Dragon Compendium's Races, Classes and PrCs

[atemu1234]

Which ones are good, which ones are bad, and why?

[Taveena]

The Sha'ir is a tier 1 on the level of the Wizard whose only flaws are that they can't afford their familiar (and thus their SPELLS) at level one, with the added advantage of being able to enter divine classes without any problems.
The Death Master has a very solid list, but not quite as much material - in a core-only game (with Dragon Compendium added for some reason) they're t1, elsewhere they're t2. Jester, similarly, is on par with a core bard - but their lack of support might drop 'em a tier, and Urban Druid is about equal to a core druid. (Though the idea of getting a Colossal Animated Adamantine Cube for the ridiculous hardness is at least an amusing option.)

Mountebank is godawful and at BEST an extremely low t5, with the worst capstone in the game. Savant... I can't honestly judge. Like the Sha'ir they can go into either type of casting classes, but the delayed progression, smaller spell list... Yeah, I don't even know. They're not Mountebank bad, but they're not a standout either. It's like a Factotum, but instead of 'competent at Any One Thing at a time', it's 'mediocre at everything all the time'.

[Yael]

The Tibbit race is pretty good for assassin characters, because the size and the shapeshifting. The Dvati is a nice class if you manage to convince your DM to use the autor's intention of the race (Actions = Full + X action.)

I love the Force Missile Mage, too. It's a good prestige if you do want to make your sorcerer into a machine gun of 1d4+1s.

And the Heads Up! feat is just hilarious.

[Jeff the Green]

The Tibbit race is pretty good for assassin characters, because the size and the shapeshifting.

Also natural attackers. I mention it every time it comes up, but I love CE Tibbit Soulborn 2/Stoneblessed 3/Goliath sub Barbarian 1, followed by some combination of Totemist, Warshaper, and Totem Rager. Giant kitty! They're nice psionicists too, since they don't have to worry about components that way.

Lupins and Diaboli are underwhelming.

[Psyren]

Savant is T4 - can do a lot, but mediocre at all of it. You can do an iaijutsu build with them like with Factotum though.
Battle Dancer is also T4.
Urban Druid, despite the more limited list is still T1. They get some nice spells normal druids don't, like Animate Objects.

[Red Fel]

Some of my favorites have already been mentioned, but I'll throw a few in.

First: No love for Battle Dancer? It was the "Swordsage is the new Monk" before Swordsage was the new Monk. AC bonus, unarmed damage, lots of nifty maneuverability tricks. Chaotic Alignment, for all the people who want to play Monk but hate pretending to be Lawful. Works absurdly well with a Clawlock build.

Second: Pebble Underfoot! Yes, Races of the Wild gave us Underfoot Combat and Confound the Big Folk, but we can't forget that Dragon Compendium gave us a feat that offsets the size penalty on trip attacks! Great for Tibbits.

[Snowbluff]

I don't think BD is quite T4. I like it for a few reasons, but I think my last reading left me unimpressed. Then again, Monk might be just THAT bad. I'll get back to you, [trixie]my enthusiastic little admirers.[/trixie]

Dvati are fun for a few tricks. Bloodline feats are good for picking up more spells. There's a feat for dex to damage on ranged weapons called Dead Eye that doesn't specify ranged attack. Thrown weapons are ranged weapons.

EDIT: When I become a Titan? Does this mean I have to use a Gargantuan two-handed warhammer?

[Psyren]

I don't think BD is quite T4. I like it for a few reasons, but I think my last reading left me unimpressed. Then again, Monk might be just THAT bad. I'll get back to you, [trixie]my enthusiastic little admirers.[/trixie]

I agree actually, they're pretty close to T5. But they do get full BAB and innate flight (very late, but still.) So I gave them the edge over monk for that reason.

[Troacctid]

Diopsids are somewhat interesting for their ability to wield two-handed weapons in "one" hand (they have four arms) and still get the full benefits of wielding them two-handed--including getting an extra attack with double weapons. "Yo dawg, I heard you like two-weapon fighting, so I put two weapons in your two weapons so you can two-weapon fight while you two-weapon fight."

[Bad Wolf]

No one mentioned the Death Master yet? Cool necromantic abilities, undead minion, turn into a Lich as the capstone. Requires you to be evil and worship Orcus, but still, its fun.

[Extra Anchovies]

No one mentioned the Death Master yet? Cool necromantic abilities, undead minion, turn into a Lich as the capstone. Requires you to be evil and worship Orcus, but still, its fun.

They were already mentioned, but only in passing. I love them, personally. Here's why:

• They get Animate Dead as a second-level spell
• Most of the core wizard/sorcerer spells are on their list, except for some of the big direct-damage bombs
• Lots of nice BFC gems: Evard's Black Tentacles, Cloudkill, Creeping Doom
• They get Animate Dead as a second-level spell
• You get to become a Lich for free without sitting through 20 levels of Dread Necromancer
• Undead minions are definitely cooler than having a familiar
• THEY GET ANIMATE DEAD AS A SECOND-LEVEL SPELL

If I ever want to play a necromancer and evil characters are accepted, I'm going to play a Death Master. Did I mention that they get Animate Dead as a second-level spell?

That means that I can have Animated undead from first level through Precocious Apprentice.

ETA: the Undead Minion is pretty great too. Wyvern Zombie means you have a way of attaining (Ex) flight without the DM giving you a flying creature's corpse. And the class feature also lets you pick up a Wight without having to rely on the DM letting you have one. In addition, your control over the main wight (which gains bonus HD, Str/Dex increases, and other abilities) can't be dispelled or suppressed (unless there's some way to suppress a familiar's link with its master), so you have unflagging control over it (and thus over its spawn as well).

ETA2: There's also the fact that the Death Master is an arcane full caster with average BAB and a d8 hit die, plus by using a vial of blood as a material component they can ignore ASF for their armor. Combine that with the fact that Dragon Compendium mentions that you can make blood last longer by casting Gentle Repose, and you have enough combat ability to not always need someone protecting you while you lay down the Acid Fog.

[WhamBamSam]

Also natural attackers. I mention it every time it comes up, but I love CE Tibbit Soulborn 2/Stoneblessed 3/Goliath sub Barbarian 1, followed by some combination of Totemist, Warshaper, and Totem Rager. Giant kitty! They're nice psionicists too, since they don't have to worry about components that way.

Lupins and Diaboli are underwhelming.

I'm a fan of CE Tibbit Soulborn 2-4/Binder 10 binding Zagan so you can grapple as if large regardless of your actual size. Now you can be the kitty that sits on people so that they can't get up. Shame the chaotic alignment prevents entry to Knight of the Sacred Seal.

Lupins are alright. They're LA+0 monstrous humanoids which isn't all that common and always having Ride as a class skill is potentially useful in some corner case builds.

And yeah, Sha'ir and Death Master are pretty cool. Both can be really handy for certain builds what with Sha'ir qualifying for divine stuff and Death Master giving you some key spells early and medium BAB on a full caster for access to certain Gish PrCs that are tough for Wizards.

[Extra Anchovies]

I'm a fan of CE Tibbit Soulborn 2-4/Binder 10 binding Zagan so you can grapple as if large regardless of your actual size. Now you can be the kitty that sits on people so that they can't get up. Shame the chaotic alignment prevents entry to Knight of the Sacred Seal.

Why Soulborn? That confuses me.

[Psyren]

Why Soulborn? That confuses me.

CE Soulborn is immune to Str damage, drain or penalties of any kind. This unique ability comes up in some optimization circles.

With Tibbit in particular, it allows you to maintain your full strength score even while you are a Tiny housecat.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Battle Dancer is worse than Monk and based off a worse stat, and the only real noteworthy things come way way waaaaay beyond the point you'd have dropped out of either it or Monk. Full BAB is nice, but hardly enough to make a class good. And if you're in a game using DCv.1, you probably have access to a lot of other splats that buff monk ever so slightly with stuff like Invisible Fist, Darkmoon Disciple, Decisive Strike, etc... Definite Tier 5. Low tier 5.

Sha'ir is as overpowered as advertised.

[Psyren]

Eh, I dunno... 11th level seems a reasonable time to get pounce to me. 6th level would be better of course, but there's at least still plenty of the game to go.

Also, they can TWF with their unarmed strike, unlike a monk.

[Venger]

In addition, your control over the main wight (which gains bonus HD, Str/Dex increases, and other abilities) can't be dispelled or suppressed (unless there's some way to suppress a familiar's link with its master), so you have unflagging control over it (and thus over its spawn as well).

the closest thing that exists is blighter's "unbond" ability. while it does specify animal/magical beast, it's possible a GM could genralize it. other than that, there's nothing.

[KillianHawkeye]

Bloodline feats are good for picking up more spells.

I'm glad somebody already mentioned these. They are pure gold for Sorcerers! One feat that gets me an extra spell known at every spell level? And there are so many to choose from that you're bound to find one that fits the theme or combat strategy that you're going for.

I simply wouldn't EVER play a Sorcerer without one of these!