question on level adjustment for unique character

[Tentakel]

Hi,

I need some input on a unique PC/NPC I am building to further a storyline in a campaign.

The character is a young metallic dragon who got abandoned at birth due to some mishap. It stumbled upon a family of humans and instinctively shapechanged into a human. The family thought she was an abandoned human baby and raised it and the dragon never shapechanged back into a dragon and over time forgot she was a dragon. She is now an adolescent human for all intents and purposes and doesn't realize otherwise until the campaign plot unfolds a long time down the road. Not sure if it is feasible, but it's along the lines of the abandoned baby boy who got raised by wolves and now thinks he's a wolf, with the addition of the dragon actually being a human due to their innate shapechange ability.

Anyway, as far as character designs: dragons have a huge level adjustment, but since the character acts as a human and most of the dragon's advantage either don't come into play (breath weapon, fangs/claws) or she's too young for them to be developed (spell progression, fear aura), obviously the level adjustment could/should be less. The one main advantage if RAW is used would be the character's hit points would be outrageous but we can try to work with that (maybe the character feints every time she takes damage equivalent to a human character of her level because she thinks she should be grievously injured)?

Oh, the character will be a low-level spellcaster so things like BAB won't matter either.

Any thoughts/suggestions on both whether such a character is feasible and on a possible level adjustment? Again, this is not an attempt at munchkinism but a plot device.

[Snowbluff]

Hmm... maybe instead of using an actual dragon, a Stalwart Battle Sorc would be able to replicate the other characteristics of a dragon, I think. Use some feats to get the things working. They should have good HP, enough BaB, and Cha-based casting (just it's bad). Add a Bloodline feat from Dragon Compendium to get flavorful spells as well.

[Tentakel]

Hmm... maybe instead of using an actual dragon, a Stalwart Battle Sorc would be able to replicate the other characteristics of a dragon, I think. Use some feats to get the things working. They should have good HP, enough BaB, and Cha-based casting (just it's bad). Add a Bloodline feat from Dragon Compendium to get flavorful spells as well.


I'd want the character to be an actual dragon though, just not knowing it until the plot unravels a long time down the road. She should be a basic low-level human, but I'd prefer to stick as close to RAW as possible - there could be the occasional "hmm, something is odd here..."-moment from other characters. In other words, I'm not trying to replicate the dragon characteristics, but trying to hide them and replicate a common human.

[Douglas]

By your backstory, it has to be a type of dragon that has Alternate Form even as a Wyrmling. That means gold or silver.

By your timeline of growing up to human adolescent age, she would have to be at the upper end of Very Young or the bottom end of Young.

The weakest possibility that fits is a Very Young Silver dragon, and even that gives 10 dragon hit dice. Compared to what she thinks she is, she will have hit points out the wazoo, +4 to all mental ability scores, high saves, and an absurdly huge number of skill ranks (and similarly high caps on skill ranks).

She would, essentially, be an incredibly durable person with unbelievable talent at everything except spellcasting. Regardless of her memories from babyhood about being a dragon, she would have grown up with these factors being constantly in place all the time.

I could see the durability being something she's not really aware of if she grew up in a generally non-hazardous environment. I wouldn't have her faint when damage takes out her class hit points, though, but rather be surprised at how little whatever it was hurt.

With her being a spellcaster, I'd play her as being an extreme expert on magical theory - tons of ranks, way beyond her supposed level, in spellcraft and various knowledge skills - but eternally frustrated by her stubborn inability to apply that knowledge to practical use anywhere near as well as other humans who have similar levels of theoretical mastery.

As for level adjustment, the hit dice alone will put her so high up that you're in PLOT territory. Make her whatever level fits your plot, and forget about making it fit the regular ECL scheme.

[Tentakel]

By your backstory, it has to be a type of dragon that has Alternate Form even as a Wyrmling. That means gold or silver.

By your timeline of growing up to human adolescent age, she would have to be at the upper end of Very Young or the bottom end of Young.

The weakest possibility that fits is a Very Young Silver dragon, and even that gives 10 dragon hit dice. Compared to what she thinks she is, she will have hit points out the wazoo, +4 to all mental ability scores, high saves, and an absurdly huge number of skill ranks (and similarly high caps on skill ranks).

She would, essentially, be an incredibly durable person with unbelievable talent at everything except spellcasting. Regardless of her memories from babyhood about being a dragon, she would have grown up with these factors being constantly in place all the time.

I could see the durability being something she's not really aware of if she grew up in a generally non-hazardous environment. I wouldn't have her faint when damage takes out her class hit points, though, but rather be surprised at how little whatever it was hurt.

With her being a spellcaster, I'd play her as being an extreme expert on magical theory - tons of ranks, way beyond her supposed level, in spellcraft and various knowledge skills - but eternally frustrated by her stubborn inability to apply that knowledge to practical use anywhere near as well as other humans who have similar levels of theoretical mastery.

As for level adjustment, the hit dice alone will put her so high up that you're in PLOT territory. Make her whatever level fits your plot, and forget about making it fit the regular ECL scheme.


Yeah, wyrmling silver, and essentially she grew up a child prodigy. I understand the PLOT territory, but when feasible I like to stick to RAW. My players know the game, so whenever I stick to RAW and in the end reveal a plot they can go "oh yeah, NOW it all makes sense", and that's more gratifying than cheating, if that makes sense.

I can explain high mental attributes and skills, but the hit points is a bit harder.

Thanks for your input.

[Arcanist]

Douglas hit the nail on the head. RAW only has as much meaning as we place on it and as a DM, I've overriden RAW because it didn't make sense before.

Regardless! Play your characters like Superman. Unaware of his heritage until the time is right. Sure he might be normal compared to everyone in the village when he is young, but still be frightened by sudden exposures to fire and steadily grow to become e the villages champion. Doesn't need a single class level. Dragon hit die are decent as they are. :smalltongue:

A meta reason for knowing having so much hit points is to explain it away by having Improved toughness. (Also actually, having the feat is pretty good).

[Runestar]

ECL-wise, I think the most playable dragon would be a steel dragon (dragons of faerun). The wyrmling version is ECL6 (4dragon HD, +2LA), but comes with enough goodies right out of the box (alternate form 5/day, acid immunity, poison resistance, sorc1 spellcasting. sr16).

So he would have fairly subpar stats(all 10s except for cha12), but has a breath weapon and sorc1 spellcasting. For feats, take practiced spellcaster and you still have a viable magic missle caster.

If you want to make it less sturdy, apply the loredrake template (dragons of eberron), which reduces its HD to d10s, but it gets +2 sorc spellcasting.

What age category do you have in mind?

[AuraTwilight]

Dragon magazine #320 might be of help to you; it has a bunch of information for creating dragon PCs, complete with monster classes to balance LA/ECL.

[Crake]

I think the real question is: Are you the DM of this game? If you are, then LA doesn't really matter, as it's a DM character. If you aren't the DM, then really you should be discussing it with your DM.

If you are the DM and are having trouble with balancing issues, just play it by the nose, put together a low level sorc and work it from there, you don't need to have the entire character down on paper, just mold it as necessary.