Ascalaphus |
A dragon-bloodline sorcerer is the first and most obvious thing that hits me, but maybe that's TOO obvious :P
What kind of dragon? Are you allowed to choose yourself?
Looking at the template, a few things pop up;
1) breath weapon is based on racial HD, so it's probably not going to be very impressive unless you want to take racial HD (hint: don't).
2) you get quite a few immunities including sleep, paralysis and the appropriate energy type. You also get darkvision. This makes human an attractive race because of the darkvision.
3) you get two claws and one bite attack. The damage for these is based on size. You'll get the biggest value out of these as a rogue, because that's three attacks getting sneak attack damage. Basically you get to be a 2-weapon rogue without taking lots of feats and at better to-hit, but no more than 3 attacks. At level 1 you get +x/+x/+x rather than spending a feat to get +(x-2)/+(x-2). At level 8 it's +x/+x/+x rather than spending a second feat to go +(x-2)/+(x-2)/+(x-7)/+(x-7). So you trade frequency for accuracy.
4) you get significant ability increases: +8 str and +6 con means that any class can survive in melee. If you make a rogue, make a strength-focused rogue, obviously. These modifiers make it a big waste not to build a melee class, really.
You could make a wizard or sorcerer instead. Dump strength as much as you can, and with +8 it'll still be on the high side. +6 con is very nice for a caster. +2 int and cha are good for casters, and the +4 AC is welcome as well.
Honestly, the half-dragon template is insanely powerful :D
Ascalaphus |
Well, the metallic dragons still give you enough options. I think cone-shaped breath weapons are better than lines; you're more likely to catch multiple enemies. Obviously not every energy type is equally good; your decision could be based on which immunity you prefer, or what damage you'd like to do. I think fire immunity is the best to have; you can walk into burning buildings and swim in pools of lava, which is nice.
But you can also pick a metallic most appropriate to your class; if you're gonna make a paladin then gold or silver seem most appropriate to me.
Lawmonger |
Id go for Half brass dragon kobold barbarian (savage barbarian)
Exposed by his tribe as an abomination ("a metallic chosen one? we dont think our red dragon god would be pleased at all..."), he grew up fending for himself.
Savage barabian gives you more natural armour, small size also has the AC bonus, the str and con bonuses make for lots of rage and serious damage. Especially as a half dragons bite does 1d4 +1.5x str mod damage.
Ascalaphus |
Let's consider a rogue. 15pt build.
Human;
Str 14 (5pts), +8 for half-dragon
Dex 14 (5pts), +2 for being Human
Con 10 (0pts), +6 for half-dragon
Int 12 (2pts), +2 for half-dragon
Wis 10 (0pts)
Cha 13 (3pts), +2 for half-dragon
Feats: Combat Expertise and Improved Trip.
You get 11 skill points per level and start out with 12 HP (including favored class bonus). Spend them on whatever you like, so that it looks like you're skill monkey, not a ruthless killing machine.
Weapons: 2 claws +6 (1d4+6), 1 bite +6 (1d6+6). All with possible Sneak Attack damage.
Tactics: if not within 5ft of enemy, move closer and trip enemy. If within 5ft, try to flank, and do a full attack for up to 32 damage without flank, 44 with flank.
The beauty of this build is that you get such an absurd Strength boost and natural weapons, that the traditional mandatory rogue feats (Weapon Finesse, 2-weapon fighting) are redundant. You might want to pick up Improved Initiative at some point, but I thought it would be more fun to use the bonus to Intelligence to get around to Improved Trip.
You also have 11 skill points per level and decent modifiers on most skills, so you can do a lot besides just fighting.
The 15 Charisma means that you can at some point dip into the Eldritch Heritage feat line, to get something nice. Or to get a lot of Leadership and start a dragon cult.
You can swap out the Charisma for more Wisdom if you like, to boost Perception and Will Saves.
ParagonDireRaccoon |
Paladin, monk and rogue are three of the choices that get the most benefit from the half-dragon template. A melee paladin benefits from the strength, con, natural armor, cha, and fly speed. Actually, any class can benefit from those, but the paladin gets more from the cha bonus than most classes, the monk gets a lot of attacks and gets a lot out of the str and natural armor, and Ascalaphus has posted a very nice rogue build. If you want to do something crazy you could go human druid/magus/mystic theurge.
Claxon |
The strength score bonus from Half-Dragon screams martial, especially Barbarian build. Below is a link to a build I made a while back. I believe a few calculations are off from Hero Lab, so double check stuff. He makes good use of that strength score.
Edit: I would suggest you swap Elemental Kin Archetype for Invulnerable Rager. My DM let me pull some shenanigans and create an item to cause myself elemental damage to restore rounds of rage, along with an item that cast the spell Heal. Your DM probably wont be so giving, so you'll probably get more mileage out of Invulnerable.
Ravingdork |
Don't do that to your GM and fellow players.
Applying templates to one PC in the party makes for all kinds of wonky balance issues.
Instead, try something like the Eldritch Heritage line of feats to add draconic aspects to your character. You could still consider yourself a half-dragon, but you would be more balanced.
Arashi Kirito |
Half-Dragon
Ah, so how do the ability modifiers str +8 Con +6 Int +2 Cha +2 work? Is that in addition to what I roll so like "rolled str" then +8 etc.?
Arashi Kirito |
Thank you. Sorry for the ignorance haha. Working on re-creating my character as the DM who I played for didn't have a half-dragon template and just kind of made it up.
edit: Also, my DM had me roll 4d6 taking the three highest (and re-rolling any that land on 1) in order to determine my abilities. Is this standard, or what method should I use to roll for a character on this?
And are there ability caps? For example: I roll a 18 in str and the half dragon class gives a +6, is there a cap for a starting character or do I get the full 24 str?
ParagonDireRaccoon |
Some thoughts on playing a half-dragon:
Paladin is good for party cohesiveness, given that paladins have lay on hands with mercy and channel positive energy. If your half-dragon outshines other pcs some of the time, you can occasionally hang back from combat and heal everyone else while other pcs shine.
A party benefits from full casters, even if templates are available. The +8 to str is awesome, but if you fight invisible or incorporeal opponents the party will benefit from casters.
Along the same lines, a half-dragon will breeze through some encounters and be a liability in others. Flight can make some low level encounters very easy, and until level 5 can be more of an advantage than the strength and con bonuses. But the wings stand out, affecting social encounters and sneaking into places. A group of opponents with rangers who have favored enemy-dragon will not be fun for your character.