Swordsage, how to go about it

[Hexer]

ooooookay, so I swapped wind stride and clinging shadow strike for wolf fang strike and sudden leap. What would you suggest for my second stance if island of blades really wont be usefull?
Looking at the 2 1st lvl tigerclaw stances I dont really see how they'll do much for me...
blood in the water would be cool if I rolled a lot of crits so it would be great for a crit build which hasnt been a focus here so far
hunter's sense would give me scent... yea well... will it be of much use? especially in an urban environment?

other options:
- flame's blessing: gives fire resistance. sounds nice but depends a lot on what we will be facing which I have no idea about yet
- stance of clarity: +2 AC against one foe, -2 against all others. might be good as well as break my neck depending on the situation, could always change stances when facing more than 1 enemy of course
- step of the wind: I dont really think we'll be in difficult terrain a lot
- stonefoot stance: sounds good as long as you dont move a lot which is basically the opposite of my other stance (child of shadows), not sure if I like that yet...


oh and thanks for mentioning armor spikes cause I was thinking about those, too but forgot. Are they treated as an unarmed strike or as a light weapon or what? Been a while since I read the rules for them...

And thanks for all your helpful input so far StreamOfTheSky!

EDIT: never mind about the armor spikes, I just found the text about them. They count as light wepons when used in a normal or offhand melee attack and you can deal extra damage with them when grappling. Sounds good and usefull to me. Also this could give me a bit of an edge should I ever not have that axe with me for whatever reason

 

[Empirate]

And that'd be really awesome if he were a Crusader in full plate. But he's a swordsage in light armor...with tumble as a class skill...

Sure enough, I only ever used CM on a Crusader... you got me there.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Hunter's Sense is handy, my only problem with it is I always take Hearing the Air (Diamond Mind) as a 5th level stance, which pretty much supercedes it completely.

Blood in the Water is terrible unless you're dual wielding 18-20 threat weapons with keen or improved critical and really building towards it.

I don't like Clarity. It's bad until only one guy is left, and the bonus type overlaps with the Dusty Rose Iuon stone you'l eventually have.

Flame's Blessing...it's not really great till the Fire Immunity around level 16, you can probably skip it.

I really love Step of the Wind, but if you don't think there'll be much difficult terrain, then it's useless.

Stonefoot is decent. The Stone Dragon restrictions are annoying for sure, but thinking of it as your stance for when mostly still and CoS as the one for movement, it might complement well.

 

[Hexer]

I really love Step of the Wind, but if you don't think there'll be much difficult terrain, then it's useless.

Stonefoot is decent. The Stone Dragon restrictions are annoying for sure, but thinking of it as your stance for when mostly still and CoS as the one for movement, it might complement well.

I took Step of the Wind now anyways. Just sounded a lot better to me than Stonefoot Stance. We'll see if I get much use out of it but I figured if we dont face a lot of difficult terrain in the city I can still try to draw fights to such terrain anyways, maybe fighting on rooftops, getting onto tables, ..... is there actually some kind of "grenade-type" item that makes an areas ground difficult terrain? Like a "grease-bomb" or something?

 

[Hexer]

My last question still stands: Are there ways or items that let you make an area "difficult terrain" for some time?

 

[kitcik]

My last question still stands: Are there ways or items that let you make an area "difficult terrain" for some time?

Heck yeah, be a mad alchemist (last power).

 

[Empirate]

My last question still stands: Are there ways or items that let you make an area "difficult terrain" for some time?

Any number of spells can do that for you, like Grease, Entangle etc. Just get an item that does one of these.

Feat-wise, Earth Devotion isn't too bad at all (although there're better devotion feats).

The Knight class has an ability that lets them treat their threatened squares as difficult terrain for all enemies, but that won't likely help, I guess.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

The Knight class has an ability that lets them treat their threatened squares as difficult terrain for all enemies, but that won't likely help, I guess.

Actually, that would be perfect. But that's a few levels in, and Knight comes with a lot of code of conduct baggage he definitely does not want.

 

[Dandu]

My last question still stands: Are there ways or items that let you make an area "difficult terrain" for some time?

Caltrops and marbles.

 

[kitcik]

Caltrops and marbles.

Although I would rule in your favor, I don't think they technically create difficult terrain under RAW.