Cookie Cutter Dragon build?

[gogogome]

What stopped me from using Dragons most of the time is that I didn't want to spend time creating a spell list and feat list because I did not have the system mastery to do so. Just now I realized: why haven't i asked the playground for help?

All dragons are essentially the same. Just different breath attacks and stats. Their combat is identical so... why not create a cookie cutter dragon build that I can copy and paste into every dragon written?

So! What is the most optimal dragon build?

Rules
1. All 1st party books including 3.0, unless 3.0 is dysfunctional like MMII.
2. No webcontent
3. No Dragon Magazine, 2nd party or 3rd party
4. No gear. With gear Dragons become unkillable party wipers. Been there done that, gotta put in some kind of restriction to make them killable.
5. No xp components. Partially for balance, partially because NPCs can't have xp. Costly components and foci are allowed because dragons get to ignore material components and they have a feat that lets them embed foci into their body.

Scintillating Scales is a definite must-have. Other than that I don't know.

For feats it's definitely Eschew Materials. After that I'm thinking about breath weapon cooldown reduction. There's just so many options I don't know what to do.

Feats
1 Recover Breath
3 Quicken Spell
6 Rapid Breath
9 Multiattack
12 Improved Multiattack
15 Maximize Spell
18 Arcane Thesis: Lesser Orb of Fire
21 Searing Spell
24 Twin Spell
27 Improved Metamagic
30 Arcane Thesis: Orb of Fire
33 Improved Metamagic
36 Improved Metamagic
39
42


Sorcerer Spell Known
0th
1. Prestidigitation
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

1st
1. Shield
2. Nerveskitter
3. Blood Wind
4. Lesser Orb of Fire
5.

2nd
1. Scintillating Scales (SpC)
2. Wings of Cover
3. Bull's Strength
4. Cat's Grace
5. Heroics

3rd
1. Greater Mage Armor
2. Girallon's Blessing
3. Heart of Water
4. Spiderskin

4th
1. Celerity
2. Greater Wings of Air
3. Investiture of the Steel Devil
4. Orb of Fire

5th
1. Arcane Fusion
2. Breath Weapon Substitution
3. Greater Blink
4. Greater Dimension Door

6th
1. Superior Resistance
2. Greater Heroism
3.

7th
1. Arcane Spellsurge
2. Energy Immunity
3. Forcecage

8th
1. Greater Arcane Fusion
2.
3.

9th
1. Time Stop
2. Disjunction
3.

[OgresAreCute]

Could throw on some metabreath feats. Makes the dragon's most iconic feature more intimidating/impactful, and the increased cooldown from applying them makes the fight easier to engage with for mundanes since they're not just being kited by a flying flamethrower anymore. The dragon actually has to land since its cooldown will be too long for breath spam.

[gogogome]

I think I'm getting the hang of this now. First, all of the action economy breakers like arcane fusion and arcane spellsurge. And lets not forget timestop.

Second, I think I'm gonna go breath + mailman. The dragon is gonna stay in the sky 24/7 breathing fire every round while using action economy breakers to get all of his defensive buffs up, and if the breath attack is ineffective due to energy resistance and such he switches to metamagic reducer stacked orb blasting. Shouldn't be too strong since no dragon magazine content or PrCs like incantatrix. Maximzied Twin lesser orb of acid should be good enough.

And lastly some BFC to split the party up like walls and fogs.

[Biggus]

Rapid Metamagic allows dragons to use Quicken Spell.

Multiattack and Improved Multiattack can make a big difference to those old enough to get all six attacks.

If you're allowing the most powerful dragons to have epic feats (Draconomicon says that Old or older dragons can take them) Ignore Material Components allows you to get around the "no expensive material components" thing.

Personally I think giving epic feats automatically at Old age is a bit much, I only give them to CR21+ dragons, but as far as I know Draconomicon is the most recent official version.

[gogogome]

Rapid Metamagic allows dragons to use Quicken Spell.

Multiattack and Improved Multiattack can make a big difference to those old enough to get all six attacks.

If you're allowing the most powerful dragons to have epic feats (Draconomicon says that Old or older dragons can take them) Ignore Material Components allows you to get around the "no expensive material components" thing.

Personally I think giving epic feats automatically at Old age is a bit much, I only give them to CR21+ dragons, but as far as I know Draconomicon is the most recent official version.

Ignore material components requires the ability to cast 9th level spells, and afaik dragons can't retrain spells since they don't "level up" so it doesn't matter. But yes I will be giving my dragons epic feats, if there are any that are good. No Epic Spellcasting though.

[Thurbane]

Rapidstrike/Improved Rapidstrike are good for extra attacks.

For dragons with an elemental subtype, the Final Strike feat can be a nasty surprise for a party.

Martial Study/Martial Stance may be worthwhile, but there are probably better options...

In terms of action economy, select some spells that have Swift or Immediate casting times.

[Biggus]

Ignore material components requires the ability to cast 9th level spells, and afaik dragons can't retrain spells since they don't "level up" so it doesn't matter.

Just discovered something that apparently we both missed: creatures without hands or arms don't need material components for their innate spellcasting abilities (MM p.315, under "Spells". That this applies to Dragons is confirmed in the Draconomicon, p.24. They do need a focus if the spell requires it, but there's the Embed Spell Focus feat in the Draconomicon which enables them to use those too.)

But yes I will be giving my dragons epic feats, if there are any that are good. No Epic Spellcasting though.

Improved Metamagic and Superior Initiative are good. Devastating Critical, Spellcasting Harrier and Dire Charge might be worth considering. Multispell and Improved Spell Capacity for those who have 9th-level spells.

[gogogome]

Just discovered something that apparently we both missed: creatures without hands or arms don't need material components for their innate spellcasting abilities (MM p.315, under "Spells". That this applies to Dragons is confirmed in the Draconomicon, p.24. They do need a focus if the spell requires it, but there's the Embed Spell Focus feat in the Draconomicon which enables them to use those too.)

Nice catch. Force Cage Galore it is then. And Animate Dead and Stoneskin. A quick browsing of spells revealed no other spells of interest.

I will remove the no focus or material component rule.

[Biggus]

Some spells from SpC to consider:

1 Nerveskitter
2 Heroics, Wraithstrike, Wings of Air
3 Anticipate Teleportation
4 Forceward, Ruin Delver's Fortune, Spell Enhancer, Greater Wings of Air
5 Reciprocal Gyre, Greater Blink, Dispelling Breath
6 Greater Anticipate Teleportation
7 Animate Breath
8 Veil of Undeath
9 Enervating Breath

There's also the Heart of Air/ Water/ Earth/ Fire series from Complete Mage, which don't do much individually but if you have all four active at once make you immune to crits and sneak attacks.

[Remuko]

dont forget a lot of dragons can get spells known from the cleric list or certain domains depending on their type.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Improved Flight (RotW) should automatically be one of the first feats every dragon gets.

Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Improved Speed (Draconomicon), Improved Toughness, and Entangling Exhalation are all decent choices for early feats. Practiced Spellcaster should be automatic for any dragon with spellcasting. Versatile Spellcaster is also extremely useful.


For spells, I'd consider including the following:

1st: Shield, Wall of Smoke, Mage Armor*
2nd: Web, Glitterdust, Ray of Stupidity, Wings of Cover
3rd: Heart of Water, Dispel Magic*, Greater Resistance*, Greater Mage Armor
4th: Blinding Breath*, Ray Deflection or Friendly Fire, Wall of Sand, Celerity
5th: Dispelling Breath
6th: Greater Dispel Magic, Freezing Fog, Superior Resistance
7th: Energy Immunity*, Waves of Exhaustion
8th: Superior Invisibility
9th: Time Stop, Iceberg
*Replaced by a higher level spell, or situational depending on breath weapon type or a presence or absence of an energy vulnerability.

[Eldariel]

Blood Wind [SPC] is a must-have spell. It allows you to make natural weapon attacks within 100', so basically it gives them ranged melee full attack (requires Hover or Improved Flight a couple of times though). Since Dragon melee tends to be pretty awesome, that's worth it. Honestly, the spells I listed in the other thread are probably all worth learning, but definitely Protection from Alignment, Wings of Cover [one of the best Shivering Touch answers there is], Greater Mighty Wallop (all but Dragons' Claws deal bludgeoning).

Far as feats go, as I said, there are a couple of different ways to go:
Lingering + Clinging Breath: These can be applied as many times as you want. Thus you can start the fight with one big breath with a huge cooldown.
Quicken Breath: With how much Dragons have to do each round, free action breath can be quite valuable (particularly if you don't intend for it to be used again)
Entangling Exhalation: Goes great with Lingering and Clinging Breath, essentially ties your enemies down with the breath weapon. This goes doubly well for non-damage breath weapons like the various status inflicting gas breaths of the Chromatic Dragons.

Tempest Breath: Quite cool though for it to be worthwhile the dragon has to be fairly large.
Recover Breath: This and its ilk are nice for breathy dragons that want to recover their breath faster.

There are few other nice feats in Draconomicon, Races of the Dragon and Dragon Magic, but at a certain point you have to accept that you're only using breath weapon once per encounter if you want to apply a lot of metabreath to it.

Dragon with these and high level spellcasting of course would do well to add metabreath spells. Blinding Breath is superb, Stunning Breath is decent, Greater Stunning Breath is nice but 8th level, Dispelling Breath is kinda cool with pumped caster level (Practiced Spellcaster & al.), Breath Weapon Substitution can be convenient against energy immunity and resistance spells, Rebuking/Ethereal Breath are really niche, Breath Weapon Admixture and Enervating Breath are kinda cool but 9th level. So, make a combination of that stuff for a breath strafy Dragon.


Then the second natural template is a fighter Dragon. You know the kind, Power Attack, Wraithstrike, Blood Wind, Multiattack, Greater Mighty Wallop, perhaps Snatch + Improved Snatch. Just go from there. Obviously flight stuff needs to be added here and as an alternative to Blood Wind, Shape Soulmeld: Sphinx Claws + Open Least Chakra gives you natural weapon Pounce.


The third one is a caster dragon. Practiced Spellcaster, Rapid Metamagic, some cool metamagic stuff, etc. Of course all Dragons can do all three but I find it easiest to just keep a list of feats for all of 'em (and then the general utility feats like flight-related stuff) and toss whichever ones I feel like for the appropriate Dragon (as a rule, some Dragons have extremely high caster level [potentially boosted further by Loredrake and Spellhoarding], some have superpotent breath and the rest [á la White Dragons] are just best off as bruisers).

One Dragon I threw together at CR8 for example:

Spoiler

Show

CE Large dragon
Young Adult Wyrm of War [Dragons of Eberron] White Dragon

+0 Initiative
AC 26 = 10 + 5 Armor + 14 Natural Armor - 1 Size - 2 Punishing Stance
Touch 9, Flat-Footed 23; Spell Resistance 16
HP 157 (15 HD); DR 5/Magic
60' movement, 30' burrow, 200' fly (poor), 60' swim; icewalking, travel devotion
Saves: +15, +11, +10; +4 vs. Mind-Affecting; Immune to sleep, paralysis, cold; Vulnerable to fire

Darkvision 120', Blindsense 60', Tremorsense 20', Superior LLV, +17 Spot & Listen

BAB +15/Grapple +24

Bite +20 for 2d6+6+1d6 (10' reach)
2 Claws +15/+15 for 1d8+3+1d6
2 Wings +15/+15 for 1d6+3+1d6
Tail +15 for 1d8+8+1d6

Special Attacks

Wall of Blades: Immediate action, roll an attack to block enemy attack.

Frightful Presence: If dragon attacks, charges or flies overhead, DC 16 Will or Shaken for 4d6 rounds. 150' radius.

Quickened Entangling Exhalation: Free action, 5d6 / 2 Cold in 40' Cone (DC21 Reflex half), creatures that take damage are entangled for 1d4 rounds and take 1d6 Cold each round; 1d4+4 round recharge.

Fog Cloud: As the spell, standard action. CL5, 3/day.

Never Outnumbered: Standard action, intimidate all enemies within 10'. +19 base, +4 vs. medium enemies, +8 vs. small.

Iron Heart Surge: Standard action, end one spell, effect, or other condition currently affecting you with a duration. +2 Morale to attacks until the end of next turn.

20 Str, 10 Dex, 19 Con, 9 Int, 9 Wis, 8 Cha

Feats:
1. Travel Devotion
3. Scorpion's Resolve
B. Entangling Exhalation
6. Scorpion's Sense
B. Martial Study: Wall of Blades
9. Martial Stance: Punishing Stance
12. Ironheart Aura
B. Stormguard Warrior
15. Quicken Breath

Iron Heart Vest: Iron Heart Surge
+1 Chain Vest Barding

She would burrow, pop out, drop Entangling Exhalation and try and grab someone and then pull them under the ground.

[Segev]

There may be more optimal ways to summon elementals, but there are spells in the Draconomicon and the Spell Compendium that transform a single use of a dragon's breath weapon into an elemental of the type of his breath weapon, which obeys the dragon and (importantly) has its own actions.

You can fluff it as an actual elemental, or you can fluff it as the breath persisting under the dragon's pyro/cryo/electro/whateverkinetic control, but it has its own actions, and that helps immensely with action economy (which is a problem for solo monsters against parties). I think it's 5th level; sorry for not recalling the spell name.

[Eldariel]

There may be more optimal ways to summon elementals, but there are spells in the Draconomicon and the Spell Compendium that transform a single use of a dragon's breath weapon into an elemental of the type of his breath weapon, which obeys the dragon and (importantly) has its own actions.

You can fluff it as an actual elemental, or you can fluff it as the breath persisting under the dragon's pyro/cryo/electro/whateverkinetic control, but it has its own actions, and that helps immensely with action economy (which is a problem for solo monsters against parties). I think it's 5th level; sorry for not recalling the spell name.

The spell is not very creatively named: Animate Breath. Fine for smaller dragons but scales poorly: the elemental remains huge.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'll agree that Animate Breath isn't really viable. A given dragon is CR 20+ by the time it gets 7th level spells, and summoning a CR 7 elemental instead of dealing 20dX damage to multiple creatures is a serious downgrade. On top of that, Animate Breath is a standard action and doesn't say the caster automatically gets to use its breath weapon as part of the casting, so you're spending two standard actions to get that summoned.

[Segev]

The draconomicon version has a lot more rules, including making it bigger for more powerful breath weapons/dragons, and includes this text:

Casting the spell requires a standard action, which includes using your breath weapon. When you use your breath weapon, it immediately takes animate form and attacks. It does not form as a cone or a line, and does not deal damage when it is used to cast this spell.

The Spell Compendium version lacks that text (along with a bunch of other text spelling out the tougher elementals made by bigger breath weapons).

Actually breaking down the reading of the spell, it indeed does not, in the Spell Compendium version, specify that you can breathe as part of the casting of the spell. But it also doesn't say it a) applies to only one use of the breath weapon, nor b) prevents the breath weapon from forming its usual area before coalescing into an elemental.

I agree that intent probably was to keep it as a replacement effect, however, the RAW do not actually specify this.

Therefore, especially if you're using this to beef up a monster encounter, I suggest that casting and using it looks something like this:

Round 1: Cast animate breath. The spell remains in effect for a number of rounds equal to the dragon's caster level.
Round 2: Breathe your breath weapon. It does its usual damage, and then, somewhere in the area your breath weapon affected, it coalesces into a Huge Fire elemental (element-substituted according to the spell, i.e. your breath weapon type, and with appropriate immunity and no vulnerability and lacking the "burn" ability).
Round 3-d4+3: The Huge [breath element] Elemental acts, while you (the dragon) perform other actions of your choosing.
Round d4+4 (i.e. 1d4+1 rounds after Round 2): Still well within the duration of animate breath, you breathe your breath weapon again. Again, it does its usual damage to an area, and, because animate breath is still in effect, this new breath weapon attack coalseces into another Huge elemental. The old Huge elemental is still doing its thing, attacking your foes, etc.
Round d4+5-2d4+6: Two Huge elementals are acting (unless the foes killed one of them), and you do your non-breath-weapon thing.
Round 2d4+7: Breathe again; you may or may not still be in the duration of your animate breath spell.

The elementals go away when the spell ends, and you no longer can create more without casting it again.

However, this makes the spell a pure - and potent - buff that lets a dragon turn its breath weapon into an escalating threat.


Again, I doubt this was the intent behind the Spell Compendium version, but it is a valid interpretation of the RAW of it, since they stripped out all the text that would specify that it actually is a replacement and that it happens only once, making the elemental a singleton that lasts the duration.

[Biggus]

You've listed Quicken Spell as your feat to take at 3HD, but there's no point taking it until you have 4th-level spells (typically around 25HD) and also until you have the Rapid Metamagic feat, as Sorcerer-casting doesn't allow you to use Quickened spells without it.

[Eldariel]

I'll agree that Animate Breath isn't really viable. A given dragon is CR 20+ by the time it gets 7th level spells, and summoning a CR 7 elemental instead of dealing 20dX damage to multiple creatures is a serious downgrade.

Honestly, SMVII is almost always better: it can at least get a Bone Devil, which provides the ever-useful At Will Wall of Ice-spam regardless of the creatures involved. Though there are some dragons that are much lower CR when they get 7th level spells: Spellhoarding Loredrake Adult Steel Dragon is CR8 for example and casts 7th level spells. Of course, there are much better things it could be doing with those than casting Animate Breath...though Segev's reading of the Spell Compendium version would at least make it a bit better on some Recover Breath-build made to breathe as often as possible (I could swear there was a spell to shorten the breath recharge delay as well but I can't find it right now). Draconomicon-version, while more interesting, scales pretty poorly; it only goes up to Gargantuan and the Huge is pretty much what you're working with at the best of days for all but the largest of Dragons.

You've listed Quicken Spell as your feat to take at 3HD, but there's no point taking it until you have 4th-level spells (typically around 25HD) and also until you have the Rapid Metamagic feat, as Sorcerer-casting doesn't allow you to use Quickened spells without it.

Though Dragons do qualify for Practical Metamagic, which is a nice feat in conjunction with Quicken Spell in particular.

[gogogome]

The draconomicon version has a lot more rules, including making it bigger for more powerful breath weapons/dragons, and includes this text:

Unfortunately SpC replaces Draconomicon.

You've listed Quicken Spell as your feat to take at 3HD, but there's no point taking it until you have 4th-level spells (typically around 25HD) and also until you have the Rapid Metamagic feat, as Sorcerer-casting doesn't allow you to use Quickened spells without it.

It's a prerequisite for Rapid Breath which is a -1 cooldown on breath weapon that stacks with Recover Breath.

I'll update the first post with what everyone suggested once I get the time. Really appreciate the help.

I think hover is better than Improved Flight because all the dragon's maneuverability drops down to clumsy as they grow older.

edit: For optimization goal, I think I'm gonna go with breath weapon spam with melee attacks to fall back on and all spells are going to be basically buffs.

[Segev]

Unfortunately SpC replaces Draconomicon.

Not so unfortunate if you use the reading I suggested.

Also, given that it doesn't specify you breathe in the same round, but does specify that you must have a breath weapon of an appropriate sort, it's possible that the intent of the SpC version was that you don't actually use up a use of your breath weapon, and so the spell is just creating the elemental by itself, with your breath weapon as a gate to cast it and a fluff explanation for what casting it looks like, without actually counting against nor being suppressed during recharge of your breath weapon uses.


Still, I think my interpretation, while almost certainly not what the rule-writers intended, is a far more interesting and useful sepll, worthy of 7th level.

[Biggus]

It's a prerequisite for Rapid Breath which is a -1 cooldown on breath weapon that stacks with Recover Breath.

Wow, you're really keen on those breath weapons...in that case don't forget the Ability Focus feat which increases its DC by 2.

I think hover is better than Improved Flight because all the dragon's maneuverability drops down to clumsy as they grow older.

With Improved Flight and the spell Greater Wings of Air you can improve maneuverability by three steps, so even the oldest dragons can have Good maneuverability, and ones of merely Huge size can have Perfect.

I love the idea of an elephant-sized creature flitting about like a hummingbird.

all spells are going to be basically buffs

In that case you definitely want to include Cleric spells for those who can cast them. Spell Immunity gets rid of that pesky Shivering Touch once and for all. In the SpC there's Conviction (save bonus that stacks with the Resistance series, 10 mins/level, 1st level so easy to Extend), Sign (a further +4 to initiative, stacks with Nerveskitter, also 1st level), Divine Agility (+10 Dexterity) and Sheltered Vitality (immune to fatigue, exhaustion, ability damage, ability drain).

Now you just need to make sure they have ways of knowing when enemies are near so they've got a few rounds casting time before they enter combat...

[gogogome]

With Improved Flight and the spell Greater Wings of Air you can improve maneuverability by three steps, so even the oldest dragons can have Good maneuverability, and ones of merely Huge size can have Perfect.

I love the idea of an elephant-sized creature flitting about like a hummingbird.

Does Greater Wings of Air stack with Wings of Air? They're two different spells with an unnamed bonus to maneuverability.

In that case you definitely want to include Cleric spells for those who can cast them. Spell Immunity gets rid of that pesky Shivering Touch once and for all. In the SpC there's Conviction (save bonus that stacks with the Resistance series, 10 mins/level, 1st level so easy to Extend), Sign (a further +4 to initiative, stacks with Nerveskitter, also 1st level), Divine Agility (+10 Dexterity) and Sheltered Vitality (immune to fatigue, exhaustion, ability damage, ability drain).

Now you just need to make sure they have ways of knowing when enemies are near so they've got a few rounds casting time before they enter combat...

Too much work. As mentioned in the first post, this is gonna be a copy and paste into every single dragon I'm gonna be running so anything specific to a dragon is out.

[Biggus]

Does Greater Wings of Air stack with Wings of Air? They're two different spells with an unnamed bonus to maneuverability.

As Wings of Air says "a single creature cannot benefit from multiple applications of this spell at one time" and Greater WoA says "this spell functions like wings of air, except that the creature’s maneuverability improves by two grades" my feeling is that RAI is that they don't stack, but it could be argued that by RAW they do.

Too much work. As mentioned in the first post, this is gonna be a copy and paste into every single dragon I'm gonna be running so anything specific to a dragon is out.

Seven out of ten of the Dragon types in the MM do have Cleric spellcasting, so arguably that's the default Dragon and those who don't are the exceptions. You would only need two spell lists to cover all Dragon types adequately, one with Cleric spells and one without. I certainly wasn't suggesting you include the domain spells that Dragons with Cleric casting get access to, that would add a great deal of complexity for very little benefit.

Something which occurred to me while I was typing this: if you're wanting a single spell list to use with all Dragon types, you'll need to avoid alignment-specific spells. There aren't many which are all that useful, but it does exclude a few good ones like Veil of Undeath.

[heavyfuel]

Eschew Materials should be a feat for as soon as they can cast spells. You don't want your dragon flying around with an easily sunderable component pouch, do you? Also, it avoids equipment, which is something you want.

The 1st level spell Blood Wind is a godsed for dragons. Whatch your PCs cry as the Dragon full attacks them from a distance.

Anti-magic field is pretty much an auto-win button vs non-epic characters, and even versus them it's still extremely dangerous (but I think the weakest dragon that can get it is CR 19).

[gogogome]

Seven out of ten of the Dragon types in the MM do have Cleric spellcasting, so arguably that's the default Dragon and those who don't are the exceptions. You would only need two spell lists to cover all Dragon types adequately, one with Cleric spells and one without. I certainly wasn't suggesting you include the domain spells that Dragons with Cleric casting get access to, that would add a great deal of complexity for very little benefit.

You're right. I thought they could only cast domain spells for some reason. Ok, I'll make two lists but the two lists are gonna be very similar.

Writing Girallon's Blessing here so I don't forget to add it later. 4 additional claw attacks is win.

Eschew Materials should be a feat for as soon as they can cast spells. You don't want your dragon flying around with an easily sunderable component pouch, do you? Also, it avoids equipment, which is something you want.

The 1st level spell Blood Wind is a godsed for dragons. Whatch your PCs cry as the Dragon full attacks them from a distance.

Anti-magic field is pretty much an auto-win button vs non-epic characters, and even versus them it's still extremely dangerous (but I think the weakest dragon that can get it is CR 19).

Creatures with innate casting ignore material components including costly ones. This rule is repeated in the Draconomicon.

[heavyfuel]

Creatures with innate casting ignore material components including costly ones. This rule is repeated in the Draconomicon.

That is very interesting <insert evil face>

[Biggus]

Writing Girallon's Blessing here so I don't forget to add it later. 4 additional claw attacks is win.

Sadly, you only get two additional claw attacks. You grow one extra pair of clawed arms, and your existing arms (if any) grow claws.

Still, eight attacks per round is nothing to be sneezed at.

[gogogome]

Sadly, you only get two additional claw attacks. You grow one extra pair of clawed arms, and your existing arms (if any) grow claws.

Still, eight attacks per round is nothing to be sneezed at.

Nope. The spell gives you 4 claw attacks. Even a worm with 0 hands get 4 claw attacks from his two new arms. A player of mine uses this spell often and the RAW is iron clad.

[DarkSoul]

It SHOULD only give one claw attack per arm, but for some strange reason the spell doesn't say that.

As far as a cookie-cutter dragon build, I don't think there is one. Dragons are formidable enough that they probably shouldn't ever be encountered randomly, and if it's a dragon of any appreciable age, it should likely be custom-built. I know mine are. As an example, a typical fang dragon will look far different from a typical gold dragon, which will look far different from a typical white. Having a list of effective creation choices isn't a bad idea, but all dragons aren't going to take the exact same feats. Reds might take improved flight and hover, while a fang dragon will likely take rapidstrike and improved for its claw attacks.

[Biggus]

Nope. The spell gives you 4 claw attacks. Even a worm with 0 hands get 4 claw attacks from his two new arms. A player of mine uses this spell often and the RAW is iron clad.

It's not iron clad. The spell description starts off saying "you give the subject an additional pair of arms. Each of its arms - old and new - ends in a clawed hand" which makes it very clear that you do not grow two additional pairs of arms, or have two sets of claws on each of your new arms.

Then later it says "the creature gains four claw attacks". You could argue that as this sentence is not itself qualified by saying "assuming it already had two arms" that by RAW that means it somehow gains four claw attacks even if it only gains two sets of claws, even though creatures with four sets of claws only gain four claw attacks, but that's a pretty nonsensical reading given what it says in the first paragraph.