I Need Help! Dragonfire Adept

[Savith9]

I'm trying to build a dragon fire adept and I have read handbooks or guides on them extensively in the past few days but I cant decide on a path to go as far as race and feats go. Can someone help me out? I'm looking for something thats going to be tons of fun and flavorful on top of the already entertaining abilities of the DFA. Thank you.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Entangling Exhalation is a very nice feat, especially if you're starting at first level.

Dragonborn (template) can provide you with a secondary breath weapon, which would qualify you for metabreath feats.

There's an ACF on the web somewhere that lets you take a Warlock Invocation instead of a DFA one, if you're interested.

[Ortesk]

Let me ask, do you wanna be breath weapon focused or invocation?


If breath weapon, i find Dragon Born Arctic Mongrelfolk quite nice

+ 8 con, -2 dex, -2 int, -6 Cha

you can pick up beguiling influence and be socially adept, slip by with say 8 cha and the 26 con at level 1 means you have so much HP its funny

[Savith9]

Breath weapon focus, but I would prefer not taking massive tanks to my charisma as there are a couple of invocations I want to pick up later that I need a decent save DC for. Now my current DM Has already given the ok on a homebrew half dragon template just not sure if I really want to use it or not...
However, the downfall to it is that you gain vulnerability to an element based on the dragon you emulate (can be rectified at higher levels with invocations).

If all possible I would prefer having wings so I dont have to pick up invocations for flight... though the Humanoid Shape (cant really think of any humanoids that have wings off the top of my head either) invocation is practically a must if any non-human race is chosen due to campaign setting.

I thought about multiclassing into fighter as well just to get some armor proficiency as we are using a point buy system for stats and I would like to have some protection at least... But if you have better suggestions I'm pretty open. Flights just something that seems like it would be fun and I haven't really ever made a character that has gotten any form of it (usually build assassin and healer style characters so I'm a little out of my element)

[Ortesk]

Breath weapon focus, but I would prefer not taking massive tanks to my charisma as there are a couple of invocations I want to pick up later that I need a decent save DC for. Now my current DM Has already given the ok on a homebrew half dragon template just not sure if I really want to use it or not...
However, the downfall to it is that you gain vulnerability to an element based on the dragon you emulate (can be rectified at higher levels with invocations).

If all possible I would prefer having wings so I dont have to pick up invocations for flight... though the Humanoid Shape (cant really think of any humanoids that have wings off the top of my head either) invocation is practically a must if any non-human race is chosen due to campaign setting.

I thought about multiclassing into fighter as well just to get some armor proficiency as we are using a point buy system for stats and I would like to have some protection at least... But if you have better suggestions I'm pretty open. Flights just something that seems like it would be fun and I haven't really ever made a character that has gotten any form of it (usually build assassin and healer style characters so I'm a little out of my element)

Fair enough. Generally your invocstions are lack luster, aim for passive ones that boost you in some way. your bead and butter is breath weapons. Get ability focus and start from there. with a DFA think outside the box. your not the harbinger of doom, you have to be savvy. If your about to ambush an enemy, get behind him and light the field on fire. you have 1 weapon, use it and abuse it. And i wouldnt go half dragon, or dip fighter. If anything go monk for wisdom to ac and IUS, then dip a level in FoF and your be cool on AC

[Kane0]

Would this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15159964) be any help to you? You can swap te auras out for invocations if you like.

Other than that, Dragonborn is a good race for the flavor, and some metabreath feats would be worth looking into. Just make sure you dont end up being the focus in melee combat and you should be okay.

[Raezeman]

I'm playing an evil dragonfire adept named Zim myself in one campaign, so i think i can give you a few tips.

For race, my DM doesn't allow fancy template adding, so Zim is a human, which i choose for the extra feat. For other races, as you are planning on breath based, DON'T take anything with a constitution penalty. Dwarfs make good breathers with their CON bonus, and personally, i could live with the CHA penalty since you can take invocations without saving throws. Hellbreds seem nice and flavourful too, but i took human for the 2 feats at level one.

And these 2 feats (in my humble opinion) are the only feats the dragonfire adept really needs. They are (surprise surprise) Entangling exhalation and ability focus [breath weapon]. With those 2, the rest can be chosen purely based on what seems fun.
The draconic aura feet is also good since thanks to the dragon blood, the bonus from the aura increases at higher levels. The energy aura can give a great boost on your breath DC (probably you'll use fire the most, so take energy [fire]) and if you have a caster in your team that likes fire spells, he'll love you for this aura. My DM let me take aura described in PH2 that are i think technically are for the dragon shaman only, but so i was allowed to take the vigor aura and now i heal up my party to halve always. Double draconic aura can be handy if you want to pick up multiple.
Then, the frightful presence feat from draconomicum makes you more dragon like, which is a big plus flavour style, though the DC depends on your CHA, so take that into account. Also, there is an invocation that does basically the same, but if you like others, the feat is nice.
For being more dragon like, the dragontail feat is fun! But not really all that good...
There are also the flyby attack, flyby breath and strafing breath feats, which are nice and cool, but you will have to take the draconic flight invocations, which gives you wings, so i don't see why you wouldn't want this (unless of course you like other invocations better).
If evil, willing deformity claws give you claws to be more dragon-like, but my DM let's us have willing deformity feats for free if we find an actual way of performing the surgery on our characters, since the feats are not that groundbreaking at all.
And extra invoctation is nice if you just want more invocations...

So, that's pretty much what i like for a dragonfire adept. I might want to add as a fun fact that Zim also has the willing deformity face feat, though trust me when i say that it wasn't acquired willingly at all...

[Fax Celestis]

I'm going to step away from the norm here and say you should take advantage of that Dragonblooded class feature and load up on as many [Draconic] feats as you possibly can. You can get some pretty hilarious results if you do. A silverbrow human with two flaws (http://pifro.com/pro/view.php?id=102) can, at third level, have up to five draconic feats. I did this and took Draconic Heritage (Silver), Draconic Knowledge, Draconic Senses, Draconic Resistance, and Draconic Toughness. This gets you low-light vision, darkvision 60', blindsense 20', cold resist 16, saves vs. cold, sleep, and paralysis +5, +5 on all knowledge checks, +5 on listen, search and spot, and 10 extra HP. At 3rd level. Get yourself an eternal wand of the spell in Dragon Magic (magic of the dragonheart, I think) that makes you count as having +2 Draconic feats and hit yourself with it in times of trouble.

[Savith9]

I'm playing an evil dragonfire adept named Zim myself in one campaign, so i think i can give you a few tips.

For race, my DM doesn't allow fancy template adding, so Zim is a human, which i choose for the extra feat. For other races, as you are planning on breath based, DON'T take anything with a constitution penalty. Dwarfs make good breathers with their CON bonus, and personally, i could live with the CHA penalty since you can take invocations without saving throws. Hellbreds seem nice and flavourful too, but i took human for the 2 feats at level one.

And these 2 feats (in my humble opinion) are the only feats the dragonfire adept really needs. They are (surprise surprise) Entangling exhalation and ability focus [breath weapon]. With those 2, the rest can be chosen purely based on what seems fun.
The draconic aura feet is also good since thanks to the dragon blood, the bonus from the aura increases at higher levels. The energy aura can give a great boost on your breath DC (probably you'll use fire the most, so take energy [fire]) and if you have a caster in your team that likes fire spells, he'll love you for this aura. My DM let me take aura described in PH2 that are i think technically are for the dragon shaman only, but so i was allowed to take the vigor aura and now i heal up my party to halve always. Double draconic aura can be handy if you want to pick up multiple.
Then, the frightful presence feat from draconomicum makes you more dragon like, which is a big plus flavour style, though the DC depends on your CHA, so take that into account. Also, there is an invocation that does basically the same, but if you like others, the feat is nice.
For being more dragon like, the dragontail feat is fun! But not really all that good...
There are also the flyby attack, flyby breath and strafing breath feats, which are nice and cool, but you will have to take the draconic flight invocations, which gives you wings, so i don't see why you wouldn't want this (unless of course you like other invocations better).
If evil, willing deformity claws give you claws to be more dragon-like, but my DM let's us have willing deformity feats for free if we find an actual way of performing the surgery on our characters, since the feats are not that groundbreaking at all.
And extra invoctation is nice if you just want more invocations...

So, that's pretty much what i like for a dragonfire adept. I might want to add as a fun fact that Zim also has the willing deformity face feat, though trust me when i say that it wasn't acquired willingly at all...


Thank you Raezeman, you made it a bit more clear that there are not a terribly large amount of feats that are a "must have" giving me a little freedom of choice with the character.