What, If Anything, Might be Wrong with the Warblade?

[Aluvial]

I'm starting up a new campaign, and have allowed players to mine my resource books for character ideas...

So one of them comes across the Warblade from the Book of Nine Swords.

I don't know anything about this class. Are there any potential problems with it?

I see that the a Warblade can renew his maneuvers every time he has a free action... this seems like unlimited power to me, but is it a problem?

Does the Fighter stand up to a Warblade, level per level?

Also, I see that it has d12 HD, is this a little much?

Any help and insights would be great!

Thanks,

Aluvial

 

[Wraith-Hunter]

Well fighters are underpowered to begin with so compaing the weakest class in the game to anything else is not so good. Sure there are people who say otherwise but there are probably more fix the fighter threads than any other class.

So I would not start off comparing them to fighters. It is pretty safe to say that nearly any combat class is going to be "more powerful"

As to the warblade they are cool. The system in general is pretty balanced from what I gather. Though you get lots of knee jerk reactions from people who skim it then delare its unbalanced because it is better than a fighter. And they obviously have never taken a look at the core druid.

I like the system and it is encounter based. WotC has changed directions with class design from when the base core classes were made. Lots of examples. At first it looks overpowering. I read a bunch of threads on several boards about it, one of my players wanted to play one. And there are certainly people who scream unbalanced, but most of what I read is that the system is pretty cool and will not overpower your game. Druids still dominate followed by clerics and wizards.

If Druid is the most powerfull class in the game, and fighter is the weakest it make more sense to compare it to the more powerfull one.

 

[Aluvial]

Well fighters are underpowered to begin with so compaing the weakest class in the game to anything else is not so good. Sure there are people who say otherwise but there are probably more fix the fighter threads than any other class.

So I would not start off comparing them to fighters. It is pretty safe to say that nearly any combat class is going to be "more powerful"

As to the warblade they are cool. The system in general is pretty balanced from what I gather. Though you get lots of knee jerk reactions from people who skim it then delare its unbalanced because it is better than a fighter. And they obviously have never taken a look at the core druid.

I like the system and it is encounter based. WotC has changed directions with class design from when the base core classes were made. Lots of examples. At first it looks overpowering. I read a bunch of threads on several boards about it, one of my players wanted to play one. And there are certainly people who scream unbalanced, but most of what I read is that the system is pretty cool and will not overpower your game. Druids still dominate followed by clerics and wizards.

If Druid is the most powerfull class in the game, and fighter is the weakest it make more sense to compare it to the more powerfull one.

Ok, I agree, I just base things off the classic 4 classes anyway. The Druid is crazy tough... I've knocked it down a notch in my game, by getting rid of the Summon Nature's Ally conversion from any spell... I make you memorize it rather than just converting.

Anyhow, back to the Warblade, I'm just wondering about the free action recovery. If you could recover once every encounter, I would think that ok, I like the flavor of it, but being able to do it as a free action as you rush the battlefield, and get a normal attack in seems a little strong...

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, do you get one maneuver per free action or all of them?

Aluvial

 

[Patlin]

You get all your maneuvers back as a swift action, with the added caveats that you can't use any maneuvers in a round in which you recover maneuvers and also that you must make an attack (even if only against the air.)

I'm looking forward to seeing a warblade in actual play, so I'll refrain from speculating overmuch, but I think the class will work out OK... on the powerfull side, but OK.

 

[frankthedm]

Warblade is the druid of splat classes. Unless the Core PCs are very well built the warblade will outshine them.

 

[Egres]

Warblade is the druid of splat classes. Unless the Core PCs are very well built the warblade will outshine them.

The warblade is nothing if compared to a cleric, druid, wizard or psion.

 

[szilard]

The Warblade doesn't recover as a free action, precisely. It recovers by making a standard attack in which it doesn't get to use a maneuver. Coupled with the facts that the Warblade (1) doesn't get many maneuvers and (2) won't be making full attacks often, it isn't that bad.

-Stuart

 

[shilsen]

Warblade is the druid of splat classes. Unless the Core PCs are very well built the warblade will outshine them.

Interestingly, I've seen at least a couple of people on these boards who've been using Bo9S and feel the warblade is the strongest of the three classes in it on paper and the weakest of them in play. I haven't had enough play experience to be sure, but I think there's a good argument to be made for that position and for the argument that the warblade looks a LOT stronger on paper than in reality.

 

[BASHMAN]

Well, it is not free to renew his maneuvers. He has to perform a standard action attack to recover them, meaning that he cannot take a full attack action AND that he cannot use a maneuver in the round that he recovers them.

 

[blargney the second]

The warblade ends up working much like a barbarian. It's a fine class that doesn't need tinkering.