| Xelah |
So, I went through and looked at all the class/race/feat options that I could find for giving kobolds a breath weapon. Most of them are awful. For references, these are the ones I could find:
Type: Racial Ability
Uses: 2x daily, MOVE ACTION
Damage: 1d8
Save: 10+Con Mod+Racial HD (see zero)
Thoughts: Amazing at early levels, pretty useless after about level 3 or 4.
Draconic Aspect: Dragon Breath
Type: Feat, Taxed first
Uses: 1x daily, standard action
Damage: 2d6
Save: 10+Con Mod+Character level
Thoughts: If you give up your hero points to get it at level one with the previous 1d8 breath attack, you'll be the most terrifying level one kobold ever... but this feat chain does not advance well. Pay another feat at level 10 to get two more d6 of damage and an extra use. Yawn.
Breath Weapon: Dragon Bloodline
Type: Class ability or Feat (via Eldritch Heritage)
Uses: 2-4 uses daily, standard action.
Damage: (Sorcerer Level)d6
Save: 10+Cha Mod+Sorcerer Level
Thoughts: This is the one good breath attack for PC's. This amounts a repackaged fireball.
Dragonbreath: Dragon Subdomain
Type: Clerical Domain
Uses: 1-3 daily, standard action
Damage: (Cleric Level/2)+1 d6
Save: 10+Wis Mod+(Cleric Level/2)
Thoughts: This one is not that bad. The damage at least scales. It's still bad because by the time you get it at 4th level (or 6th for arcane hunter), 3d6 damage is easily outscaled by spells.
Breath Weapon Bomb
Type: Alchemical Discovery
Uses: Alchemist Level + Int Mod
Damage: (Alchemist Level/2 ROUND UP)+1d6+Int Mod
Save: 10+Int Mod+(Alchemist Level/2)
Thoughts: This is probably the second best breath weapon available to PC's. It scales slightly better than the clerical domain, and has a bunch more uses.
Various Form of the Dragon ablities
Type: Spell like ability, Dragon Disciple, Draconic Druid, and Wyrm Singer Skald
Uses: 1 per 1d4 rounds
Damage 6d8 or 8d8
Save: 10+Casting Stat Mod+(6 or 7)
Thoughts: This is pretty neat, the Draconic druid gets this at level 10 and 12. Makes for another way to get it besides dragon disciple. Great for destroying villages... except for skald not being able to use the breath weapon.
Sovereign Breath
Type: Spell like ability for Sovereign Blade
Uses: 1-3 daily
Damage (Samurai Level/2)d6 SONIC DAMAGE
Save: 10+Cha Mod+4
Thoughts: This one is a lot of fun once you take quicken spell like ability. Bust into a room, BLARG! STAB!
Breath Weapon: Wyrm Singer
Type: Class Feature
Uses: 1 daily
Damage: (Skald Level/2)d6
Save: 10+Cha Mod+(Skald Level/2)
Thoughts: Being able to grant this to an ally is pretty cool, but unless you're giving it to the wizard's familiar or something for a sneaky 6d6 blast cone out of nowhere, this one is pretty underwhelming by the time you get it... and it never progresses past once daily.
Ok, looking back through that, maybe they're not all awful, but they are largely underpowered, especially when looked at through the lens of action economy.
I present my thoughts on a feat to make breath weapons great again. Feel free to mock this openly, though helpful feedback would be appreciated.
Kobold Breath Specialization
Prerequisites: Kobold, At least two qualifying breath attacks
You lose all other breath attacks from any non-item/non-spell source and lose any new ones gained other than from this feat. Breath attacks gained from items (other than alchemist bombs) or spells spells do not count for the purposes of this feat and work normally. Breath attacks gained via spell like abilities only count if they directly generate the breath attack, not via transformation effects such as Form of the Dragon.
Combine the total uses per day of all breath attacks you previously possessed and any new ones gained (For alchemists with the Breath Weapon Bomb discovery, decide on a number of bombs to give up, you lose those permanently. This goes for any other class with a pool of resources to draw from which can produce a breath attack, such as a Scaled Fist Monk loses some ki permanently). You gain a new breath attack with this many uses per day as a supernatural ability. Choose an element Fire, Acid, Lightning, or Cold, your breath attack does this damage type. Choose either line or cone, your breath attack is this shape. These choices cannot be changed later. Special: Sovereign Blades may choose Sonic for their element, even if they do not yet qualify for their Sovereign Breath ability, but must take cone for their shape.
You may use this attack as a standard action every 1d4 rounds, up to your total uses per day. Special: If you are a dragonbreath kobold, you may expend two uses to use this ability as a move action. A Soveriegn Blade with Quickened Sovereign Breath may spend two uses to use this ability as a swift action.
The save DC for this new breath weapon is the save DC from the best breath weapon sacrificed. The breath weapon deals the same number of damage dice as the highest sacrificed breath weapon. Special: If you have the Draconic Paragon feat, add two dice to this number.
The size of your line or cone is the same size as the most powerful breath attack sacrificed.
If you sacrificed at least three breath attacks, you roll d8's for damage.
If you sacrificed at least four breath attacks, and for each breath attack after that, increase line distance by twenty, or cone width by 10, up to a maximum of 140-foot lines and 70-foot cones.
Abuse I can already see, level one Wyrm Chymist Dragonbreath Kobold has some amazing action economy, as does a level 11 Sovereign Blade with Improved Eldritch Heritage Feat... though I am not sure I want to call this broken without playtesting it.