Dragon Spellcasting

[Volthawk]

Dragons cast as Sorcerers, but they also have Cleric spellcasting, so does the dragon have to use up spells known on Cleric spells or can they just fill a spell slot with a Cleric spell instead of a Sorcerer spell?

[lightningcat]

They cast as sorcerers, but gain the spells from certain domains as additional spells know, and these spells are added to the dragon's spell list. They cannot choose other cleric spells to add to their spells known.

[mostlyharmful]

they get to choose spells from a wider range of sources than standerd sorcerers but they don't get any more spells known than standerd.

[Volthawk]

They cast as sorcerers, but gain the spells from certain domains as additional spells know, and these spells are added to the dragon's spell list. They cannot choose other cleric spells to add to their spells known.

Ah, gotcha. It didn't matter in the end, as the dragon I was making is instead a Cleric through Sacred Warder of Bahumut.

Another question: When a dragon takes Sacred Warder of Bahumut, what happens to the domains it used to have? Are those added to the cleric spell list as well? Are they just extra domains with no abilities?

[Goonthegoof]

They cast as sorcerers, but gain the spells from certain domains as additional spells know, and these spells are added to the dragon's spell list. They cannot choose other cleric spells to add to their spells known.

So what you're saying is that they get the domain spells for free on top of the cleric/sorcerer spells that they have a limited amount of?

[ScionoftheVoid]

So what you're saying is that they get the domain spells for free on top of the cleric/sorcerer spells that they have a limited amount of?

I think they get the whole Cleric list (where applicable) gratis too, but yeah.

[Goonthegoof]

Being able to spontaneously cast the entire cleric list seems somewhat unlikely...

[deuxhero]

Rainbow Warsnake.

[ScionoftheVoid]

The ability is worded "...can also cast spells from the Cleric list and the X and Y domains as arcane spells." on the SRD, though the captialisation is probably slightly off in my quote (I only looked over it quickly).

Besides which WotC have screwed up worse even in Core, so it's not that unlikely (see also: True Dragons are generally under-CRed and will eat you and any high CR Outsider plus your pick of Planar Binding, Gate and Shapechange).

[Goonthegoof]

Some are under CRed, but you'd have a hard time proving that an old white dragon actually deserves CR 15.

[Jarveiyan]

Dragons may cast cleric spells along with their arcane spells however still go by sorcerer for how many spells they know(so you must get those spells by picking them for spells known). I've already had a group face a GRW that had Heal(brutal).

[PhoenixRivers]

Dragons cast spells as sorcerors. Several may select cleric spells (and a couple domains) and cast them as arcane.

So a Great Wyrm Brass would be allowed to select Miracle as a spell known. That doesn't give them every spell on the cleric list for free.

[Goonthegoof]

Ha! I knew it!

[Shalist]

Yup--they have a sorcerer's annoyingly limited limited 'spells known,' but can choose any cleric spell, or spells from their domains, for those spells known. Check out the various example spell lists for fleshed out dragons and you'll see an abundance of things like "cure serious," etc. There's some stuff in the Eberron dragon book that lets you trade in this form of casting for other stuff, like making them druidic, clerical, or more wizardly.

I'd also like to point out that the MM states that anything that "casts as a sorcerer of level X" due to racial HD doesn't require material components, and also that that "casting as a level X sorcerer" stacks with actual levels of sorcerer...so if your dragon can cast 9th level spells, he can cast "True Resurrection" for free, or if he has 3rd level spells, "favorable sacrifice," (spell comp. pg 89) which lets you choose your material components--the 10,000g version gives you DR 20/magic, 20 resist (cold fire elec acid sonic), and spell resistance (CL + 10) for hr/lvl :P

The downside is you're still casting arcane spells, and still won't meet the prereqs of most divine PrC's :P

[Volthawk]

That's what Sacred Warder of Bahumut is for. It turns sorcerer l casting into cleric casting. Still donate know what happens to the domains-I think they're either removed or added to the cleric spell list or act as a normal domain just without the extra power.