Requested: Dragonfire Adept [Tome]

[Koumei]

Okay, I updated it for the hell of it.
-Flight can now be clumsier but faster for overland crap.
-Sphere access is slightly better, but still not Spherelock/Conduit level.
-Dragon Armour works best for them
-They gain Dragon Age
-Crafting. Yay.

[Lokathor]

I like it.
The kidnapping bit is a little odd, used it as a little in-joke?

Yeah, uh, you get your level as a racial Grapple bonus against anyone with levels in the Aristocrat class. Why not?

Okay, I updated it for the hell of it.

Sweet.

[Prak]

I like it.
The kidnapping bit is a little odd, used it as a little in-joke?

Yeah, uh, you get your level as a racial Grapple bonus against anyone with levels in the Aristocrat class. Why not?

Okay, I updated it for the hell of it.

Sweet.

It wouldn't be the first time...

Carried Away (Ex): at level six, it starts to become time that the Distressing Damsel considers training others. As such, she becomes better at grabbing things and carrying them around. With a Full Round Action, she may Fly up to her full speed, attempt to Grab a target, and then Fly up to her full speed again. The movement and Grab do not provoke Attacks of Opportunity from the target. If she successfully Grabs them and their weight does not constitute a Heavy load for her (or heavier), they are considered to be Pinned and she can carry them around at will (until they manage to escape).

[OgreBattle]

How about some dragonfear ability?

Some folks would want to go "full monodragon" though and just stick with one element, or start with the specific element of the dragon they want to emulate. How about providing an option like that, and instead of gaining new elements you just gain ways to beat resistence. Certain dragons also have distinct burrow and swim abilities related to their color.

[Lokathor]

The sonic attack has a fear effect rider on it at level 10. In terms of having a fear aura that lets you frighten people without melting them in the process, that could be a thing I guess. Mechanically, it's mostly an ability that prevents the rabble from attempting to attack you, but you've also got an At-will area attack, which is also an ability that clears out rabble very quickly. So adding a fear aura onto the class wouldn't really improve the power of the class in a new way, it'd be more like a flavor effect almost.

I think that a monochrome dragon class would be better suited to being either a separate base class or possibly just prestige class that you jump into from this class. The differences between this class (which is a wild blending of all things draconic) and a monochrome class would be rather large methinks. Then you can have a big list of specific special powers that you get based on your dragon totem each time a totem bonus is granted, and stuff like that. It could be a 10 or 5 level PrC starting as the player's 6th level, if you wanted. The Dragon Breath already says that the dice can be advanced by other classes that advance spellcasting, so it wouldn't even be weird, and you could write it as a sorcerer advancing PrC so others could take it too even. For example, redo the SRD's "Dragon Disciple" and make it not-shit. Or mix in some of the things that the Dragon Adept from PHB2 got.

As a quickfix: the ordering of the "base" elements (Fire, Cold, Acid, Electric) could be shuffled around easily enough, if a player just wanted to start as a Black dragon the whole time or something. Part of the problem with mono-chrome mode is that things that pierce a blanket immunity start a weird arms race kinda that you probably don't want the game to get into. Which is like a whole rules revision to fix that's beyond the scope of a class.

[Lokathor]

For my Tome compilation PDF I've updated the Dragonfire Adept to avoid any references to non-OGL stuff, specifically spells from Spell Compendium. I've also smoothed out some of the progressions and shuffled things around to try to make each level as even as possible.

It's as follows:

Cone Breath, First Element, Draconic Mind	2d6
Second Element, Wyrmling Spell-likes	3d6
Line Breath, Draconic Body, First Legacy Secret	4d6
Third Element, Spell Vision	5d6
Blast Breath, Energy Resistance	6d6
Fourth Element, Sphere	7d6
Hardened Scales, Juvenile Spell-likes	8d6
Sonic Breath, Greater Draconic Mind	10d6
Energy Resistance (x2), Second Legacy Secret	11d6
Elemental Enhancements	12d6
Reflective Scales	13d6
Force Breath, Sphere	15d6
Energy Resistance (x3), Adult Spell-likes	16d6
Shadow Breath, Master Draconic Mind	18d6
Draconic Soul, Third Legacy Secret	20d6
Gaseous Breath	23d6
Draconic Immunity	26d6
Space Rending Breath, Sphere	30d6
Draconic Health, Ancient Spell-likes	35d6
Ultimate Breath	40d6

Weapons and Armor Proficiency: The Dragonfire Adept is proficient with all Simple weapons, one Martial weapon, Light Armor, and Medium Armor. She is also proficient with any Intelligent weapon, as well as any weapon, armor, or shield made from dragon parts. Armor and Shields made from Dragon parts count as having an armor check penalty and armor stealth penalty of 4 less than normal when used by a Dragonfire Adept. The elemental resistance granted by such armor and shields stacks with the elemental resistance that the Dragonfire Adept gains at 5th level.

Breath Weapon (Su): The Dragonfire Adept has a breath weapon that can be used once per round as a standard action. The shape of the breath weapon, and the type of damage or other effect is variable (see below), but the save DC against the dragonfire adept's breath weapon is always 10 + 1/2 her level + her Constitution modifier. If the breath is dealing damage the amount of damage is given on the table, and the save is for half damage. If the breath is inflicting some other effect then the save negates that effect. Prestige Classes that improve spellcasting ability or "other class features" improve the breath weapon's damage. Metabreath feats can be applied to the breath weapon, simply add a delay where there wouldn't normally be one.

Breath Shapes: At first level the Dragonfire Adept's breath weapon always takes the form of a Close range Cone. At 3rd level it can also be used as a Medium ranged Line. At 5th level it can be used as a Blast within Medium range with a radius of 10ft + 5ft per 4 levels (rounded up).

Breath Elements: At first level the Dragonfire Adept can breathe a single type of elemental energy. At 2nd, 4th, and 6th level she gains an additional energy type she can use. The type of energy determines what kind of save the target must make against the attack:

• Acid (fortitude)
• Cold (fortitude)
• Electric (reflex)
• Fire (reflex)

Draconic Mind (Ex): A 1st level Dragonfire Adept's mind is already adapted to viewing the world the way a Dragon does. She gains the (dragon) subtype, allowing her to count herself as a dragon in addition to her own type. Her senses improve greatly, giving her Darkvision 120ft and Low-light Vision. Lastly, her memory becomes incredibly keen like a dragon's, and she can recall almost any fact she's ever heard. This gives her a racial bonus to Appraise, Knowledge, and Spellcraft checks equal to one third her level.

Wyrmling Spell-likes (Sp): A 2nd level Dragonfire Adept can cast Endure Elements[/b], Speak With Animals[/b], Spider Climb[/b], and Water Breathing[/b] as spell-like abilities. Each spell can be used once per day.

Draconic Body (Ex): A 3rd level Dragonfire Adept's body has been transformed through training to become more draconic in nature. She becomes completely immune to Sleep and Paralysis effects. She gains the perfect digestion of dragons, allowing her to eat basically anything at all that isn't explicitly poisonous or diseased, even inorganic stuff like, dirt, rocks, and metal if she really has to (though without a Bite attack, such as from the Mighty Attacks Legacy Secret, she can't actually chew on rocks and metal). Additionally, she ceases to age according to her old body's limitations, and instead becomes ageless like a dragon. Any effects of old age are retroactively removed, and she does not gain any further old age effects. Unlike a true dragon, the Dragonfire Adept doesn't actually grow to larger size categories or anything like that, no matter how long they live.

Legacy Secrets (Ex): At 3rd level, 9th level, and 15th level the Dragonfire Adept selects a Legacy Secret to learn. Each secret provides effects that improve at those levels, and a selected secret grants its full effects no matter the order you select them in. Pick from the following list:

• Mighty Attacks: the Dragonfire Adept gains a Primary Bite (1d6+Str for a Medium character), a Primary Tail (1d8+Str*1.5 for a Medium character) and two Secondary Claws (1d4+Str*0.5 for a Medium character). These are all actually magic weapons with an Enhancement Bonus of +1 per 3 hit dice (round up). At level nine, the Dragonfire Adept gains an enhancement bonus to Strength equal to +1 per 3 hit dice (round up) and the damage dice of all her natural attacks improves by one stage (as if they had gained a size category). At level fifteen the Dragon Body attacks gain a 19-20 threat range, and her natural attack damage improves by another stage.
• Mighty Wings: the Dragonfire Adept gains two Secondary Wing attacks (1d4+Str*0.5 for a Medium character) and a Flight speed of 60ft with (Poor) maneuverability. At level nine, the flight speed improves to 90ft and (Average) maneuverability. At level fifteen it improves to 120ft and (Good) maneuverability.
• Master of Exhalations: the Dragonfire Adept can leave a number of 5ft square "gaps" in her breath area equal to her hit dice, to save allies from death. At level nine her breath is so intense that a creature must have a CR of 4 greater than her own to apply Evasion or Improved Evasion against it, and the breath's damage pierces an amount of Energy Resistance equal to the Dragonfire Adept's level. At level fifteen she can automatically deal maximum damage with her breath weapon three times per day.
• Frightful Presence: You gain the Frightful Presence special ability, effective whenever you attack with a natural weapon, fly overhead, or use your breath weapon. All creatures within range with HD less than your own must make a Will save (DC 10+1/2 level+Charisma Mod) or be \linkcondition{Shaken[/b] for 4d6 rounds. If their HD is more than 4 less than your own they are \linkcondition{Panicked[/b] for 4d6 rounds instead. Creatures that make their save are immune to your Frightful Presence for 24 hours. Naturally, other creatures with a Frightful Presence ability are immune to this, and you are immune to their Frightful Presence. This is a [Mind-Affecting], [Fear] effect. At level three the range is 100ft, At level nine the range is 200ft, and at level fifteen the range becomes 300ft.
• Disciple of Bahamut: the Dragonfire Adept has a permanent Magic Circle Against Evil effect, can Detect Evil at will, and once per day can make her breath weapon Smiting against Evil creatures: any evil creatures caught in the breath take -4 to their save and take an additional 50\% damage (regardless of if they save or not). At level nine she can performing a smiting breath three times per day, and once per day she can add a Banishment[/b] effect to her breath weapon (any who fail their save against the primary breath effect are automatically affected by the Banishment, no separate save). At level fifteen she can smite five times per day, and cast Heal[/b] three times per day as a spell-like ability.
• Servant of Tiamat: the Dragonfire Adept has a permanent Magic Circle Against Good effect, can Detect Good at will, and gains an Enhancement bonus to Intimidate equal to her level. At level nine she can use two different breath weapons at the same time three times per day (any overlapping area doesn't stack, a target in both areas is only affected by one of the breaths or the other, the Dragonfire Adept's choice). At level fifteen this upgrades to three breath weapons at once, and it can be used five times per day.
• Visions of Lichdom: the Dragonfire Adept already knows she wants to be a Dracolich. She has a pseudo-phylactery: some important item that is used as a focus, from which she can cast Magic Jar at will, but only on reptilian Animals with fewer hit dice than she has. At level nine, she becomes immune to Poison and Disease, and she can choose to release a rotting ichor breath weapon - instead of dealing damage, all in the area must pass a Fortitude Save or be Nauseated for 1 round per 5 dice of damage it deals (round up). At level fifteen, her type changes to Undead, gaining the [Dark Minded] Subtype. She can choose whether or not to also have the [Unliving] Subtype. Protip: Con scores are awesome.

Spell Vision (Su): A 4th level Dragonfire Adept has studied enough on the subject of magical items, magical treasures, and treasure hoards in general to begin seeing the auras of such things. She gains a permanent Arcane Sight[/b] effect. With a full-round action she can Identify[/b] an item as a spell-like ability.

Energy Resistance (Ex): A 5th level Dragonfire Adept gains Energy Resistance against Acid, Cold, Electric, and Fire damage equal to her level. At 9th level this improves to two times her level, and at 13th level this improves to three times her level.

Spheres: At 6th level the Dragonfire Adept gains access to an Elemental Sphere at the Basic. At 12th level she gains a second sphere at Basic, and the first sphere becomes Advanced. At 18th level she gains a third basic sphere, and her previous two spheres both improve by one stage (her 6th level sphere becomes Expert and her 12th level sphere becomes Advanced).

Hardened Scales (Ex): A 7th level Dragonfire Adept's special training allows them to harden their skin into protective scales that can block harm from physical attacks. She gains an Enhancement bonus to Natural Armor equal to 1/3rd her level (rounded up).

Juvenile Spell-likes (Sp): A 7th level Dragonfire Adept can cast Plant Growth[/b], Stone Shape[/b], and Wall of Ice[/b] each once per day as a spell-like ability.

Sonic Breath (Su): At 8th level the Dragonfire Adept has learned to deal Sonic damage with her breath weapon. The sonic damage can come in the form of a massive booming rumble (allowing a Fortitude save), or a high pitched screech (allowing a Will save).

Greater Draconic Mind (Ex): At 8th level, the Dragonfire Adept's thoughts become even more like those of a dragon, improving her senses further. She gains Darkvision out to 250ft, as well as Blindsense and Tremorsense of 120ft. At the same time, she becomes very greedy for material wealth. Any attempt to bribe her with coin or gems should generally be considered to be twice as effective as otherwise (Specifics are up to the player and GM).

Elemental Enhancements (Su): A 10th level Dragonfire Adept, having already learned all five energy types, learns to add a special effect to their breath weapon depending on the energy type used with each attack. If a target fails their save against an energy damage breath they suffer an additional effect, as follows:

• Fire: Creatures and objects catch on fire. Also make a Dispel attempt against all [Cold] effects in the area.
• Cold: Creatures are Slowed for one round, and water in the area is frozen as if by a Freezing Sphere effect. Also make a Dispel attempt against all [Fire] effects in the area.
• Electricity: Creatures are Entangled for 1 round. Any barriers made of metal, such as metal or adamantine doors or walls, do not block line of effect against this breath.
• Acid: Creatures are sickened for 1 minute. Unattended objects in the area automatically take an equal amount of damage one round later.
• Sonic: Creatures are deafened for 1 minute, and objects are affected as if by the area form of a Shatter effect.

Reflective Scales (Ex): At 11th level a Dragonfire Adept's scales are not just hardened against the physical, but they repel the magical as well. She gains a Resistance bonus to saves equal to 1/3rd her level (rounded up).

Force Breath (Su): A 12th level Dragonfire Adept learns to deal force damage with her breath weapon. This has a reflex save, and has the normal benefits of being force damage (ignores hardness when damaging objects, has no miss chance against Incorporeal creatures, and can affect Ethereal targets even while not on the Ethereal Plane).

Adult Spell-likes (Sp): A 13th level Dragonfire Adept can case Control Weather[/b], Find The Path[/b], and Wall of Stone[/b], each once per day, as a spell-like ability.

Shadow Breath (Su): A 14th level Dragonfire Adept can breathe a wave of consuming shadow. Instead of dealing dice of damage, any target that fails a Fortitude save against the breath suffers one negative level per five damage dice that would have been dealt (round down). The negative levels go away on their own in an hour, with no chance of converting into permanent level loss.

Master Draconic Mind (Ex): A 14th level Dragonfire Adept's mind becomes even more dragon-like, improving their senses for the final time. They gain Darkvision out to 500ft, Blindsense and Tremorsense out to 250ft, and Blindsight out to 120ft. As with before, the Dragonfire Adept's desires to amass coin and gems grow to even greater heights. Even though the Dragonfire Adept probably no longer has any use for them, having moved to Wish Economy goods several levels ago, the Dragonfire Adept can probably still be bribed to do things (within reason) if offered coins and gems as payment. Any such bribes should be considered three times as persuasive as normal (again, the specifics of this are up to the GM and player).

Draconic Soul (Su): A 15th level Dragonfire Adept transforms her soul to have the nature of the dragon. This gives her Spell Resistance equal to 5 + her level.

Gaseous Breath (Su): A 16th level Dragonfire Adept's breath attack can take the form of a gaseous cloud that requires creatures to make a Will save to avoid one of the following effects:

• Fall Asleep for one round per five damage dice (round up)
• Be Paralyzed for one round per five damage dice (round up)
• Panic for one round per five damage dice (round up)

Draconic Immunity (Ex): A 17th level Dragonfire Adept training gives them immunity to either an Energy type, or something else about as common, such as [Compulsion] effects or [Death] effects or something like that.

Space Rending Breath (Su): An 18th level Dragonfire Adept's breath weapon is so powerful that it can tear open the fabric between worlds. By using her breath weapon, she can open a Gate[/b] to another plane. It lasts on its own for a number of rounds equal to the Dragonfire Adept's Constitution Modifier (minimum of 1), and only one such Gate can be active at once (opening a second one closes the first).

Draconic Health (Ex): A 19th level Dragonfire Adept converts all of her Dragonfire Adept hit dice from d8s into d12s. Reroll all hit dice, and only keep the new result if it gives a higher hit point total than before. All future levels in Dragonfire Adept continue to use d12s for hit dice.

Ancient Spell-likes (Sp): A 19th level Dragonfire Adept can use Discern Location[/b], Foresight[/b], and Reverse Gravity[/b], each once per day, as a spell-like ability.

Ultimate Breath (Su): At 20th level, every time the Dragonfire Adept uses their breath weapon, they automatically win the game.

[Giraffeking]

Thanks for that, Lokathor, but could you include levels, BAB and saves in the table for completeness' sake?

Further more, the endure elements ability: is that the incantation version, namely does it make your allies immune to your breath weapon, or the spell version, namely mostly useless?

EDIT: Also, you removed darkvision, low light vision, blindsight etc from the class, was that intentional?

[Lokathor]

BAB, Saves, Skills Per Level, Class Skills, and all the fluff bits are the same as before (Medium BAB, All Good saves, 4skills per level). Actually I think I expanded their Class Skills list to include all knowledge skills and also Survival, but whatever because class skills are kinda dumb anyway. I would just "give you the full chart", except the full chart is written in LaTeX and based on several special macros so it actually looks like this:

\modebab{}
\goodfor{}
\goodref{}
\goodwil{}

\begin{extraclasstable}{\multicolumn{1}{p{1.3cm}}{\textbf{Breath Weapon}}}
\levelone{Cone Breath, First Element, Draconic Mind & 2d6}
\leveltwo{Second Element, Wyrmling Spell-likes & 3d6}
\levelthree{Line Breath, Draconic Body, First Legacy Secret & 4d6}
\levelfour{Third Element, Spell Vision & 5d6}
\levelfive{Blast Breath, Energy Resistance & 6d6}
\levelsix{Fourth Element, Sphere & 7d6}
\levelseven{Hardened Scales, Juvenile Spell-likes & 8d6}
\leveleight{Sonic Breath, Greater Draconic Mind & 10d6}
\levelnine{Energy Resistance (x2), Second Legacy Secret & 11d6}
\levelten{Elemental Enhancements & 12d6}
\leveleleven{Reflective Scales & 13d6}
\leveltwelve{Force Breath, Sphere & 15d6}
\levelthirteen{Energy Resistance (x3), Adult Spell-likes & 16d6}
\levelfourteen{Shadow Breath, Master Draconic Mind & 18d6}
\levelfifteen{Draconic Soul, Third Legacy Secret & 20d6}
\levelsixteen{Gaseous Breath & 23d6}
\levelseventeen{Draconic Immunity & 26d6}
\leveleighteen{Space Rending Breath, Sphere & 30d6}
\levelnineteen{Draconic Health, Ancient Spell-likes & 35d6}
\leveltwenty{Ultimate Breath & 40d6}
\end{extraclasstable}

Endure Elements: Yes, that's as the normal spell only. The "nearly-useless version" as you put it. That's what dragons get. If you want to keep allies out of your breath weapon you either have to maneuver a lot or pick up the Legacy Secret for it. If, on the other hand, you want to have personal air conditioning wherever you go, then take two levels in this class. Man that spell is so sweet for fluff purposes. It's like my favorite first level spell.

I didn't remove the vision stuff though, that's still part of the Draconic Mind feature, and its improvements later on.

[Koumei]

For my Tome compilation PDF I've updated the Dragonfire Adept to avoid any references to non-OGL stuff, specifically spells from Spell Compendium.

This makes me sad.

[Lokathor]

Sadly, megacorps become displeased when you print their work into your own. So rather than include those spells in my thing, I have to just stick to OGL and other open content.

The credits section has a link that points to this topic though, so folks can still find your version that's tricked out with a bazillion spells.

[Prak]

can't you make function calls to them?

[Lokathor]

Could for the TomeRefDoc if they want, but for my own personal PDF the intent is specifically to be as self-contained as possible so I can just send it to my other players that aren't DnD savvy at all and they can use it without needing to know about any other sources or books. I don't want to make function calls to other stuff that would require them to look at second sources.

[Prak]

Ah, gotcha, I misunderstood the intent.

[Koumei]

You can go ahead with that for your own personal thing I guess. For the TRD though, I'd prefer all references to remain the same. I just assume that all other players own most of the books like I dopirate all the stuff (because in most cases they do, and I approve despite personally owning a whole bunch of dead trees).

[RadiantPhoenix]

Maybe just include sidebars indicating where various "expansion pack" content goes?