Bloodrager / Dragon Disciple Question


Rules Questions

Scarab Sages

3 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

So, I recently saw the Dragon Disciple class as a great way to build off of the Bloodrager class introduced in the Advanced Class Guide playtest. Since Bloodragers can easily meet all of the prerequisites with ease, it seems like it'd be a perfect fit with the advancements of the prestige class, what with granting the Bloodrager even more bonus Strength, Con, HP while keeping up their spell progression at a reasonable pace. Plus, it just seems like a thematically awesome thing to work towards, essentially becoming a melee terror that form-shifts into a Draconic monster and proceeding to just destroy people with natural weapons.

However, there is one rule I'd like to ask about for errata's sake, as the Dragon Disciple was not made with the Bloodrager in mind. In the Dragon Disciple entry, they gain the following ability at level 1:

Blood of Dragons:
A dragon disciple adds his level to his sorcerer levels when determining the powers gained from his bloodline. If the dragon disciple does not have levels of sorcerer, he instead gains bloodline powers of the draconic bloodline, using his dragon disciple level as his sorcerer level to determine the bonuses gained. He must choose a dragon type upon gaining his first level in this class and that type must be the same as his sorcerer type. This ability does not grant bonus spells to a sorcerer unless he possesses spell slots of an appropriate level. Such bonus spells are automatically granted if the sorcerer gains spell slots of the spell's level.

This ability raises a few questions for me as a player. Bloodragers have their own bloodlines, accordingly known as Bloodrager Bloodlines. These bloodlines share the same overall classifications of all base Sorcerer bloodlines (Draconic, Aberrant, Abyssal, Infernal, etc.) Most of these bloodlines possess traits similar to the normal Sorcerer bloodline choices. Draconic is the one I'm focusing on here. In both cases, the character gains claws at level 1, energy resistance at level 3/4, a breath weapon at level 8/9, and so on. In addition, Bloodragers are a Sorcerer alternate class, being a mix of Barbarian and Sorcerer.

What I'm curious about is whether or not the Blood of Dragons ability should apply to a Bloodrager's bloodline. Due to the class similarities, and even sharing the Sorcerer's bloodline ability under a different name, it doesn't seem like it would be too far of a stretch that the abilities could be ruled as one in the same. Also of note, this wouldn't be without its drawbacks for the Bloodrager. If the Sorcerer bloodlines are treated differently than the Bloodrager bloodlines, then a Bloodrager could take a bloodline other than Draconic while still getting the sorcerer's draconic abilities through the Dragon Disciple class, effectively giving them two bloodlines. If they are considered the same and this class needs errata, then the bloodrager would instead have to pick the Draconic bloodline to enter the class, limiting their choices.

If anything, I'd like to see this get clarified, because either decision greatly alters how this class would be played.


I believe it does stack, however if you look at what your giving up and what you're gaining there really is no point. You lose 3 BaB and like 3 or 4 levels of casting and don't gain very much in the process because most of the Dragon Disciple abilities are gained through the Dragon Bloodline anyway. Bloodrager is much stronger on it's own.

Silver Crusade

As of now, you do not have to be a draconic bloodrager to become a dragon disciple. However, there is a lot of chatter that when the ACG goes live, there will be language in it that states that each level in an ACG class counts as a level in each of its base classes. That would mean that you need to be draconic bloodrager.

Scarab Sages

Alistus wrote:
I believe it does stack, however if you look at what your giving up and what you're gaining there really is no point. You lose 3 BaB and like 3 or 4 levels of casting and don't gain very much in the process because most of the Dragon Disciple abilities are gained through the Dragon Bloodline anyway. Bloodrager is much stronger on it's own.

As I'm building this character for PFS, the only real drawbacks are that I'll be getting my second attack 1 level later if I rush Dragon Disciple ASAP. The extra strength boosts make it so that you still keep up the same accuracy with your attacks while gaining some bonus damage, so it's not too bad of a tradeoff. Also, the added Bite seems like it would work pretty well with an all-in Natural Attack style, which is what I plan on doing anyway, so they're not as bad of tradeoffs as one would initially imagine. Besides, the class concept seems awesome, so that trumps all logic from my standpoint.

If I can use an alternate Bloodrager bloodline and then get the bonuses from the Sorcerer's Dragon bloodline, that seems like it'd be the way to go. It'll be interesting to see how it gets resolved upon the book release, but either way, thanks for the input.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

The way I see it, you can't have one without the other. If Bloodrager counts as Sorcerer for the extra levels from Dragon Disciple, then they also count as a Sorcerer for the Draconic bloodline requirement.

Grand Lodge

Then you have the case of a Bloodrager, with Eldritch Heritage(Draconic).


What of the wings, are they only on during bloodrage or all the time because dragon disciple?


If they are the bloodrager wings they are out when bloodraging, if you have the DD wings then they are permanent.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Rules Questions / Bloodrager / Dragon Disciple Question All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.