Best class for a half dragon.

[Garetek]

So, I found out that my character might be forcibly retired by the gm for sl purposes.

I want to throw something insane at him. A half dragon human/ something. Only gonna get 2 class levels at the moment but I just want to wield a big sword and do massive damage. Or unarmed strikes and really freak people out.

So fighter or monk?
Better things that you know of?

Thanks

[Joshinthemosh]

First-Is this 3.5 or is it Pathfinder? Is your GM nice enough to let you use the Pathfinder Half Dragon anyway? It's much MUCH better. Here it is http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/half-dragon

Second-I'm fond of Duskblades. You get a str and int bonus and are capable of doing a crapload of damage per hit, which sounds like what you're going for. Get Strongarm Bracers and use a Heavy Weapon from Magic of Faerun and do 4d6 per hit with a greatsword. And then channel through that.

If that sounds too exotic Half Dragon Barbarians are fun. Very fun. With big big swords.

[Garetek]

3.5 sadly. I'd love the 2+ adjustment instead of the three.

[Socratov]

why not make it lion totem barbarian... charge with insane strength, and after charging you get a full attack too. Also, boost your strenght through the roof, and try to break doors by mistake by just 'knocking' slightly but simply not knowing your own strength. If you can couple it with half-ogre you'll be really ugly, but you will hit and deal damage like a maniac on fire. also, with human as base creature you will become large and a large half-dragon gets wings :)

[Leon]

Barbarian or Warblade for the Big Hit Die and that they fit well with a High Str melee type

[Tokuhara]

So, DM made you be Half-Dragon. Here's my 2c:

1. When picking your Dragonic Heritage, be sure to look at the Breath Weapon of your parent dragon. Personally, I suggest Etheral Dragon (Dracononmicon pg. 179-180) or Pyroclastic (Draconomicon pg. 182-184). This gives you a choice between a Force Breath Weapon or a Fire/Sonic Breath Weapon. Personally, I prefer Force, since 99.999% of all creatures in D&D aren't Immune to Force Damage, verses the nearly 50% that are immune to Fire.

2. Class-wise, Damage is your goal. You want follow your Dragonic Ancestor's route and start with your breath weapon early in combat, then swing your sword/axe/hammer/gopher-chucks for massive damage. I agree: Lion Totem Barbarian is VERY good at this, but don't forget the other Variants (which most Optimizers do, sadly). Bear is good if you plan on going Reaping Mauler, since you get Improved Grapple. Wolf is good for a wilderness-themed team player. Or you could go for any number of existing variant Barbarians to splash & grab to make your ideal.
Also remember that casting is not going to be your forte, so plan accordingly. Perhaps soaking up damage and being the line of defense would be better for the party, especially one who has a large number of softer characters, such as Wizards, Psions, and Archivists. Then you want to go for Knight or Crusader. Perhaps this is low magic (unlikely). Then you want to go for Warblade or Swordsage to make yourself viable in combat. Base your class choice on group dynamics, not on Optimization, because a single optimized character in a party of highly unoptimized characters is liable to either steal the show and ruin the campiagn or get killed or get the party killed.

3. Feats are not going to be as plentiful as they are for the average character, so choose ones that give you the most play for the day. Draconic Breath allows you a more aggressive usage for your breath weapon. Even grabbing the Draconic Wings feat will make you more viable in late-game combat. Remember, your draconic abilities are supplimentary. Don't whole-heartedly focus on being a dragon, because unfortunately you will fall short

Hope this helps!

~Tokuhara~

[Anderlith]

Go with Barbarian then War Hulk in the Miniatures Handbook, as long as you don't care about skills & just want damage.

[Ralcos]

To tell you the fine print truth... this is your character. make any type half-dragon you want (i'm not forcing you), but I would actually make him a Samurai (class from Complete I-Forgot-The-Book-Title) character.
Good Luck!!

[Marnath]

Try to persuade your DM that the breath weapon DC is a misspelling and that it should read 10+1/2 all HD+CON modifier. If he sticks to the normal where it only adds from racial hit dice, your breath weapon will suck past like level 5 because you won't hit anyone with it.

[Amnestic]

Personally, I suggest Etheral Dragon (Dracononmicon pg. 179-180) or Pyroclastic (Draconomicon pg. 182-184). This gives you a choice between a Force Breath Weapon or a Fire/Sonic Breath Weapon. Personally, I prefer Force, since 99.999% of all creatures in D&D aren't Immune to Force Damage, verses the nearly 50% that are immune to Fire.

Emerald, Battle and Howling Dragons have solely Sonic breath weapons, so that may be a better choice to take than Pyroclastic. Dealing no damage a small % of the time may be a better option than only dealing 50% more of the time.

[Tokuhara]

Emerald, Battle and Howling Dragons have solely Sonic breath weapons, so that may be a better choice to take than Pyroclastic. Dealing no damage a small % of the time may be a better option than only dealing 50% more of the time.

Excellent point.

[Captain Caveman]

I've always been a fan of the simplistic approach, why not throw Vow of Poverty on him. I'm currently playing a bard 5/dragon disciple 10 with VoP that I absolutely love and it is surprisingly effective has a 35 Strength at level 15 and improved grapple. Just grapple opponents and use natural attacks on them.

[Leon]

A Dragon with no wealth is quite the polar opposite what you typically think so could be good

[ericgrau]

Try to persuade your DM that the breath weapon DC is a misspelling and that it should read 10+1/2 all HD+CON modifier. If he sticks to the normal where it only adds from racial hit dice, your breath weapon will suck past like level 5 because you won't hit anyone with it.

The damage will still suck anyway. At this point it isn't worth using at all. It's basically a good way to get past the low level painfully low HP slump, and then after that you have your nice stats to rely on to smash things.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Half-dragons, while cool, are underwhelming. Vastly underwhelming. You don't get wings unless you're large sized and the breath weapon is bad and can only be used once per day. Be a dragonborn (breath weapon version) raptoran instead, with half-dragon fluff.

If you're really stuck on half-dragon, then how optimized is your group?

[Marnath]

The damage will still suck anyway. At this point it isn't worth using at all. It's basically a good way to get past the low level painfully low HP slump, and then after that you have your nice stats to rely on to smash things.

Metabreath feats would help some with that. Plus, considering the OP was thinking of choosing monk or fighter originally, there's a decent chance his idea of low damage is different than yours.

[ericgrau]

Relatively speaking. Eventually a non-scaling weapon will fall behind no matter what. If you boost it then the nice thing is that at least it's save for half not save negates. Though I think of core or slightly above in power by default, as that seems to be what everyone I know plays with.

For the OP's question: The comments in favor of barbarian are good suggestions. Or between your two options probably fighter. The strength bonus is good for tripping too.

A monk could use the strength to grapple and trip though that's a little more complicated than what you might expect if you were only planning on relatively weak unarmed strikes. A grappler with huge monk + strength damage, made by someone who doesn't do silly things like take wisdom as their highest stat, could be scary. Especially at levels 5-10. Also makes you a big target with your low HP pool until you gain a couple more levels. Yeah... simpler to just stick to barbarian or fighter and try mostly to survive the next couple levels while still crushing things.

[Captain Caveman]

A Dragon with no wealth is quite the polar opposite what you typically think so could be good

The entire character concept on my guy was that he is a LG worshiper of Bahumut and truly believes all wealth belongs to true dragons and it is a sin for all others to possess anything of value. With enough diplomacy roles in towns I've visited I have essentially started a cult.