Gold Dragon Character help

[DrBloodbathMC]

Hello everyone, I'm currently building a character for a friends campaign who is going to be a Gold Dragon. I talked him into letting me use the Dragon 320 level progression rules and as such will be viable despite playing a dragon, though I'm running into a few issues, mainly what the levels should be. Its ECL 16 and I want to take 14 in Dragon to give myself the useful class features and the ability to advance to the Very Young age category by the end of the campaign, so I need 2 more levels. I was thinking Fighter but open to other classes. Another issue I have is no one's supposed to know I'm a dragon at first (we have someone who worships the God of Secrets so I'll be found out eventually) but until I'm found out I'll be using Alternate Form pretty much 24/7 so I'm also open to suggestions for what form I should take.

I'm sorry for the semi long post, but since I've never played a game at this high of a level I need a little bit of help

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=302503

(Note: My DM chose to interpret the feats you get from dragon levels as bonus feats, I don't know if he's right in that but I don't want to argue it, if he's wrong though I'll tell him and pray he sticks to his initial interpretation)

[martixy]

With no spell progression to speak of and high strength, you're probably looking at a martial class.

And it depends on how you intend to progress.

Are you looking just for a dip to get something(like Evasion for Rogue 2) or some bonus feats?

Do you intend to progress higher in that class?

Draconomicon obviously has a few:
A dragon-bard perhaps? Dragonsong lyrist. Heck, even a normal bard?

It also has the only class I'm aware of that grants evasion at level 1.

Past that:
Dragon Shaman would be an amusing idea. You'd literally be a Dragon Shaman. And you could effectively be 2 types of dragons at once, since the class grants mostly just the flavour specific abilities of dragons and there's very little overlap as to other draconic traits.
And you get to project your presence to others - be an inspiration to your allies.

A factotum dip is never a bad idea.
You can try Kensai - you get to enhance your natural weapons. (Though what a dragon would do with ranks in Ride is beyond me :smallbiggrin:)
Paladin would also be an intriguing choice.
Given the equal mental scores, any of the Tome of Battle classes are also viable.
Pyrokineticist is pretty fire themed, but mechanically not that great for you.

[Urpriest]

They're not bonus feats, because it's a monster class, and the point is to reproduce the original monster, which gets those as HD feats, not bonus feats.

I'd go with Crusader for your final two levels. The nice thing about the Tome of Battle classes is that half your racial HD contribute to your Initiator Level, so you can pick up mid-level maneuvers. Paladin is another decent choice if ToB is banned.

[WhamBamSam]

I'd advise not going further than 12th level in Dragon, especially if you're planning on mostly using Alternate Form.

Take the Wyrm of War Sovereign Archetype from Dragons of Eberron, for a bonus feat (either a Fighter feat or something "tied to draconic combat abilities" whatever that means) every 4 HD (racial or otherwise). This is pretty much non-negotiable.

If you're Alternate Form-focused, take the Half-Dragon Form feat from the same book and spend most of your time running around as a half-dragon flind gnoll (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20040912b&page=3) (of course, if you are Alternate Form-based, then you have even less reason than usual to be a Gold Dragon as opposed to a Steel Dragon (Dragons of Faerun), since the larger size/higher stats (that you trade away) are the only advantage of the former.

I would recommend avoiding Alternate Form on a Gold Dragon, and instead going for either full BAB martial classes to scrape 16 (say Gold Wyrmling of War 8/LA +4/Spirit Lion Barbarian 1/Battle Dancer 1/Full BAB +X), or using PsyWar powers (whether from being an actual PsyWar, a War Mind, or a Substitute Power Ardent) like Expansion, Psionic Lion's Charge, and Strength of My Enemy to get the most out of your dragon full attack routine and weakening gas breath weapon (buy a Crown of the North Wind from Dragons of Faerun to be treated as Young for age based effects, and take Quicken Breath to be able to use it as a free action. The Crown also removes the need to have the weakening gas breath weapon instead of just fire innately, but what can you do?).

The handbook in my sig could probably stand an update, but it should still be helpful in making a dragon character (certainly moreso than any single post of mine, even with the benefit of knowledge that could go into said update).

[DrBloodbathMC]

Thank you all, I'm still going to look around but these gave me some great starting off points, especially the Dragon Handbook.

I'm only going to be alternate form based until it's revealed I'm a dragon, thus making this slightly difficult but there seems to be a lot of ways I can make this work very well from a mechanics perspective. Martial classes seem to be the go to since the feats can be used interchangeably for the most part.

As for the feats I'll talk to my DM and see if he wants to leave them as bonus feats or he wants to make them the only feats I get, since that's going to affect my build greatly.