Generic Human Warblade 1: First Stance

[Nail]

-2 vs everyone with an extra +4 vs a single guy means -2 vs everyone but that guy who is +2 instead.

I'm unclear why looking at it this way is helpful.

Punishing Stance: +1d6 dam vs everyone, -2 AC versus everyone.

Stance of Clarity: +2 AC vs. one opponent, -2 AC versus everyone else.

BTW: We played this afternoon in a low level game. Often the bad guys were just hitting the PCs, usually by 1. Stance of Clarity would have been significant. An extra +1d6 damage would not have been. I'm sold.

 

[Slaved]

I'm unclear why looking at it this way is helpful.

I was just showing you what the guy meant as your post showed that you were not on the same page as the other guy.

He was saying that you can look at both as giving you a -2 penalty to AC vs all opponents with the only difference being that one gives you +1d6 damage and the other allowed you to choose an opponent to gain an additional +4 AC against.

It is the same effect with a different way of looking at it to compare the benefits as directly as possible.


Which is better? It depends on the situations and the builds and the campaign.

 

[hong]

Nifft, help me with this. I've looked that feat over twice, heck, four times.....I'm just not seeing how great it is.

One exploit I've seen is to combine the combat rhythm option with Avalanche of Blades.

 

[Mort]

Nifft, help me with this. I've looked that feat over twice, heck, four times.....I'm just not seeing how great it is. And Iron Heart Aura? Sucks.

Enlighten me.

I'm not Nifft but I'll give it a try.

Basically the trick is simple:
- get lots of attacks the first round - all are counted as touch attacks because of stormguard warrior .
- attacks that hit do no damage BUT add 5 points of damage to EVERY attack against the same opponent on your next turn.
- on your next turn either get lots of attacks again - each with a HUGE bonus to damage or do something like diamond nightmare blade which multiplies your one attack by 4.

simple example (mostly off the top of my head so excuse minor mistakes):
11th level warblade (str: 16, 2 +2 weapons):
relevant feats: two-weapon fighting, improved two weapon fighting, iron heart aura, stormguard warrior, imp. unarmed attack, snap kick.

1st round:
using the combat rhythm option of stormguard warrior to attack opponent -
initiate dancing mongoose for 2 extra attacks and use snap kick to get one more - that's +12/+12/+7/+2 primary, +12/+12/+7 secondary and +12 snap kick, or 8 touch attacks.
assume for ease of calculation that 6 hit (considering how low touch AC's are this is not a bad assumption).

2nd round:
hope your opponent doesn't move more than 5' because he sees what your doing(unless you have diamond nightmare blade at later levels in which case it doesn't matter).
Attack opponent with a full attack - every hit does an extra 30 points of damage. You get 5-6 attacks assuming no other buffs; this is a lot of damage potential.

Some people like avalanche of blades for the 1st round - this is ok - but problematic in that one miss ends the whole chain so 1 unlucky roll and you end up with only 1 or 2 hits on the first round.

At high levels - manuevers like raging mongoose and time stands still allow even more attacks in the 2nd round for truly over the top damage.

 

[jasin]

When you use combat rythm, all attacks must be touch attacks, right? I seem to remember someone suggesting you use combat rythm for lower-BAB attacks that would probably miss anyway, but the feat is already very nice even without that option.

 

[Mort]

When you use combat rythm, all attacks must be touch attacks, right? I seem to remember someone suggesting you use combat rythm for lower-BAB attacks that would probably miss anyway, but the feat is already very nice even without that option.

I don't think so:

the feat only says "to use this option, use can choose to make melee touch attacks in place of normal melee attacks against an opponent."

This implies whichever attacks you wish can be touch attacks and not all have to be.

 

[Nifft]

@ Nail: Like everyone else says, it's the Combat Rhythm bit that makes us all drool. It's a really nice option against some foes.

I'm not exactly certain how to interpret "normal melee attack" -- I'm not sure if it excludes melee attacks made as part of a maneuver, like Avalanche of Blades, though that followed by Time Stands Still should scare the gods themselves.

Even if that is illegal, two full attacks with TWF and Snap Kick (or Flurry of Blows and Snap Kick) via Time Stands Still could be the first round of Combat Rhythm, and the second round could be Avalanche of Blades or Diamond Nightmare Blade.

All of the usual bonus damage optimization tricks work here, too -- TWF, a couple levels of Totemist, or extra natural attacks via grafts or feats (like Starspawn from Lords of Madness) -- and they work for both the touch attacks and the second round's attacks.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nail]

Got it. (Ouch!)

It seems like you highest BAB attacks for the first round should still be normal attacks, then use the touch attacks for the lesser iterative attacks. Unless you have a bunch of "sure thing" attacks for round 2.

I'll have to watch for this combo coming from my group's WB. He's maxed out his concentration score.....

 

[hong]

Combat rhythm is actually quite interesting, in that it requires you delay your damage for one round. The general principle in D&D combat is "hit first, hit hard", and this option basically goes against that first clause. At the least, it makes a change from just opening up with diamond nightmare blade in the 1st round. (And it means if the other guy opens with DNB, you'd better hope you have the hit points to survive!)

 

[Nail]

As I think about it, you may really regret the first round's worth of damage. Only an extra +5 per hit? Hmmmmm.....looks like I'll have to get out that "average damage per round" Calc.