Council of Wyrms [3e PC Dragons]

[Tequila Sunrise]

So what if you could play a dragon? Not as a cohort or as a NPC, but as a PC? This is just a very rough sketch of what dragon PC options might look like:

True Dragon
Size: Small (levels 1-2), Medium (levels 3-6), Large (levels 7-12), Huge (levels 13-20)
Speed: 20 move/40 fly (levels 1-2), 30 move/60 fly (levels 3-6), 40 move/80 fly (levels 7-12), 50 move/100 fly (levels 13-20)
Low-Light Vision: Dragons see four times as well as humans
Dark Vision: 120 feet
Blindsense: 60 feet
Natural Attacks: claw, 1d4 + Strength (levels 1-2), 1d6 (levels 3-6), 1d8 (levels 7-12), 1d10 (levels 13-20)
Breath Weapon: At character creation choose a Cone/Line of fire/cold/acid/lightning, 1d6 per level, DC 10 + 1/2 level + Con
Immunity: You're immune to your breath weapon's energy type, and to sleep and paralysis.
Frightful Presense: Affects creatures within 10/level feet with less CR than your level. DC 10 + 1/2 your level + Charisma. A failed save makes a foe shaken for 5 minutes, or panicked if the foe's CR is less than your level -7.
Languages: Common, Draconic. Bonus: Take your pick.
Favored Classes: All dragon classes are favored.

Dragon Warrior
Hit Points: 7/level
BAB: Good
Natural AC: As Average BAB
Saves: All Good
Skill Points: 4 + Int
Spells: cast as a sorcerer or favored soul equal to 1/2 your class level. Gain Rapid Metamagic and Eschew Materials.
Level 1: You get a second claw attack. (same damage)
Level 2: ?
Level 3: bonus feat
Level 4: ?
Level 5: You get a bite attack. (same damage), Multiattack
Level 6: ?
Level 7: bonus feat
Level 8: ?
Level 9: You get a wing attack. (same damage)
Level 10: ?
Level 11: bonus feat
Level 12: ?
Level 13: You get a second wing attack. (same damage)
Level 14: Crush
Level 15: bonus feat
Level 16: ?
Level 17: You get a tail attack. (same damage)
Level 18: ?
Level 19: bonus feat
Level 20: ?

Dragon Mage
Hit Points: 5/level
BAB: Poor
Natural AC: As Poor BAB
Saves: All Good
Skill Points: 4 + Int
Spells: Cast spells as a sorcerer. Gain Rapid Metamagic and Eschew Materials.
Level 1: bonus feat
Level 5: bonus feat
Level 9: bonus feat
Level 13: bonus feat
Level 17: bonus feat

Dragon Priest
Hit Points: 6/level
BAB: Average
Natural AC: As Poor BAB
Saves: All Good
Skill Points: 4 + Int
Spells: Cast spells as a favored soul. Gain Rapid Metamagic and Eschew Materials.
Level 1: Curing Claw: 3 times per day + Cha mod. As a swift action you restore 1d8 hp + 1/class level to one living creature within 30 feet.
Level 3: Curing Claw: 2d8 hp + 1/class level
Level 5: Curing Claw: 3d8 hp + 1/class level
Level 7: Curing Claw: 4d8 hp + 1/class level
Level 9: Curing Claw: 5d8 hp + 1/class level
Level 11: Curing Claw: 6d8 hp + 1/class level
Level 13: Curing Claw: 7d8 hp + 1/class level
Level 15: Curing Claw: 8d8 hp + 1/class level
Level 17: Curing Claw: 9d8 hp + 1/class level
Level 19: Curing Claw: 10d8 hp + 1/class level

Dragon Scout
Hit Points: 6/level
BAB: Average
Natural AC: As Poor BAB
Saves: All Good
Skill Points: 8 + Int
Spells: cast as a sorcerer or favored soul equal to 1/2 your class level. Gain Rapid Metamagic and Eschew Materials.
Level 1: Weapon Finesse, Skirmish +1d4
Level 2: ?
Level 3: Skirmish +2d4
Level 4: ?
Level 5: Skirmish +3d4
Level 6: ?
Level 7: Skirmish +4d4
Level 8: ?
Level 9: Skirmish +5d4
Level 10: ?
Level 11: Skirmish +6d4
Level 12: ?
Level 13: Skirmish +7d4
Level 14: ?
Level 15: Skirmish +8d4
Level 16: ?
Level 17: Skirmish +9d4
Level 18: ?
Level 19: Skirmish +10d4
Level 20: ?

*Note: Dragons who cast as favored souls use Charisma as their sole casting stat.

Dragon Leveling: Dragon PCs must age before they can gain a level. You must be a number of years old equal to 1/1000 of your next level's XP requirement in order to gain that level.

Dragon Abilities: Every fourth level you get +2 to two abilities of your choice, and the other four get +1.

Skills: All skills are class skills for all dragon classes. Except maybe Hide, MS, Listen and Spot. Maybe.

Feats: All feats are available to all dragons. Except Improved Natural Armor. Not that anyone is likely to take it, but theoretically a PC who took it more than a couple times could throw the AB-AC balance out of whack.

ECL: Dragon PCs should be treated as a higher level than they actually are for the purposes of encounter building, but I don’t know how much higher.

[DracoDei]

They actually have rules for this in the Draconomicon FWIW...

[Coidzor]

Hmm... Shouldn't Silver dragons get Cold as their base breath weapon?

Hmm, since they can face higher Encounter Levels than their ECLs/Party Levels suggest, maybe add a number to the ECLs/Party level based on the size category of the dragon perhaps taking the level adjustments for dragons from wyrmling to adult(?) offered in the SRD as a basis?

[Tequila Sunrise]

EDITS: Screw racial stat mods; they encourage pigeonholing and PC stats are already enough to reflect draconic heritage. And screw rolled HP. If you're really in love with them you can replace hp/level with d8, d10, d12.


Hmm... Shouldn't Silver dragons get Cold as their base breath weapon?
Whoops, copy/paste typo!


Hmm, since they can face higher Encounter Levels than their ECLs/Party Levels suggest, maybe add a number to the ECLs/Party level based on the size category of the dragon perhaps taking the level adjustments for dragons from wyrmling to adult(?) offered in the SRD as a basis?
Maybe instead of messing around with ECL, just suggest that DMs add an appropriately CRed foe to each encounter per X number of levels. 4, 5 levels maybe...

[Coidzor]

Maybe instead of messing around with ECL, just suggest that DMs add an appropriately CRed foe to each encounter per X number of levels. 4, 5 levels maybe...

Well that's one way of doing it. usually simpler to understand for use if you can get it to fit in line with the (I believe) generally used Encounter Level formulae. Or possibly figure out what dragons' appropriate CRs are since they're under CR'd normally...Hmm, my head's a bit fuzzy right now.

[GoC]

I don't think a dragon growing from tiny to garguantun in a few days is good for suspension of disbelief.

[Tequila Sunrise]

I don't think a dragon growing from tiny to garguantun in a few days is good for suspension of disbelief.
In the original CoW, dragon PCs needed XP, a bigger hoard and time to gain an age category (level). Requiring loot to level up might be weird, but I don't think requiring X number of years is out of line.

[Tequila Sunrise]

It's not formatted all pretty-like, but this is how I envision dragon PCs. The only major problem left is dead levels, which should be filled. But my creativity is kinda burned out, and nobody seems interested in running a CoW game anyway.

So cheers dragon lovers, go give the Draconomicon another read!