Tanking Dragonfire Adept

[Dragonsoul]

Esentially I'm looking for a few ideas for a continuing character

Dragonborn(Duskling) Dragonfire adept <Winged Aspect>

I'm looking to make him into the traditional tanking role.(I'm looking to get Heavy Armor Proficeny for the sake of neatness-I Know I don't actually strictly need it)

In the Party
Human Ranger(TWF)
Human Monk(Tripper)

As a Point We're playing nice with our GM, so the strategy isn't as inherently bad as it would normally be,I'm mostly looking for Crunch to fit the fluff, not to mention I have a lenient GM who would probably wave an entry requirement or two for Prestige class.

Any and all books, no Flaws/Traits. Already have Entagling exhalation.Continuing DFA Breath weapon/invocations is nice but not really required.

[Tvtyrant]

A couple levels in crusader to make people attack you might be useful, or some Binder for free armor.

[Essence_of_War]

To start you off, there is a pretty good dragonfire adept handbook and you can find it here. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19870954/The_New_Dragonfire_Adept_Handbook!)

Frankly, I think that the melee 'tank' role is actually pretty hard for the DFA to fill, but if you want to give it a try, you might try multiclassing at least 1 level in Crusader/Fighter/Duskblade for weapon/armor proficiencies. You're subject to ASF while in the heavier armors, but if you pick lots of long duration buff invocations, you can still be sure to get them off before/after combats. The one level crusader dip can get you Iron Guard's Glare which gives enemies a penalty (that they know about!) if they DON'T attack you. It's cute, and just being a really annoying threat is probably a better way to draw the enemy's attention, but it could be useful to help you with your theme.

I would also strongly consider swapping the wing aspect with the heart aspect. Heart gives you an additional breath weapon with a recharge in rounds which opens up all sorts of nonsense from the metabreath feats in Draconomicon. Quicken, Clinging, and Lingering combined with entangling exhalation breath effect seem pretty saucy...

Non-raw Adaptation: Ask your DM if he'd let the 8/10 casting progression of the Jade Phoenix Mage (re-fluff, Jade Dragon Mage :smallamused:) apply to your DFA invocation/breath weapon progression instead of other casting. It's almost certainly less powerful than a regular JPM, and you might actually get to have some fun with maneuvers + breath etc.

[Dragonsoul]

Don't need the heart Aspect- The DM is kind enough to allow for metabreaths to be applied "neat" to the DFA.
I'm going tank with DFA because I've started with him and I'm just trying to fill a gap in the party as the only one with a decent Con score.

ooh JFM..I should give that a go.

BTW, any of you know how to get 0% ASF on a variant of full plate?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Don't need the heart Aspect- The DM is kind enough to allow for metabreaths to be applied "neat" to the DFA.
I'm going tank with DFA because I've started with him and I'm just trying to fill a gap in the party as the only one with a decent Con score.

ooh JFM..I should give that a go.

BTW, any of you know how to get 0% ASF on a variant of full plate?

Not without dipping. Mithral is good for a -20%, and Twilight is another -10%, Feycraft is a -5%, Thistledown Padding is another -5%... that's about where I end up hitting the wall for ideas.

Fortunately, there's a much easier way to do this.

Normally, DFA can work their stuff in Light armor with no penalty, ya? Okay, so take the feat Battle Caster which lets it work in Medium Armor. Mithral Full Plate counts as Medium armor. Have a nice day.

[Essence_of_War]

Normally, DFA can work their stuff in Light armor with no penalty, ya? Okay, so take the feat Battle Caster which lets it work in Medium Armor. Mithral Full Plate counts as Medium armor. Have a nice day.

Actually, unlike their warlock twin brother, DFAs have no armor proficiency and suffer the usual ASF in all types of armor. Sad panda. :smallfrown:

For the ASF, if your DM is onboard with the JPM substitution I suggested, ask them if they'd let the spellsword work the same way. 1 level in spell sword ignores 10% ASF + 10% (mithral) + 10% (twighlight) + 5% (thistledown OR feycraft) and that should get the armor you wanted.

[Alabenson]

Before you worry about ASF, double check what invocations you have and see if there are any you actually need to use in combat. Since many DFA invocations are buffs that last 24 hours, and since your breath weapon isn't affected by ASF, you may be able to get away with ignoring ASF altogether.

[Dragonsoul]

Actually, 'tis neater than that,I'm allowedLight armor casting from DFA,this is mostly because We both know I'm going for a concept(Diving charge into the middle combat style of thing) and I don't need to be cut a break if I want to make a mechanically strong character.He's awesome like that.:smallwink: