Monsters as PCs

[Nexahs]

So one of my players was considering playing a dragon (one of the three metallics who can polymorph) who had been cursed or something, and was stuck in human(oid) form. The concept was fascinating to me, but I'm struggling a little, trying to figure out how levels would work. The options that I'm currently considering are:

1) Start character as 4-6 HD dragon, then when they level up, give them a class level of their choice as per a usual character, and have their effective level be the total of class levels and dragon HD.

2) When they would gain a level, they instead gain another HD of dragon, and the appropriate benefits of that; in PC terms, however, they would remain a Commoner (MAYBE Warrior) level 1 for the entire game.

Does anyone have a better suggestion, or just general comments?

[Karnith]

The Draconomicon has a section in the chapter for players on Dragons as Player Characters. The gist is that dragon characters start out as dragons and can gain class levels as normal, but every few years (as a result of aging, which is how dragons normally advance) they must take either dragon hit dice or gain a level adjustment to represent the increased powers that they get from aging.

In your specific case, where the player is trapped in humanoid form, this may prove inappropriate as that character will not have many of the abilities that an actual dragon would have (such as natural attacks, natural armor, flight, breath weapons, and so on).

Also, you may want to read Urpriest's Monstrous Monster Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207928), which contains a great deal of information about playing monster characters.

[Srasy]

I would advise just having him play a dragonfire adept human and say hes actually a dragon who was cursed

[Karnith]

I would advise just having him play a dragonfire adept human and say hes actually a dragon who was cursed
If the character never turns back into a dragon, this would probably be a better idea than trying to use the monstrous PC rules (though a dragon shaman instead of a dragonfire adept could also work).

[otakumick]

Dragon Magazine had racial classes for metallic (Dr 320) and chromatic (Dr 332) Dragons.

[Jeff the Green]

I would advise just having him play a dragonfire adept human and say hes actually a dragon who was cursed

Personally I'd go with dragonborn dragonfire adept. Either choose Heart so you can get Entangling Exhalation and then get one of the draconic flight invocations, or choose Wings. Voila, instant dragon. (Also, the +2 Con from dragonborn is nice for dragonfire adept.)

[Vaz]

Dragon-blood Race (Dragon Magic)

Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 10/Wild Shape Advancing Class

Choose a Plane for the Planar Shepherd to use (Material Plane gets no benefit from the bubble, but any none outsider you can use to Wild Shape into; including Dragons, gaining their Su, SLA, and Ex abilities. Dragons = Gurd.

Alternatively, the Dragon Shape Feat, letting you turn into a Medium or Large Dragon at ECL12 for Wild Shape.

Last alternative, Sorcerer with Draconic Heritage Feats.

[Amnestic]

Either choose Heart so you can get Entangling Exhalation

Entangling Exhalation is a Breath Channeling feat rather than a Metabreath feat - it doesn't require a breath weapon with a cooldown expressed in rounds. The vanilla DFA breath weapon works with it just fine, so Heart is not required.

[Jeff the Green]

Entangling Exhalation is a Breath Channeling feat rather than a Metabreath feat - it doesn't require a breath weapon with a cooldown expressed in rounds. The vanilla DFA breath weapon works with it just fine, so Heart is not required.

Huh, so it is. Though the real metabreath feats can be pretty good, especially since you can stack them!