how to get a breath weapon?

[LostDeviljho]

I'm currently working on a character for an upcoming campaign, a sort up supernatural monk/assassin type character. I figured swordsage would be good, what with shadow hand and desert wind, etc.
however, i need a breath weapon (fire specifically), and I'm not sure how to get that. there's half-dragon, but i read somewhere that it really isn't that great, i think that dragonfire adept also provides a breath weapon, but that's all i know of. are there any other classes or magic items that grant a breath weapon?

[Snowbluff]

Dragonborn. It gives the option to have a breath weapon.

[Troacctid]

Dragonborn of Bahamut (LA 0, Races of the Dragon p8) get a breath weapon.

[Vedhin]

There's a 2nd level spell, Palandursk's Fire Breath, that grants a single use breath weapon. It's in City of Splendors: Waterdeep, and you could make a wand of it (or a continuous item if the DM approves).

[Gildedragon]

Dragonfire Adept 1 gives you a breath weapon

[malonkey1]

Dragon Shaman offers a breath weapon, and it allows metabreath as RAW.

Also, a few Vestiges (Tome of Magic) offer breath weapons, but you'd need to dip at least Binder 1, in order to bind Amon for its breath weapon (1d6 per Binder Level, 10-foot cone per Bidner level max 50 ft.). According to RAW, it's also valid with Metabreath feats, too, since it has a recharge time expressed in rounds.

[Snowbluff]

SWORDSAGED! HAHAHAHHA!

Speaking of which, swordsage has attacks similiar to breath weapon. Hatchling's Flame, off the top of my head.

Binder is also a good breather.

[aleucard]

Wizards and Sorcerers get a spell in the Draconomicon (http://dndtools.eu/spells/draconomicon--92/dragon-breath--1034/) that basically gives you a Dragon's breath weapon for 10 minutes/level or you breathe a certain number of times, whichever comes first. There's probably many more options of this flavor in it and Races of the Dragon, as well.

I remember there being a feat somewhere that gives Dragonblooded an equivalent of the Dragonborn's Breath Weapon, but the only ones I can find so far are ones that emulate the Wings.

DFA uses a no-recharge Breath Weapon as their primary method of attack, and with some of the crap they can DO to that thing, it's standard for people to be recommended to not multiclass in the slightest. Most that would allow you to break even would be something like Chameleon 2. This isn't going to be too helpful for you, though, since you're apparently not doing Gestalt. It's absolutely monstrous in one, though.

[LostDeviljho]

Dragonborn of Bahamut (LA 0, Races of the Dragon p8) get a breath weapon.

the campaign has two partys, one good, one evil. I'm on the evil team. Dragonborn of Bahamut requires non-evil alignment.

[LostDeviljho]

SWORDSAGED! HAHAHAHHA!

why do you laugh?

[aleucard]

the campaign has two partys, one good, one evil. I'm on the evil team. Dragonborn of Bahamut requires non-evil alignment.

If needs be, ask your DM to allow for a Tiamat-flavored equivalent. Modifying fluff, especially alignment-based, is absurdly easy and rarely does anything to the mechanics.

[Snowbluff]

why do you laugh?

I ninja'd their posts. That means I posted what they were writing while they were trying to type it out.

We say "Swordsaged" sometimes, since Swordsages are considered better ninjas than ninjas.

[LostDeviljho]

We say "Swordsaged" sometimes, since Swordsages are considered better ninjas than ninjas.

yes, yes they are.

[RegalKain]

I'd like to hop in and add/ask, for more information, like what is your DM willing to allow, what books are banned etc, that may help narrow down some of the things and let us be more specific in helping you.

[NoACWarrior]

If you are willing to change base class to spell caster - sorcerer can grab draconic heritage feat from complete arcane to change spell slots into breath weapon blasts on the fly.

There's also the breath weapon spell from that book and spell compendium.

Be careful with meta breath in combo with draconic heritage though.

[Twilightwyrm]

Does it need to be an actual Breath Weapon? Because the Dragon's Flame and Wyrm's Flame desert wind maneuvers doo a good job of aping this. Just say you are breathing it, et voi la.
If it does need to be an actual breath weapon, your options are somewhat more limited. As has already been mentioned, the Dragonborn template can give you a breath weapon. Unlike perhaps some others here, I'm a bit iffy about playing fast and loose with the Bahamut/Tiamat alignment, because if your DM is all paying attention to the whole divine relationship thing, they would note that Tiamat already has an equivalent in the various dragonspawn (or, to be more accurate, dragonborn is Bahamut's answer to Tiamat's dragonspawn). There are ways around this, but you may need to go to great lengths to justify it.
Dragonfire Adept is also an option, but the Breath Weapon is going to be fairly weak, and I'd recommend against taking any more than a few levels, as doing so with tank your BAB.
Technically, Dragon Samurai (from the Miniatures Handbook) is also an option, but the breath weapon is fairly weak and usbale only 1/day (stupid, considering it is the class's main class feature).
If you are starting off at a higher level, Half-Dragon actually isn't all that bad, assuming you are willing to make some investment. If you are playing with the LA buyoff UA variant, +3 is just within your ability to fully buy off before 20th level, and with the single addition of the Dragon Breath feat, you can use your Breath Weapon every 1d4 rounds, rather than 1/day.
For non-draconic sources, several Vestiges give breath weapons, as do a several Soulmelds. As such, adding some Binder or Totemist might not be a bad idea, although Totemist seems a more likely option, especially if you have a high Con bonus.

[Gemini476]

If needs be, ask your DM to allow for a Tiamat-flavored equivalent. Modifying fluff, especially alignment-based, is absurdly easy and rarely does anything to the mechanics.

They already exist and are called the Dragonspawn of TiamatMM4. They're also not that great for PCs, although the Bluespawn Godslayer is somewhat overpowered for its CR. They all have too high ECL to be worth it as a player.


Qhy do you want a breath weapon, anyway? Is it just for flavour or do you want to take metabreath feats? Because metabreath locks out a lot of options.

[LostDeviljho]

Why do you want a breath weapon, anyway? Is it just for flavour or do you want to take metabreath feats? Because metabreath locks out a lot of options.

mostly for the flavor. I personally value interesting character design over mechanical power (although being mechanically viable is also important). the character is losely based on one from a book i read. that character was quite fond of letting opponents get close and then melting their faces off with a blast of fire from his mouth. that sounds like a breath weapon to me.

[NoACWarrior]

mostly for the flavor. I personally value interesting character design over mechanical power (although being mechanically viable is also important). the character is losely based on one from a book i read. that character was quite fond of letting opponents get close and then melting their faces off with a blast of fire from his mouth. that sounds like a breath weapon to me.

IF you can convince your DM - you could go gestalt monk / sorcerer and use draconic breath as I stated above. Sorcerer could specialize in illusion magic so that you could invisibly get close toy our enemies / sneak around. Monk would give you the thematic element you are looking for and at the same time not make the gestalt that super powerful. Also - if it looks like you are a spell caster - melee types are all too happy to engage you right away. The fact that you can use a breath weapon (and with quicken meta breath with an alternative breath weapon) point blank without provoking (unless the opponent has "supernatural opportunist") is rather alluring.

[Person_Man]

To summarize your options:

Dragonborn template (+0 LA, benefits replace most other racial benefits): Low damage and it has a 1d4 round delay between uses. But if you just want it for fluff reasons or to qualify for a Feat, it's the easiest to get.
Sorcerer: Lots of spells mimic breath weapons, and there's a (comparatively weak-ish) feat that lets you burn spell uses to gain a breath weapon.
Dragonfire Adept: A breath weapon is the primary class ability. You can use it every round, at-will, the Con based Saving Throw scales well, and it has many powerful Breath Effect options, especially at higher levels.
Totemist: Play this class if you actually want to be a melee monster who also has a few useful breath weapon options. Breath weapons deal decent damage, but have a 1d4 round delay, and it's not as impressive as the Dragonfire Adept.
Binder: Has several breath weapons that deal ok damage. The benefit with the binder is that his breath weapons almost all impose a potent status effect. But they also have a 5 (!) round delay, and the Saving Throw DCs are Charisma based. So in most cases, your Binder will actually be melee or Summoning focused, and use the breath weapon as a secondary debuff option.
Metabreath Feats: There are several worth looking at in Draconomicon, Races of the Dragon, and I think maybe in Dragon Magic as well.

[Xerlith]

I'll second just refluffing the cone Desert Wind maneuvers as breath. Simple, clean and easy.

If you want a Breath Weapon entry in your Character Sheet, grab a level of Dragonfire Adept and take the Entangling Exhalation feat to get the most bang for your buck.

[WhamBamSam]

It's expensive, but the Metabolic Fire graft from Races of the Dragon gives a breath weapon of whatever element for which you can acquire a corresponding dragon egg.

I don't think Vestige breath abilities actually count as breath weapons for the purposes of metabreath feats, as they all have names other than 'breath weapon.'

[malonkey1]

It's expensive, but the Metabolic Fire graft from Races of the Dragon gives a breath weapon of whatever element for which you can acquire a corresponding dragon egg.

I don't think Vestige breath abilities actually count as breath weapons for the purposes of metabreath feats, as they all have names other than 'breath weapon.'


A creature attacking with a breath weapon is actually expelling something from its mouth (rather than conjuring it by means of a spell or some other magical effect). Most creatures with breath weapons are limited to a number of uses per day or by a minimum length of time that must pass between uses. Such creatures are usually smart enough to save their breath weapon until they really need it.

Sounds like a breath weapon to me.

[WhamBamSam]

That describes what happens when a creature uses a Breath Weapon ability, not what makes an ability count as a breath weapon. Dissolving Spittle isn't a breath weapon either, but it meets the qualification of the user 'actually expelling something from its mouth.'

[LostDeviljho]

If you are willing to change base class to spell caster - sorcerer can grab draconic heritage feat from complete arcane to change spell slots into breath weapon blasts on the fly.

There's also the breath weapon spell from that book and spell compendium.

Be careful with meta breath in combo with draconic heritage though.

this is activated as a standard action, and the time between breaths is not expressed in rounds. therefore metabreath doesn't work.

[LostDeviljho]

It's expensive, but the Metabolic Fire graft from Races of the Dragon gives a breath weapon of whatever element for which you can acquire a corresponding dragon egg.

Expensive? yeah, I'd say so. it's not just the GP cost, there's a permanent loss of 8 HP minimum that can never be recovered. 6 from the Metabolic Fire, 2 from Glaring Eye. Metabolic Fire has a prerequisite of at least one other graft, and Glaring Eye was the cheapest.

[Bronk]

Dragon's Draught.... MIC p157

Options for fire are Brass, Gold and Red.

[Segev]

When you say you "need" a breath weapon, what do you need it for? Is it just something this character should conceptually have? Is it a prerequisite for something campaign-specific? Is it a prerequisite for another mechanic you want to pursue?

Depending on your reason for needing it, there are a few ways it could be approached, as outlined already in this thread.

[LostDeviljho]

so the options I like best are reflavoring the desert wind maneuvers to be "breath weapons", or possibly gestalting something/dragonfire adept.

thank you guys for your advice, it was helpful. :smallbiggrin: