Dragon Slayer

[Daftendirekt]

Okay, so I'm watching Reign of Fire, and I have a sudden urge to make a dragon slayer character. So, naturally, i check out the Dragon Slayer PrC in the Draconomicon. I notice two things wrong with it right away.

1.) Dragons' breath weapons have the Reflex save for half damage. And yet Dragon Slayer has good Fort and Will but crappy Reflex. I get the good Will Save, because... frightful presence and spells(Actually, dragon slayers are immune to fear, so, just spells).

But, does anybody else think it should be good Reflex and Will instead?

2.) Which brings me to point number two. WHY DOESN'T THE DRAGON SLAYER GET EVASION!? I mean, ****, you need Dodge and ranks in Tumble to get in, it goes with the general theme.

Quite frankly, the class kind of sucks. Have there been any fixes or alternate builds made? Or do any of you have a total build that's good at taking down dragons? (I would prefer mostly mundane stuff, although magic is not completely out. Just don't suggest a full caster build to me. I want this to be a gritty, realistic dragon-slayer not a "I cast Time Stop and then 5 more spells while it's frozen" kind of thing)

In case there's any confusion on that last point, I want this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fepqainiFww/SxWqGbmvOfI/AAAAAAAARZQ/4ehU_t1x2aE/s1600/reign+of+fire.jpg

Not this:

http://media.gamerevolution.com/images/misc/Image/wizard.jpg

[Zaydos]

Have you looked at the Dragonstalker PrC in the same book? It doesn't have any casting, good Ref and Will, and abilities that let them sneak up to and sneak attack dragons.

[Sacrieur]

1.) Dragons' breath weapons have the Reflex save for half damage. And yet Dragon Slayer has good Fort and Will but crappy Reflex. I get the good Will Save, because... frightful presence and spells(Actually, dragon slayers are immune to fear, so, just spells).

But, does anybody else think it should be good Reflex and Will instead?

Mithral Tower Shield = win.


2.) Which brings me to point number two. WHY DOESN'T THE DRAGON SLAYER GET EVASION!? I mean, ****, you need Dodge and ranks in Tumble to get in, it goes with the general theme.

Quite frankly, the class kind of sucks. Have there been any fixes or alternate builds made? Or do any of you have a total build that's good at taking down dragons? (I would prefer mostly mundane stuff, although magic is not completely out. Just don't suggest a full caster build to me. I want this to be a gritty, realistic dragon-slayer not a "I cast Time Stop and then 5 more spells while it's frozen" kind of thing)

Yes, yes he does. Would you be willing for a homebrew option? I'm sure there's a respectable Dragon Slayer or something that could be one.

I suppose you could be a ranger?

[Daftendirekt]

I'm not saying "no casting". A mostly melee character with some casting would be nice. Hell, if I did actually make a Dragon Slayer I might go Battle Sorcerer to get into it. Get Resist Energy, True Strike, stuff like that.

I almost think they should have mashed Stalker and Slayer into one PrC. Maybe tone down the Sneak Attack to only 1d6/2 levels. The Ignore Natural Armor, Hide Scent, and Foil Blindsense are all super cool.

However, Slayer gets immunity to (all) fear, and a bonus to damage against dragons equal to its class level. So, maybe, if they just tack those two things onto the Stalker, it'd be pretty awesome.

EDIT: Also, yeah, Ranger would be somewhere in the build. It seems to have enough of the spells I'd want, with the exception of True Strike. However, I see this guy having Leadership, so I'd probably have a wizard cohort (and the rest are operating the Heavy Ballista loaded with bolts of dragonbane :smallbiggrin:)

[Goonthegoof]

Your major problem is going to be that non casters make terrible dragon slayers. I mean they're pretty bad in general, but I can't think of a foe that is worse than a dragon for a melee character to try to beat.
They're bigger, stronger, faster, smarter and you have no way to catch them.
If you're set on melee you could try something like a swordsage? They have pretty good mobility, evasion and high reflex will and if you choose the right manuevers you can stand up to a dragon in a direct fight.

[Sacrieur]

Your major problem is going to be that non casters make terrible dragon slayers. I mean they're pretty bad in general, but I can't think of a foe that is worse than a dragon for a melee character to try to beat.
They're bigger, stronger, faster, smarter and you have no way to catch them.

Hence: homebrew.

[Daftendirekt]

I say again. I NEVER SAID NON-CASTER. I said not full caster. Think a gish build of some kind. Actual, physical combat augmented with magic instead of some wuss in robes doing nothing but saying "I have these spells so I win".

Also, when was melee ever mentioned? I'll have a ballista, and a bow on my person. I didn't mean to say "mostly melee". I meant to say "mostly mundane".

So, homebrew. Let's do it? I think Dragonstalker with some casting progression would be pretty decent, if I could convince the DM to houserule it.

[Goonthegoof]

Swiftblade, JPM or adbjurant champion then.
Or you could ask your DM to refluff hellreaver as dragonreaver and swap 'evil dragon' for 'evil outsider'.

If you're using bows an artillery build could work. Get a splitting energy bow and find a class that lets you spam arrows.

[Sacrieur]

Swiftblade, JPM or adbjurant champion then.
Or you could ask your DM to refluff hellreaver as dragonreaver and swap 'evil dragon' for 'evil outsider'.

I'm pretty sure Swiftblade can be used against everything. Though with his tendency towards wanting to dodge everything, it may just be the way to go.

[Goonthegoof]

Yeah, that's why I suggested it. A wizard/swiftblade with a ring of evasion would fit what he was asking for pretty well.

Alternately you could try a ranger or a justice of weald and woe, both have some arrow spells that work great in dragon killing.
You could try some dragon assasination there- Get darkstalker, sneak up on the dragon and poison a few arrows then make a full round attack and cast arrowsplit on the first one. With a splitting bow you'll pepper the dragon and force it to make so many fortitude saves that it'll auto fail one eventually against either the death attack or the poison.

[Daftendirekt]

Hell yes, Swiftblade looks fantastic. Turning Haste into "Haste plus like 5 other spells, all cast as a free action" would make me a pretty epic slayer.

[Slaughter]

What I did for my Dragon Slayer build is go as follows. For a lvl 10 Slayer
Race: Fireblood Dwarf for AC bonus plus dwarf awesomeness.
Classes: Fighter lvl 2. Battle Sorcerer lvl 4 then dragon slayer 4.
Feats: Battlecaster x2 to cast in heavy armor with no arcane failure dragon foe, dragon bane, dragon doom.

There is more but I dont feel like posting the whole thing lolz hope this helped!