Dragon Slayer

Dragons comprise some of the most powerful creatures in the world. When young, they are a match for many adventurers, and when they reach great age, they can, singlehandedly, lay seige to whole armies or cities. Many adventurers have gone to fight these great brutes, for reasons ranging from pride, to treasure, to vengeance, but for every one who comes back rich with wealth, many of these adventurers die horrible deaths. However, some individuals have learned how to fight these great beasts and win. These few are the great dragon slayers.

Dragon slayers are mighty warriors who hate dragons, some only evil ones, and others all dragons. They gain supernaturral abilities to use against their choice foe. The primary difference between the dragon slayer and an "average" warrior is that the dragon slayer is empowered by the very god who created dragons, Io, the Concordant Dragon. It is Io himself who trained the first of these holy warriors how to combat his children, in an effort to stop th dragons from killing themselves. With the intimate knowledge and supernatural powers Io envests them with, and then never seemed to reclaim after the fact, the dragon slayers are a fear even for the greatest of wyrms among the dragon breeds, and often all imperfect dragons (dragons other than Io), are fair game to these slayers.

Hit Die: d10

Requirements:

• Deity: Io, the Concordant Dragon
• Alignment: Any nonchaotic
• Base Attack Bonus: +7
• Skills: Intimidate 4 ranks, Knowledge
(dragonlore) 5 ranks, Listen 4 ranks, Ride 4 ranks, Spot 4 ranks
• Feats: Endurance, Mounted Combat
• Special: Must kill a dragon, either alone or as a group.

Class Skills: The Dragon Slayer's class skills are Alchemy (Int), Concentration (Con), Craft(Int), Knowledge (Int), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Int).

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dragon Slayers are proficient with all types of non-exotic weapons, all types of armor, and shields.

Skill Points per level: 2 + Int modifier

Table: The Dragon Slayer

	Class Level		BAB		Fort		Ref		Will	Special
	1		+1		+2		+0		+0	Favored Enemy (dragons), +2 to attack rolls vs. dragons, Fear Immunity, Damage Bonus +1
	2		+2		+3		+0		+0	Slayer Attack Form, Damage Bonus +2
	3		+3		+3		+1		+1	Breath Weapon Defense, Damage Bonus +3
	4		+4		+4		+1		+1	Slayer Attack Form, Damage Bonus +4
	5		+5		+4		+1		+1	Damage Bonus +5
	6		+6		+5		+2		+2	Slayer Attack Form, Damage Bonus +6
	7		+7		+5		+2		+2	Damage Bonus +7
	8		+8		+6		+2		+2	Slayer Attack Form, Damage Bonus +8
	9		+9		+6		+3		+3	Damage Bonus +9
	10		+10		+7		+3		+3	Slayer Attack Form, Damage Bonus +10

CLASS FEATURES
All of the following are class features of the Dragon Slayer prestige class.

Favored Enemy: At 1st level, a dragon slayer receives the ranger ability of favored enemy, and they choose dragons.

Attack Bonus: At 1st level the dragon slayer receives a +2 to attack rolls, in addition to any other bonuses, when attacking dragons. At 5th level, this increases to +4.

Damage Bonus: Starting at 1st level, a dragon slayer may add his levels of dragon slayer to his damage amount when in combat with a dragon (not cumulative)(i.e. 6th level dragon slayer with Str 18 and a greatsword = 2d6+4(Str)+6(DS level).

Fear Immunity: From the moment of their christening, a dragon slayer is immune to all effects of any dragon fear.

Breath Weapon Defense: Gained at 3rd level, a dragon slayer who fails his Reflex save against a dragon's breath weapon still takes only half damage. If they succeed, then they take none. This ability is like the Rogue's Evasion, except that it only functions against a dragon's breath weapon, and it is not limited by armor.

Dragon Slayer Attack Forms: Dragon slayers learn special attacks that they can use against dragons that allow them to truly hinder or injure the wyrms. Similar to archmage high arcana, at each even level (2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th) the dragon slayer can choose one of these seven special attacks. With only the one exception below, only one may be used in a round, as a full-round action, and only one special attack can be used every other round. Any of these attacks only work on dragons.

• Breath Stun: When this attack connects, the dragon's breath weapon is crippled for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt.
• Breach Attack:
• Dodge Attack: This ability makes use of the dragon slayer's physiological knowledge of dragons to inflict more damage with a single attack. When used on a successful attack roll, the slayer's weapon's base damage is doubled, but not the modifiers. This attack can be used alone, or in concert with breach attack.
• Double Damage: When this attack connects, after the damage rolls are made, that quantity is doubled.
• Great Blow: The Dragon Slayer donates a quantity of hit points to an attack, and if it hits, the damage dealt is increased by the number of points donated. Whether a hit or a miss, however, the hit points are lost.
• Weapon Throw: Allows the Dragon Slayer to hurl his sword as a spear.
• Wing Attack: When this attack connects, the dragon's wing is crippled for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt. With at least one crippled wing, a dragon obviously cannot fly, without magic, nor use several of its attacks.

Equipment: Upon completion of the rites that christen a new dragon slayer, he or she is presented with a special suit of mithral full plate armor (and will refuse to use any other armor in its place) and a longsword or greatsword, both of masterwork quality. At every second level, the armor gains a +1 enchantment bonus (stackable with other enchantments) from the slayer's long-standing pact with Io while it is in his possession, as well as granting a +4 bonus to intimdiate checks against dragons, but also incurs a -4 penalty to diplomacy checks, as all dragons know what slayer armor looks like. It loses its bonus in the hands anyone else, but not its penalty. The sword gains a +1 bonus to damage and a +1 to melee attack bonus for every odd level of dragon slayer gained and acts as if it had the dragon bane magical trait. Again, this works only while in the hands of the slayer. Though they don't come with the equipment, most capable dragon slayers purchase or acquire rings of the various elemental protection, for while the breath weapons of dragons are much less dangerous, the environments these beasts live in often mirror this breath, and wearing heavy metal armor in many environments is uncomfortable at the very least, life-threatening at the worst. They also often purchase rings of sustenance and cloaks of resistance. Other weapons that dragon slayers sometimes fancy are large, composite longbows, lances for while riding, and rarely, heavy weapons, such as warhammers and great axes. Also, almost every dragon slayer at least carries a shield, even if they might not often use it.

THE DRAGON SLAYER'S MOUNT
Dragon slayers often ride mounts of heroic proportions, usually a large warhorse or an airborne steed. As long as the dragon slayer is nearby to the mount, it benefits from the following abilities, assuming the Dragon Slayer has achieved them: fear immunity, attack bonus,and breath weapon defense.

"This slightly more powerful, more focused version of the Dragon Slayer is a 3E redo of the 2E version from Council of Wyrms. I prefer it over the one in Draconomicon, especially with the fluff-text explanation of the why they do it, but either could be used, I guess, and the later is a bit easier to get into. It should be noted that while this class is only really useful against dragons, by the end of it, they are more than capable of doing a lot of damage to said dragon, especially with certain 3E weapon enchantments, and their attack and damage gains throughout."

For more pics of dragon slayers and mages, go here.

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