Sword Sage - Insightful Strike

[DraznarZero]

A PC of mine is using Tome of Battle : Book of Nine Swords and is playing a Sword Sage of Diamond Mind. I had heard a lot of hype about Sword Sage being somewhat overpowered, but my PC really loves the class, so I wanted him to be allowed to give it a shot.

So far everything seems ok mostly, he seems really strong but not broken. While leveling up he shows me this power a maneuver that allows him to make a concentration check for damage. This seemed a bit much, especially for like 5th level getting D20 + 12ish dmg. I wanted to know if others had any experience with this at all. Is this in fact overpowered? If so, any good ways to balance it out? Is there an errata / update I need to be made aware of?

Thoughts? Comments? Input is appreciated, thank you!

 

[pawsplay]

d20+12 averages 22.5 damage.

5th level half-orc barbarian, 18 Str (22 raging) using a greatsword (2d6) with one point of Power Attack (making his to-hit bonus equivalent to a Sword Sage) = 2d6 + 11, average 18 damage.

 

[Starbuck_II]

A PC of mine is using Tome of Battle : Book of Nine Swords and is playing a Sword Sage of Diamond Mind. I had heard a lot of hype about Sword Sage being somewhat overpowered, but my PC really loves the class, so I wanted him to be allowed to give it a shot.

So far everything seems ok mostly, he seems really strong but not broken. While leveling up he shows me this power a maneuver that allows him to make a concentration check for damage. This seemed a bit much, especially for like 5th level getting D20 + 12ish dmg. I wanted to know if others had any experience with this at all. Is this in fact overpowered? If so, any good ways to balance it out? Is there an errata / update I need to be made aware of?

Thoughts? Comments? Input is appreciated, thank you!

First, maneuver are used up when used till he recovers it: he can't use again (easy out of combat).
He has to hit the enemy (3/4th bab).

So no, not overpowered.
Swordsages sages are magic warrior but no real spells just maneuvers. They can make weapons on fire for 1 rd, turn invisible for 1 rd, etc. What they can do depends on what they specilize in (Desert Wind, Shadowhand, Diamond Mind, etc).

They are the overtly supernatural class of the book (Warblades are extraordinary/Crusaders are most extraordinary with a dash of supernatural).

 

[Runestar]

You will realize that while the swordsage may hog the limelight from time to time, he will never dominate the party thanks to his crappy recovery system (which leaves him unable to spam his favoured combos).

Swordsage is as balanced as it gets. Maybe too balanced, IMO.

 

[Dragonwriter]

I'd have to say that your Swordsage sounds pretty balanced. It might be a little stronger than a plain raging half-orc barbarian, but he's keeping up with the average damage-dealing mage. And, like the mage, he can really only use that ability once per fight.

As pawsplay pointed out, the average was about 22.5 damage. The average Fireball or Lightning Bolt (5d6) do about 17.5, but also can hit multiple targets. However, that will ramp up much faster than the Swordsage's attack, going up by 3.5 damage per level, as opposed to 1 damage. So it seems to me that it's pretty reasonable.

 

[freebiewitz]

Unlike most spells/ abilites that mage type characters use the sword sage still needs to use D20's know what this meens? Natural ones are bound to happen eventually :3

Mages can''t have fireball blow up in thier faces but sword sages on the other hand...... >:3 C'mon your a DM feel your inner lawful evil side!

 

[pawsplay]

I'd have to say that your Swordsage sounds pretty balanced. It might be a little stronger than a plain raging half-orc barbarian, but he's keeping up with the average damage-dealing mage. And, like the mage, he can really only use that ability once per fight.

As pawsplay pointed out, the average was about 22.5 damage. The average Fireball or Lightning Bolt (5d6) do about 17.5, but also can hit multiple targets. However, that will ramp up much faster than the Swordsage's attack, going up by 3.5 damage per level, as opposed to 1 damage. So it seems to me that it's pretty reasonable.

Yup. And half-orc barbarians can use their attacks multiple times a round and don't have to refresh them.