving it some limited spellcasting ability based on it's draconic nature? Or some special ability? Like smoke vision for red dragons, water breathing for black dragons etc?
I was actually thinking about doing a Dragon shaman conversion, but my plans involved making some fairly fundamental changes. Dragon shamans were considered to be underpowered in 3.5 unless you used some metabreath shenanigans.