Dragonfire Adept help

[linklord231]

It's my buddy's birthday on Saturday, and he wants to run a one-shot for us.  My character pitch is a young Kobold who's convinced he's going to grow up in to a real Dragon one day, but I have some mechanics concerns.

Fleek, Dragonborn (Wings aspect) Rock Gnome (refluffed into Kobold)
Dragonfire Adept 6
Breath Shapes:  Cold Breath, Slow Breath
Invocations:  Beguiling Influence, Endure Exposure, Frightful Presence
Feats:  Entangling Exhalation, Ability Focus (Breath Weapon), 1 free  (leaning towards Exhaled Barrier or Flyby Attack)

I opted to go with refluffing the race because it's the only way I could think of to get permanent, physical wings without spending 2/3rds of my feats on it. 
This guy can be a hell of a debuffer (Entangled, Slowed, Shaken -> Frightened), but he's pretty much crap at everything else.  Even with a Dragon Spirit Cincture to boost my breath weapon to 4d6, that's still only an average of 14 damage on a failed save.  That's frankly pathetic.  It gets even worse when you realize that Entangling Exhalation halves your breath weapon damage, and a successful save halves it again.  3 damage at level six is laughably bad. 

Does anyone have any ideas for improving this? 

[SorO_Lost]

Power Surge (dragon #313) gives +1/die for +1 round to the cooldown which helps damage, specially when you get some more dice to roll. If you didn't play a Kobold you could have also picked up Breath of Syberis for a 5d6+5 (22) breath weapon.

The main deal with the Adept's breath is it's less about damage and more about area & effects. For example Strafing Breath allows you to murder entire armies & towns in one turn while your Effects can almost lock people down. Like Entangling Slow gives -75% speed, -4 Dex, -3 attack, -1 AC, & -1 reflex for one round on a successful Save. In total that's -3 AC/Reflex and up to -5 to their only method of successfully attacking you because they pretty much can't melee you.

Five-Fold is basically a built-in high level class redeemer instead of waiting for another book to publish Hellfire Adept and while it's cool for numbers, you probably will never use it which is a shame because it's the only way to make the Adept's breath deal a decently optimized value.

[Nifft]

You're level 6, so you just got your first Lesser Invocation. You picked Frightful Presence, which isn't bad, but as you note it's a bit of a one-trick pony.

The other options at that level are a bit more flexible:
- Humanoid Form => alter self at-will, applicable to a variety of combat and non-combat scenarios.
- Charm => who will be your pet this week?

Regarding feats, my choices would be something more like:
- Leadership (!!!) assuming your DM allows it
- Draconic Aura (buff yourself & your friends): Vigor or Energy
- Shape Soulmeld: Blink Shirt
- Obtain Familiar

[SorO_Lost]

- Humanoid Form => alter self at-will, applicable to a variety of combat and non-combat scenarios.

Speaking of, buried deep in the Underdark is the Phaerlock. Take Assume Supernatural Ability(share pain) for a 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha Mod Paralyzing Gaze. It doesn't honestly matter if the duration is a single round since the rest of party can Coup Degrace with Scythes and such for x4 damage.

It's not a terrible form either, three Natural Weapons, +7 Natural Armor, All-Around Vision, oh and you are constantly in pain while turned into one but hey there is no mechanical penalty for that. Get your red leathers out

Not even the current Dragonfire Adept Handbook knows of this trick either.

[linklord231]

Unfortunately, Power Surge is out because Dragon Magazine is out. 
Where's the +5 coming from with Breath of Siberys? 

If we were playing more than a one-shot, I'd take Humanoid Essence in a heartbeat.  But as it stands, I don't particularly want to put in the effort of making stat blocks for all the Alter Self forms I'd be using.  We roll for stats, which means I couldn't put the final touches on them until the day of, and I don't want to take up too much extra table time.  I might be persuaded, if Humanoid Form really is just that good.  But, swapping out Frightful Presence would take away some of that "real dragon" flavor.  Decisions, decisions.

I vaguely recall an ACF that swaps an Invocation for a Draconic Aura or two.  Might do that instead of Beguiling Influence.  If I do, I'd probably also swap Frightful Presence for a different Lesser Invocation since there's less synergy with fear stacking. 

Other things I've considered:
Swapping Frightful Presence for Draconic Flight would free up my racial choice.  I could either go real Kobold (is there one with a Con bonus and no Cha penalty?), or something else. 

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Why couldn't you just go Kobold Dragonborn? Id Also suggest White Dragonspawn as an option to get wings along with spells and a 2nd breath weapon thats bigger in size for Metabreath stacking, but sense its a one shot and Dragonlance is reasonably obscure enough not to be allowed at all tables.

Careful with those One-Shots while playing Dragonfire Adept Kobolds though, when my group did that it ended up being are longest running campaign stretching into epic levels.

[ketaro]

Why couldn't you just go Kobold Dragonborn? Id Also suggest White Dragonspawn as an option to get wings along with spells and a 2nd breath weapon thats bigger in size for Metabreath stacking, but sense its a one shot and Dragonlance is reasonably obscure enough not to be allowed at all tables.

Careful with those One-Shots while playing Dragonfire Adept Kobolds though, when my group did that it ended up being are longest running campaign stretching into epic levels.

It's been a nigh decade, son 
What have we done.......

[linklord231]

Why couldn't you just go Kobold Dragonborn?

I definitely could.  I figured if I'm already refluffing, I might as well refluff a race with a Con bonus, and Gnome is core and therefor more likely to be approved than say, Mongrelfolk.