[RPG] Play as a Dragon with Special and Supernatural Abilities

character-creationdnd-3.5edragonsoptimization

I’m looking for the best way to play as a Dragon with all of its special/supernatural abilities. I don’t care whether this is through a spell, animal companion, cohort, being a dragon or any other method. Balanced House rules will be ok.

I know I can play as a dragon by taking it as my race, taking Dragon HD and applying a LA, but this does not really give me what I want – an ECL 20 Gold Dragon is spellcaster level 1, size large, no spell resistance, no frightful presence and a pitiful for ECL 20 6d10 breath weapon. It's powerful because you have better stats than a normal dragon and magic items, but it won't play any differently than a fighter with magic wings

The target would be something that lets me play as an old gold dragon with no equipment at level 20 instead of a young gold dragon with +5 mithril full plate, +6 dex/str/con, +5 saves and all the other cool stuff from items.

Best Answer

The class you're looking for is the Dragonfire Adept (Dragon Magic) which provides a very respectable breath weapon (especially at high levels) "spellcasting" and some alternate forms.

You'll want to read the dragonfire adept handbook, but possible invocations involve frightful presence, interesting shapechanging, dispelling at will (which is sometimes better than SR) and all sorts of fun with dragonbreath. To save time, read through the builds here until you find one that fits your intentions.

If you want to be huge and tough:

  • Dragonborn Rapotoran Cleric 4/DFA 1/Eldritch Disciple 10/Cleric 5

this provides significant cleric casting which nets you divine power (HD = BAB and a strength boost) and Righteous Might, which is a much better way of going up a size category. If you really want to tell puny mortals to cower, be a half-minotaur (LA +1 Dragon 313) or half-ogre (LA +2 dragon 313), will provide. Or start out as an anthropomorphic huge viper snake and paint your scales gold.

Instead, I'll recommend an alternate route. Since you're playing a high-level game, take cleric for your last levels, and make sure you have resources for divine metamagic and persist spell. Every day, cast divine power with persist spell and use miracle to persist giant size (wu-jen 7, castable without XP cost via miracle), Spell Resistance (It'll not be all that significant, but you'll have it), Spell Turning, Girallon's Blessing (For the claw, claw, claw, claw, rake series), and the other suite of spells. You'll be colossal and dragon-magical without needing to invest levels in a race.

Make sure your cleric has access to the hunger domain, which gives you a bite attack, and the domain spell "bite of the king" which gives you swallow whole. Unfortunately, there are no spells worth the cost that give you a tailslap or wing attacks, but your Claw Claw Claw Claw Rake Bite Swallow Whole attack sequence will simply have to make up for them.

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