Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zilfana May 02, 2008 19:16:58	I was wondering if it is even possible. I think it is, but i can't find any templates for it. I have the half dragon stuff in Draconomicon, but it has nothing on a black dragon.
#2 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 19:28:35	Uh, the info for chromatic (and metallic) half-dragons is available in the Monster Manual. You can also find it at d20srd.org here. I'd be really reluctant to make a black half-dragon drow though, myself. Between half-dragon and drow you're looking at a level adjustment of +5 when put together they're worth maybe a 3, a low 4 if you're being generous. You don't even get the wings because you're not large.
#3 zilfana May 02, 2008 19:46:48	Yes, I know he might be at a slight disatantage, but how do would I go about doing it. And I knew about the wings, in fact it will be an addition to his discription. Since his wings are under developed, they will be just skin and bone and he rap them around himself almost like a cloak.
#4 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 20:28:53	Make a 1st-level drow character Add the half-dragon template, including breath weapon and immunity specific to the black variety Apply more class levels to the half-dragon, half-drow character until it's the ECL you want (bearing in mind the LA of +5) Deck the character out with appropriate wealth for a character of its ECL Add milk and enjoy
#5 salla May 02, 2008 20:33:28	Make a 1st-level drow character Add the half-dragon template, including breath weapon and immunity specific to the black variety Apply more class levels to the half-dragon, half-drow character until it's the ECL you want (bearing in mind the LA of +5) Deck the character out with appropriate wealth for a character of its ECL Add milk and enjoy *Get pwnt because you're missing 5 hit dice compared to everbody else.
#6 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 20:34:46	*Get pwnt because you're missing 5 hit dice compared to everbody else. I thought I implied that with my first response.
#7 zilfana May 02, 2008 20:45:42	Thanks, I think i've got it, even though I don't exactly like the degative thoughts about the level mod. Sometimes you wan't to just play with a character because it seems interesting and out of the ordinary, not because its powerful.
#8 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 20:59:26	Thanks, I think i've got it, even though I don't exactly like the degative thoughts about the level mod. Sometimes you wan't to just play with a character because it seems interesting and out of the ordinary, not because its powerful. I understand that, I'm sure Salla does as well. However, there's a line between "not very powerful" and "crippled", and LA +5 takes a flying leap across that line into the latter category. Few things in D&D suck more than having an interesting character that fails miserably at every turn. If you want to try it, more power to you, but at least with advance warning there won't be surprise tacked onto the disappointment. Also the knowledge that you're going in badly handicapped may prompt you to take drastic measures you wouldn't otherwise take, as a compensating measure. For example, doing something like bard (savage UA variant) 5/ur-priest 10, which would at least have reached 9th level divine spells by ECL 20, even though it'd be fairly late getting there. Or duskblade 5/ur-priest 10, which would achieve a similar result but lean a bit more toward the warrior side of things, which with your big Strength boost would probably be your best bet... maybe be a buffed spear-thrower or get a composite longbow with an enormous Str mod or something. Erm, not unless you can import Bluff to the duskblade class skill list somehow.
#9 zilfana May 02, 2008 21:21:30	I was actually leaning more towards a magic class, even though i'm not really a mage kind of person, to compesate for by crippled hit points. Are their any suggestions to what magic class i should be. I've have yet to play a warlock and i thought i might try that out.
#10 zilfana May 02, 2008 21:24:28	On a side note, does a cleric with his domain in death still have the cleric spell to revive a fallen party member. Me and my group are playing an evil campaign and my brother is going to be our healer, but he wants to be an evil cleric.
#11 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 21:29:50	Erm, ur-priest is very magical. It's a 10-level long prestige class, evil* divine caster that casts cleric spells but steals them from the source rather than praying for them, and also gets some other special abilities. It's also an accelerated spell access class which helps you catch up from the LA. At 1st level it gets 1st level spells, by 5th level that's up to 5th level spells, and it reaches 9th level spells by class level 9. Warlock isn't as magical as it looks at first glance. It's more of an archer that can't full attack and never runs out of ammunition. Its damage output is constant but damage is pretty gimpy compared to other effects in the late game (which you'll kind of have to start in, your minimum ECL is 6 and you'll probably need to be at least ECL 10 to stand any chance of survival). Besides, you can do more damage buffing up and smashing things with a weapon and your big Str score, and damage of that sort isn't subject to spell resistance. *Evil drow are an endangered species these days, they're all CG rebels yearning to break free from the wicked ways of their people, misunderstood heroes protecting those that hate them. Drizzt DoUrden has made it a cliche. Be different. Be evil. On a side note, does a cleric with his domain in death still have the cleric spell to revive a fallen party member. Me and my group are playing an evil campaign and my brother is going to be our healer, but he wants to be an evil cleric. Ahh, excellent, you will be evil. Yes, a cleric with Death as one of his domains can still cast Raise Dead, Resurrection, or True Resurrection. They and the Cure and Inflict spells are not actually aligned, so they don't collide with the restriction that a cleric may not cast spells of the alignment opposite his own. Oh, another point in favor of ur-priest: Ur-priest tells that alignment restriction to **** off, he prepares any cleric spell he wants any time he wants.
#12 zilfana May 02, 2008 21:35:21	Ok, i don't know what an ur-priest is. Second, i don't want to be a cleric, by brother is. Also, as much as I love Drizzt and Salvatore's great series, i wan't my drow to be evil. As much as I admire Drizzt, i just love to watch the evil things his kin do.
#13 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 21:38:00	Ur-priest is in complete divine, if you don't have that book I suppose it's useless to you, but being an accelerated caster it can help cope with deficiencies from LA (your caster level would still be crap, but that's not as important for buffs since you don't have to break your own spell resistance). Being able to heal is handy too when your hp are low due to missing hitdice and you're kind of shoved into the beatstick role by your ability scores.
#14 zilfana May 02, 2008 21:39:45	Also, I am very new to level adjusters, so i don't know most of the abbrevations or anything. This is the first time i've created a character that had that. If you could just refer me to a rule book that has info on that I would be highly thankful. I have a few 3.5 books as well as a few others.
#15 zilfana May 02, 2008 21:40:26	I do have Complete Divine, so i'll look that up.
#16 zilfana May 02, 2008 21:40:50	Or should I say I live with someone who has it.
#17 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 21:47:20	Level Adjustment (LA) is discussed in the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG). Basically a level adjustment is a dead level where you get nothing at all except for money and a higher experience point (XP) cost to level up again. Effective Character Level (ECL) is the sum of your class levels, your racial hitdice (if you have any... neither drow nor half-dragons do, so don't worry about that) and your level adjustment. ECL determines how much money you get according to the wealth-by-level chart in the DMG, what CR (Challenge Rating) of monsters you're supposed to be fighting, how much XP you get for fighting those monsters, and what ECL range party you're supposed to be traveling with (an ECL 6 character is generally quite overpowered compared to level 1 allies, for example). Your actual character level determines everything else. That's the problem with big level adjustments. Your hit points, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, feats, ability score boosts, skill points, and maximum skill rank caps are all based on your real character level, not your ECL. A black half-dragon drow at ECL 10 will be a 5th-level character expected to deal with threats suitable for a 10th-level character, and partied with 10th-level characters, and the benefits just aren't even close to being enough to make up for what you've lost.
#18 zilfana May 02, 2008 21:51:18	Ok thanks, i'll try him out and see how he plays, as a that priest thing. As for the level thing, no wonder i couldn't find out about it. I've been looking in all the wrong places. thanks for your help by the way
#19 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 21:57:59	No problem. Sorry if I came off as a bit gruff about your choice of race/template combo, but I've been pretty frustrated myself in the past, coming up with character ideas that seemed really interesting and then were completely boned by level adjustment or some other unforeseen problem that made for a very disappointing experience... hate to see that happen to other folks. One last thing: That UA I mentioned is Unearthed Arcana, a book full of variant rules, variant class features, et cetera. If it's not available, you can get much of the same info from d20srd.org. The reason I mentioned it is because the PHB version of the bard class cannot meet the requirements for ur-priest with 5 levels of bard and nothing else; its Fortitude save progression is too low. The savage bard variant in UA and d20srd gives up its strong Reflex save for a strong Fortitude save instead, along with a few other changes, and enters ur-priest quite smoothly.
#20 runestar May 02, 2008 22:01:52	I'd be really reluctant to make a black half-dragon drow though, myself. Between half-dragon and drow you're looking at a level adjustment of +5 when put together they're worth maybe a 3, a low 4 if you're being generous. You don't even get the wings because you're not large. There appears to be one notable exception. According to a FR dragons of faerun web enhancement, half shadow dragon drow get wings as a special exception to the rules.:D
#21 shaggy_shaggs May 02, 2008 22:03:26	There appears to be one notable exception. According to a FR dragons of faerun web enhancement, half shadow dragon drow get wings as a special exception to the rules.:D Wow, got a link for that? That could be pretty handy.
#22 zilfana May 02, 2008 22:12:06	Thanks for the priest info, i checked me and my roomates books and he also has unearthed arcana. I don't have it cause i was never really a mage person so i never felt the need for the book.
#23 zilfana May 02, 2008 22:12:59	Well, off to start that character sheet.
#24 runestar May 02, 2008 22:59:41	Wow, got a link for that? That could be pretty handy. Should be this one.
#25 zilfana May 02, 2008 23:16:33	The ur-priest, what type of spellcasting does it used, what ability should i say, intelligence?
#26 zilfana May 02, 2008 23:19:57	i'm thinking i need a good intellegence, all right thats all
#27 traya May 03, 2008 0:33:27	If the LA is too bad , couldnt one play as a Dragonborn stat wise and be half dragon flavor wise? Do you retain all bonuses from templates?
#28 shaggy_shaggs May 03, 2008 0:53:08	The ur-priest goes from Wisdom, actually, though you should be able to manage a decent Wis score. What with all the stat bumps you're getting, one thing you shouldn't be too short on is ability scores, so you can afford to put your highest one in Wis if you need to. (I'd put the second highest in Con to help cope with low hp from missing hitdice, myself)
#29 zilfana May 03, 2008 0:58:36	Thanks, i was already putting by second best in constitution. I thought it was a good idea. ;)
#30 fuzzycrusader May 08, 2008 2:25:12	My adivce is drow warlock, and than dragon disciple.
#31 m-bark May 08, 2008 3:24:11	*Get pwnt because you're missing 5 hit dice compared to everbody else. Just remember that a large LA doesn't necessarily mean you'll die earlier. Our Half-Gold Dragon Woodling Human had such great natural armour that it more than made up for his LA.
#32 runestar May 08, 2008 7:26:00	I admit that it will be a tad weak at very low lvs when you have so few HD, and a lucky crit can easily kill you. But once you get a decent amount of HD (6+), your racial bonuses should be comparable to the class lvs you are not taking. At higher lvs, they may even overshadow them. Alternatively, you may want to consider using the savage progression table to spread out the bonuses you get, rather than being force fed them at 1 go. Might make life a little easier. half-dragon drow
#33 crimsondeath May 08, 2008 11:18:01	My adivce is drow warlock, and than dragon disciple. I wouldn't suggest that. Warlock doesn't qualify for Dragon Disciple, and even if it did, there's not much synergy between the two.
#34 high_octane May 08, 2008 11:46:34	Ask your DM if you can be what I call a "Lesser Drow" if you like th Drow for the image instead of the mechanics. Same race, same everything except no spell resistance, +1 LA (instead of +2).