My friend has an abnormal obsession with dragons. His old GM created (or claimed to create) a class for him called "dragon cursed" (I hate this name) which is essentially a barbarian with dragon-like abilities. I'm not very good at judging balance, but it seems completely overpowered.
I'd like to rework it to be a bit less powerful, and I'd like some advice on this particular class that I'm making now and creating classes in general. Here's what I have so far of the class I am creating as an alternative (this class is not yet complete):
Role: This class is combat-focused. Borrowing traits for mighty dragons, it is able to both inflict and receive large amounts of damage.
Hit Dice: d10
Alignment: Any
Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Fly (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana), Perception (Wis), Ride (Dex), Swim (Str)
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier
Fast BAB, Good Fort Save, Poor Ref save, Poor Will save
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The character is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and light armor.
Dragon Type: At 1st level, the character must choose between black, blue, green, red, white, brass, bronze, copper, gold, and silver. This decision will affect later class abilities, namely Energy Resistance and Form Of The Dragon.
Claws: At 1st level, the character's fingernails become extremely tough, granting her two claw attacks. Treat this natural attack as a secondary attack. The damage dealt is dependent on the character's size (small characters deal 1d3 damage, medium characters deal 1d4 damage).
Energy Resistance: At 4th level, the character gains resist energy 1 for an energy associated with the type of dragon chosen (acid for black/green/copper, cold for white/silver, electricity for blue/bronze, or fire for red/brass/gold). Every four levels after 4th, this resistance increases by 1 to a maximum of 5 at 20th level.
Damage Reduction: At 7th level, the character gains damage reduction 1/--. Every three levels after 7th, the damage reduction increases by 1 to a maximum of 5 at 19th level.
Form Of The Dragon: At 10th level, the character may use the spell form of the dragon as a supernatural ability once per day. The type of dragon which the character transforms into is the dragon type chosen at 1st level.
What's overpowered about it? With the exception of the Form of the Dragon ability at tenth level, it's just a regular barbarian except much worse. And that Form of the Dragon ability is nice, but at only one use per day and only unlocking one level before wizards get it anyhow, it isn't breaking the game.
This is not the broken class. I have not shared the broken class. (Perhaps I will later.) What I have posted is an unfinished alternate class that keeps the flavor of the original class. I plan on adding more class features (and possibly changing the Form Of The Dragon class feature to a more robust option) later. I just wanted to know how it looked so far and if there were any tips on where to go from here, or tips on building classes in general.
I have updated my original post to hopefully better state what I mean.
It looks really weak. A regular barbarian can get everything this class does other than the Form of the Dragon ability (claws from Lesser Beast Totem, energy resistance from Dragon Totem) and has a bunch of other advantages (medium armor proficiency, the ability to rage, more rage powers, d12 hit die, fast movement, [improved] uncanny dodge - and its energy resistance is far better, since this class's energy resistance is so weak it may as well not even exist).
Meanwhile, you've got empty levels all over the place (2nd, 6th, 8th) and no incentive at all to take the class beyond tenth level.
Honestly, if you think resistance 5 to a single type of energy at 20th level is a worthwhile primary class feature then I have to seriously wonder how "broken" the original class really was.
Again, I must say this class is not complete. As I said earlier, I plan on adding class features, such as a bite attack and wings. All I was asking for was advise on what I have at this moment. You have let me know the resistance is too low, and I thank you. That is the type of feedback I'm looking for.
There's really nothing more to discuss because you don't have anything at all at this moment. All you did was take the barbarian class and strip out most of its features. You've written nothing new on which to comment.
Um... it has full BAB, that's good I guess?
In their tongue, he is Dovahkiin...DRAGONBORN.
Waaaiiit...wrong game...
You may want to consider not choosing a dragon color at first level. Early on you could focus on becoming dragon-like without getting too specific.
I would expand the list of class skills. Add at least 4 more.
Considering dragons affinity with magic I would consider making this a 4-level casting class like paladin or ranger.
Using RY's example of barbarian (with some druid), I would begin work on a "dragon-form" available for an amount of time per day that grants dragon qualities to the character such as natural weapons and armor, energy resistance, and strength. As they level up more dragon aspects are chosen, and by level X they are very much like a dragon and the duration of the form ceases to matter much.
A barbarian becomes fatigued after a rage. It might be silly, but perhaps you could come up with a variation for the amount of food and sleep the character needs.
I agree with Roberta, the class is underpowered.
Take the Hit Dice to d12 to simulate "and receive large amounts of damage." Bump the damage on those claws up a notch (1d4/1d6 at least) or have them scale with level.
Dragons can go many ways: brutes or cunning opponents or casters. Maybe do something like the rogue talent with a pool of features that the player could pick at different levels to let him customize the PC.
Dragon's are casters too which could make things interesting. Here's what I'm thinking; implement a pool system like most classes have based on Charisma and give it the basic weapon enhancement properties (to natural weapons), but also let points from it be used to spontaneously cast elemental damage related spells, though they always deal the elemental type associated with the dragon. Like maybe at low levels you can spend a point to unleash a dragon stylized form of Burning Hands or Shocking Grasp that does the appropriate elemental type, and then moving up the line of spells as you level. Maybe some Dragon themed utility buffs as well. It would help it stand out from Barbarian I think.
There are a million considerations for sure. Specifically on combat: in the end, your class, at each level, with reasonable optimization should be able to hit a CR appropriate creatures X% of the time, for X Damage, killing it in X number of turns. Likewise, that creature should be able to hit a player with an average high AC X% of time, dealing X Damage, potentially killing that player in X# of hits.
There's no hard and fast rules on how to balance custom social gaming rules, but effectively you'd want your players to always have a margin by which he can fail. 25% chance to fail is a moderate task (need to roll a 5 or higher), up to 50% is a tough task, and only succeeding on a 15+ is damned tough. You are of course taking into account all of the player's expected bonuses to these non-violent interactions.
Spell casting pretty much has three levels, which are usually (not always) paired with a specific Base Attack Bonus progression. Full casters never have a full BaB, while the Cleric and Oracle have 3/4 BaB, Wizards/Sorcs and the Witch have 1/2. I'm sure you can draw some sort of correlation that suits your campaign's power dynamic.
I also like to consider the tactical style of the class. Not all melee fighters fight the same ;) I made a "Touch Based" melee class for a buddy of mine, and it was quite successfully balanced, and he really enjoys playing that character.
As to your Barbarian with a Dragon-like template. Perhaps have him simply take the Eldritch Heritage chain of feats, selecting the Draconic Bloodline. Or, UC has Dragon Totem rage powers. See the Relevant Text Here.
Dragon Totem Resilience (Su): While raging, the barbarian gains resistance to the energy type that is associated with her dragon totem—acid (black, copper, green), cold (silver, white), electricity (blue, bronze), or fire (brass, gold, red). This resistance equals double her current DR/— from her barbarian damage reduction class feature; this DR increases by 2 for each dragon totem rage power she possesses, including this one. A barbarian must have the dragon totem rage power and be at least 8th level before selecting this rage power.
Dragon Totem Wings (Su): When a barbarian selects this rage power, the Fly (Dex) skill becomes a class skill for her. While raging and wearing medium or lighter armor, the barbarian can spend a standard action to manifest a pair of spiritual dragon wings that grant her a fly speed equal to her base speed (average maneuverability). She can expend 2 rounds of her rage to instead spend an immediate action to gain this fly speed. She can end her fly speed at any time, even when it is not her turn. Each round she spends raging and flying counts as 2 rounds of rage. Her ability to fly ends automatically when she ceases raging. A barbarian must have the dragon totem and dragon totem resilience rage powers, and she must be at least 10th level before selecting this rage power.
Thanks, Ciaran. I was hesitant about giving this class spells, since creating a spell balanced spell list seems like a daunting task, but I may look into it.
Perhaps it could work like this:
Make a dragon form like the barbarian's rage, as you suggest, but take out the +4 Strength and +4 Constitution. I would give the class access to "dragon form powers" (like rage powers). To balance taking out the +4 STR and CON, the character can stay in the dragon form for a longer amount of time. Would 1 minute/level, once per day work?
This is very similar to how the original class worked, but the character received +6 STR and CON, and the duration was equal to a barbarian's rage. That was why I didn't like the class, I think. I wanted the dragon form to be weaker but available for longer. I don't know why I hadn't thought of this earlier.
Thom, higher claw damage is a good idea. And Chaos, that's a neat idea about a pool. Do you mean like a magus's arcane pool?
And Paul, I'll suggest that to my friend. Hopefully he'll find it agreeable. That would be much easier than creating a new class. (But I am having fun doing it.)
I was thinking like the Magus pool for enhancement, but mixed with the ideas added for Quingong Monk.