[3.5] DFA Equipment?

[GreenSerpent]

Hi all,

Title kinda says it. I need help in choosing equipment for a Level 6 LG Dragonborn Mongrelfolk Dragonfire Adept.

I already know about the Dragon Spirit Cincture, and the Travel Cloak, and Shax's Handbook. Have 10,460.83 gold to spend in total (including silver and copper coins).

Suggestions? Advice?

Thanks in advance!

[Metahuman1]

Have a Tower Shield and the absolute heaviest armor you can find. The extra AC helps, as does a 50% Miss chance that works even in an Anti-Magic Field.

Grabbing Some of the energy Augmentation Crystals and placing them in the armors spikes/Guantles so that you have the weapon covered for the Dragon Spirit Cincture for cheap is also good. 300 GP and Element for the least Crystals.

Having a peace of ammo in one hand can be great with the right enhancements. +5 Warning and Eager get's you +7 to Initiative. Smoking Get's you an extra 20% Miss Chance that'll stack with the shield. Add Defensive and Ghost touch and it's a free +5 to AC and Touch AC. If you can hold two bits of Ammo, give one the shield property. Guess what, you can add Defensive and Ghost Touch and a +5 too it for an extra +10 AC and Touch AC. Plus, that Tower Shield? You can add property's too it that you need. Freedom. Soul Fire. Ext. And don't forget the Draconomicon, it has the Gem of Fortification, which saves you needing a +5 Armor property.

And of course, Pump Con like it's going out of style. Items worn, Graphs, Tomes, Candles of Invocation for Wishes, anything.

Oh, one other idea. Pay casters to do Dark Chaos Shuffle for you, pick up Bind Vestige line until you can bind what ever that Vestige was that let you add 1/2 Con Mod to AC.



Why yes, I am hung up on making your defenses and saving throw DC's strong as they can be. =)

[killianh]

copy and pasted from one of the handbooks I've used (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19870954/The_New_Dragonfire_Adept_Handbook!).Items of Interest




This is just a very short list of some of the things a Dragonfire Adept migh be interested in adding to his hoard. I'm leaving out the items of more general use (Bags of Holding, Handy Haversacks, Cloaks of Resistance, etc.), since they are not specifically of interest to DFAs. Please feel free to post ideas if they come up!




Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis: Are you sneaky? This may be the item for you! It gives you hide in plain sight, a big fat bonus to hide and move silently, and even a +10 ft. bonus to speed – all very cool. Plus it makes you look shadowy and incorporeal, which is a nice side effect. The cheap version is 3/day, but the expensive option (22,000 gold) is continuous – very nice.




Grafts - Draconic and Other: Any magic item that doesn't take a slot is a good magic item, says I! Draconic grafts are especially fun for a DFA, but all of these items are a good time. Graft it up and enjoy! Look for these in the Fiend Folio, Magic of Eberron, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness, and Races of the Dragon. In particular, look for grafts that grant you inherent attribute bonuses (there are some legs out there that give you Con, which is super handy on a DFA).

Gorget of Tempest Breath: Normally not something that helps, this becomes VERY useful when you can manage to increase in size. When you shape into a Large or Huge shape (or even a Gargantuan one with Enlarge Person!) under the influences of the Humanoid Shape invocation, however, this item can truly shine, allowing you to level hideous wind effects on your enemies whilst dealing serious damage. This depends, of course, on your DM's ruling on the "do breath weapons from class levels stay with you when you change shape" question, but should work. This puppy is a STEAL at 10 grand if your DM is reasonable, and I highly suggest you grab one!




Tempo Bloodspike (Magic of Eberron): Basically a hypodermic needle that you can plug yourself with to grant an extra move action during a round of your choice once within an hour of injection. This can be very handy - especially on a high-speed flight-based DFA.

Eversmoking Bottle (DMG): When paired with Blindsense, this lets you breathe on your enemies without letting them figure out where you are. A perfect defense for just 5,000 gold. The only problem is making sure you don't **** your blind teammates off too much.

Pectoral of Maneuverability (Draconomicon): For 12,000 gold, this item from the Draconomicon improves your flight maneuverability by a step. Worth it when you’ve only got Draconic Flight to rely on, as it saves you a feat.

Draught of Metabreath Magic (Draconomicon): These come in a bunch of different flavors and can make you a very scary (and adaptable ) opponent. Rebuking breath potions can make you the bane of undead. Admixture and substitution potions can make you deal obscene amounts of damage (especially when paired with Fivefold breath - yowsa!). Ethereal breath takes out pesky incorporeal opponents, and stunning/greater stunning adds to your already silly battlefield control capabilities. Enervating breath is just unfair, giving negative levels to your targets. All the gold you would spend normally on buying a weapon should go into these potions (or Draughts of Metallic Dragon Breath - see below).

Draught of Metallic Dragon Breath (Draconomicon): This can let you breathe paralyzing, sleep, weakening, repulsion, or slow breath. This becomes HUGE when used in combination with your personal breath effects Given that the effect on your personal breath weapon depends on your “age category” as a dragon, it’s not necessarily clear how this would work with a non-dragon with a breath weapon. There’s some text about how it works in combination with potions of dragon breath that says the effect is based on caster level - if this is what would determine the magnitude of the effect on a Dragonfire Adept’s breath weapon, the possibilities are impressive!

Wands of Metabreath Spells (Draconomicon): So many possibilities . . . In particular, wands of admixture become a very nice way of doubling your damage at later levels (though they will cost a pretty penny!). At low levels, go for things like Breath Flare if you like. You could even try grabbing Double Wand Wielder from Complete Arcane to slap on two separate Metabreath spells onto the same exhalation, though you'll tear through those charges quite quickly (expensive!).

Rod of Many Wands (Complete Arcane): Oh . . . my . . . gawd. This is where the DF Adept starts to get really, really silly. Throw three nice Metabreath Spell wands in here and go to town. Enervation, Admixture, and maybe Dispelling or Greater Stunning Breath are all fun possibilities. This is the equivalent of a tac-nuke when paired with Fivefold Breath. Youch.

Darkwood Shield + Mithral Shirt (DMG): One of the best low-level tricks a Dragonfire Adept has is wearing armor. A darkwood shield costs a mere 257 gold, grants a +2 to AC, and has no armor check penalty. A mithral shirt offers a +4 armor bonus and no check penalty for 1,100 gold. Both are incredibly light, and thus easy for a weak DFA to tote, and the combined spell failure chance is only 20% - not bad, and since many of your abilities won’t be affected by this, not that worrisome. When paired with the natural armor from Scales, this can make your DFA a quite defensive character.

Spell-Failure Reducing Armors (Races of the Wild): These include Thistledown Suits (RotW; reduces ASF by 5% for only 250 gold), Leafweave Armor (RotW; reduces ASF by 5% in leathery armor for +740 gold), Wildwood Armor (RotW; reduces ASF by 5% in metal armor for minor gold - depends on armor type), and probably some others I haven’t thought of. Ultimately you’ll want to wear armor as a DFA, but what kind depends a lot on your tactics in combat. Past 15th level, you’ll want to cast Draconic Toughness once in a while to

Defending Weapon (DMG): As a DFA doesn’t usually use a weapon to attack, a Defending Weapon can allow you to boost your AC impressively. This, of course, if for DFAs who don’t usually hold a wand in their main hand.




Wand Bracer (Dungeonscape): This one’s from Dungeonscape, and basically lets you quickdraw wands without any need for a rank in Sleight of Hand or an otherwise worthless feat. Cheap, too – around 300 gold! Great for wand-slingers, so yay.

Dragon Spirit Cincture (Magic Item Compendium): This has become a new staple for DFAs. A belt-slot item that adds +1d6 to breath weapon damage AND +1 to your breath weapon's DC (if you’ve got a weapon that deals energy damage of the same kind as your breath weapon). Not bad for two grand, says I!

Energy Crystal, Least (Magic Item Compendium): The easiest and cheapest way to get your weapon to deal energy damage, triggering your cincture’s bonus. Cost is a meager 600 gold, so it's easy to buy several and plant them in small, light weapons like daggers, allowing you to draw whichever is appropriate to the foe you're facing to trigger your Dragon Spirit Cincture.

Crown of the North Winds (Dragons of Faerun): This is an item from Dragons of Faerun that allows dragons to modify their breath weapon into any metallic dragon breath with an effect dependent on age category. Put one of these bad boys on a Dragonwrought kobold and go to town with the equivalent of the breath weapon of metallic great wyrms! Fire breath can become sleep gas or weakening breath (as a brass or gold dragon, respectively), acid can grant you slow breath (as a copper dragon), lightning repulsion gas (as a bronze), and cold will nab you paralyzing breath (as silver). Really this is kind of sick, and very impressive; what's more, at 70 grand it's quite affordable at mid to late game. The flavor text does imply that users should be down with Bahamut, but an evil dragon could still use it (but might have to spend a lot of spare time toasty-roasting Bahamut's pawns - oh well!).




Schemas (Magic of Eberron): From Magic of Eberron, these are use/day magical items that can contain any spell. Super good if you can find these and carry a bunch around – especially with Metamagic Spell Trigger to amplify them. Great for buff spells! A particularly nice choice for DFAs interested in using soulmelds from Magic of Incarum is Open Least Chakra, which can allow you to milk your Shape Soulmeld feat for a second benefit. For more on soulmelds and DFAs, see the Dragonfire Handbook Update - The Second!

Fearsome Armor (Magic Item Compendium): For 15 grand this armor lets you project a 20 foot radius of fear for a round, making enemies automatically shaken - panicked if they fail a DC 16 Will save. It's not much for such a massive monetary investment, true, but when you pair it up with class-based fear abilities the effect can end up supplementing and enhancing a terror-inducing build.




Wand Chamber (Dungeonscape): This is another wand-slinger wonder, especially useful when you're using the Dragonspirit Cincture + Least Energy Crystal combo. This is a super-cheap weapon modification which lets you store - and use - a wand in your weapon's hilt, which means you can hold a weapon to enhance your breath weapon and be able to zap away with wand powers without having to worry about re-sheathing. Especially important if you're using metabreath feats, since they mean you can't use your breath for a couple of rounds and will need something to do in the interim.

1st LEVEL WANDS OF CHOICE FOR THE DISCERNING DFA





This section began with some random thoughts on my part as to what I could do with my actions while my breath cannon recharged. The thought was simple - what cheap 1st level wands could I sock away that would be useful in combat? I then added on a little section of decent supplemental and utility wands for a bit more. Enjoy!

Glitterdust: For blinding and illuminating invisible creatures I spot with See the Unseen. Of course, since Glitterdust is a 2nd level spell, I might as well go for Faerie Fire instead (for the utility of lighting up those pesky unseen brats).
Entangle: Only really worth it outside, and this IS going to be a dungeon crawl campaign. Oh well!
Grease: Arguably the ultimate in 1st level ownage when paired with Entangling Exhalation. Their Reflex save is crippled due to the penalty on their Dex, they’ll have a hell of a time making the balance check as well, and even if they DO pull it all off they can only move at ¼ their normal rate! On a 30 ft. speed creature, this equates to a lovely nobbling 5 ft. per round – which means they are guaranteed to be unable to escape without two rounds of effort! The other nice piece is the ability to grease up clerical holy symbols, weapons, shields, and other held objects. Hell, it does say one object – what about greasing boots?
Power Word – Pain: Hooo boy. 4d4 rounds of 1d6/round damage is a nice way to stack on the duration-based hurt. Nobble them with a nice entangling exhalation and then lay one of these on them and . . . walk away. Little better range than flasks of oil, too, and you don’t have to make the ranged touch attack. I like!
Ray of Enfeeblement: What a great spell. Always handy to make your enemies weaker. Almost enough to make me interested in Weakening Breath + Escalating Enfeeblement . . . almost. NOTHING beats out slow breath – limiting enemy actions is the name of the damn game!
Resinous Tar: Complete Mage FTW! The natural complement to Grease, this makes movement count double in the affected square. Lay this down in front of approaching enemies in a hall and watch them try gamely to slog through.
Impeding Stones: Grease and Resinous Tar move OVER! 40 ft. spread of stones turn into difficult terrain. Total mobility destruction. This is the city version of Entangle, and if you had a wand of each kind you’d never be caught off-guard. Better yet, it lasts a minute per level, foes in the area suffer a -2 to attack (stack THAT with your exhalation penalties!), foes in the area have to succeed on concentration checks to cast (DC 15+spell level – once again, stack with entangling effects for total caster-lock!), and every damn round they’re in the effect they have to make their choice of a Reflex or Balance check to remain upright! Holy ever-loving CRAP – 1st level OWNAGE!
Enlarge Person: Cast this when you’re in Constrictor Naga form to become Gargantuan. Now THAT’S the way to make Wingstorm WORK!
Lesser Vigor: The best out of combat healing option there is. 11 HP healed in 11 rounds with a single charge will make you the party's de facto healer - just make sure they contribute to the wand fund.
Protection From Evil: +2 to saves and AC against evil, AND, more importantly, immunity to possession and control. Add on that summons can't touch you and you've got an ultimate buff - and all for just 750 gold. Pow.
Shield: A +4 shield bonus to AC that prevents magic missiles? Hell yes. Great buff if you don't mind pre-buffing occasionally.
Mage Armor: If you're hurting for encumbrance, this is a good choice for you. Use with abandon, since it lasts an hour.
Silence: This is a great spell. Use it and you won’t have to make Move Silently checks, which for a sneaky DFA means fewer worries about spell resistance! Best of all, since your invocations only have a somatic component, silence won’t interfere with them whatsoever! Granted, you won’t be able to talk, but hey – talking’s over-rated – kick some butt without making a sound!

its a bit of a read but it should help

[kharmakazy]

I played a kobold DFA once who spent all his wealth on a metal treasure chest that locked from the inside.

Breathe fire at people, things go bad, hide in the box. Included ports for getting things away from my box.

I killed a legendary bear, from the inside.

[Tvtyrant]

I disagree with the heavy equipment advice; your job is either to hold the enemy down with AoE control abilities (Entangling breath, sleeping breath, etc) or to nuke the heck out of them (Maximized, empowered, admixtured, etc.) Going first means your allies are out of the way, and that you do the maximum amount of effect. If an enemy is dead before you breathe, you just lost some of your breaths effect.

[GreenSerpent]

*facepalms* I should've mentioned my stats and so on.

My thingymajig is the Wings aspect, plus my stats are STR 10, DEX 12, CON 25, INT 14, WIS 8, CHA 6. So no real heavy carrying unless I lower my CON.

[Duke of URL]

Going first means your allies are out of the way

If you have to worry about your allies being in the way, you're doing it wrong. Is there any (PC) DFA who doesn't take Endure Exposure as their 1st-level invocation?

[GreenSerpent]

If you have to worry about your allies being in the way, you're doing it wrong. Is there any (PC) DFA who doesn't take Endure Exposure as their 1st-level invocation?

A dead one.

[Draz74]

Having a peace of ammo in one hand can be great with the right enhancements.
Very powerful strategy, but often considered cheese.

+5 Warning and Eager get's you +7 to Initiative.
Which will almost make up for the initiative penalty you're getting from your heavy armor and tower shield. :smalltongue: Anyway, Eager can't be put on ammunition -- it's melee-only.

Smoking Get's you an extra 20% Miss Chance that'll stack with the shield.
Which is why Smoking is often banned even if it's not on a shuriken.

And don't forget the Draconomicon, it has the Gem of Fortification, which saves you needing a +5 Armor property.
This one is actually a good, non-cheesy suggestion ... for high levels. The OP doesn't have that kind of money.


I disagree with the heavy equipment advice; your job is either to hold the enemy down with AoE control abilities (Entangling breath, sleeping breath, etc) or to nuke the heck out of them (Maximized, empowered, admixtured, etc.) Going first means your allies are out of the way, and that you do the maximum amount of effect. If an enemy is dead before you breathe, you just lost some of your breaths effect.
Good advice.

If you have to worry about your allies being in the way, you're doing it wrong. Is there any (PC) DFA who doesn't take Endure Exposure as their 1st-level invocation?

Mine doesn't. Magic Sense is more important to the party at Levels 1-2 (as long as they don't face any grapple-specialist monsters). Admittedly, she does still pick up Endure Exposure at Level 3. :smallsmile:

[The Redwolf]

If you have to worry about your allies being in the way, you're doing it wrong. Is there any (PC) DFA who doesn't take Endure Exposure as their 1st-level invocation?

If you use cones or clouds you can just take shaped breath and then you also don't have to worry about it, or if there are specific enemies you need to avoid hitting you can do so as well with that.