Generic Human Warblade 1: First Stance

You're creating a generic human warblade with Str 15, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 8.

At 1st level, you start out knowing three maneuvers: Moment of Perfect Mind (Diamond Mind 1st Counter), Sapphire Nightmare Blade (Diamond Mind 1st Strike), and Steel Wind (Iron Heart 1st Strike).

At 1st level, you also know one stance. Which stance do you learn, and why?

Stance of clarity.

I took punishing stance for my warblade when we started Savage Tide, and falchion + steel wind + Power Attack + punishing stance sure makes for an impressive damage output at 1st-level, but after thinking about it I'm sort of regretting not having taken stance of clarity.

I expect to see myself using Combat Expertise a lot to make up for light armour and only middling Dex, and using Combat Expertise with punishing stance is wasteful: if you're taking -2 to attacks to cover the penalty from PS and get the +1d6 damage, you'd do better taking -2 to attacks for +4 damage via Power Attack.

But then, I might be making too big a deal out of it; a warblade at higher levels will probably be spending most of his time in higher level stance anyway.

Still, I think stance of clarity is especially nice in combination with steely strike. Makes for quite a fearsome duelist: against single opponents, it's +2 AC, +4 attacks at no penalty.

Punishing Stance.

At low level, that extra +1d6 damage is big. The Bbn rage without all of the penalties. What's not to like?

I'm not sure why Stance of Clarity is a good idea...+2 AC against one foe, -2 AC against all others.....that sounds lousy.

Nail said:

I'm not sure why Stance of Clarity is a good idea...+2 AC against one foe, -2 AC against all others.....that sounds lousy.

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It's great ... if you have exactly one foe.

But my choice is Bolstering Voice. Everyone likes making their Will saves.

Cheers, -- N

Stance of clarity. There will always be combats where you fight only one enemy, and +2 AC is very useful there.

I'm not sure why there's so much love for punishing stance. Its good at 1st level, but as time goes on, I'm sure I'd prefer to have the AC back. +1d6 damage isn't that big a bonus beyond low levels.

....does a Bbn continue to rage after 1st level?

Not that it matters now, but:

If I had to vote over again, I'd have put the 14 into Int, not Con. It's the better long-term choice.

Nail said:

If I had to vote over again, I'd have put the 14 into Int, not Con. It's the better long-term choice.

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Word.

Wish I'd seen these polls earlier, I'd've given this opinion at the right time and changed the world.

-- N

I like leading the charge for its growth potential. I usually go for the long term choice, and suffer through the early levels.

Nifft said:

It's great ... if you have exactly one foe.

But my choice is Bolstering Voice. Everyone likes making their Will saves.

Cheers, -- N

Click to expand...

Isn't that what Moment of Perfect Mind is for?