Monday, December 1, 2014

Builds: The Dragon Knight



The Dragon Knight
Order of the Dragon + Dragon Disciple should be an awesome combo, sadly it is not. Luckily Order of the Flame is not only an excellent thematic fit it also works out great mechanically. If you can dish enough damage to kill every round Order of the Flame never runs out of challenge. We’ll achieve this with a lance, massive strength, and power attack. We’ll also be able to dish astride a full powered mount, as a reach combatant, from the air, or up close with a natural attack routine. Oh and we’ll go ahead and take


Partial credit and much respect to Oterisk’s Guide to Dragon Disciples


Build Core:
This is a multi component build so I’ll break it down a bit here:
Cavalier 4 levels to gain expert trainer and lots of other goodies including a full powered mount thanks to the horselord feat.
Barbarian 2 levels for a little more natural attack power and Rage
Crossblooded Sorcerer 1 level for two bloodline powers to advance (including the requisite dragon) and a spellcasting base.
10 levels of Dragon Disciple for amazing stat adds, spellcasting levels and bloodline power advancement.
3 levels of Eldritch Knight for more BAB and caster level awesome.
Ends with 10 levels of Sorc casting, which gives you tons of buff options.
BAB ends at +16
Feats/Class Features of note:
I almost wrote up a suli but the int penalty means no extra languages like draconic which we need. Human wins for the feat(s) and the extra skill points. Because we have the dragon disciple pushing up the level on Eldritch heritage feats we’re going to enoy the human alt race trait Focused Study.


1: Human Order of the Flame Cavalier 1: Mount, Tactician- Improved Spell Sharing, Challenge, Mounted Combat, Skill Focus- Knowledge Plains
2: Crossblooded Sorc (Draconic+Orc*) Spells, Bloodline power- Claws, Cantrips, Eschew Materials
3: Cav 2: Foolhardy Rush, Ride By Attack
4: Cav 3: Cavalier’s Charge
5: Cav 4: Challenge 2/Day, Expert Trainer, Spirited Charge
6: Barbarian 1: Rage, Fast Movement
7: Barbarian 2: Lesser Fiend Totem (gain a Gore attack), Uncanny Dodge, Horselord
8: Dragon Disciple 1: Nat Armor Bonus, Blood of Dragons**, SKill Focus: Knowledge Arcane
9: DD 2: +2 STR, Dragon Bite, Fearless (from orc advances nicely at DD8), Power Attack, Eldritch Heritage (Abyssal for more claws), +sp level
10:  DD 3: Breath Weapon, + Spell level + Bloodline spell, access 2nd level spells
11: DD 4: +2 more Str, +1 more nat armor, +sp level, Improved Eldritch Heritage: Strength of the Abyss (+2 more Str become +4 at 15th level!) +bloodline spell, access 3rd level spells
12: DD 5: Blind sense 30ft, Toughness
13: DD 6: +2 to Con, +Caster level, Eldritch Heritage Arcane (Familiar Greensting Scorpion gaining you alertness and +4 to init) +bloodline spell, access 4th level spells
14: DD 7: Dragon Form, Nat armor+1, +1 caster level, more nat armor and lose light sensitivity from orc BL power.
15: DD 8: (+2 more STR as EH power advances from Abyss BL), you also gain a 9th level power from sorc BL go with orc Strength of the Beast for another +2 Str, Ability Boost +2 Int, Improved Initiative, +caster level, Improved Familiar (Fairy Dragon) +bloodline spell, access 5th level spells
16: DD 9: Wings, Skill Focus: Stealth
17: DD 10: Blind Sense 60ft, Dragon form Improves, +1 Caster level, +bloodline spell, Fly By Attack
18: Eldritch Knight 1: Great Cleave
19: EK 2: +CL, Eldritch Heritage: Claws (Ghoul Version!)
20: EK 3 +CL
Ability Boosts from Build Str +10 (14 with rage), Con +2 (6 with rage), Int +2 Not accounting for normal cl boosts bear in mind you can easily cast Bull's Strength for another stack-able +4 to STR
Full powered Character level mount level 7 forward that you can share buffs with
BAB +16/+11/+6/+1 or 4 primary natural attack routine or Massive x3 damage from a mounted charge.
CL 10 sorc Bloodline treated as 11th for sorc lines, Eldritch heritage adds for a total of 5 bloodlines
Eventual Improved Familiar also affected by Improved Share Spells!!!
*You gain both arcana as well
**Bloodline levels advance because of wording on ability. For crossblooded it means choices on bloodline feats and powers, also means level dependent abilities from BL powers advance with DD level or -2 character level whichever is higher.


Traits
Reactionary- bonus to reflex save
Accelerated Drinker- You spend a lot of time on your mount freeing up your move action anyway!


Skills
Ride, Handle Animal, Face Skills, and appropriate prerequisites for DD, you get 3 skill focuses and a lot of class skills from all that dipping make the most of it and enjoy the massive boost to STR skills.


20 point buy
Str 16 (race bonus)
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 14


All stat adds into Cha everything else will take care of itself!


Tactics at level
1- Basic Cavalier tactics use a lance if you have one, challenge the mooks first so you can deliver bigger damage to the boss.
3- share your longer lasting buffs with your mount
5- You now have very strong charge attacks this should make your challenges nigh infinite.
7- You have a 3 attack option for NAt attacks
9- Power attack and now Nat attacks are up to 4!
11- Your strength is getting massive without stat add items
13+ Here are your options: Challenge and Power attack Charge for huge damage and likely kill most foes get another charge at cost of AC but add even more damage, You can also wield your lance as a reach Weapon and let your mount attack separately gaining iterative attacks from likely safty, use spells like a spell caster, 4 attack nat attack routine claw, claw, bite, gore with rage.


Spell wise stick to buffs and the occasional fire spell AOE, Don’t try to control the battlefield or summon that is not your role.


Possible Variants
You could lose the BARB levels and EK levels for a total of 4 more caster levels in sorc. I prefer being an absolute monster though.

Intro
Attributes and Races
Traits, Skills, and Feats
Orders
Archetypes


Alternate Opinions and a few areas I didn't cover

Builds
Spirited Charging Pouncer
Knight of Shadows
Dragon Knight
Mighty Halfling

Drive-by-skirmisher

3 comments:

  1. You can't take eldritch heritage more then once..... So you don't get a familiar or the ghoul claws... Also where are you getting so many skill focuses??

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alternative human race trait. Also they Errataed that... this is a guide from 2013.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not sure if the Feat has been renamed, but you probably mean Horse Master, right? Horselord and Horse Lord are archetypes.

    https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/horse-master-combat/

    ReplyDelete