3.5 Dragon Wings Rewrite

[TripleD]

So I was checking out "Races of the Dragon" for kobold-melee ideas when I saw the "Dragon Wing" feat. "A Flying Kobold?" I thought, "Count me in!"

Then I actually read through the feat and saw that all it really gives you is a glide speed. You needed to take a second feat at level 6 to actually fly, and wait until level 12 to fly for any significant amount of time. Oh, and if you want to fight in Medium Armour that's another feat. And another for Heavy Armour. And if you want to go above "Average" flying precision or 30ft per round you're looking at another few feats/equipment. So basically you're burning 3-4 feats and spending X amount of money to poorly imitate a 3rd level "Fly" spell.

I know, I know:

http://cdn.meme.li/i/p9lf0.jpg

But I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I love the notion that once in a while, the Kobold bloodline kicks into overdrive and produces a BAMF. So I decided to doctor the idea a bit by rolling up the feat chain into two main feats.

Dragon Wings
Prerequisites: Dragonblood subtype, 1st level only (A Dragonwrought Kobold may take this feat at 3rd level)
Benefit: You have wings that aid your jumps, granting you a +10 racial bonus on Jump checks.

In addition, you can use your wings to glide, negating fall damage from any height and allowing 20 feet of forward motion for every 5 feet of descent. You can glide at a speed of 30 feet (average maneuverability). You may not hover or carry a medium or heavy load.

If you become unconscious or helpless while mid-air, your wings automatically unfurl and reduce any falling damage to 1d6 points of non-lethal damage.

Although it does not grant you a true fly speed (yet), you may use this feat to qualify for feats that require a fly speed.

At 6HD You gain a fly (average) speed of double your base land speed. You can't fly while carrying a medium or heavy load, or while fatigued or exhausted.

You can fly for a number of consecutive rounds equal to your CON modifier (min 1). You may push yourself to fly up to double that, but you become fatigued at the end of the flight. You are also fatigued if you spend more than (Con modifier * 10 minutes) per day flying. Gliding does not count towards either of these limits.

At 12HD your maneuverability increases to Good, and flying requires no more exertion than walking or running.

Reinforced Wings
Prerequisites: Str 13, wings and a glide or fly speed
Benefit: You can fly in medium armour or while carrying a medium load. If your Strength is 15 or higher, you may also fly in heavy armour or while carrying a heavy load.

Your speed is still reduced by encumbrance


So what do you think? Probably not going to make any power builds, but could be fun to play around with.

[Silverscale]

I'm not very good at judging balance but I'm always in favor of stream-lining things like feat chains, especially where such things are shown to be grossly under-powered for the amount of feats/money they cost to obtain.

I haven't played in a while but the last time my friends and I played D&D 3.X we played with a condensed list of skills and various other house rules to help neaten-up the paper work and ease things like feat-chains. I can't remember the list of skills we used and I certainly don't have it handy but I know we combined things like See and Listen into Perception. By combining 2 or 3 similar skills together like that, we were able to cut the skill list in half.

[Haldir]

I don't like the STR reqs. I think you're trying to build for your specific character, but overlook some of the thematic possibilities here. Allow me to suggest that "Reinforced Wings" be replaced with "Flight Organ" which allows the Kobold the same benefits, but doesn't have such a tough requirement, especially considering the Kobold gets a penalty to that particular score. Spend a move action to fill the organ for medium, a full action for heavy, and your effective score for opposed physical checks like grapple and bullrush takes a penalty.

[TripleD]

I'm not very good at judging balance but I'm always in favor of stream-lining things like feat chains, especially where such things are shown to be grossly under-powered for the amount of feats/money they cost to obtain.

My thoughts exactly. One of the big problems with feats is that, unlike spells, most don't grow with time. Imagine if "Magic Missile" had a fixed damage dice and you had to give up other spell slots, permanently, to add more dice. Things like "Weapon Focus" should upgrade to include "Weapon Specialization" automatically after x number of levels; it shouldn't be a feat in and of itself.


I don't like the STR reqs. I think you're trying to build for your specific character, but overlook some of the thematic possibilities here. Allow me to suggest that "Reinforced Wings" be replaced with "Flight Organ" which allows the Kobold the same benefits, but doesn't have such a tough requirement, especially considering the Kobold gets a penalty to that particular score. Spend a move action to fill the organ for medium, a full action for heavy, and your effective score for opposed physical checks like grapple and bullrush takes a penalty.

I actually got the STR requirements from the old feats, and I think they make sense. Stronger characters can carry more when they fly. Don't forget this isn't just a Kobold feat; any dragonblood type can take it.

The joy of Kobolds is playing to their strengths to get around their weaknesses. Being of small size and at a strength penalty, we're probably going to focus on speed, high DEX, and light armour, so I don't think Heavy-Armour, heavy loads will be an issue too often.

[Haldir]

It's just a classic dysfunction in design to build something which relies on a stat that you're not likely to have/need, you're creating a feat chain which, more often than not, will create a MAD issue in your builds.

I'm not saying that Dragonblood melee characters don't exist, but they're likely outnumbered by characters who are based on other stats.

Finally, Reinforced Wings is honestly not strong enough as a feat to really justify such harsh requirements, other than to maintain the theme you've chosen.