bored at work... dragon disciple?

[WeaselGuy]

So, as usual, I'm bored at work and started fiddling around with yet another character concept... what do you think?

Battle Sorcerer 4, Fighter 2, Abjurant Champion 3, Suel Arcanamach 4, then finishing up with Dragon Disciple 7...

The basic concept of the character is a light armor wearing semi-gish, who spikes his AC and wades into combat with a Ranseur or other obscure weapon...

I'm actually at a loss for feat selection, since the only feats I need for all 3 prestige classes are Combat Casting and Iron will... I was thinking Improved Trip, Combat Reflexes and Short Haft for my level 5 and 2x level 6 feats, and maybe Improved Familiar at level 9, either Hippogriff or Pseudodragon (The Complete Warrior version for the Hippogriff, Tome and Blood for the Pseudodragon).

Also, there's been some discussion in my group on whether or not Mage Armor stacks with wearing actual armor or bracers of armor.

Also of note, the Dragon Disciple would be altered to provide 7/10 casting progression, instead of the weird bonus spells that it's written with.

[Kazudo]

And I think if magical locations are open, you could get Iron Will without expending a level feat.

EDIT:



providing a +4 armor bonus to AC.




Armor bonuses stack with all other bonuses to Armor Class (even with natural armor bonuses) except other armor bonuses.


So no, Mage Armor doesn't stack with Armor the same way Bracers of Armor don't.

[WeaselGuy]

I generally try to avoid Otyugh holes, planar bindings, candles of invocation and other flavors of cheddar, and focus more on making do with what classes offer... makes it a little easier to explain if there's a change in DMs or if we're bored and do character duels (it's a thing, one of our guys is an LT and works weird hours, sometimes we wait on him to show up).

I should note that I have access to almost all published books, but not dragon magazine. Campaign specific resources are allowed, 3.0 is allowed if there isn't a 3.5 conversion, pathfinder is not.

I don't like to stack templates, but we're generally allowed a +1 at no penalty.

[Kazudo]

You usually won't need it.

Suffice to say, one of my favorite ways to get free spellcasting abilities is to go undead and take the Spellstitched template, as well as (if I can get my hands on it) the Evolved Undead template. Spellstitched carries no LA with it (assuming no errata saying either that or that it cannot be used), and Evolved Undead is at a +1. If you don't count Necropolitan as having an LA per se (only losing a class level, which can be mitigated with either background or being a level behind) then you're looking at a +1 LA for three templates which do kind of kill. And d12 hit dice to boot.

[WeaselGuy]

eh... useful, and powerful, but... undead. not really my flavor... I think I figured out my feat progression though...

1 - Combat Casting, Combat Expertise (Human)
3 - Combat Reflexes
5 - Weapon Focus - Halberd (Fighter)
6 - Short Haft, Improved Trip (Fighter)
9 - Iron WIll
12 - Knock-Down
15 - Robilar's Gambit
18 - ???


Also, in the event that Mage Armor shenanigans doesn't stack with wearing actual armor, would probably drop the 4th level of Suel Arcanamach in order to get 9 levels of Dragon Disciple for the Wings.

edit: Just read your edit concerning armor bonuses...
edit2: Apparently, I cannot math... I only get 8 levels of Dragon Disciple, so still no wings :smallannoyed:

[Kazudo]

Take Dragonborn with the Wing aspect if you can. Minor penalty to DEX, a boon to CON, and wings as well as (I believe) a few other things. Alternatively, you can take the Heart aspect to get a breath weapon that scales with HD and CON score.

[Aergoth]

There's one "exception" to the rule involving armor bonuses and mage armor. And that is things that are incorporeal. Normally you'd lose your armor bonus against an incorporeal enemy, but because Mage armor is force effect it remains in effect against incorporeal foes, so rather than losing the entire armor bonus when some spooky customer tries to get at you, you've still got some kind of defense.

[Kazudo]

Well, that's less a matter of things stacking and more a matter of "take the better option", which is right in keeping with stack rules.

[WeaselGuy]

Yeah, I think I'm going to use something like a Mithral Breastplate, and using the bonuses from Abj Champ to pimp the hell out of the Shield Spell... nothing like having a +7 shield bonus that stops magic missile, and being able to swing a halberd around without paying for an animated shield.