Best way to play a dragon

[hisnamehere]

Hey All.

I'm here to ask, no doubt for the the nth time, how to go about playing a dragon in 3.P.

If it makes a difference, it is for my son, who is just getting into making characters. (His first is a pumpkin-headed sorcerer ninja).

Thank you in advance for helping inspire my kid's love of adventure.

[DeTess]

What kind of power-level should the dragon be for? At low to mid power-level tables the dragon savage progressions in Dragon magazine 320 (metallics) and Dragon magazine 332 (chromatics) should function just fine. The ambush drake savage progression (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20060728a) is generally considered to be pretty good even at higher optimized tables (not all the way to T1, but should be functional when a lot of people are playing tier 3's fairly well).

Another way is to play an antropomorphic baleen whale(savage spieces) dragonfire adept and just fluff it as a dragon. That package gets you large size, good stats, a breath weapon and flight, but it only starts at level 4, and it'll take to level 9 to get flight.

[NontheistCleric]

I've used a Dragonborn Unseelie Muckdweller Dragonfire Adept as a sort of 'mini-dragon' before. Anatomically, it would be very similar to a real dragon (provided you choose the dragon wings with Unseelie Fey which is an obvious choice with the desired theme), and even at level 1 it can fly and breathe fire.

The only downside is that it is Tiny, which may not quite mesh with images of large and majestic dragons, and also that the template combination may be too complicated for someone just getting into D&D.

[Sinner's Garden]

My suggestion is the Taninim from Rite Publishing's In the Company of Dragons. It's a class-race combination based on simply and directly playing a dragon with minimum fuss; it's not exactly the same as playing a true dragon properly, but it should offer a more organic and fulfilling dragon experience for standard play.

[hisnamehere]

Thanks, guys. These are great suggestions.

It does appear the Taninim will be the easiest...for me. ;0)

All the best.

[Ruethgar]

You could also play a Hatchling dragon of any of the base 10 dragons. They don’t get much, 0 LA, their subtype and immunities(no natural armor, weapons or wings), but they are True dragons and as long as you take no levels in the racial class you can go whatever way you feel like with it as far as class.

Awakened Lizards can be up to 6ft long despite being Tiny and can be therepods as per the Needletooth entry. From there Dragonblood association/Draconic/Dragontouched and Dragon Wings will get you a mini dragon.

[Malphegor]

There's a few ways. First off, do you want to be an actual dragon, no questions asked? You'll probably be a wyrmling for most of your career to deal with the levels, but that's kind of an interesting way to deal with a dragon party member since dragons are mighty so you need to be smol to be equivalent to a party member of the party's level.

Here's a guide to non-kobold dragons. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?303204-The-Truest-of-the-True-A-Handbook-to-non-Kobold-Dragons-(WIP))I'm personally fond of mercury dragons because no matter what the art says, a T-1000 dragon made of rippling metal is just... metal.

If you want to be more humanoid, find a creature of the right size and racial features you like, and take levels in Dragonfire Adept, where you get a seperate list of warlock-esque invocations that are dragon themed and features that result in you being super dragonny.

If you want to be a robot dragon, get a warforged, then make it a Dragonborn of Bahamut. You are now a robot dragonperson.

Next, have you considered just casting a (mostly sorcerer) spell? Dragonshape (and its greater and lesser versions) turns you into a red dragon. Aspect of the Platinum dragon turns you into a aspect of Bahamut which I believe is dragony from memory, Form of the Desert Hunter turns you into a Dragonne, regular Polymorph lets you be a dragon if you know of any with low enough hitdice, Form of the Threefold Beast makes you into a dragon headed chimera, and the Shapeshifter variant of druid in PHB2 is vague enough that your shapes could look like a dragon you'd just lack all dragon mechanical features beyond appearance.