I'm making a dragon themed character. The story is he is the offspring of a great hero paladin and a good dragon. Whether that is the character's mother and father or if it's generations ago is not decided.
Any suggestions for making a dragon themed character? Dragon Disciple is the obvious choice and I've read lots of threads that cover the myriad options for that. Has anyone done something different and enjoyed playing it?
I'm looking for style more that straight-optimization but at the same time I don't want the character to suck.
I also want him to be chaotic leaning, so classes like Paladin and Monk are out.
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what race was the paladin? if human you could ask your GM if you can take the Racial Heritage [kobold] feat and reflavor it as 'dragonborn' or something... draconic heritage is a big part of kobolds deal (an aasimar could do that too if they took the scion of humanity racial alternative). that feat would open up all the draconic feats normally only available to kobolds... that would actually allow you to make a dragon-themed character of any class!
if you can find room in your feat progression for skill focus[perception], eldritch heritage [arcane], and improved familiar you could have your own little dragon that flies around with you (which would be a nice touch).
there's also the draconic bloodline sorcerer- although, if you're going to do that you might as well go Dragon Disciple... one of those kobold feats actually lets you get into DD as an oracle, which might be a nice way to connect to the divine heritage as well.
hope something in there helps!
edit: if you made a beast totem Barbarian with the animal fury rage power and took the draconic aspect, breath, glide, and paragon feats (from in that link i posted) that could make for a pretty solid chaotic dragon guy :)
what race was the paladin? etc. . .
edit: if you made a beast totem Barbarian with the animal fury rage power and took the draconic aspect, breath, glide, and paragon feats (from in that link i posted) that could make for a pretty solid chaotic dragon guy :)
Race of the Paladin . . . I guess I assumed Human but the jury is still out. The two races I was considering were half-orc or human though again i'm still in the beginning phases.
Thanks for the kobold heritage and barbarian suggestions. They both sound like viable options and I'll have to do a little research.
Half-Elves/Orcs can take Racial Heritage too now. If you go with Barbarian, Invulnerable Rager(to represent how tough dragon hide is) might be a good choice.
I am totally stealing Nate's idea though, hehe.
Half-Elves/Orcs can take Racial Heritage too now.
that's great to hear- most of the GMs that i play/run with have been taking this as 'seems to be RAW' since those races have the human subtype, but its good to hear that's official now!
any chance someone could post the link for that, just in case i need it at any point?
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If it's for a home game my GM let me flavour Tiefling as being descended from a Dragon instead, change his type from Outsider [Native] to Dragon and just describe the claws, horns, scales etc in a draconic way rather than demonic. Super simple change and the race absolutely fits as someone descended from dragons.
Classwise, I went Bard 1, Ranger 4, >DD and took Natural Weapon Style for my Ranger feats, that allowed claws from Aspect of the Beast and combined with the Bite from Tiefling he is exactly what I wanted! Minor spell casting (which ignores armour as all the spells I picked are V only, such as Saving Finale and Timely Inspiration). I went with the Archaeologist archtype bard and took the Fates Favoured trait which really helps bump how much he hits with multiple attacks.
The two most basic ways are:
Sorcerer-->Dragon Disciple: The most straightforward and Dragon-y method. It is (or can be) very Gish-y, so it may not be what you want if you wanna specialize -- Sorcerer leaves you a little squishy, while DD reduces your magic. Also, you might have to spend a feat or two on Weapon Proficiency/Focus/Specialization if the weapon you have in mind isn't Simple.
Bard/Summoner-->Dragon Disciple: Remember: any Spontaneous Arcane caster can be a DD. Not as focused as a Sorcerer-based one, but can be fun. Especially the Summoner, as you can have a Dragon-shaped Eidolon to ride/fight by your side. Still kinda squishy, unless you go for the Synthesist Summoner Archetype.
Eldritch Heritage(Draconic) Feat tree (Skill Focus(Perception)--> EH--> Improved EH--> Improved EH(Optional)--> Greater EH) -- If you don't care about the spellcasting or Sorcerer's Class Features, give this a shot. The downsides are that you burn up 4-5 Feats to do it(though Skill Focus(Perception) is hardly a waste of a feat), your growth is kinda slow(two levels behind, and a big gap between the 1st- and 3rd-/9th-level powers), and you can't get the 20th level ability(though depending on how far the campaign goes, that may not be an issue). On the bright side, your class can be whatever the hell you want.
Another somewhat out there but Awesome option, if you GM allows it, is to take a Triaxian with a Dragonkin (See Distant Worlds and Reign of Winter Part 4: The Frozen Stars for information). This is likely to be easier if you're (re)entering the campaign at a higher (7+) level, as you can take the Leadership feat, and the Dragonkin can be your Cohort. If you're starting at first/low level, talk to your GM about doing the Leadership thing later (Character Background is that you and your Dragonkin partner were separated when you got sent to Golarion/Whatever the setting is, and after you get the appropriate feat, you find him/her).
XMorsX, there's one smal problem with your suggested build. Half-Orcs don't have a tail.
any chance someone could post the link for that, just in case i need it at any point?
Here you go!
oh, that's brilliant (they even fixed the issue with half-orc scarred witch doctors)- thanks for the link!
I also want him to be chaotic leaning, so classes like Paladin and Monk are out.
Aasimar can basically look however you want them to look and Angel Blooded is +2 STR +2 CHA, you two major attributes as a paladin.
With Aasimar you could look like a walking humanoid gold dragon complete with scales, horns, and a draconic looking maw (but no bite attack).Alter Self lets you do a lot of cool things, but mostly the +2 STR is fantastic, and it lasts for 1 minute per HD.
If you instead go Agathion blooded you can take the Enlightened Warrior (Aasimar) trait which lets you play a neutral or neutral good monk.
Mix this with Dragon Style and you can have some fun.
You could be obsessed at getting all of dragonkind to acknowledge your draconic heritage.
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basicallly what you need to decide is how you want the theme to show.
A human ranger with a bronze scale mail and a winged helmet?
A half elf figther (pehaps Lore warden)with knowledge of dragons because he grew up among dragons?
A Bladebound Magus whos blade is the soul of his draconic ancestor?
All seem to be valid starting points for a Dragon themed character.
Any built can have a Dragon flavor.
So i suggest you make a character you want to play and let the flavor come from, somthing that is not in the rules.
But ofcause you can make a sorcerer/barbarian/Monk(martial artist)/dragon diciple and get all the rage powers and style feats with dragon in the name. And that is also a valid choice:)
I'm just saying Tail Terror won't work unless you have some way to actually have a tail.
I'm just saying Tail Terror won't work unless you have some way to actually have a tail.
truthfully, i think the reality of feats like this is that nobody really took the time to consider how it would interact with a feat like Racial Heritage... i think you could actually make a fair argument that by RAW a character with Racial Heritage [kobold] could benefit from this feat- i would definitely expect table variance on that though!
the feat doesn't require a tail to take, but it also doesn't explicitly say you gain a tail, so it really does come down to how your GM interprets "you can make a tail slap attack with your tail" (either it requires a tail to take advantage of, or by its very nature implies you now have a tail to use). the kobold feat was written after racial heritage was published (they were released in '10 and '12), so it seems like the author should have been aware of racial heritage and addressed this issue (though it is clearly a corner case)- i won't presume to know the RAI on this one, but some might take the lack of an appropriate restriction (like possessing a tail as a prerequisite) as tacit approval?
personally, i'd allow it in a game i was running- it's specifically a secondary attack that only does 1d4 damage (plus 1/2 strength, with -5 to hit, always), and the feat makes no allowance for that increasing to 1d6 because you're medium... that's worse than a half-orc's toothy alternate (and costs a feat plus a prerequisite feat). but, like i said above, i certainly wouldn't expect every GM to agree with that (nor would i be upset if/when they didn't)- if you want to use it just ask your GM, the worst he can say is no.
If every racial feat had to take Racial Heritage into account, there would be a lot less room in the books.
If every racial feat had to take Racial Heritage into account, there would be a lot less room in the books.
lol- no, ARG would have to have dropped some of the pointless races, and the 'X of Golarian' books would be longer; or, you know, they could have put a line in racial heritage that said something like "you cannot use this feat to qualify for feats which rely on inhuman anatomy (such as those which allow you to attack with claws or a tail, or allow you to glide with otherwise vestigial wings)." although, i suppose that would just lead to us discussing whether or not you could take the dragon breath feat based on how reliant on actual anatomy it is =P
the issue isn't whether or not you can take the feat, its whether or not the feat grants a human/half-orc/whatever any benefit- and it stems from a legit RAW issue:
- if you took the dervish dance feat (just as an example), which lets you fight in a unique way but only with a scimitar, would you then argue that you must have a scimitar even though you never found or bought one becuase otherwise the feat is useless?
that's the basically the same structure as the argument against a human benefiting from this feat- you qualify, so you can take it, but you don't have a tail (since you didn't before and the feat doesn't ever say it grants you a tail) so you gain no more benefit than a dervish dancer who doesn't have a scimitar.
- as i said earlier, i think its a reasonable interpretation of the RAW to allow a human to benefit from it (especially since "with your tail" seems to me to imply that you have a tail by merit of having taken this feat), but i think its important to understand both sides of an argument like this (especially since your GM might have a different interpretation than you).