So I've never really dabbled in any of the shape-shifting areas of Pathfinder and have mostly just played humanoid martials and one Kineticist, however I've always like how the dragons (aspects and lesser) were portrayed in WoW. After looking briefly looking at the Druid and sadly noting that Wild Shape only allows for Animal-type forms (which I don't think dragons fit into), I'm curious. Are there any classes/archetypes/feats that consistently allow a PC to take a dragon's form (yes I'm aware of the Form of the Dragon 1/2/3 spells) BEFORE entering the mid-late part of a standard AP (level 7+)?
No.
You can design something similar, though. Synthesist Summoner lets you turn into a creature that you can customize. If you're using Unchained Summoner, going with Elemental and picking air will get you the best fit. If you're using regular Summoner, just design it how you like. Even then, flight requires fifth level, so you'll spend early levels as a Komodo dragon with delusions of grandeur.
Improved Familiar will let you get a cat-sized dragon pet at 7th, and there are archetypes that give you a cat-sized drake of dubious intelligence at first.
Hmmm. Full dragon transformation is available in a few places. Of course, you've given a level range of before 7. This limits options. I have not played World of Warcraft, and am basing this entire post of the premise of dragon transformation at 7th level.
The first thing that comes to mind is dragon disciple of course. However, they only can transform into a dragon at 7th level, or total level 12. This is 5 levels above par. Not good.
Bloodrager gets it at 16th. Still too late.
Synthesist summoner is always an option for playing any mythical creature you want. I'm not writing about that, as it was well addressed by QuidEst.
Ok. Now, if you dig hard enough there may be a druid archetype around this. I am not an expert on druid and can't tell you about that. Maybe it would be in Blood of Dragons, but my copy isn't due to arrive for ages. *Vague grumbling about Amazon*
...
So after writing all that, I suddenly realized the problem. If anyone manages it, I'll be very impressed. You're fighting against game design. Consider: Form of the Dragon I is a 6th level spell. This means that a wizard could cast it at 11th level. Because of the way the game is structured, that means it will be near impossible for any class or ability to get it sooner.
My closing suggestions are Synth Summoner, read Blood of Dragons and hope, homebrew something (Which shouldn't be that hard. Ask anyone on homebrew, they'll sort you out), or ask your GM very nicely to just let you play a dragon.
No.
You can design something similar, though. Synthesist Summoner lets you turn into a creature that you can customize. If you're using Unchained Summoner, going with Elemental and picking air will get you the best fit. If you're using regular Summoner, just design it how you like. Even then, flight requires fifth level, so you'll spend early levels as a Komodo dragon with delusions of grandeur.
Improved Familiar will let you get a cat-sized dragon pet at 7th, and there are archetypes that give you a cat-sized drake of dubious intelligence at first.
As much as I'd love that, I've been banned from playing a Synthesist Summoner in my group since I presented the build that I was going to use for a new character to one of our DMs. I figured there wasn't going to be much, but I had to ask anyway, thanks.
All Legacy of Dragons does is give delayed spell access to the new Form of ____ Dragon spells to Druid and Psychic. They can use spells to transform into a dragon at 13th and 14th level respectively. There's a spell to conjure up an imitation dragon as early as fifth or sixth level.
The cat-sized drake (which gets bigger very slowly) is also from the same book.
Hmmm. Full dragon transformation is available in a few places. Of course, you've given a level range of before 7. This limits options. I have not played World of Warcraft, and am basing this entire post of the premise of dragon transformation at 7th level.
The first thing that comes to mind is dragon disciple of course. However, they only can transform into a dragon at 7th level, or total level 12. This is 5 levels above par. Not good.
Bloodrager gets it at 16th. Still too late.
Synthesist summoner is always an option for playing any mythical creature you want. I'm not writing about that, as it was well addressed by QuidEst.
Ok. Now, if you dig hard enough there may be a druid archetype around this. I am not an expert on druid and can't tell you about that. Maybe it would be in Blood of Dragons, but my copy isn't due to arrive for ages. *Vague grumbling about Amazon*
...
So after writing all that, I suddenly realized the problem. If anyone manages it, I'll be very impressed. You're fighting against game design. Consider: Form of the Dragon I is a 6th level spell. This means that a wizard could cast it at 11th level. Because of the way the game is structured, that means it will be near impossible for any class or ability to get it sooner.
My closing suggestions are Synth Summoner, read Blood of Dragons and hope, homebrew something (Which shouldn't be that hard. Ask anyone on homebrew, they'll sort you out), or ask your GM very nicely to just let you play a dragon.
Homebrewing would be perfectly fine (I have full confidence that I could do a decent job myself) IF it weren't for the fact that my group's DMs are generally averse to the idea. I should check out BoD though, thanks for the suggestion.
You're welcome. Good luck!
There's third party. Rite Publishing's In the Company of Dragons gives you the chance to play a kind of dragon. They start small and grow as you progress. you can get quite a lot of draconic power eventually. You can either take a draconic exemplar class to gain dragon powers, or use an archetype on another class, or use feats to pick up just a few powers.
Dreamscarred press also has monster classes for dragons, but I think that they are unbalanced.
Hmmm. Full dragon transformation is available in a few places. Of course, you've given a level range of before 7. This limits options. I have not played World of Warcraft, and am basing this entire post of the premise of dragon transformation at 7th level.
Warcraft pretty much only allows a transformation into a dragonlike mount which has none of the combat capabilities of a house cat, let alone a dragon. One can also obtain dragon mounts with the same lack of combat ability. Outside of one time quest events, no class actually has that kind of power.
Otherwise the only "dragon PCs" in Warcraft are players standing on the streets of Stormwind saying "Hey... I'm a dragon", even though they look pretty much like Humans and Gnomes. They're the epitome of bad roleplay in the game.
Hmmm. Full dragon transformation is available in a few places. Of course, you've given a level range of before 7. This limits options. I have not played World of Warcraft, and am basing this entire post of the premise of dragon transformation at 7th level.
Warcraft pretty much only allows a transformation into a dragonlike mount which has none of the combat capabilities of a house cat, let alone a dragon. One can also obtain dragon mounts with the same lack of combat ability. Outside of one time quest events, no class actually has that kind of power.
Otherwise the only "dragon PCs" in Warcraft are players standing on the streets of Stormwind saying "Hey... I'm a dragon", even though they look pretty much like Humans and Gnomes. They're the epitome of bad roleplay in the game.
I meant a PC in Pathfinder emulating the NPC dragons in WoW, sorry if that was unclear. Specifically I like their ability to shift between forms at will, and have their dragon color affect their humanoid form in various ways.
The earliest I can think of is the spell shadow dragon aspect which would be available dead on 7th to a wizard.
Dragon shaman druids can pick up aspects of being a dragon earlier but never get the whole package.
I meant a PC in Pathfinder emulating the NPC dragons in WoW, sorry if that was unclear. Specifically I like their ability to shift between forms at will, and have their dragon color affect their humanoid form in various ways.Hmmm. Full dragon transformation is available in a few places. Of course, you've given a level range of before 7. This limits options. I have not played World of Warcraft, and am basing this entire post of the premise of dragon transformation at 7th level.
Warcraft pretty much only allows a transformation into a dragonlike mount which has none of the combat capabilities of a house cat, let alone a dragon. One can also obtain dragon mounts with the same lack of combat ability. Outside of one time quest events, no class actually has that kind of power.
Otherwise the only "dragon PCs" in Warcraft are players standing on the streets of Stormwind saying "Hey... I'm a dragon", even though they look pretty much like Humans and Gnomes. They're the epitome of bad roleplay in the game.
That seems to only happen when the dragon wants it to... After all both Deathwing and Neltharion passed as humans quite succesfully. And no one suspected Krasus of being a blue dragon.
As one might suspect, such abilities given the power of dragons don't show up as standard class features.
3.5 dragonfire adept base class from Dragon Magic
You never quite turn into a dragon but you do get wings, energy res, scales, misc special abilities by lv7