Is Dragon Disciple any good? (PF)

[Jallorn]

I know that in normal 3.5, DD is horrible for a caster, but what about in PF? I'm intrigued by the class, but I can't decide if it's worth the slight casting loss.

[nyarlathotep]

It's okay if you're a gish sorcerer who already has the draconic blood-line, but otherwise give it a pass.

[Jallorn]

I'm not really Gish. I'm playing a Halfling Draconic Sorcerer, with a slightly blasty focus (meaning mostly combat spells, with a handful of utility spells). As far as melee goes though, well, I have 20 AC (With Mage Armor), and I'm seeing if my DM will let me have a Half-Dragon riding dog, but otherwise, well, I don't have levels in anything else (it's level 5), and I don't have a Str bonus (or penalty)

[tyckspoon]

For a primary casting plan, no, you still lose too many caster levels, although it is improved from 'oh gods why would you do that to yourself' to 'works ok in a lower-optimization environment.' For a gish build, it's pretty good, although it won't make it to the 16+ BAB/9th level spells mark of a non-core gish unless you decide to stop the class partway through (level 7 would be a good place.) Advancing the Draconic bloodline powers along with the Dragon Disciple class additions really sells it for a gish; it means your dragon claws and natural armor get advanced and then improved by extra Strength, Con, a Bite attack, and even more natural armor, plus 7/10 caster progression so that doesn't become irrelevant either.

[Greenish]

I'm not really Gish. I'm playing a Halfling Draconic Sorcerer, with a slightly blasty focus (meaning mostly combat spells, with a handful of utility spells).

It's not very good for a straight up caster, you lose three caster levels for things that do nothing to your casting. It's Cool but Inefficient.

[Ignition]

I used Dragon Disciple (PF edition, natch) to make a pretty sweet barbarian which was, again, cool but inefficient. Loving that 2/Day Super Dragon Rage stuff and +4 Inherent (I think) to Strength, haha. He couldn't cast worth a damn, but he could do some sweet melee damage, and just for the awesome factor of going berserk and turning into a huge dragon.

[ericgrau]

I know that in normal 3.5, DD is horrible for a caster, but what about in PF? I'm intrigued by the class, but I can't decide if it's worth the slight casting loss.

Is everybody playing out of the SRD or are they not reading their DMG text? I mean, why do people keep trying to use dragon disciple or arcane archer as caster classes when they aren't? They're melee/range.

Noncasters can do a lot with a 1 level dip into a caster class btw, even without a prc. It opens up scrolls, wands and staffs of all levels, without trying to slip cheesy custom UMD boosters past your DM. Wands and staffs have no spell failure chance either.

[Jallorn]

I'm playing PF out of the SRD, yes.