Post/Author/DateTime	Post
utilitarian 06-02-06, 08:57 PM	Alright, I'm in a complicated situation in a game and i need some advice. First a little history. I got into this game at level 2. It started in Faerune, and had a Paladin, Cleric, Bard, and Thief. I Chose to get in as a Gnome Scorcerer with the intention of becoming a Dragon Disciple. For the first couple levels it was a pretty average campaign. Then things went crazy. The first thing that happened was the departure from Fearune. After a short stint in Sigil we ended up in "Aratheya", a different world. Out of game I learn that this is the world which the DM's last two major campaigns revolved in, and that we're essentially playing the third "chapter" in this world's history. Kinda cool. (now keep in mind we're at level 4 or 5 at this point). Two points of information need to be establish at this point. While in fearune, our thief, through a staggeringly lucky pick pockets check on a powerful Red Wizard manages to aquire an Amulet of Etherealness. Secondly, while in Sigil, the rogue aquires "The Bag", which we initially believe to be a bag of holding, but eventually discover it to be something closer to a pocket dimension which a nigh unlimited capacity. Fast forward a few game sessions. We find ourselves captured by a stronghold of evil dwarves, negotiate our escape by revealing the king to be an imposter, standard adventure fare. The newly appointed king sends off one of his guards to fetch us a chest of gold for our troubles. Bad move. Our thief, using his amulet, tails the guard, and using his amulet manages to enter the vault. After the guard leaves, our intrepid thief steals everything in the vault and exclusive armory, which evidently is the size of a dragon horde and then some. We become the most powerful level 5 adventuring party ever to live. Once again, some important details. While the other members of the party aquire weapons and armor, my esteemed scorcerer selects a few rings, rods, and a wand and staff, but most important a Manual of Golem Creation (stone). Fast forward a couple levels. It's become clear that normal encounters have the effectiveness of wax paper as a deterant to our party. The enourmous power of the equipment we aquire in combination with our paladin's unnatural ability to roll crits seemingly at will makes short work of just about anything. Compounding this power is our melee characters using feats from a Swashbuckling Adventures soucebook, ramping thier melee power up into the stratosphere. As a result, we start facing encounters far beyond what would normally be capable for our party. My character remains a major player in the campaign due to 2 factors, 1.) charged items and 2.) NPCs. As a result of my character's path he ends up with a fair number of npc followers, including his stone golem, which he uses to fight for him. So we have a party which is signifigantly more powerful than our level ought to be, but facing suitably powerful encounters to compensate. No problem. Recently, however, my DM has seen fit to kill off several of my character's npcs (due to thier presence hindering the progression of the plot in various areas), either through custom designed encounters where tailored npcs target things specifically (such as a pack of barbarian warriors who use leap attack and power attack to tear down the golem in 2 rounds while ignoring all other characters) or by simply "removing" the npcs. (such as having a "rebellion" amoung the mercenaries while my character is captured for a week, removing 4 out of 6 of them arbitrarily). In addition, my charged magic items have begun to run out. What has resulted is a sharp decline in the power of my character relative to the other characters. Because the other character's power has been derived from either equipment or straight magical ability (or both), they have continued to remain at thier abnormally high power level, and as a result, the campaign encounters remain high. This problem is compounded by the limited spell progression and abilities of the Dragon Disciple class (I am currently up to Scor6/DD5). My attack bonus and natural weapons are insignifigantly small compaired to the creatures we face, and my spell selection is still limited to 3rd. The current state of the game world further complicates this issue. While my character has managed to amass a large quantity of gold, the world as a whole has entered the "post apocalyptic" stage, where money as a whole is completely devauled, thus essentially making my thousands of gold stash worthless. Even if that were not the case, it has become impossible to purchase, or even trade for, items of any value, thus completely removing my access to scrolls, wands, or any other kind of magic item. Bottom line: my character now sucks, especially compaired to the other members of the party, and I don't know what to do about it. I don't want to stop investing in Dragon Disciple, and thus make my current levels of it wasted, but my 2d8 breath weapon is seeming rather worthless compaired to the paladins 60+ damage critical smite evils. Help?
King_Bulba 06-02-06, 10:06 PM	Sorcerers do not make good dragon deciples. You have poor BAB, and little to no feats so yeah I think you are in trouble. Now your gold in which you use UMD has no value and your skills in UMD are worthless without scrolls and wands. I dont know what to say. I looks like the DM neutered you. All I can say is talk to your DM. Spell wise you are not a strong caster and melee wise the same. I think you really need to talk to your DM. Will
Dragonsblood 06-03-06, 01:34 AM	Your mistake was taking levels in dragon disciple. It's an absolutely horrid PrC if you want to powergame (which it sounds like your group is doing). You'd be a lot more effective as a straight sorcerer.
utilitarian 06-03-06, 01:46 AM	Well, when the campaign started, and up until just before I started to take levels in DD, the game was very NON power gaming. The group I play with was, and still in very big on roleplay, and most sessions we have between 0 and 2 encounters at most. I picked the Dragon Disciple to add a bit of flare to my character, while making him more durable and with some minor combat options. What I didn't expect was the ENOURMOUS power level increase of the game, coupled with the sudden transition from a very high magic setting to a very low magic setting. Had I anticipated the need to power game just to keep up with my party, rest assured I'd be in a different PrC right now. What I need is some opinions or advice on anything I could do to save the existing character, as I really don't want to drop him from a roleplay perspective, especially given his involvement in the current plot.
moto 06-03-06, 01:46 AM	DD, is more of a gish PCR then anything, and can be really good for ftr/src (min to get pcr and that’s it)/ DD. dragon apotheosis is great for a fighter, +4 nat Armour, + 4 str and +2 Cha dark vision and a bunch of other nifty abilities almost all of them better for the fighter halve of the gish though. 7/10'ths Bab means you still hit reliably. and is gish friendly add that in addition to the wings, blind sence, and the ability boosts and you have yourself a vary useful fighter. So, as an example Sorc 2/ fighter 6/ DD 10/ what ever 2 can be vary powerful. With a Bab of 16, four attacks per round, and your ability boosts more then make up for the 4 bab you missed. You end up with a decent fort and will save as well. Sadly I cant help you though, perhaps you could ask to trade in your DD levels in return for the halve dragon template and more sorc levels? Oh well. live and learn.
X-Codes 06-03-06, 02:36 AM	Sorcerer-> Dragon Disciples are always weak, especially if you go with a small race like Gnome. What ends up happening is all your options being completely useless against something that should normally be a good challenge. A pure Sorcerer becoming a Dragon Disciple is not min/maxing, but min/mining. If you were a pure Sorcerer 11 with a Rod of Empower or Maximize (or the feats) then even in a super-high-powered party you would still be able to dish out a lot of damage. The only person to really blame is yourself for your own character becoming weak.
Noria Merfolk Mage 06-03-06, 03:57 PM	I agree that you should talk to your DM, and ask him if he's picking on you or just trying to get his plot moving.
jennibert 06-03-06, 05:38 PM	Definitely talk to your DM. Point out what has happened to him/her exactly like you've brought up here, that your character has become progressively weaker compared to the others. Possibly the DM hasn't realized that that is what's hapenning. Come up with some suggestions to fix the problem. Perhaps you can happen upon some rare magic item useful only to your character to help even the odds. Maybe you can acquire some new NPCs to replace the ones that have been lost. But don't become dependent on any of those suggestions--try to remain ready to negotiate. Another possibility is that perhaps all these things are really necessary to the plot and your character will get fixed back up in another couple of sessions. If you get this sort of vibe from your discussion, then wait a little, and try another talk if nothing happens. Good luck.