Drakes: Where do we go from here?

[magustoad]

As we are poised to start our FC game I have been pouring over the FC books and here on the forums/DB to grok the system and my chosen race to play; the ever-humble drake.   

Now, let me put a big ol'caveat here:  I am so not proficient in this game yet.  We have done a few little one-shot kind of things to horse around with, but no real meaty gaming to get my sea-legs under me on the feel and progression of it all.  If questions I ask are redonkulously noob/pedestrian that'll be why.  Please feel free to tell me so. 

These questions are in a jumble no doubt, I'll try to structure them as best I can to flow.

Where are the physical dimensions for them?  Neck, tail, body length, wingspan.. that kind of thing?  I haven't cover-to-covered the book so I might have just missed it.

I went Monster Specialty Martial Artist and will probably take Dragon Lord for progression.  I'm trying to play 'critter as the class' as close as I can and those seemed the best fit.  Any other classes that jump out?  Soldier seemed interesting but looked like there were too many things that required armor to be of use.  This may just be a perception thing though. 

Paddyfool's thread on Breath Weapon feats will help out a good bit along with both tricks from that same thread.  I plan on making grappling a focus for the character so Grab'n'blast'em will get some mileage.  Any others that spring to mind?  The two feats that modify your natural attacks are neat.  One adds qualities the other upgrades their rank.  The feat that upgrades rank only looks able to take once.  Any other ways to upgrade natural attacks I'm missing?  DLord has some action there as the lvl3 benefit. 

How would you handle Draconic Legacy being taken by a Drake, btw?  That's one of the first level DLord benefits.  The attribute bonus fits, but what of the breath (you already have) and flight with the resulting penalty?  Assume the new flight speed?

I'll leave it at that for right now, time to go watch a movie with the wife-unit.  I had hoped to put more thought/research into this and ended up hammering it out.  heh

[Blankbeard]

As we are poised to start our FC game I have been pouring over the FC books and here on the forums/DB to grok the system and my chosen race to play; the ever-humble drake.   

Now, let me put a big ol'caveat here:  I am so not proficient in this game yet.  We have done a few little one-shot kind of things to horse around with, but no real meaty gaming to get my sea-legs under me on the feel and progression of it all.  If questions I ask are redonkulously noob/pedestrian that'll be why.  Please feel free to tell me so. 

These questions are in a jumble no doubt, I'll try to structure them as best I can to flow.

Where are the physical dimensions for them?  Neck, tail, body length, wingspan.. that kind of thing?  I haven't cover-to-covered the book so I might have just missed it.

Largely up to you, with GC approval (Everything is with GC approval so I won't bring it up again.)  Your dragon can look like whatever you want.  The one in the rulebook looks mostly western but really the only things that matter are the parts that interact with the rules.  You have winged flight and no usable hands.

I went Monster Specialty Martial Artist and will probably take Dragon Lord for progression.  I'm trying to play 'critter as the class' as close as I can and those seemed the best fit.  Any other classes that jump out?  Soldier seemed interesting but looked like there were too many things that required armor to be of use.  This may just be a perception thing though. 

If you're looking to be a combat monster with natural weapons, it's hard to go wrong with the martial artist.  Soldier isn't bad either.  The beast upgrade will let you use armor.  Just style it as plates or padding over the more vulnerable areas.

You said you want to play "critter as class" but dragons were much more than just combat monsters.  You could be a courtier or a sage and be a great dragon.

Paddyfool's thread on Breath Weapon feats will help out a good bit along with both tricks from that same thread.  I plan on making grappling a focus for the character so Grab'n'blast'em will get some mileage.  Any others that spring to mind?  The two feats that modify your natural attacks are neat.  One adds qualities the other upgrades their rank.  The feat that upgrades rank only looks able to take once.  Any other ways to upgrade natural attacks I'm missing?  DLord has some action there as the lvl3 benefit. 

I am a fan of those feats but I really think your first game should be pretty close to the book.  Save stuff from the board for when you have a better feel for how the game balances.  This is of course only my opinion.

How would you handle Draconic Legacy being taken by a Drake, btw?  That's one of the first level DLord benefits.  The attribute bonus fits, but what of the breath (you already have) and flight with the resulting penalty?  Assume the new flight speed?

Probably the best way is to just suck it up.  It's not the best benefit for a drake but it's not that bad.  The way it's worded, if your breath weapon is something other than fire, you'd gain the ability to breathe fire or your normal type (IMO) and a 20 ft speed bonus is a nice option.

Optionally, your GC might let you pick a different species feat but I don't think that's needed here.

I'll leave it at that for right now, time to go watch a movie with the wife-unit.  I had hoped to put more thought/research into this and ended up hammering it out.  heh

Good luck with your first game!

[Krensky]

Drakes are 2 x 3 Large creatures.

[Agent 333]

NOTE: Most of what I say was already said by Blankbeard as I was typing it, but I figured I'd post it anyway.

As for physical dimensions, that's up to the GM to decide, as long as it fits in their 2x3 footprint. That being said, here's how I see them: I imagine them being longer than wide (the 2 facing is their "front"). Their necks and tails I imagine being relatively long and flexible, but by no means prehensile. Probably long enough that he could bite his own behind if he wanted to. Wingspan is as wide as the drake is from snout to the tip of his tail, but they fold up to fit on his back. The book leaves a lot of it open to interpretation, so it can vary quite widely from drake to drake. It depends on the flavor you want to go with.

I'm a big fan of Drake Mages with the Draconic Heritage feat to let them cast without a spell pouch, though Martial Artist is also a good direction to go with them.

The thing to keep in mind with the feats is to try and reimagine the flavor of how you'd do certain tricks with a non-humanoid body. The Kicking feats might represent attacks with your hind-legs, while "punching" might involve headbutts (think Goat or Ram style attacks) or something. A clothesline could easily be a sweep of the neck (or tail) or a whack with a wing.

Soldier might not be as bad as you might think. Drakes can wear armor if it's specially made for them, so those abilities aren't completely worthless.

The most important thing is to talk with your GM and see how he feels drakes fit into his world. They're not what most people think of as a standard fantasy race, so there tends to be more difference from GM to GM than with say elves or dwarves.

[magustoad]

If you're looking to be a combat monster with natural weapons, it's hard to go wrong with the martial artist.  Soldier isn't bad either.  The beast upgrade will let you use armor.  Just style it as plates or padding over the more vulnerable areas.

You said you want to play "critter as class" but dragons were much more than just combat monsters.  You could be a courtier or a sage and be a great dragon.

Initially combat will be the focus, but that had been one of the ideas I had knocking around in my head.  I wanted to stay away from using armor or other crafted bits.  It just didn't seem in keeping with the race to strap on armor.

I am a fan of those feats but I really think your first game should be pretty close to the book.  Save stuff from the board for when you have a better feel for how the game balances.  This is of course only my opinion.

When we start playing a system we keep the characters a bit protean for the first few sessions.  It helps to know that if you misunderstood something and dorked a build you can fix it.  This also goes for combos that you play and go woah, that sucker's too powerful.

As always we (GM +players) discuss things at great length.

[Desertpuma]

I always imagine Drakes to look like the dragons in Reign of Fire (the film with Christian Bale and Matthew McGonaghy)

[The_Grand_User]

Someone also made a Path Of Dragons here that'd be good for a drake priest. A drake Priest/Force of Nature and that path will be all about the fire (or whatever element), both defense and offense; toss in some of those good unarmed/species feats (and maybe a level or two of Martial Artist) and you should be able to get a pretty good drake, I think.

[Catodon]

Drakes are 2 x 3 Large creatures.

...with reach 2.
At my table to get a rough estimate of maximum length: add length of your footprint plus double reach times 5 feet. For example a typical large drake is reach 2 with a 2x3 footprint, so length is (3+(2x2))x5’=35’. Much of this is actually neck and tail, torso length is about footprint length times 4 feet (12’ for a typical large drake). Wingspan is equal to total length.

At your referee's table who knows

[Agent 333]

This is what I think of when I think of Drakes. Of course, they'd come in a variety of colors and whatnot. About the size of a car. (Note specifically the Tempest versions, the others are certainly drake like, but the tempest one is the first thing that jumps into my head when I think "Drake". Probably because that's when I first started buying a lot of Magic cards instead of just playing with whatever I had around.)

[magustoad]

At my table to get a rough estimate of maximum length: add length of your footprint plus double reach times 5 feet. For example a typical large drake is reach 2 with a 2x3 footprint, so length is (3+(2x2))x5’=35’. Much of this is actually neck and tail, torso length is about footprint length times 4 feet (12’ for a typical large drake). Wingspan is equal to total length.

That is much better expressed with maths, but pretty close to the lines I was thinking along.   I just hadn't seen it in the main book and thought that I missed it somehow, I do that from time to time.

I also back-of-the-napkin figured the body width was about 50-60% of the footprint width, so 5-6' across at the widest (probably the hips or shoulders) point.  Probably 5'ish for your aforementioned typical drake, 6' just seems too wide for a 12' "torso" to me.

[paddyfool]

Your extensive use of my homebrew (Monster specialty and breath weapon feats) makes me smile.  Be aware, however, that I haven't playtested any of it yet (and that I'd be interested in your opinion on how it plays), and of course, as with all homebrew, make sure it's OK by your referee first.  Also, I've just put up a third, and hopefully final, version of the breath weapon feats in that other thread which you might want to use if you're going with any of them (I'll be sticking that version up on the database in early September when I'm back properly).

[magustoad]

The Monster specialty is really nice.  It was pretty spot-on to the concept I was making.  I'll post more when I can get a chance to really dig in.