Is the Dragon Disciple worth it?

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I haven't played with the BG kits before so this is just my theorycrafted impression from the manual.

* The biggest benefit is the extra HP from d6 HD.
* The biggest loss is the spell slots. Roughly speaking, you lose 1/3rd of your highest level slot and 1/6th of all your other slots.
* I don't know how to evaluate the AC boost. Does it stack with everything?
* I don't know how to evaluate the fire resistance since I don't know how common fire attacks are and how good other options are for avoiding them.
* The breath weapon seems roughly equal to one extra 3rd level spell per day. Not much for a class that can cast dozens of spells per day.
* The CON boost at level five lets me save a point of CON in character creation.
* The CON boost at level 15 seems useless because of how late it comes.


I'm still on the fence about whether this is worth taking over a normal sorcerer so your comments are certainly appreciated.

 

Just ordering these points and adressing them as i go along :

First off, the DD gets a +1 CON bonus at both lvl 5 and lvl 15 - i wouldn't skimp on the constitution but raise it as high as possible - starting at 20 CON and upwards, your character gains HP regeneration, which is super useful.
It essentially guarantees you'll be up to full health whenever you transition between areas, and spend a lot less time resting.
Seriously, spend some time on character creation to roll yourself a decent score, 92+ is easily doable if you spend some time since you don't need to worry about percentile strength scores anyway. (alternatively, use EEkeeper, the CTRL+8 cheat, or the AutoRoller AHK script to set/roll your stats for you.)

As far as the AC bost goes, as far as i know it acts as a bonus to a base AC, so it should stack with whatever robe you slap on, since you can't wear any armor.
I've done a quick test in game, and a lvl 11 DD with 18 DEX gets a total of -3 AC with a robe of the magi which sets base ac to 5. ( -4 AC sex bonus, -3AC class bonus.)
The usual stacking conflicts still apply, anything that sets base AC to a certain value does not stack, or will not give any benefit if your base AC is already lower then the value they set it to.

i.e. the lvl 1 Armor spell sets your AC to 6, but if your DD is level 16 he already has a -5 bonus to his AC, setting him to 5 without any other bonuses already, meaning the spell won't have any effect.

As far as (eventual) fire damage immunity goes, it's pretty good to have - fire damage is pretty abundant in the game, though the enemy will still have plenty of other things to hurt you with of course.

The breath weapon is kind of neat since it bypasses magic resistance and cannot be saved against. (though some of the monsters in the game are immune to fire damage altogether.)
You can also get it off pretty quickly without getting interrupted by taking an attack to the face.

The dragon disciple will have a much easier time during the early and mid game - even at the late game you're only really missing some lvl 9 spells/HLA's.
You'll still have all the same options for contingencies/spell triggers that a regular sorcerer has and which is what makes then so dangerous in the first place.
In BG2 especially, once you slap an Amulet of Power and the Robe of Vecna on them, they become unstoppable.
The amulet sets your casting time for all spells to 1, where the robe give a +4 bonus to casting time - essentially setting it to 0 and getting rid of any cast delay.

 

I can't get 20 CON until level 15, which is almost the end of IWD, right? (I don't plan to do HOF mode.)

Still, what else am I going to spend stats on? Do I lose anything for having the minimum 3 Int 3 Wis 15 Cha?

 

Dóh, i was mistakingly thinking you were playing Baldur's Gate
In that case, the constitution score becomes less of an issue, though i believe you'l still want to have 16 CON for the maximum +hp per level.
Still, if you have the points left over, putting 18 there for the future can't hurt since you don't really need them anywhere else.

I think you need at least 9 INT to use things like wands and cast scrolls from your quick bar, WIS and CHA are neglectable even though there are a sparse few instances where having high scores in them can open p additional dialogue options. (Like getting old jeb in easthaven to swear off the booze.)
Dex is nice for the bonus to AC and ranged weapons, boost your STR as well since Throwing Daggers and Slings get a bonus to damage from higher scores as well.

 

A dragon disciple is... meh. A sorcerer casts spells - that's pretty much all they do. The more spells, the merrier. You can max out strength and dexterity so that you are semi-useful with a sling in between casting spells.

 

That's what I'm doing with my DD but I must say he is certainly very "meh" so far (Vale). Nothing to do with the DD kit, just that my spells aren't good vs undead. He has 5% of the party kills.

If Sorcs could dual/multi the way mages could that would be a huge boost to the class.

 

Yeah well, low level mages/sorcerers suck. Especially in IWD. And giving the sorcerer the ability to dual/multi class would make mages obsolete in this game.