Red Dragon Disciple

 It is known that certain dragons can take humanoid form and even have humanoid lovers. Sometimes a child is born of this union, and every child of that child unto the thousandth generation claims a bit of dragon blood, be it ever so small. Usually, little comes of it, though mighty sorcerers occasionally credit their powers to draconic heritage. For some, however, dragon blood beckons irresistibly. These characters become dragon disciples, who use their magical power as a catalyst to ignite their dragon blood, realizing its fullest potential. Members of this prestige class draw on the potent blood of red dragons coursing through their veins. Though red dragons are among the most cruel and evil creatures on Faerun, red dragon disciples may be of any alignment.

Requirements

Class: Bard or Sorcerer

Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 8 ranks

Class Features

Natural Armor Increase

At 1st, level, the red dragon disciple's skin toughens and begins to grow scaly, granting them a +1 natural armor bonus to AC. This bonus improves to +2 at 4th level, +3 at 7th level, and +4 at 10th level.

Draconic Ability Scores

As the red dragon disciple's oneness with their draconic blood increases, their ability scores improve significantly. At 2nd level, they gain a +2 to Strength. At 4th level, this bonus increases to +4. At 6th level, the red dragon disciple gains a +2 to Constitution, and at 9th level they gain +2 Intelligence. Finally, at 10th level, they gain an additional +4 bonus to Strength (for a total of +8) and a +2 to Charisma.

Note: This feat will permanently modify your ability scores, rather than providing an artificial boost like an item or spell. There are some major advantages to this:

• These increases to your ability score do not count against the maximum +12 ability boost from magical and bonus effects. Abilities and spells like Rage and Frenzy do hit against this cap when combined. See Ability cap for more information.
• Because the increases are now part of your base ability score, they count toward feat and class requirements. For example, if your intelligence is 12 and you take the 9th level of RDD, it increases to 14 and you now meet the requirements for Combat Expertise. Thus taking levels of RDD early can open feats to you that may not have been available otherwise.
• RDD offers a way to reach the maximum of 50 in an ability score without cheating or playing a special mod (in this case, Strength). Here is one example:
  
  • With a racial bonus of +2 and 10 levels in RDD, you can reach a maximum innate Strength of 35 by level 30 (20 starting + 7 ability points by level 30 + 8 from RDD) without even using Great Strength.
  • Add the maximum +12 from bonus effects (such as Frenzy and Greater Rage stacked, or the item Amulet of Betrayal Personified) and you can reach 47 Strength.
  • You can finish the job by obtaining Great Strength as many times as needed to reach 50.
  • Be aware that the game's cap is 50 and it may have problems if you exceed this hard limit at any time. In other words, if you already have 50 Strength with your temporary bonuses and have more epic feats or points from leveling, don't increase your strength any further or the game caps it at 50 (and you may see other unwelcome bugs). See Ability cap.

Breath Weapon

At 3rd level, the dragon disciple gains the ability to breathe a cone of fire that deals 2d10 points of damage to all creatures within its area. This damage increases to 4d10 at 7th level and 6d10 at 10th level. Targets may make a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 the red dragon disciple's class level + the character's Charisma bonus). This ability may be used once per day.

Blind-Fight

At 5th level, the red dragon disciple gains the ability to fight well, even if blinded or against invisible creatures. A character with this ability gets to reroll their miss chance percentile one time to see if they actually hit. Furthermore, invisible creatures get no bonus to hit the RDD in melee.

Half-Dragon

At 10th level, the red dragon disciple's transformation is complete. They become a half-dragon and gains darkvision as well as immunity to sleep, paralysis, and fire.

Class Progression