Turning into a Dragon without Dragon Wildshape?

[Dusk Eclipse]

Is there a way for a martial character to turn into a dragon (preferably medium sized or bigger) in combat without wildshape?

[Xervous]

Rushed post, forgive me for not checking if there's any weight to this thought.

Theoretically, if the martial character could acquire the ability to use alter self as a spell like or Su from a class, if they had the dragon type, they could alter self into a dragon. Though it would be tricky to find a dragon that is large enough and has 5 or less HD.

[koboldish]

I'm away from books right now, but becoming a dragonborn makes you dragonblooded (I think), so I'm fairly sure that lets you alter self or polymorph. This would be a lot easier if you were a kobold :smallbiggrin:. I feel like a lot of the information I just tried to give you is wrong, so you have been warned.

[Dusk Eclipse]

@Xervous: Yeah, I think Ambush Drake (MM III I think) is the only one that fits, but how would you get Su/Sla Alter Self.

@Koboldish: Dragonborn indeed gives the Dragonblood subtype, but you have it backwards, Dragon type qualifies you automatically for anything with the Dragonblood pre-requisite and it even ignores the other requisites it might have.

Thanks in anycase.

[koboldish]

Okay. Sorry about that.

[Dusk Eclipse]

No problem.

[JaronK]

Dragonwrought Kobold + Alter Self would do it. It's only a second level spell, and a gish character could easily pull this off.

JaronK

[Dusk Eclipse]

I considered it, but I wanted to be more or less human-esque. To be perfectly honest I'm trying to build Shyvana from Leage of Legends in D&D, so far I'm only having troubles with her transformation and her Damage over time aura, everything else is quite easy to do with straight swordsage.

[olentu]

Well there is always a skin of proteus. A bit costly at 84000 gp but it would do the trick.

[Dusk Eclipse]

That definitely could work, now that I think so Psywar (probably with mantled warrior to nab some energy powers) can also work pretty well for Shyvana.

[Phelix-Mu]

Were-dragon!

There is also a sorcerer spell that turns one into a dragon. Lesser dragonshape from...um...Dragon Magic?

The first one, not so serious, is from the 3.0 Faerun Monster Compendium (name?). Well, at least that is the version that I know. They probably plopped an update in one of the obscure FR setting books...grrr....:smallamused:

[Dusk Eclipse]

Were-dragon would be perfect! Though I'm sure it has loads of RHD and LA

[Phelix-Mu]

Hmm. A quick search of the books I thought it was from seems to indicate that I am

a.) insane/hallucinating
b.) misremembering a 2e creature
c.) inventing homebrew without even telling myself that I'm doing it

Maybe your search for "were-dragon" or some variation thereof will have better results, but all I turn up is "dragon, song" which, like all dragons, is pretty much unplayable.

[nyarlathotep]

Were-dragons are 2nd edition monsters. Also noted for not really being lycanthropes but rather dragons with two natural forms.

[Zaydos]

Were-dragons were also named Song Dragons and were in Monstrous Compendium of Faerun (3.0) under that name and possibly Dragons of Faerun as well. Though by that standard any dragon with the Alternate Form ability would qualify.

[Phelix-Mu]

Right, I guess that a 2e equivalent of "human form" was more rare than it is now, cause being able to turn into a human is hardly distinctly the purview of the song dragon...though I also seem to recall 2e silvers had the ability (and in Krynn, I'm pretty sure golds could too).

Ah well. The problem with an actual dragon is that they are hardly playable beyond wyrmling. Not that they aren't strong, just that you can't level through the age categories (that takes years of time, not experience), and they tend to have an aggressive combo of RHD and LA.

Which is sad. I'd suggest just taking some sufficiently dragon-like thing (lizards from Drow of the Underdark?) and jamming it into lycanthrope, but that's far from ideal, too.