Hello! I'm starting a new campaign tomorrow and have decided on a dragon disciple. We'll be starting at seventh level with 23,500 gp and 25 point buy, so that gives me a fair bit of wiggle room when building. My problem is, I can't decide what to do!
My DM and I have come up with two builds:
Monk/Ranger:
This build takes two levels of monk and two levels of ranger, before a level of sorcerer and two levels of DD. It focuses on natural weapons.
Human Master of Many Style Monk 2/Natural Weapon Style Ranger 2/White Dragon Sorcerer 1/Dragon Disciple 2
Attributes
STR 20 (15+1(level)+2(racial)+2(DD))
DEX 10
CON 15
INT 12
WIS 15
CHA 12
Traits
Reactionary
Magical Knack (Sorcerer)
Feats
Arcane Strike
Aspect of the Beast (Claws of the Beast)
Blind-Fight
Dragon Ferocity
Dragon Roar
Dragon Style
Improved Natural Attack (Claws)
Power Attack
Weapon Focus (Claw)
Defense
HP 70
FORT +9
REFL +7
WILL +8
AC 14
TOUCH 13
Offense
Claws of the Beast
Hit +11
Damage 1d6+6
Crit x2
Paladin:
This build takes four levels of paladin before a level of sorcerer and two levels of DD. It focuses on using a two-hand weapon.
Human Paladin (Oath of Vengeance) 4/Silver Dragon Sorcerer 1/Dragon Disciple 2
Attributes
STR 20 (15+1(level)+2(racial)+2(DD))
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 11
CHA 16
Offense
Masterwork Greatsword
Hit +13
Damage 2d6+9
Crit 19-20/x2
Concerns
The monk build is spread a little thin, I feel, and lacks AC. I'm worried I'm going to get into combat and just get my s&!~ slapped first thing. The paladin build, on the other hand, could turn out to be just impotent. Neither build has much spellcasting potential, which is expected, but I'm not sure how big a detriment that will be. I'd be interested in switch-hitting, but I'm not sure how to build it.
Forget summoner or bard, go with a draconic sorcerer. I'm running one right now, and the other offensive caster in the party actually left because he felt too underpowered. Go with either gnome or half-elf. I chose gnome, but I now see that half-elf is better IMO.
He never said he wasn't focusing on spell casting. DD is big on casting but is good for Gish. Don't be a monk or pally because you won't be great at spells or combat. Sorcerer is much better. Trust me, I've done it.
I try not to tell people what they should do when they state their desires.
Since he seems to be wanting melee oriented, that's the route I'm advising him on. And towards that end, sorcerer isn't the only and probably not best option.
I'd recommend three levels of Weapon Master Fighter followed by 2 levels of Sorcerer into Dragon Disciple. Go crossblooded Orc/Draconic so you can take Strength of the beast.
Later you can pick up a sorcerer's robe (16K) for +4 effective bloodline levels which gets you strength of the beast at level 8 (for more strength) - way better than having to wait for it with eldritch heritage + no feats spent. You can also pick up Gloves of Dueling (or are they called Dueling Gloves) later on to increase your Weapon Training from +1 to +3 - a huge boost!
This is the build I used:
Class
Fighter (Weapon Master) 1 / Sorcerer (Orc / Draconic Crossblooded) 2 / Fighter (Weapon Master) 2 / Dragon Disciple X (2 in this case.)
Racial
Half-Elf
Dual Minded - +2 Will save (cancels out the -2 from being crossblooded)
Traits
Reactionary
Magical Knack (Sorcerer)
Feats
1 - Power Attack
1 - Intimidating Prowess (Str and Cha based class - WHY NOT?!?!?)
3 - Arcane Armor Training
4 - Craft Wondrous Item
5 - Arcane Strike
7 - Toughness (DD bonus Feat)
7 - Whatever you want
For now, you can deal with 5% spell fail in Mithral breastplate - it's completely worth the 6 points of AC, plus is may as well be a +1 or +2 for you at this point. Add that into your dexterity (probably +1, maybe +2) and a couple points of Natural armor (don't forget to take the 3rd level Orc Bloodline ability, otherwise you'll be stuck with light blindness forever), then throw on a ring +1, an amulet +1, and you're sitting on a base 23 AC - that doesn't include the Shield spell, or the fact that you could always grab the Dodge feat if you really wanted to squeeze out the AC.
For your stats, Strength is obviously important, but don't disregard Con (try to get a 14) as you'll be taking hits about as much as you give them out. Cha is perfectly fine starting as a 14 - headbands will work from there.
At level 9, you can get Arcane Armor Mastery to get rid of ASF completely in mithral breastplate or chainmail (that's what my DD is wearing) and then Cornugon Smash is a pretty obvious feat. I'd also grab the blind-fight line of feats starting with the Blind-Fight feat at 10th level from your DD bonus feat at 5. Then you can grab the second and third ones at 13th and 15th levels.
Excellent ideas, MechE. I've taken some of them into a new build I'm working on in PCGen now. Unfortunately my DM doesn't allow crossblooded, so I'm just sticking to dragon there. For weapon master, what should I choose as my weapon focus? A regular or natural weapon?
Go with a regular weapon. At level seven, your best bet is to go for a Greatsword. If the campaign will run much beyond that, a Falcata would be your best bet for the crits (if you want to use your half-elf racial trait to get the weapon proficiency since you won't be crossblooded) or a Nodachi, if your DM allows eastern weapons. I plan to pick up a Nodachi for my DD who's currently sitting at level 10.
Your natural weapons should be viewed as icing on the cake for the scenario where you happen to get disarmed. Just look at your enemy, chuckle to yourself, and go to town on him - it's better when they don't see it coming!
You know, I ran a great character not too long ago for an interesting prestige focused build.
Went like so:
Fighter
Sorcerer
Dragon Disciple
Eldritch Knight
Overall, I went Human (normally I never do, but this was feat intensive so Human was a necessity). Fighter 1, Sorcerer 4, Dragon Disciple 5, Eldritch knight 10.
He had a great BAB, very good hit points, and was both very good at spellcasting AND could beat the hell out of most things. The campaign went all the way to level 20 (started high at like 9), so my guy really, really, really looked badass at that point.
I focused on the falchion, and went with the following feats in this thread:
For melee, there's another suggestion: Wings and Flyby attack, combined with Vital Strike (which I think you can do, but I'm not sure).
I went with the focused study alternate racial trait, giving up my beginning feat for Skill Focus at level 1, 8, and 16. First one I went with the Orc Bloodline requirements, and the others were Perception and Knowledge (Planes).
Overall, worked great, was tough as hell with very good hit points, and was a very good caster.
He ended up with a +10 Bonus to strength too, not counting his Belt of +6. (+6 thanks to Orc, +4 thanks to DD). And he got a damn good size bonus when he used his Power of Giants SLA (another +6 to strength).
He was not lacking in damage.
While a greatsword would have been a better weapon in damage overall, the thing I was focused on were criticals, thanks to the Eldritch Knight Spell Critical ability. I was essentially casting spells like crazy while in Melee. It was totally badass.
Now, overall, it's probably not what you're looking for, but take a gander at the character and see what you can take from him.
If you're going to use the Ranger/monk combo, take full advantage of the 2 styles at once. Dragon style obviously, but look at Crane Style to help your defenses.
The only thing about Monk is that from what I've seen is that they're MAD (Multiple Attribute Dependent). Apparently, if you want to be good at a lot with a Monk, you need good attributes all around.
Not sure if that's the case. I never play as them so I couldn't tell you.
