For the most part, I realize that most people just go Sorc1/Fighter4/RDD10 and then crank Fighter. This means that you have to go Human or a class that favors Sorcerer or Fighter, and even then you get one stack of XP penalty for most of the game. The upshot is that Sorc1/Fighter19/RDD10 is well-known to be a mostly broken ball of stats.

One thing that bothers me about D&D is that it's painfully min/maxy, and the fact that RDD has a mostly nonsensical prerequisite just kicks the aesthetic in the kneecap. Apparently "use you arcane powers to tap into your draconic heritage" means "learn a few cantrips in high school and then get back to the swordplay."

Anyway, the point is that I've been trying to figure out what a build that actually levels Sorcerer more than once would look like. Granted, it's still going to be necessary to level up a competent melee class to really make use of RDD. And for some extra kicks, I'm going to stick with builds that never incur XP penalties.

Races: Human is going to be a strong pick, but managing your highest-level class requires planning. Some races like Wild Elf can start with Sorcerer, but if you're committed to having no XP penalty, then you can only level your melee class 0-2 times before gaining RDD, which means taking at least a few Sorcerer levels early. And then you have to keep RDD and your melee class within one level of each other after that, but you can leave Sorc at 9 so that you're 9/10/11 exactly when you hit the level cap.

1st approach: Wild Elf Sorcerer/Monk. http://nwn2db.com/build/?224205
Wild Elf for Sorcerer as favored class. Lawful Anything, and Monk at level 1 (for the skill points). INT at 10, all others at least 12 if not 14-16. Specialize in unarmed focus/crit feats as much as possible. Practiced Spellcaster seems like the best way to stretch the first two spell ranks for maximum effect/duration. Taking Sorcerer to 4 grants 2nd-level spells, so go with Monk1/Sorc4 instead of 2/3. Then alternate RDD and Monk to RDD10/Monk11 before leveling Sorcerer to 9 in the end game.

The goal for Sorcerer is to just grab as many self-buffs as possible and maybe a direct damage or utility spell here and there. It could be possible to rush a few more Sorcerer levels earlier for earlier Stoneskin or whatever, but RDD really wants to hit 10, and is already getting slowed down by the Monk levels.

2nd Approach: Human variant, Sorcerer/Monk. Monk3/Sorc2 start. Level up RDD all the way to 10. Then alternate Sorc/Monk until Monk10/RDD10/Sorc9. Leaves one more level for Monk. This approach maxes RDD faster and has a bonus feat, but Sorc doesn't even make it to 4.

3rd Approach: Human Bard/Fighter. Similar to (2) overall, but Monk is incompatible with Bard due to alignment. Optional 2H build if you want to use light armor and Battle Casting.

4th Approach: Sorcerer/Eldritch Knight, probably a Wild Elf. Similar to (1), but with more pre-requisites to juggle. Without the huge defensive bonuses from Monk, this could be problematic, and I'm not seeing the payout with the spells being worth it. However, it's probably the most synergized way to fully incorporate Sorcerer into the rest and mix in more direct damage spells. (In NWN2, apparently Tenser's Transformation merely sets stats to 20, which are naturally attainable with RDD regardless, so higher caster levels aren't actually that appealing for that purpose.)



Has anyone given RDD a spin outside of the "single level of Bard/Sorc and then just eat the XP penalties" default build?

With the consideration that you can swap Fighter for any full base attack class and Bard for Sorcerer, this is actually pretty easy to work around and most races can actually do this without XP penalty.

You could also just qualify as a Fighter 3 / Sorcerer 2 (switch Fighter for any full BAB class or Sorcerer for Bard, if desired) then start into a different prestige class once you've finished your RDD progression. You can dodge the XP penalty until level 26, by which point it's not nearly as painful.

I personally like using Paladin. All that extra strength makes qualifying for Epic Divine Might so much easier. It's a badly designed prestige class. Not much more to say about it. Due to the massive caster level loss inherent in RDD, you pretty much have to focus on the melee side because your spellcasting is so atrophied. Combined with the fact that melee/arcane caster hybrids just don't work well, and it's not hard to see why RDD is a dead end for someone who wants to actually do casting.

I'd say Paladin 4 / Bard 1 / RDD 10 / Bard X would be my choice. Yes, it uses a variation of the standard "4 fighter / 1 sorcerer" entry (and needs an alignment shift to boot), but it goes on to top off the bard levels once it's done.

Yeah, I agree that the class requirements are just plain bad design. They could just make the pre-req Level 6 Character and slapped on the equivalent XP penalty for simplicity.

But NWN2 on Normal seems winnable even if you play sub-optimal builds on a character or two. I'm probably going to try to make Human Sorcerer6/Eldritch Knight7/Fighter7/RDD10 work for the lulz. To avoid XP penalties, starting Sorcerer6/Fighter1. Then at 6/5/5/5, it's finally possible to start pumping RDD to 10.

This is probably going to be hilariously bad, but I have a pure Sorcerer and a Fighter/Dwarven Defender along for the ride so whatever.

Prestige classes are ignored when determining XP penalty. A human Sorcerer/EK/Fighter/RDD should not get a penalty regardless of leveling order.

The Pathfinder version of the Dragon Disciple is a pretty good rendition that improved it immensely.

The multi-class XP rule was commonly ignored in pen and paper, and the 20/20 hindsight at the end of 3rd edition's lifespan was that this rule should have never been included in the first place. It wasn't a fun rule, it was very tedious and annoying to actually apply it, and it didn't actually stop absurd multi-class combos (like taking 2 levels in 5 different classes, which is "balanced" and thus didn't trigger the penalty). 4th edition did away with favored classes entirely, while Pathfinder (a 3rd party remake of 3rd edition) replaced it with something that worked completely differently. Depends on the campaign and how you approach it. I presume you're talking about Storm of Zehir. The only thing I'd warn you about is to watch your level; it's very easy to reach the end-game while horrifically under-leveled. I got there at level 12 on my first playthrough, when you're supposed to be level 20.

Wow, I somehow did not notice this. I guess I could start over and keep this in mind. It hasn't been that long yet. Though I can only reroll so many times before I never get anywhere.