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dailycharacteroption · 2 years

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Dragon Disciple (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)

(art by BarelynormalActivity on DeviantArt)

In keeping with the theme that the 2nd Edition Advanced Player’s Guide has a bunch of archetypes based on the old prestige classes of first edition and 3.5 of yore, today we’re looking at this edition’s version of the Dragon Disciple.

For those who aren’t aware, a dragon disciple is a character that seeks to emulate dragons, undergoing rituals and the like to infuse and awaken draconic power within them, often directly related to a specific dragon type.

A lot of dragon disciples are draconic sorcerers, tapping even further into the potential that already exists. Others may manifest draconic blood in some other way, or may even have no prior connection to dragonkind aside from a deep fascination with them.

Either way, these disciples complement and enhance their pre-existing sorcerer powers quite well, or alternatively, gain access to those abilities.

These disciples may experience even stronger changes in personality and appearance than other draconic sorcerers, and even those connected to metallic dragons or goodly dragons of other clades may find themselves swelling with draconic pride, especially when they make use of their abilities.

The powers granted by this archetype are actually almost nearly identical to their First Edition counterparts as well, so that’s a nice touch for those who prefer that the two different editions feel like part of the same reality.

Starting with the dedication, which kobolds with sufficiently draconic heritages, barbarians with the draconic instinct, and draconic (or wyrmblessed) sorcerers have access to, grants some master of magic, elemental resistance to a damage type based on a type of dragon you pick when taking the archetype, as well as resistance to paralysis and sleep. Initially, the list of choices was limited to chromatic and metallic, but has been updated to include primal and imperial dragons as well.

These disciples are also able to grow powerful claws, an ability which stacks with the sorcerous ability to do the same by making those magical claws stronger.

Many also develop a strong sense of smell, which aids them in locating foes.

Those that can cast spells but are not already draconic sorcerers can still learn the spells associated with the bloodline, even if they would normally be outside their discipline, though they must still actively seek out and learn them.

Hard scales are also a common manifestation, granting them some protection while unarmored.

Naturally, a draconic breath weapon is also a common ability these disciples share, and those that already possess this ability find they have more focus to utilize for that and other abilities as well.

Continuing, many also learn to manifest wings, which work similarly to the breath in relation to sorcerous power.

Where things get extremely impressive is how some are able to transform fully into a dragon for a brief span of time, unleashing their full draconic fury.

More powerful disciples can gain a true organic breath weapon, one that replenishes naturally every few second and is more potent.

The mightiest among them can transform into a dragon for much longer periods.

There was, however, an addition to this archetype that added three new feats specifically tied to cloud dragons, namely one that grants a modified version of dragon-polymorphing that grants appropriate abilities, one that let’s the user walk on clouds, and one that improves flight speed.

Interested in going hard into the dragon theme as a sorcerer or any other sort of dragon-themed character? This archetype is full of useful abilities, all of which find ways to augment any overlap you might see with the main archetype. That being said, you will want to look up the wyrmblessed bloodline too to get an idea of how the breath weapons of the primal and imperial dragon types are meant to work.

I mentioned it briefly, but becoming a dragon disciple means that your mind as well as your body become more dragon-like. Even metallic dragons have great pride, and it is up to the person to find ways to temper that emotion into confidence rather than becoming insecure and quick to lash out at the slightest perceived insult.

The underworld dragon Yamahana is in a bind, as a group of vault giants have begun raiding his territory recently, and he has quickly come to realize that he and his disciples are not powerful enough to repel the massive reptilian titans. He would pay a daring group of explorers a king’s ransom for their aid.

Born already with the mark of reptilian power, the beastkin Naket soon discovered that not only did she embody the power of the mighty crocodile, but also a blue dragon, a fact she is eager to explore, ordering all sorts of texts on draconic mysticism.

In order to cement his legitimacy to the throne, the upstart Kalidos enacted all sorts of rituals to unlock draconic power within himself… and he succeeded. However, his newfound red dragon blood has only made him more arrogant and a little unhinged as well.

#pathfinder 2nd edition #archetype #dragon disciple #dragon #underworld dragon #vault giant #beaskin #blue dragon #red dragon #advanced player's guide

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grailfinders · 2 years

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Fate and Phantasms #6P: Siegfried

Today on Fate and Phantasms we're rebuilding the toughest saber in FGO, Siegfried! The king of sumanai himself has come back with a vengeance, and I gotta say I think this build is a step up from the original.

Siegfried is of course a Champion since they have dragonslaying subclasses after all, but he's also a dragon Barbarian to unlock the Dragon Disciple multiclassing option for his third ascension. We also pick up some Bounty Hunter features towards the end to make hunting down Fafnir a little easier.

Check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: They call me Caesar 'cuz I be dressin'

Ancestry

Siegfried is outwardly human, but it’s pretty heavily implied that he’s not. So instead we’re making him the next most Fafnir-ish thing, the drag- there aren’t dragonborn in Pathfinder. Well then we’ll pick the next next best thing, the Lizardfolk. This means you’ll get a boost in Wisdom, Strength, and one boost of your choice like Constitution. This is one more boost than usual, but it comes with a flaw against your Intelligence, so you’re starting with only 8 in that stat. You also get Claws for an unarmed attack, and Aquatic Adaptation, which just means you have Breath Control for 25 times the time you can hold your breath before you start suffocating. (I don’t know why they didn’t just say breath control from the start, but w/e.) Dragons spit out all sorts of garbage, and you don’t want any of that in your lungs.

We also have to pick a specialization, and as a Sandstrider you gain fire resistance equal to half your level. Fafnir is a black dragon, but he definitely breathes fire, so you’ve got to be protected regardless. You’re also protected from environmental heat, and you can go 10 times as long before you starve or thirst. However, this does come with a weakness for environmental cold. Good thing Sigurd’s the Norse one, huh?

Since FGO Siegfried doesn’t know a lot about his backstory, we’ll be supplementing that with Siegfried Siegfried’s backstory, that is to say the opera. In it, a ring from Fafnir’s treasure pile lets Siegfried talk to birds. Birds are technically reptiles depending on your taxonomy, so this is just a really drawn-out way to squeeze Reptile Speaker into something Siegfried can do at level 1. I love the guy but we need more than “kill dragon, be dragon” for a pathfinder build. Anyways, this lets you ask questions, get answers, and use diplomacy with reptiles.

At fifth level we pick up your riding skill as a Reptile Rider, which confusingly enough isn’t limited to reptiles like the last feat was. You get the Ride feat, letting you auto-command mounts to move around, and they act on your turn. That being said, you do get a bonus to command reptiles, so you’ll have a slightly easier time ordering Fafnir around.

At level 9 you get a Terrain Advantage, making non-lizardfolk flat-footed in difficult terrain as far as you care- that’s a -2 to their AC!

At level 13 you can go on a Primal Rampage since you can cast freedom of movement and stoneskin once a day. You can also spend three actions to cast both these spells at once if you still have both uses available.

Finally, at level 17 you can undergo a Scion Transformation, falling into hibernation over 24 hours and making you permanently enlarged, plus you get an extra boost of HP equal to your level. This gives you extra damage and extra reach at the cost of a permanent -1 penalty to all dex-based checks and DCs. I know Siegfried isn’t really that tall, but if you make it to level 17 you can have some extra dragonification as a treat. Plus this feat bricked the website I use to plot out these builds multiple times and I want that suffering to mean something.

Background

Siegfried spent his life pretty much just killing whatever someone asked him to, so that’s a Warrior’s life. This gives you a boost in Strength and Constitution, training in Intimidation and Warfare, and you get the Intimidating Glare feat to frighten people without speaking. You’re gonna be like, 80% dragon by the end of the build, that makes sense.

Champion Levels

1. Starting at level one, the standard stuff. Strength boost + key ability, trained in perception, religion, reflex attacks, armor, and Class DCs. You’re also an expert in Fortitude and Will saves, and your intelligence-based abilities are athletics and nature.

At level one you get an Ability Boost in Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Intelligence so at least you don’t have a negative modifier there. You also get a little command over your Deity’s Domain, which is wealth. I think giving off an Appearance of Wealth is more unwilling than intentional, but the Reingold always gets attention. Any creature within 20’ of the illusion needs to make a will save or they become fascinated by the treasure. Creatures outside that area when you make it can see the gold, but they don’t need to make a save.

You follow the Tenets of Good, and since you’re Chaotic Good we get to learn about the Liberator for the first time! Your champion reaction is Liberating Step, letting you or an ally hop out of the way of a creature attacking, grabbing, or grappling them. You can also Lay on Hands.

Your specific tenets are:

Respect others choices, and fight for others’ freedom.

You can cast lay on hands using Focus Points. You get one per day, but you can get another by spending 10 minutes refocusing.

You can also Shield Block, but that’s not a Siegfried thing to do.

2. At second level we get the Dragonslayer Oath, because. Duh. You get yet another tenet all about slaying evil dragons. To help with that, your liberating step gives a +4 bonus on checks caused by evil dragons, and the targeted ally can step twice.

For more anti-dragon shenanigans, you can try out being a Titan Wrestler, letting you disarm, grapple, shove, and trip creatures up to two sizes larger than you are, or up to three sizes if you’re legendary in athletics.

For our first dedication, become a Barbarian, making you trained in Society since we’re already pretty athletics, plus you can Rage as an action. Ironically enough, you lose AC while raging, which you’d think this wouldn’t be a good fit for Siegfried. Don’t worry, there’s a method to my madness. You get bonus damage though, that’s nice.

We’re also picking up the Draconic Instinct, which doesn’t give us any bonuses since we’re multiclassing, but it’s important we’ve got this.

3. At third level a Divine Ally enters your Blade, letting you add a disrupting, ghost touch, returning, or shifting rune to your greatsword. None of those actually help, but we know Balmung (or Nothung, or Gram, depending on the version) can change shape depending on who wields it. That’s a shifting rune.

You also gain some Toughness, giving you an extra hit point per level, and your recovery checks have a DC that’s one lower than before. Your HP is ridiculous, this is just the start.

This might seem weird but we’re also going to train up Crafting a bit. In Siegfried, Siegfried actually forges his own sword, and if the gods are to be believed, he’s the only one who could’ve done it. That’s a high level of craftmanship right there.

4. At fourth level your Divine Health makes you resistant to disease, which some dragons spit out.

You also learn Magical Crafting, letting you craft up to four common magic items of level 2 or lower. You can’t make magic swords yet, but you can make Shielding Salves at least for another +1 to AC, and if you’re hit by a physical attack it’ll prevent 5 damage and end the effect. It’s only level four, we’ll work on it.

Finally, you know some Basic Fury, helping you to Shake It Off, sh-shake it off. Being frightened and sickened that is. While raging you can spend an action to reduce your frightened condition by 1, and at the same time you can make a fortitude save to recover from being sickened, reducing it by 1 on a failure, 2 on a success, and three on a critical success. Siegfried literally does not know fear for the majority of the opera. Til Brynhildr shows up, anyway.

5. At fifth level you get another Ability Boost in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. You also gain expertise in Athletics as well as most weapons. Yup. Turns out Siegfried hits things good.

6. Sixth level champions can Smite Evil, dealing extra good damage on each attack against one enemy. If said enemy keeps attacking your friends, this bonus lasts an extra round until they wise up.

It’ll be a while ‘til we get wings, but in the meantime your Powerful Leap makes your horizontal and vertical jumps a lot bigger. Everyone knows dragoon jumping makes your attacks more powerful.

Speaking of, we can pick up Advanced Fury this level for another Barbarian feat. Every Skyrim player can happily tell you how much it sucks to fight a flying monster with just a sword. Wouldn’t it be great if there was No Escape for them? This this reaction, you can stride with the enemy as they flee, and you’ll even be able to burrow, climb, fly, or swim if you have the corresponding movement speed. We don’t. Yet. Just something to keep in mind.

7. At seventh level your Armor Expertise also works on unarmored defense, oddly enough. If that’s not enough defense, you can Diehard, letting you survive until you hit dying 5, not four.

Your Weapon Specialization deals extra damage with weapons you’re an expert or higher with, and you’re also getting better at Crafting. The sword’s coming, promise.

8. At eighth level you can Sense Evil. Honestly given how often you have to put up with Fafnir’s crap he might as well come with a GPS tracker now.

On that note, you have so many backstories even you can’t keep them straight, giving you some Dubious Knowledge. When you fail a recall knowledge check you’ll still learn some true stuff, but you’ll also bring up some false information, and you won’t know which is which.

Now that we have two barbarian feats, we can finally swap over to the class we’ve been waiting for this entire time, the Dragon Disciple. We would’ve gotten here sooner, but we needed to either be a kobold, a sorcerer, or a barbarian to qualify. Other than that, it’s the perfect class for Siegfried. As the disciple of a black dragon, you gain resistance to acid damage equal to half your level, as well as a +1 bonus to saves against sleep and paralysis.

9. Ninth level is pretty slow, though your Liberating Step deals a little damage now with a Divine Smite. Aside from that, just more training. You’re an expert with your class DC and reflex saves, and a master in fortitude and athletics.

10. At tenth level we finally make a sword that can actually target Fafnir better thanks to your Radiant Blade Spirit, letting you add three more options to your rune list: flaming, anarchic, and holy. The first does fire damage, the second does Chaos damage against lawful creatures and makes your crits funky, and the third deals Good damage and let you heal once a day when you crit on an evil creature. Siegfried’s got HP for days, yo.

You also get an Ability Boost in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma, and your Specialty Crafting is Blacksmithing, so you get an extra +1 bonus to making weapons and armor.

You also get suited up with the Scales of the Dragon by being a dragon disciple, giving you a +2 bonus to your AC while unarmored and an extra +3 bonus to your Acid resistance for a total of 8 at this level.

11. At eleventh level we get another battering of training: trained in Occultism to learn the various prophecies surrounding your life, expert in Perception to see Fafnir, and master in Will to not get taken over by the Reingold. You can also Exalt when you use your liberating step now- if the targeted ally doesn’t need to break out of anything, it and every ally within 15’ of you can step, moving 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. Dragons are strong, they don’t need more attacks.

Finally, you’re an Impeccable Crafter, making all your blacksmithing successes critical successes instead. I don’t know what the DC for reforging a legendary sword is, but it’s going to be high.

12. After giving your heart away you can truly be called a Blade of Justice, making extra powerful attacks against evil creatures who have harmed an innocent being, and can even turn all the damage into Good.

You can Quick Jump in a single action thanks in no small part to your Wings of the Dragon, letting you cast dragon wings as a focus spell and increasing your pool by 1. You can fly with a speed of 60’ for up to a minute, but unlike flying in D&D this spell comes with a free feather fall at the end if you need it. You can also spend a second point to use dragon claws for the duration, dealing 1d4 slashing damage and 2d6 acid. Since you’re effectively casting focus spells at sixth level now you also get Resistance 10 to Acid, though your base resistance of 9 means it’s not a huge improvement.

13. At level 13 you become a master in armor and weapons, and you also get trained in Survival so you can live in the woods while dragon hunting.

14. Speaking of, your Wyrmbane Aura makes dragon hunting a lot easier, giving you and all allies within 15’ resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and poison equal to your charisma modifier. If that damage is coming from a dragon, you can add half your level to the resistance as well. Which practically makes your Disciple resistance useless, but it’s still a great way to survive against dragons.

To get to the dragons faster, your Terrain Expertise helps you travel through the forests of Germany with a +1 bonus to all survival checks in them.

Finally, we need to hunt dragons better than ever before with the Bounty Hunter Dedication, letting you Hunt Prey as an action. You can turn one creature you’ve heard of before like Fafnir into your prey, giving you a +2 bonus to seeking, tracking, and gathering information aboutyour prey. You’d think a giant acid-spitting lizard would be easy to track down, wouldn’t you?

15. At fifteenth level you become legendary at crafting, which means you can Craft Anything as long as you have the appropriate crafting feat. You might still need special items to craft particularly powerful gear, but that sounds like a cool quest so why’d you want to avoid that?

Once you get your Balmung up to snuff, your Greater Weapon Specialization will help you wield it effectively, giving you a +6 bonus to damage with mastered weapons and a +8 bonus if you’ve got legendary proficiency.

We also get another Ability Boost set in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom.

16. At sixteenth level your Aura of Righteousness make it harder for Fafnir to mess with you, giving you and all allies within 15’ of your evil resistance 5.

You can also Quick Swim to get through swamps a little easier. Fafnir’s supposed to live in a forest, but black dragons in fantasy rpgs tend to hang out in swamps. This way you’ll be prepared for either situation.

While your dragon wings are active, you can swirl up a Deflecting Cloud as a reaction, blocking an incoming ranged attack. The triggering attacker then needs to make a dc 11 check to target you properly, and you get a +4 bonus to your AC against that attack. Turns out, being part dragon makes you hard to kill. Surprising, huh?

17. Seventeenth level looks unassuming at first glance, but it’s still pretty nice. You gain Champion Mastery and Legendary Armor, both doing exactly what you’d think. The real boon here is that you’re now legendary in Athletics, giving you a swim speed from Quick Swim. This, in turn, lets you use Terrain Advantage from your ancestry whenever you’re in the water.

18. Eighteenth level champions can become an Instrument of Zeal- if you critically hit with your Blade of Justice attack, you deal an extra die of damage, and you slow your enemy next turn. Clip those wings, and the dragon will follow.

On the other hand, you can also follow the dragon back up, thanks to Cloud Jump and Mighty Wings. The former lets you triple the distance of long jumps, and you can use long jump calculations to high jump. If you’d rather just fly, the latter makes your dragon wings permanent, and when you spend a focus point to activate your claws your speed increases to 90’ instead.

19. At nineteenth level your Fast Recovery helps you power through diseases and poison like Fafnir’s breath. Any successful save against disease or poison reduces its stage by 1 more than it should, and your drained conditions reduce by 2 each night instead of one.

You can also use the Hero’s Defiance focus spell when you would drop to 0 HP, healing you a bit and hopefully preventing you from falling unconscious. You can only use this once a day, and it doesn’t work against instant death effects.

Finally, we’ll give you expertise in Intimidation. You’re probably Large and like, 80% dragon by this point, the boost is more than overdue.

20. Our final level gives us one last Ability Boost, bumping up your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom one last time. You also become a Sacred Defender, giving you resistance 10 on physical damage types caused by evil creatures and dragons. This also prevents critical hits from them. That skin’s pretty freakin’ hard after all.

Your Intimidating Prowess gives you a +2 bonus to coerce and demoralizing checks if you use your physicality. Again, Giant Dragon Man. You do the math.

Finally, you can make a Posse, spending up to a minute guiding up to five creatures on how to hunt down Fafnir, giving them a +1 bonus to seek, track, and gather information about your prey. All six of you also get a +1 bonus on initiative. This lasts until your prey dies, you pick a new target, or your posse spends more than an hour away from you. Like half of Siegfried’s interludes are about Fafnir, you’re going to know a lot about the guy whether you want to or not.

Also, if you weren’t keeping track til now you have elemental dragon resist 13 and physical dragon resist 10 now.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

You’re tough as hell, with a big AC, almost 350 HP plus healing from rage, and some silly amount of damage resistances that cut down what you’d take from almost every source, you’re really good at not dying. And even if that happens you have Hero’s Defiance. And even if that doesn’t work you’ve got an extra death save. You’re hard to kill, is what I’m getting at.

You also deal big damage, with some scary powerful smites when you’re put in front of evil creatures. Add in the extra reach from your scion transformation and the fact that you can fly, and you’ve got a recipe for one scary dragonman. Oh yeah! Flying with extra reach makes you untouchable by most melee-based enemies! All the more reason to be a dragon!

As a bounty hunter you’re also great at tracking down elusive enemies, with your extra movement options just being icing on the cake. You’re probably not the best at this in your party, but you can always posse up and help whoever is.

Cons:

Uh….. you don’t have much to do outside of combat, since your social options are pretty lacking, and also you’re a giant dragon man?

Some of your feats can be pretty DM dependent, so you might not get much out of them.

It’s harder for you to fight good enemies since your biggest buffs only hit evil creatures…

Yeah no those are stretches. This is another good build. Though it has brought to my attention that I don’t know as much about pathfinder’s AC as I thought. Your unarmored AC is just one lower than it is while wearing plate mail, which is weird.

#FGO #Fate Grand Order #Pathfinder #PF2E #Siegfried #champion #barbarian #dragon disciple #bounty hunter

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