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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 5815366" data-attributes="member: 2804">Tome of Battle was released by WotC around 2005. It recognized that melee characters were weaker than casters at higher levels, and sought to address that. It also appealed to a large subset of players who wanted to play melee characters that could do cool maneuvers in battle instead of just spamming attacks every round or playing as sidekicks to the casters.The book had 3 classes that WotC used as a sort of pre-4e experiment in alternative mechanics. The Sword Sage, the Warblade, and the Crusader. The book contained a variety of different maneuvers organized into different disciplines that were effectively balanced and organized like 3e spells. For example, maneuvers went from level 1 to 9, and the disciplines they were sorted into, were analogous to schools of magic.However, unlike wizards the refresh mechanic was not daily, but encounter based and varied depending on which of the three new classes you played. Other non-ToB classes could also learn these new maneuvers via multi-classing or by spending feats.The Sword Sage could spend a round and recover one power. The Warblade could spend a full action and recover all powers. The crusader's powers refreshed randomly. Each discipline had a different focus. Some were overtly supernatural in nature. The Sword Sage and Crusader got access to the more supernatural over the top powers, while the Warblade was more strictly martial in nature.Some maneuvers could let your attack do fire damage, or bypass DR, or roll multiple d6's for damage instead of rolling normal weapon damage. Others were more utility based, providing bonus movement, or special tricks like use your Concentration skill roll in lieu of a will save. Or shake off one condition effecting you. Some were proto-Warlord, granting bonuses to allies that followed your lead.Its pretty much my favorite 3e book of all time hands down and I will never play in a 3e or Pathfinder game where I can't use it. It made martial characters in 3e not only worth playing, but actually fun to play.</blockquote>

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