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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StreamOfTheSky" data-source="post: 5723363" data-attributes="member: 35909">Shadow Hand / Tiger Claw is a good combo, and a swordsage can really afford a bit from everywhere.  Diamond Mind is great in general, and even Desert Wind and Stone Dragon have some very nice maneuvers.Setting Sun...it's one of my favorite disciplines, but it was poorly done.  The flavor is all about little folks using a giant's own momentum against him, but in actuality, all the throw maneuvers still use the core trip mechanic.  Yeah, you can use dex instead of str, but you're also still limited to tripping things up to one size bigger than you and they still get their massive size bonus on strength checks, so it doesn't work as intended at all.  If I make a setting sun based character, I make him as big and strong as possible, in direct contrast to how it's supposed to work.  I think Counter Charge is worth learning (it is NOT a trip maneuver, size modifiers should not apply, nor should limits on what you can affect), the Step of the Wind stance is great in games where the DM uses terrain, and the ~level 5 stance and maneuvers to move out of turn or teleport are handy, and fool's strike is super sexy, but otherwise I would ignore the discipline completely if not optimizing your trip check.Weapons: Whatever you pick, pick something you can get Weapon Focus for via level 1 swordsage, otherwise you're wasting a class feature.  Using a discipline's stuff has no requirement that you use its key weapon, so don't let that limit you.  As long as the weapon you pick is on one of the swordsage disciplines' lists, you're good.  I suspect as a ninja-like build, you'll be relying on high dex and shadow hand stances, so I suggest you look into Shadow Blade, but that requires you to use a SH weapon, and again, spiked chain is the only one that's actually decent (short sword is the next best choice).  I would avoid TWF, your BAB already is mediocre, and your stats will be spread thin, and TWF is extremely costly in feats, which is one of your biggest problems already.  Just use mostly standard action strikes and skirmish around with tumble.Setting Sun: As I said.Diamond Mind: One of the best disciplines, especially the "X Nightmare Blade" line (not so much Sapphire, but it's only level 1, so can't expect much) and the Insightful Strikes.  Emerald Razor is great with a 2H weapon and power attack, mediocre otherwise.  Don't bother with the save replacers except for Mind Over Body.  The 1st level stance is bad (aside from the obvious reasons, you can get half its insight bonus to AC against all enemies from a 5000 gp iuon stone), the 3rd level stance is cool but usually impractical, the 5th level stance is amazing and you should absolutely take it, and the 8th level can be good if you have a lot of counters, but is easily skippable.Desert Wind: Don't bother with any of the blasting maneuvers except possibly Fan the Flames and Ring of Fire.  Distracting Ember, the boosts to add fire damage to your weapon (and the 2nd level one to just make it purely fire), the two charge maneuvers, the 1st level stance, and Leaping Flame are probably the best parts of DW, but the only one I think any swordsage should have is Distracting Ember.  Desert Tempest could be fun if you can make high DC tumbles to move at full speed and face lots of enemies.Bloodclaw: I'm not a fan of it, I'd just stay in Swordsage.</blockquote>

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