Warblade/Swordsage questions

[tecnowraith]

What are good races for either Warblade or Swordsage that is not human or something other than PHB races?

 

[Nifft]

Are you asking for not human IN the PHB, or not human OUT OF the PHB? It's ambiguous.

Swordsage: Elf Swordsage allows you to make an interesting Dexterity-based archer / flanker.

Halfling is nice for Swordsage -- TWF flanking and thrown daggers.

Gnome Warblade / Illusionist / Jade Phoenix Mage? Sounds fun.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Well, let's look at what those classes need most:


Warblade: The most obvious build is strong and smart. You'll need strength, of course constitution, and intelligence for the different bonuses a warblade gets - though the intelligence could, I guess, be neglected a bit.
Alternately, if you go the route of two-weapon fighter, you'll of course want dex.


Swordsages: Con's important, of course, and then dex and wis, with some strength (though you don't really need too much of it).

Everything that gives bonuses to those stats is fine.

 

[blargney the second]

I've got a player who's currently playing a xeph swordsage, and she's remarkably effective. Weapon Finesse + Shadow Blade = don't even worry about strength, go dexterity all the way. Up The Walls is a fun way to use that racial power point.

 

[tecnowraith]

I got thinking about disciplines. How many martial disciplines can a martial adept chooses to know? like can he maneuvers from Diamond Mind and Iron Heart or is only one discipline?

 

[Patlin]

I got thinking about disciplines. How many martial disciplines can a martial adept chooses to know? like can he maneuvers from Diamond Mind and Iron Heart or is only one discipline?

You could in theory sample from all 9. In fact, there's a prestige class (The Master of Nine) that specifically encourages this.

 

[DarkJester]

The number of disciplines you choose maneuvers from is not limited (well, other than the ones your class has available), but you have to meet the requirements for higher level maneuvers. This means that you'll have to limit yourself to knowing higher level maneuvers from 2 or 3 disciplines at most.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Halfling is nice for Swordsage -- TWF flanking and thrown daggers.

Yep halflings are quite strong with Shadow Blade. They can even use regular melee style, as long as it uses Shadow Hand weapons, since Shadow Blade lets the halfling cancel out the weapon's lower damage dice with their higher Dex to damage, rather than compounding it, thus giving them a net of the same damage as a human with a higher to-hit, plus they can dump Strength.

It's possibly a bit overpowered, but it works, I guess--I allow it with my campaign-specific restrictions on school thematics (i.e. one school, but I'll let you fill out the missing manoeuvres known with selected manoeuvres from other schools if you convert them thematically).

For instance, in point buy, a human who wanted both Strength and Dex might grab 14 and 16, for a net of 16 point buy. The halfling has 6 Strength and 20 Dex for the same point buy. At level 1 (he's the halfling racial variant with a bonus feat instead of +1 to all saves), the PC had a +7 to hit with discipline weapons, and he does 1d4+5 with a Shortsword, for an average of 7.5. And by level 2, he had 22 AC without particularly trying to get up AC--he also has a 20% miss chance on top of that when he moves around. When he gets proficiency in Spiked Chain at level 3, and assuming he can grab a +1 Spiked Chain by then, he should have +10 to hit for 1d6+8 (and 1d6+10 once he gets his hands on a +Dex item), with reach. In short, he can kick the ass of the group's Unfettered, Ranger, and even the Druid without touching his manouevres. They have a lot of trouble hitting him, he can easily hit them (even more easily with that first level strike that gives him two chances thanks to a phantom shadow blade), and he hits for more damage.

SIDENOTE: Of course, since he's a pirate, that humorously did not stop him from being worthless in a big ship-to-ship combat when he spent 10 rounds (not an exaggeration) failing to call over the porpoise animal companion of the fallen Druid.

 

[Kraydak]

Note that shadow Blade *adds* dex to *melee* damage. It does not replace strength. In general this makes the feat more powerful, but it prevent massive strength dumping.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Note that shadow Blade *adds* dex to *melee* damage. It does not replace strength. In general this makes the feat more powerful, but it prevent massive strength dumping.

That's not what the chart says, and frankly, that makes it substantially more powerful assuming you haven't dumped strength.