Help for a True Dragon player.

[Red_Dog]

Hello all. I am here to "data-mine" some good rule advises for one of my Players. In my Campaign one of the players is currently a True Very young Green Dragon (8HD, LA+2[gave him a break as he is both new and Dragons are gimped]) + 2lvls of Paladin of Tyranny[warships Falazure] +1 lvl of Soul Eater. I do not remember all of his feats, however he will next level acquire Improved Energy Drain or Life Drain [depending on what he wants].

My questions would be =>
Assuming he buys of his LA and game will NOT go past 20 [target is like 16-18CL] he has 5-7lvl to go.

=> What would be good classes for him to advance thru? [He is oriented on combat at mid to HtH bestowing negative levels[we ruled that a successful natural attack from him bestows a level, he has 5 NA now, and might pick up Rapid strike at some point]

=> What best feats could he acquire[I am not sure what he has, but I KNOW he has Soul Eater pre-reqs and Fly-by attack]? Besides finishing up soul eating feats [improved energy drain and Life Drain] and maybe picking up a rapid strike, what other feats can he acquire?

=> What Items would best benefit him? He currently can't immediately obtain any, but what should he look out for? He does have necklace of natural weapons for one of his claws. The campaign rewarded him with a +1 Bane Fierce bane[Aberrations] addition to that necklace[goes to his teeth] but other than that I am not sure what else he has. What other things can he have?

So yeah that is kind of the deal ^^ So any ideas guys/gals? ^^

P.S. I was thinking advising him Dragonfire adept, but I do not think this will help as I highly doubt that breath will stack. Now I can "make it" stack by the power of DM... but I usually try to avoid doing that too much...
P.S.2. Random last minute question=> if one uses lingering breath feat for say +5[up to Con mod] so it sticks around for 5 rounds... Does dmg keeps on decreasing or it only does so once? O_o

[Coidzor]

He couldn't stack the breath weapons, but, IIRC, he should be able to use them at his discretion.

Hmm, since he's a green dragon and that young, he doesn't have any caster level... One of the better things for dragons is to just gish it up since their RHD are full BAB and pretty beefy and that's pretty much what they do in the wild...

If he were casty I'd say go with obtain familiar > improved familiar for a good fighting friend. Or even make the reach for a special mount and take the dragon mount feat for the lulz.

Since he's a non-casty dragon though, hmm... Dragon Cohort is always fun, as is wild cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a), but those really don't directly address him...

Hmm... Totemist is always fun, 2 levels of it can get him additional attacks, though, as soulmelds assume a humanoid body arrangement, you'd need to adjudicate such matters as they came up with regards to altering his body structure. Even if it's just to say to ignore the physiology of it and go by the natural weapons granted alone. Even just taking the feat shape soulmeld (impulse boots) from Magic of Incarnum will give him evasion, which is fairly nifty for a feat...

Might look into Pious Templar for a level or two to grab him mettle to take advantage of 8 levels of all good saves + CHA.

Natural Weapons and You: A Mini-guide (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10994.0) has some item suggestions.

For future reference and to find some potentially better fits, there was this list of Dragon PC races (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3070.0) drawn up at BG. Haven't been able to find it over on minmaxboards, the successor message board yet though. It also lists some spells and feats of potential interest. For instance, Alternate Form from Dragons of Eberron might be of additional interest if that material is on the table or could be made to be so, can't recall if it's humanoid-only or humanoid and animal.

[Igneel]

Hey, dragon fan here. Hopefully I will be able to offer some advice...


=> What would be good classes for him to advance thru? [He is oriented on combat at mid to HtH bestowing negative levels[we ruled that a successful natural attack from him bestows a level, he has 5 NA now, and might pick up Rapid strike at some point]
Seeing Paladin of Tyranny I'm going to guess his Cha is a bit higher then a typical meat grinder. Sorcerer can help some with some of the spells in Draconomicon, Dragon Magic, and Races of the Dragon. The later two if memory serves has special notes on if the Sorcerer is dragon/dragonblooded they get extra benefits so he has that going for him, and Draconomicon has some breath altering spells. I don't remember if Green dragon HD stacks with Sorcerer levels, but I could swear some of the other dragons do.
If Sorcerer isn't his cup of tea, I'm sure someone will mention Tome of Battle or Magic of Incarnum or something of the like.
I recall there being a Dragon-only PrC in a Dragonlance book, but I believe it required being Adult at least and several feat requirements. The only reason why I'm mentioning it is because it has some neat abilities for dragons such as reducing breath recharge to 1d3 rounds, improving damage by 2 damage die, and being able to deal double damage with it along with a special version of 'Barbarian' Rage. I will have to hunt that down for more info.


=> What best feats could he acquire[I am not sure what he has, but I KNOW he has Soul Eater pre-reqs and Fly-by attack]? Besides finishing up soul eating feats [improved energy drain and Life Drain] and maybe picking up a rapid strike, what other feats can he acquire?
If he goes undead (worshipping Falazure seems to do that) there is a metabreath feat in FR: Dragons of Faerun called Breath of Unlife or something that makes it so he can breath half elemental energy/half negative energy to living opponents and only elemental energy to undead without a recharge. Also, it has a nice addition of switching metabreath Con requirements to Cha and allows you to use Cha to determine abilities of metabreath feats like Heighten.
Dragonlance also has a Fly-by Breath feat, and Strafing Breath feats so that while he is flying not only can he breath his breath and fly away, but he can spread out the breath in a cylinder-like that's half as long as your fly speed, and the cone's radius on both ends. So if he has a 30ft cone and a 100ft that's and area of ~130ft that's covered in a single breath.


=> What Items would best benefit him? He currently can't immediately obtain any, but what should he look out for? He does have necklace of natural weapons for one of his claws. The campaign rewarded him with a +1 Bane Fierce bane[Aberrations] addition to that necklace[goes to his teeth] but other than that I am not sure what else he has. What other things can he have?
Dragonspirit Cincture is a cheap 2k belt item that increases breath damage 1 damage die (or 1 round if not damaging), DC +1 while wielding a weapon that deals similar damage. Go and grab a Dragonfang (Draconomicon) Tail Blade (Savage Species) that deals 1 acid damage and you meet the requirement along with adding a new weapon he can stab with.
Stat enhancement items benefit dragons just as much as humanoids.
Tailbands of Impact (Dragon Magic, 6k) treat tail as adamantine for DR, and helps your tail deal more damage depending on how much Str you put in normally. If it normally gets 1/2 Str, it now gets Str, if it normally gets Str, it now gets Str*1/2, if it normally gets Str*1/2, it now gets Str*2.
Claws of the Ripper (Draconomicon, Ring slot, 2k ea) lets his claws now crit at x4 damage.
Gemstone of Fortification (Draconomicon, 3k/15k/35k) gives fortification of 25%, 50%, or 100% while not taking a body slot which most players would have to get on an armor.
Dragonslayer Claws (Dragon Mag #332, hand slot, 18k) gives half HD/Lvls to a single Claw attack's damage 1/turn.
Hidden Tooth (Dragon Mag #332, slotless, 3.85k) is a bag of holding that is hidden in a tooth that can be stuck inside the dragon's mouth. Not really meant for taking items out all the time, but if he wants to hid really important items or his hoard...
Wand Scale (Dragon Mag #332, slotless, 8k) basically hold a single wand that you don't have to wield to activate. Only mentions needing to meld it to a limb, so that seems to be the only limit on how many you can have. Granted he doesn't seem to be built for wand using, with a high enough Cha anything is possible.


P.S. I was thinking advising him Dragonfire adept, but I do not think this will help as I highly doubt that breath will stack. Now I can "make it" stack by the power of DM... but I usually try to avoid doing that too much...
With only 5-7 levels to work with that won't get much outside of some versatility (3 different breath effects, invocations, UMD, etc) but if the breath 'stacks' it looks better.


P.S.2. Random last minute question=> if one uses lingering breath feat for say +5[up to Con mod] so it sticks around for 5 rounds... Does dmg keeps on decreasing or it only does so once? O_o
Its hard to say since the example they give is for a single round, but from my understanding that unlike Clinging which does explain that it deals half as much as the previous round that it doesn't scale down. I might be wrong.

Hope this helps some! I'll try to find some more info if your interested.