Disciple of Ashardalon

Requirements

Base Attack Bonus: +18

Alignment: Any evil

Skills: Knowledge (religion) 18 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 18 ranks

Feats: Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability

Race: Any dragon.

Special: Initiation: Before adopting the prestige class, a dragon must join the loose-knit cult of other disciples and undergo its initiation rites. This process includes the ritual scarring of the dragon's heart—an extremely dangerous practice that would claim the life of a dragon too weak to qualify for the class, and leaves even those that do robbed of 1 point of Constitution. (Dragons that progress to at least 6th level in this class regain the lost Constitution point eventually.)

Summary

Dragons and fiends, the team up nobody ever wanted to see. These guys are big and nasty and metal as hell, needing to undergo a special ritual, literally scarring their hearts in order to pursue this dark and unsavory path. Technically any spontaneous arcane caster could become a Disciple it is built for sorcerers, however beguilers could easily benefit from this class. They have a variety of destructive spells that they gain access too and energy resistance, paralleling them becoming more and more like the fiend that is now bound to their heart.

Role: Spell DPS

Characteristics: Dragons that team up with fiends to gain spells and gradually become one themselves.

Source: Draconomicon

Game Rule Information

The Disciple of Ashardalon has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Charisma for ability effects and casting, Constitution for bulk as compared to other dragons you really are quite frail.

Alignment: Any Evil

Hit Die: d8

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Disciple of Ashardalon's class skills are Concentration (Con), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis)

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Disciple of Ashardalon.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Disciple of Ashardalon is proficient with whatever they were already proficient with.

Fiendbond Su: As part of its initiation, a disciple of Ashardalon binds a demonic spirit to its own heart, emulating the manner in which Ashardalon himself took a balor as his heart. The dragon's alignment changes to chaotic evil if it was not already of that alignment. The dragon gains bonus sorcerer spells as if its Charisma score were 2 points higher than actual.

Resistance Ex: A disciple of Ashardalon gains resistance to acid, cold, electricity, and fire. This resistance is 5 at 1st level and increases by 5 at 4th level and every four levels thereafter (10 at 4th level, 15 at 8th level, and 20 at 12th level).

Spell-like Abilities: A disciple of Ashardalon gains spell-like abilities as it increases in level. Its caster level is equal to its class level, and its saving throw DCs are 10 + its Cha modifier + spell level. Once an ability is gained, the disciple can use it a certain number of times per day, as follows: 3/day— Darkness, Poison, Unholy aura; 1/day— blasphemy, contagion, desecrate, destruction, horrid wilting, unhallow, unholy blight.

Skill Point Increase: At 2nd level, and again at 10th level, a disciple of Ashardalon gains a pool of bonus skill points equal to the number of dragon Hit Dice it possesses. This pool represents a gradual transition from being a creature of the dragon type (with 6 skill points per HD) to being an outsider (with 8 skill points per HD). These bonus skill points are in addition to the skill points gained at every level, and are not modified by the dragon's Intelligence score.

Ability Increase: Every three levels, a disciple of Ashardalon's ability scores increase automatically. At 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th level, its Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence all increase by 1 point. At 6th and 12th level, its Constitution and Charisma also increase by 1 point. By 12th level, a disciple of Ashardalon has the ability score adjustments of the half-fiend template.

Poison Immunity Ex: A disciple of Ashardalon of 6th level or higher is immune to all forms of poison.

Natural Armor Increase Ex: At 7th level, a disciple of Ashardalon's natural armor bonus improves by 1.

Fiendish Perfection Ex: At 12th level, a disciple of Ashardalon's bond with its demonic spirit is complete and perfect. The dragon now has the half-fiend template and becomes an outsider rather than a dragon.

Table 1-1: Disciple of Ashardalon

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Fiendbond, resistance 5, darkness
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Desecrate, skill point increase
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Unholy blight, ability increase (Str, Dex, Int)
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Resistance 10, poison
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Contagion
6th	+6	+5	+2	+5	Poison immunity, blasphemy, ability increase (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Cha)
7th	+7	+5	+2	+5	Unhallow, natural armor increase
8th	+8	+6	+2	+6	Resistance 15, unholy aura
9th	+9	+6	+3	+6	Horrid wilting, ability increase (Str, Dex, Int)
10th	+10	+7	+3	+7	Skill point increase
11th	+11	+7	+3	+7	Destruction
12th	+12	+8	+4	+8	Resistance 20, ability increase (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Cha), fiendish perfection