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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 5554455" data-attributes="member: 13966">I said it's closer to those genres/games for the most part; not that it IS mostly like that stuff.  You don't see Conan exhaling cones of fire and standing there to take a sword to the face because he's "just that tough."  But you would see someone from Dragonball Z, Naruto, or other anime/manga series doing stuff like that, or video-game characters having such abilities even if they're primarily warrior-types.  Yet a martial adept with the right maneuver or stance could do just these sorts of things.Perhaps you missed the other half of my post where I described how you COULD use the ToB to make a more sword-n-sorcery style warrior? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  Also, mind you, my comments weren't meant at all in a negative tone; I love using hte Tome of Battle and I like it's over-the-top style.But honestly, a LOT of the maneuvers and stances and prestige classes are undeniably mystical.  Even Iron Heart has a scant few examples, like Lightning Throw.  Stone Dragon has plenty, from Stone Bones to Mountain Hammer to Earthstrike Quake to Colossus Strike, and the couple of variants of each of those at different levels.  Setting Sun has stuff like Comet Throw, Ghostly Defense, Ballista Throw, and Tornado Throw (though most of that disicpline is reasonably mundane; even though some of these maneuvers are extraordinary, no real person could throw another person 20 or 40 feet and through a crowd of people to horribly bludgeon all of them).Devoted Spirit is ALMOST ENTIRELY divinely-powered maneuvers, ranging frmo Crusader's Strike to Foehammer to Divine Surge to Radiant Charge to Immortal Fortitude and so on and so forth.  Diamond Mind is a mix of extraordinary techniques and a few that just can't be natural even if the book doesn't label them supernatural; stuff like Action Before Thought, Mind Over Body, Quicksilver Motion, and Time Stands Still (depending on the weapon; one can easily imagine a master martial artist making a half-dozen or more unarmed strikes to dagger-strikes in a few seconds, but a greatsword-wielder?  A warhammer-wielder?  A halberdier?).  Shadow Hand and Desert Wind are, obviously, almost purely supernatural disciplines.Tiger Claw is mostly minor shapeshifting and such, and some maneuvers/stances stemming from pure bloodlust and savage instincts, plus a few that could be pure skill or athleticism.  White Raven is a mix of skill, teamwork, motivation, and a few maneuvers that just have to stem from something similar to bardic music in their ability to inspire/empower allies to move much faster than normal and in unison.Oh, and there are a few maneuvers that ought to be looked out for; White Raven Tactics probably shouldn't allow allies to act again in the same round; War Master's Charge probably needs some limits or the like to avoid a bunch of mooks or summoned critters making it super-powerful; Swooping Dragon Strike should have its save DC at 17 + Strength bonus like a normal maneuver instead of using the Jump check as its save DC.As for prestige classes?  Bloodclaw Master is all about shapeshifting and better two-weapon fighting with light weapons.  Bloodstorm Blades somehow nonmagically make all their weapons gain the Returning magic weapon quality so they're all like boomerangs, while gaining ridiculous ricochet attacks and other abilities that blatantly out to be supernatural.  Deepstone Sentinels manipulate elemental earth directly to form pillars of stone and ride around on them, smashing foes and doing other earth-elemental tricks.  Eternal Blades gain a supernatural spiritual guide and acquire various benefits from that spirit.  Jade Phoenix Mages are reincarnated mages with a mix of arcane spells and supernatural stances/maneuvers.  Ruby Knight Vindicators blend divine spellcasting and special abilities to channel divine energy into martial maneuvers with continued development of their martial maneuvers/stances.  Shadow Sun Ninjas manipulate light and dark, positive and negative energy, all the time and continue to learn more martial stances/maneuvers.So yeah.  The ONLY truly nonmagical prestige class in ToB is the Master of Nine, and since they can learn maneuvers and stances from all disciplines (including the most-supernatural disciplines), that's not much different.  Bloodstorm Blades are only non-magical in a game-rule sense because the designers somehow though that none of their class features ought to be supernatural despite how much they break the laws of nature/physics.And the only nonmagical base class in ToB is the Warblade.All that said, you can still play a nonmagical, or fairly "traditional" warrior type with Tome of Battle if you choose the right feats, maneuvers, stances, and classes.  And it can be great fun.  It's just not what MOST of the book is oriented towards.  Most of it's clearly dedicated to more superheroic, epic fantasy hero stuff like mythological heroes would be capable of, Hercules et al, not mere mortals in a gritty/semi-realistic setting.</blockquote>

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