Being a Dragon Disciple a tad quicker

[Ranting Fool]

One of my players is planning on being a Dragon Disciple in an up coming campaign and wanted to know if I'd be willing to "Squish" the PrC down from 10 levels.

It is listed as a rather bad PrC (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1573.0)

So I said I'd look into it.

Dragon Disciple is in DMG Page 184 for those of you who don't know it.

Should I make it 7 levels or 5.
And which levels would you recommend merging?

E.g Level 8 and 9 could be merged since Wings by itself is rather weak at level 14ish since by level 5 you can get perfect flight anyway. And by 14 you could easily buy items that let you fly.

I could just tell him to suck it up but he REALLY likes the idea of turning into a dragon slowly... just not so slowly that his character is weaker then all the others. :smallbiggrin:

[Ranting Fool]

Oh just to note I'm not planning on merging the Base attack or saves. Just the granting the abilities at earlier levels and capping it a few levels sooner

[Xerlith]

Look at the Pathfinder one. Then squeeze it into 6 levels.


PF squeezing:

Merged levels:

2nd and 3rd
5th and 6th
7th and 9th
8th and 10th

So basically:

lvl 1st is the same
lvl 2nd gets both 2nd and 3rd
3rd gets 4th
4th gets 5th and 6th
5th gets 7th and 9th
6th gets 8th and 10th

lost casting at 1st and 5th.


If you want to use the 3.5 one...

It's pretty much the same, but sum up the bonus spells as well.

[Zman]

Simple fix for the Dragon Disciple is to grant an increase in Spellcasting at the levels it would normally grant a Bonus Spell. So as a 7/10 Spellcasting class. Turns it from terrible, to good, and still weaker than any Spellcasting Class that grants full Spellcasting.

There is the dragon Devotee Prestige class which is ok and is only 5 levels.

[Jormengand]

Simple fix for the Dragon Disciple is to grant an increase in Spellcasting at the levels it would normally grant a Bonus Spell. So as a 7/10 Spellcasting class. Turns it from terrible, to good, and still weaker than any Spellcasting Class that grants full Spellcasting.

Uh, I wouldn't use quite that progression, just because it would become a two-level dip. 7/10, yes, but not those seven tenths.

Oh, and if it's meant to be a gish, make DD full BAB, so then you actually have the same overall BAB as single-class gishes.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

I think you could fairly easily make it a 5-level 3/5ths casting class. Maybe even a 4/5ths if you were feeling daring.

By that point most of the benefits of being a half-dragon are easily achievable with spells anyway, so I wouldn't worry unduly.

[Just to Browse]

Well almost everything about being a dragon disciple is underwhelming. The breath weapon doesn't kill level-appropriate mooks, the bonus spells are only extra daily uses (so he doesn't get real power from it).

I would personally rewrite the class to your player's wants/needs. If he wants to be a dragonlike bruiser that uses sorcerer spells for utility then the bonus spells are fine, but if he wants to be a mage that also happens to breath fire and look like a dragon, then you should improve the casting to full arcane levels. It could even just be a feat chain, like the Aberrant feats.

For a quick fix: If you're playing in campaigns where sorcerers and fighters are chill, then this class is probably fine and don't worry your player by giving him extra things to think about. If you're playing in campaigns where sorcerers and warblades are chill but fighters are sad, then allow your player to access spell levels as if he were progressing in his old casting class except his only high-level spells per day are from ability scores and bonus spells.