Dragonfire adept build help.

[Metahuman1]

Ok, so I'm going to try and get into a game on another site and I'm leaning toward a dragonfire adept.

Race is to be halfling, because that's the only allowed race. It's an all Halfling game. I'm ok with this, it's part of the fun of the games pitch.

Stats are to be generated via a dice roll scheme. I get to roll 4d6, re-roll 1's, drop the lowest, and repeat 8 times. Starting level 4.

For skills I'm gonna mostly lean social with UMD usage, and if, IF, I have the skill points to spare, I might be a secondary knowledge monkey. Most of my feats are probably gonna be aimed at either boosting my defenses and mobility or optimizing my breath weapon, but that's not set in stone.



Now, here's where I'm seeking help.

I want this character to cover as many of the "Support" roles as possible. Breath weapon with feats like Entangling Exhalation and Clinging Breath will cover crowd control and get's me started nicely with debuffing/slow steady damage helping to soften up the bad guys. UMD with some wands will further help.

What I want are ways I can help take over the emergency healer/go-to out of combat healer role, and to know if there is a way to be an effective Item Crafter for the party.


Is there any way to do this with this class with out multyclassing?

Thanks for the help!

[stack]

Obligatory handbook link. (http://coboard.wikia.com/wiki/The_New_Dragonfire_Adept_Handbook!)

First, did your DM okay meta-breath feats for the DFA or are you using tricks to qualify, since DFA's technically don't?

Entangling is a no-brainer feat. If you want to knowledge monkey, you can take the invocation and tack on the draconic knowledge feat. Works best if going heavy on draconic feats.

Best stat goes into CON, CHA secondary. You don't need strength, wisdom only for saves, INT for skills, though if you take the feats and invocations you can get great knowledge checks with minimal INT. You have face skills and a great invocation (beguiling influence) to cover the face role. Start taking extra invocation when you can to get whatever invocations you missed (the detect magic/identify one is nice, knowledge if you want that role, beguiling influence to be the face. Endure Exposure is required to work in a party.)

For healing out of combat, UMD a wand of lesser vigor.

If you want to craft, play a warlock/chameleon instead, DFA's don't bring much to the table.

[Metahuman1]

I've posted to him asking for the dragon mag feat that makes DFA qualify by virtue of having the feat.


My current Stat priority list is as follows.

Con>Cha>Int>Wis>Str>Dex.

Con cause hit points and Breath Weapon DC's, Cha cause Invocation DC's and social skills+UMD, Int cause skill points and Knowledge skills in particular, Wis cause a save and rp value, Str for exactly no reason other then carrying capacity, and Dex cause any number more then 0 means I'm in business.


Are there any vestiges/Soulmelds I could maybe crib with feats?

[Chronos]

I assume that by "that Dragon Magazine feat" you mean Power Surge? If not, add it: It's the second-best feat a DFA can take, even aside from qualifying you for metabreaths.

Soulmelds can give a lot of nifty abilities, but most of them are redundant compared to your breath weapon and invocations. Probably the only one I'd consider is Blink Shirt. I don't remember specifics on the vestige abilities you can get with feats, but most of them give you the vestige abilities you don't really care about. Naberius would be worthwhile, except that every DM ever nerfs Diplomacy.

Another good use of a feat is Draconic Aura, especially if you're looking to play a support role. It's debatable, but you can probably use it for the ones published in PHB2 as well as the ones from Dragon Magic, meaning you can get the Dragon Shaman's heal-everyone-to-half-for-free ability. Or you can give everyone an initiative boost, or extra energy damage, etc. And since you have the dragonblood subtype, it'll scale with your level.

[Metahuman1]

Actually, from the DFA handbook I think I'm gonna see about acquiring Pegasus Sandles to combine with my flight invocation for perfect maneuverability while flying. And Yeah, Nuberous looks good as a Vestage. Would there be another soulmeld/Vestage that would allow me to grab it and heal everyone in the party to full for free? Cause if so, I think I'll pass on auras. Never liked the mechanic much myself.


Though when I was asking about Soulmelds and Vestiges, I was actually originally looking for one that would help me branch out into being an effective Item creator.


Edit: Does anyone happen to know what Issue of Dragon Mag power Surge is in?

[Kuulvheysoon]

Actually, from the DFA handbook I think I'm gonna see about acquiring Pegasus Sandles to combine with my flight invocation for perfect maneuverability while flying. And Yeah, Nuberous looks good as a Vestage. Would there be another soulmeld/Vestage that would allow me to grab it and heal everyone in the party to full for free? Cause if so, I think I'll pass on auras. Never liked the mechanic much myself.


Though when I was asking about Soulmelds and Vestiges, I was actually originally looking for one that would help me branch out into being an effective Item creator.

There's a vestige focused more towards Item creation - I can't recall his name, but I know that it was one of the online ones.

[Yogibear41]

You can pick up endurance and steadfast determination so you can dump wisdom, since Con is already your primary stat. If you are a strongheart or have flaws you could just grab these at level 1. Other than ability focus for your breath weapon I don't know of any other crucial feats to take at that level.


I'd probably value dex over str, because you can always just buy a wagon.

[Metahuman1]

I'm probably gonna grab edurance and steadfast determination at some point. I'd love to also be able to add Con to reflex with out having to take a lot of dipping out, but that might be too much unless anyone knows a trick?

And part of the reason I'm looking at making Str higher then Dex is I'm planning on having some items to boost intuitive and wearing the heaviest armor and carrying the biggest shield I can find. Since I don't make attack rolls and can fly, meaning I don't make too many skill checks were armor check penalty's are a factor and I can just use 24 hour boost invocations i can get away with it.


So yeah, right now I'm trying to find online crafting vestige and the Power Surge feat form Dragon, anyone got any help to offer on those fields?

[stack]

If you are only using 24 hr invocations, you don't need CHA since the DC's won't matter. Anything with a DC will be useless under all that spell failure.

[rot42]

I'm probably gonna grab edurance and steadfast determination at some point. I'd love to also be able to add Con to reflex with out having to take a lot of dipping out, but that might be too much unless anyone knows a trick?

And part of the reason I'm looking at making Str higher then Dex is I'm planning on having some items to boost intuitive and wearing the heaviest armor and carrying the biggest shield I can find. Since I don't make attack rolls and can fly, meaning I don't make too many skill checks were armor check penalty's are a factor and I can just use 24 hour boost invocations i can get away with it.


So yeah, right now I'm trying to find online crafting vestige and the Power Surge feat form Dragon, anyone got any help to offer on those fields?

Astaroth in the Cityscape online web enhancement (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307a) gives a floating item creation feat. Fourth level vestige, not available with just feats.

Power Surge is in Dragon 313 page 57 in the Beholder section.

[Metahuman1]

If you are only using 24 hr invocations, you don't need CHA since the DC's won't matter. Anything with a DC will be useless under all that spell failure.

Still need Cha for Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy and the all important use magic device skills.

@rot42: Thanks!

[Metahuman1]

Update: After discussing with the DM, I've opted to drop trying to work Item crafting into the character. I might pick up an Artificer Cohort later for that but for now, it's been dropped.


So, that leaves me with making my personal defenses next to impenetrable, making my breath weapon a major pain for any enemy to deal with, and being a good talker, good thinker, and good magic device user.


Toward that end, I'm looking at the heighten Breath Weapon and Clinging Breath feats, anyone care to weigh in on these?

[Phelix-Mu]

Update: After discussing with the DM, I've opted to drop trying to work Item crafting into the character. I might pick up an Artificer Cohort later for that but for now, it's been dropped.


So, that leaves me with making my personal defenses next to impenetrable, making my breath weapon a major pain for any enemy to deal with, and being a good talker, good thinker, and good magic device user.


Toward that end, I'm looking at the heighten Breath Weapon and Clinging Breath feats, anyone care to weigh in on these?

I just thought I'd weigh in with something I did once. Dragon Cohort from Draconomicon is a great flavor choice, can scale with level, and offers a secondary critter to customize and get feats for. In particular, many dragons have max ranks in UMD and good charisma, and if it's high enough HD to have spellcasting, then it doesn't even have to roll.

At lower levels, the benefits are not quite as impressive, but even if the dragon is just another source of breath weapon, that can boost battlefield control right there (though the dragon can't breath every round like the DFA).

If the DM will accept psychic reformation and similar tricks, the cohort can be customized to fill a specific combat/noncombat role.

Finally, this can be some golden role play material, especially if you have to go searching for a dragon to recruit, suitably impress a potential cohort, or otherwise interact meaningfully with it.

Sorry if this is totally out of sync with what you were thinking.

[Metahuman1]

Well, the Game in question's theme is that all the sentient races have been enslaved by more powerful evil races. Beholders, Mind-Flayers, Aboliths, Evil Dragons, More Powerful Evil Giants, Evil Outsiders and such, except for Haflings, whom are now rising up en-mass to over throw the races that were evil and took over but overlooked them.

So, I don't think the adventure hook fits the game premise well. Sorry.

It's a good hook though, I'll file it for use some other time.



Anyway, getting back to build, other then Power Surge and Entangling Exhalation, what else is good for breath feats?