Dragonstorm Mage

From HGWiki

1 Dragonstorm Mage (Sorcerer/Blue Dragon Disciple)
2 See Also
3 Class-specific forum

Dragonstorm Mage (Sorcerer/Blue Dragon Disciple)

Legendary BAB: +12 for Blue Dragon Disciple CC or +9 for Sorcerer CC

Requirements

Must have 10 levels of Sorcerer, 10 levels of Blue Dragon Disciple, Greater Spell Focus (Evocation), and Resist Energy (Electricity) before level 22.

Benefits

On achieving Dragonstorm Mage status at level 20 or 21, the character is automatically given Epic Spell (Hellball) and Epic Spell (Dragon Knight) as bonus feats (note: you cannot actually use those spells until you achieve epic status, i.e., level 21).

Any light or medium armor worn by the Dragonstorm Mage has its spell failure chance reduced to zero (Note: Dragonstorm Mages do not get armor proficiency feats through Sorcerer or XDD levels).

Dragonstorm Mages receive a CL/2 boost to lore for their spells. This can go beyond the normal 120 limit, up to 130% enhancement.

Spells

For certain spells, casterlevel = Sorcerer level + BDD level including legendary levels if the control class is Sorcerer or BDD.
In addition these spells count as Evocation for determining DCs and receive +1 spell penetration for every 10 caster levels over 20.

Those spells include:

Level	Spells
1	Lesser Orb of Electricity Lesser Orb of Sound Negative Energy Ray (does divine damage) Shocking Grasp Summon Creature I
2	Gedlee's Electric Loop (targets which fail a Reflex save are dazed) Shock Weapon Summon Creature II
3	Lightning Bolt does (3/4 caster level)d6, 2/3 elec and 1/3 divine Scintillating Sphere Summon Creature III
4	Elemental Shield (duration multiplied by 10; provides elec/sonic immunity and elec kickback Stoneskin Orb of Electricity Orb of Sound Summon Creature IV
5	Ball Lightning (no longer limited to 1 ball per target; does 2/3 elec and 1/3 slashing damage) Energy Buffer Summon Creature V
6	Chain Lightning (does 1 additional point of damage per die; 1/2 elec and 1/2 divine) Tenser's Transformation Summon Creature VI
7	Great Thunderclap Greater Orb of Electricity Static Field Greater Orb of Sound Summon Creature VII
8	Summon Creature VIII
9	Meteor Swarm (becomes Thunderstorm; does clvl D10 electricity or positive, depending whatever is best against target) Summon Creature IX
Epic	Dragon Knight (Blue Dragon Disciple and Sorcerer levels stack for the purposes of acquiring the improved Dragon Knight summon.)
Epic	Hellball (see below)

Other Changes

Dragon Knight
- Dragon disciple levels count for improving Dragon Knight.
Hellball
- Does (caster level*3/2)d20 electrical damage. Creatures that heal off eletric will take lowest exotic damage type instead (positive/divine/magic).
- No longer breaks loot
- Receives 1 additional use per day for every 10 levels of blue dragon disciple including legendary levels if the Mage's control class is blue dragon disciple)
Wing Buffet (requires draconic full transformation) gets enhanced DC = DSM levels + Constitution modifier.
Spells:
- Ball Lightning now inflicts 2/- per 10 casterlevels in resistance debuff.
- Scintillating Sphere now inflict 1% per 6 caster levels damage vulnerability.

Tips for Building and Playing

Casting any electric based spells underwater is inadvisable due to it causing electric kickback to everybody in range, even the auto recast of an Electric Weapon buff will cause this, so it is advisable to test out any spell you may wish to use in an underwater area in a safe location before employing it in a hostile combat situation.

Unlike any other mages, Hellball does not break loot and does respectable damage to monsters as well as knocking them down. It is very useful for controlling big spawns. Cast it at an expected spawn point then run in following it,if timed right you'll then be hitting lots of knocked down injured creatures.

Using Ball Lightning on everything whilst hilarious in Pre-LL areas can to turn to suicidal to the caster (and their party in the case of AoE kickback) when they hit kickback creatures, unless you have all required immunities covered, due to the sheer amount of hits on the target. Unless you want to invoke the wrath of fellow party members 'Tab' to ensure there are no AoE kickback creatures (e.g. Winds, Fumes, Infernal Machines, Coldforge Constructs, etc) in any spawn you want to lightning ball.

There are three main ways to build a DSM (Dragonstorm Mage).

Caster-Tank. This is a very hardy caster that gets all the Dragonstorm mage buffs and spells while wearing light or medium armor. Spell durations and penetration on non-DSM spells are very weak. A typical example would be 19 Sorc, 20 BDD, 1 Paladin. Some people spend the Epic Toughness feats to get full BDD progression, others do not. Another possible choice is wherever or not to use Auto-Still feats to allow shields and heavy armor.
Sorcerer Control Class. Typically 29 Sorcerer, 10 BDD, 1 Paladin. Gets caster epic spells in addition to ending with 49 caster levels, similar to a level 51 cheese sorcerer, for all non-DSM spells. In robes can get long lasting 65% conceal via Ethereal Visage, or switch to light or medium armor and get shorter lasting 50% conceal from Displacement.
BDD Control Class. Typically 25 BDD, 12 Sorcerer, 3 Paladin/Blackguard. This version concentrates more on physical attacks and buffs with offensive spells as an backup. Base AB suffers a lot because of the sorcerer and BDD levels levels pre-20 but Tenser's Transformation helps recover to acceptable levels, it is worth considering taking Extend Spell as you do not get the extended version of this spell available to a Staffmaster.