Runelords Gnome Dragon Disciple

[magispitt]

Hello all, our group might be playing a Runelords campaign that left off with a TPK (or as the gamemaster calls it, total party kapture) at Thistletop. We have a new player joining us who has played a game or two before, but isn't as schooled in the system as the other players (myself included). She always plays the same character in games which we don't mind, it's a pure gnome sorcerer that builds towards being a dragon disciple. My question is that since I've been relegated to building her character / giving advice in terms of feats, skills, and spell selection amongst other things - how would you build a gnome dragon disciple (22 point buy) with the green draconic bloodline?

[Dremaa]

What are the other PCs bringing to the table in and out of combat? What does she want her character to do well?
Since she has played before and plays the same character, what were some of the strengths and weaknesses? You should probably help to lessen the weaknesses and either enhance or leave be the strengths.

[magispitt]

My character is a dwarf switch hitter ranger, and the other PC is a half elf rogue with a dip in barbarian. Between those two characters we have most of the non-knowledge skills covered, although admittedly we're both strength builds, not dex builds. The fourth character is likely a GMPC, or at least a character of the GM's creation (we've requested a divine caster, it's core only so likely a cleric or druid). Admittedly we've got a lot of melee, although I'm a switch hitter so I can shoot a bow decently. She doesn't always show up to each session but we're planning on running her character when she's not there anyways to suspend disbelief. When she's played it she's done colour spray as we played from 1st to 3rd, and colour spray is the encounter ender vs goblins and such. Sometimes she rushes into combat with claws a bit, so I bumped her str and gave her a longspear to hopefully keep her safer.

What do you think of this build?

Tyd:

CG Gnome Sorcerer 3
Stats, 22pt buy
str - 14
dex - 14
con - 12
int - 12
wis - 10
cha - 16

no traits, as it's core only

Bloodline: Draconic (Green)

Spells:
0 - detect magic
- read magic
- message
- mage hand
- ghost sound
1 - obscuring mist
- colour spray
- enlarge person
- mage armour

skills:
bluff - 9
craft (alchemy) - 3
know. (arcana) - 7
perception - 8
umd - 9
concentration - 6

feats:
1 - Eschrew Materials (fauchard)
1 - Arcane Strike
3 - Combat Reflexes

I'm not going into equipment as our GM isn't letting us buy as many magic items, so loot is straight from the Runelords AP. She is outfitted with a longspear and stabs people if they rush her; standard tactics have been to colour spray weaklings which ends the fight or buff my switch hitter with enlarge person so he can tank. Obscuring mist is for escape situations.

[bigrig107]

I have the hard cover Anniversary Edition, and if he isn't letting you buy/craft equipment, you're going to continually run into problems, possibly even more TPK's, as the loot in there is highly situational, and much past the first two books is unusable by the PC's.

The game assumes that you have chances to get all the items you need to be effective, and limiting you to just the things you find in the AP will be crippling.

And I'm not to sure how I'd like to play a Core only RotRL game, but that's your group.

[magispitt]

Here is what I have planned for her so far:

Tyd:

CG Gnome Sorcerer 5, Dragon Disciple 10
Stats, 22pt buy (doesn't include stat boosting items)
str - 18
dex - 14
con - 14
int - 14
wis - 10
cha - 19

no traits, as it's core only

Bloodline: Draconic (Green)

Spells: ?
0 - detect magic
- read magic
- message
- mage hand
- ghost sound
1 - obscuring mist
- colour spray
- enlarge person
- mage armour

skills: ?

feats: ?
1 - Eschrew Materials (fauchard)
1 - Arcane Strike
3 - Combat Reflexes
5 - Step Up
7 - Leadership
7 - Improved Initiative
9 - Dodge
10 - Power Attack
11 - Mobility
13 - Spring Attack
13 - Toughness

Equipment is up in the air as I don't know how much shopping the GM will let us do. Proposed tactics are to use battlefield control against mooks, but her real specialty would be mage hunting. Normally she would use sorcerer powers against standard foes, but with the spring attack line she can fly past foes to get their back line and rip them apart. I've never played to a higher level then 6, and that was with a martial so I'm not sure about spell selection (or anything really) when it comes to this build. I'll let her make whatever changes she wants to suit herself, I just thought I owed it to her to make a mechanically strong character for her that fit within her parameters (so far that's: gnome, draconic green sorcerer, and dragon disciple). Any thoughts are appreciated.

[magispitt]

bigrig107 wrote:

I have the hard cover Anniversary Edition, and if he isn't letting you buy/craft equipment, you're going to continually run into problems, possibly even more TPK's, as the loot in there is highly situational, and much past the first two books is unusable by the PC's.

The game assumes that you have chances to get all the items you need to be effective, and limiting you to just the things you find in the AP will be crippling.

And I'm not to sure how I'd like to play a Core only RotRL game, but that's your group.

Hmmm, yes I see your point. I think he will let us buy some stuff I'm just not sure how much. That's why we've all been thinking of getting leadership to get ourselves support characters that can craft gear for us in case we can't get it by other means. We used to have a druid in the party that was planning on crafting but group dynamics forced him away unfortunately.

*Edit: As far as core only goes, as players we'd all rather open up some more books but the GM doesn't feel comfortable with them so we're respecting his decision to go core only (taking it up as a bit of a challenge in a way). He says he's interested in some custom stuff though such as new races, but that's up in the air.

[Dremaa]

Long so I broke it up:

Spells:

Spoiler:

You should consider acid splash as a level 0 spell (could replace mage hand or message). It does 1d3 damage, +1 from her bloodline arcana, and possibly another +1 from using an acid flask as a focus (I think that is in the Ultimate Equipment book, so I am not sure if that is viable in your campaign-acid flasks are available in the CRB, but doesn't list a bonus).

For level 1 spells, drop obscuring mist and get silent image. It can do the same thing if you want (create an obscuring mist or better yet an obstacle that they might be scared to cross/interact with) and has to be interacted with to be disbelieved (illusion spell so it will have the +1 DC for being a gnome). I don't personally like enlarge person because it has a 1 round casting time and the early fights don't last many rounds before they are decided and you aren't buffing anyone until their 2nd or 3rd turn (at the earliest-unless you can pre-buff, then it is okay).

First level 2 spell should be glitterdust, also an "encounter ender" unless things are immune to blind. First level 3 should probably be haste, as you will likely have 4 combat oriented characters in the party. If you are allowed to create your own spells, she could consider a level 2 or 3 spell that deals acid damage and targets multiple enemies (like scorching ray/fireball). Acid arrow only hits one person (though the damage does linger). You also can do a lot of things with image spells. Depending on your other member, you may need to have certain spells so that they are available to your party.

Stats/Tactics

Spoiler:

Stat array is good for going longspear, could focus more on DEX and go with weapon finesse at level 1 to improve her chance to hit if she'd prefer using her claws (swap STR and DEX before racial adjustments, probably also swap INT and CON to make her more durable in melee). That would probably increase her damage, as she would likely not hit as often with 1/2 BAB. Stats would be 12/16/14/10/10/16 after gnome adjustments. She would also hit more often with her ranged (touch) attacks.

If she is charging in, you might want to get toughness earlier (swap with power attack or imp. initiative). For skills, she should max Kn (Arc) the first 5 levels, then 1 dip into other things for class bonuses the first 4 levels (perception, UMD, spellcraft, bluff/fly) and then levle 5 would need to be linguistics for the draconic language (unless you have 12 int to start and get it there). If she does go with 12 int, you might want to pick up some of the knowledge skills so that you can roll to find out things about what you are fighting.

If you want to deal with enemy casters, you could also try using spells to disable them instead of investing 3 feats (instead use the feats to improve DCs on spells with spell focus, improve spell penetration, or grab a metamagic feat or two). Starting at summon monster III, she is also able to summon some pretty nice combat monsters.

Since your rogue and ranger have the damage part covered, she should probably focus more on battlefield control and/or buffing before helping to finish off foes with her weapons/claws/acid splashes.