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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 3062538" data-attributes="member: 9053">Only if you use the assumption that the figher doesn't use his bonus feats. The fighter is the class that is all about feats. It is the poster child for feats, and the designers feel that feats are a tremendously valuable resource as you compare a fighter to classes like rangers, paladins, barbarians, and basically any other +1 BAB class out there. I think that the consensus is starting to become that those feats aren't really enough to make a fighter balanced and competative, but you still have the fighter based almost entirely around them. We've already seen solutions like the PHBII with much more powerful feats, and the Tome of Battle is just another way of looking at the "fighting class problem."The question is, does the fighter, with his bonus feats compare to the Warblade with his class abilities and maneuvers? I would say yes, based on making a test character up to 10th level and going level by level. The only concern I have, is whether or not the simple method the Warblade has for refreshing maneuvers is too good. That's something I would need to actually see in play to decide on.A Warblade with a low int, so as to not use his abilities would be losing a fair bit. A Warblade with D8 hit points and medium BAB (as some have suggested) would be worthless. Again, just so you realize (and I think you probably do, Bryon) these are just my thoughts on the matter, and not something I'm trying to sell as some universal truth.For me, the biggest thing that convinced me on how the Warblade may work out to be a lot better in actual play was to build one, level by level. The much vaunted "+100 HP melee attack" maneuver has a prerequisite of 4 other lower level maneuvers, which means in order to use it you have to spend 5 of your 13 total maneuvers on it. Other disciplines are similar, so you can have at most _2_ 9th level disciplines as a Warblade.It sounds great to be able to do a one shot +100 HP attack every other round, but if you look at the rest of the abilities you're going to have, they're not going to be that overwhelming. The question becomes: is adding +100 damage to one melee attack every other round really overpowered, and, more importantly, is it really all that interesting if that's about the only thing you can do on that power level?Some people will obviously say yes it's too much, and I guess the Tome of Battle is not the book for them. I wonder, however, how many of them have really played a campaign at 18th and higher level. The highest level game I have played in or run topped out at about 16th level, and to be honest, +100 HP would not have seemed that far out of place for what the rest of the group could do. Frankly, I don't have enough experience at near epic levels to tell you whether or not it is overpowered. I expect the WotC folks have played a lot more campaigns to that level as a part of their playtesting jobs, so I'm going to at least give these classes a shot in my next campaign. It's going to be Age of Worms, so I expect it will be plenty deadly despite the presence of a Warblade or two...--Steve</blockquote>

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