3.5 Ape comically throws his enemies

[Perturbulent]

EDIT: My plans have substantially changed. I'm making a Hadozee Swordsage with a monster of a maternal instinct. Her name is Kala, and after discussion with some of the other PC's will likely have raised one of them. She's picked up Setting Sun based on this. She then supplements largely with tiger claw and shadow hand. Her stats will likely be (str 10, dex 20, con 14, int 12, wis 17, cha 4) though the point buy is not yet guaranteed. Pretty much all 3.5 books are allowed (Savage Species gets and eyebrow) and most 3.0 sources are ok. Still working on all the details, much as before, but I have a feeling and a concept now. Still going unarmed probably.


I spoiler'd the original post because of how off it was from my current plans. Here it is for those who already responded. Thanks for discussion on it.

Spoiler: Original Post

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I've been meaning to make a swordsage lately and keep hitting various things that stump me each step farther I get.
I was thinking I might use two-weapon fighting or a number of natural attacks, possibly on top of unarmed swordsage (gives IUS and damage, not flurry, and not ac bonus). The idea was to maximize effective attacks. But each step I go I feel like I'm falling a step behind.
I've recently anchored to the idea of human to evade the problem I kept having: giving myself odd penalties every time I tried maximizing natural attacks (kenku and kobold were both considered, but resulted in problems). The idea of sticking to human can change. It's just become a concern. Additionally, the extra feat and skill point would be nice.
Additionally, I'm happy not starting with swordsage immediately, potentially. I have considered starting with spirit lion totem for pounce.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to build this swordsage? Anything that would help get natural attacks? Any thing I may've missed to help make my many attacks useful?

I really am lost here.

(Oh, the DM tends to run a relatively high point buy. It tends to range anywhere from 32-40. Starting level will be 1. I imagine it'll go anywhere from level 7 to 12. Any higher tends to implode)

[The Ravensong]

Fair warning, I'm a little sleepy and this may get rambely
I'm actually working on a gestalt swordsage build right now that can simultaneously wield 35 weapons at level 15. My build involves a Spell to Power Erudite wielding one weapon telekineticly through a PF prestige class feature, 4 in each hand (two in normal hands, two in hands provided by a corset of girillon's blessing) 15 through improved telekinetic thrust (Master of the unseen hand) and another 15 by passing concentration of that same power to a psicrystal.

For a more traditional route to a really dumb number of attacks, the Unarmed Swordsage is right up your alley, as well as the pounce barbarian. The snap kick feat will give you an additional attack with your unarmed damage... as far as gaining natural attacks if you want to go for a more bizarre build that I think would visually look awesome...

As a human, this would require you to burn a couple feats. Willing Deformity and Willing Deformity (claw) will net you claws that deal 1d6 damage. With the Beast Strike feat you get to add the damage from your claw attacks to your unarmed strikes.
Best case scenario for you, you get to make all your unarmed strikes that do unarmed+claw damage and you get to make two claw attacks. The feat doesn't say you aren't able to make claw attacks as well, but it may displease your DM if you are doing both.
Then you can also have shortswords that protrude from your elbows that you can attack with, visually that would look like each swing of your arms has you clawing up your victim with a bladed bracer to catch them again on the follow through of each strike.
A one level dip into cleric with the hunger domain will also give you a bite attack for 1d6 damage.
Now, normally the way unarmed strikes would work in conjunction with manufactured weapons (as I understand it) is that you would still only get the same total number of attacks you'd be allotted by your base attack bonus. Other natural attacks like claws, bites, and slams would be able to be added on in addition to this.

So, for example, at level 1 your barbarian who spent both his feats on clawed hands would have one attack normally, and on a full attack he'd get two elbow blades at the featless TWF penalties and two claw attacks at full BAB (I seem to recall that natural weapons don't suffer the penalties from TWF, but this isn't an area I get into often)
Later on, through swordsage and cleric levels you'd be able to make a full attack using your standard TWF progression on your elbow blades, as well as the bite, 2 claws, and snap kick.

As far as raw damage goes, until you can get magic enhancements on the eblow blades, you're damage will be better off with bestial strike to get unarmed damage+claws... Also remember that you should be able to use gauntlets with your preferred unarmed damage without any kind of penalty, so TWF with magic gauntlets and beast strike will likely be the most effective route.

So, a better example of a Barbarian1/Swordsage8 with Deformity, Claws, TWF, Weapon Finesse, and Beast Strike would get you three attacks at 1d10+1d6+str and two attacks at 1d6+str. A race with natural claws will save you a feat, but most of their claws are only 1d4.

Feats I'd suggest to keep an eye out for with either build type:
Superior Unarmed Strike
Beast Strike
Improved Natural Attack: Claws (which will improve claw damage on claw attacks and beast strike!)
Improved Natural Attack: Unarmed Strike
Two Weapon Rend (for more free damage!)
Shadow Blade (so you can add your dex modifier to damage and dump str)
Weapon Finesse (Because dex is a prereq for the TWF builds, and you'll probably want to avoid the MAD trap)
Snap Kick
powerful charge
greater powerful charge
there's also a feat in players guide to faerun which gives frightful presence on the charge... and as a whirling ball of teeth, claws, and death... why not?

As far as maneuvers go, I'd suggest primarily focusing on boosts as most strikes will only allow you one attack per round and the full attack is going to be your primary focus most of the time. And assassin's stance will give you +2d6 sneak attack damage... which combined with your full attack charge on a flatfooted opponent... you're basically just throwing handfuls of dice at anyone too dumb or too slow to be in your path.
EDIT:
My suggestion for a build up to level 12 would be a Shifter (from the ebberon campaign setting) with the sharpclaw Barbarian1/Swordsage4/Warshaper4/Swordsage3
Abilities: Dex>Wis>Con>Int>Cha>Str
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Natural Attack: Claw, Beast Strike, Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Warshaper will actually give you the ability to have WHATEVER natural attacks you want. Gore, Bite, Claw, tailslap, Slam, Whatever. It also gives you the ability to boost the damage type you would otherwise deal with that natural weapon. So, while shifting you would normally have 1d4 damage, improved natural attack boosts that to 1d6, morphic weapons to 1d8.
Taking Warshaper up to level 4 will also net you +4 Str and Con, fast healing 2, reach, the ability to take a full round action to heal 10 points, and immunity to stunning and critical hits.
I'd spend most of my time in assassin's stance flanking with my melee buddies using the desert wind boosts that add extra damage onto all my attacks.
Your full attacks will be 4 Unarmed+Claw, 2 Claws, and ANY other natural attacks you've taken the time to morph (it's not super clear as to whether or not your morphic weapons are limited to one set at a time, and there's no time limit to them, but I'd err on the side of not getting hit by DM lightning unless you've spoken to them about it.)

[Regissoma]

Got access to Shining South? If you do Telfham Shadow Lord if I spelt that right or even Crinti Maruader are really good for a few manuevers. Essentially what those PRCs do is give you shadow pounce, and with that ability everytime you use something with the teleport descriptor you are entitled a full attack. So pretty much full swordsage and go in those PRCs till shadow pounce is obtained, then use Shadow Jaunt, Shadow Blink, and Shadow Stride to get 3 full attacks while teleporting accordingly.

If you do not have access, unarmed swordsage will probably do you good. DO NOT FORGET ADAPTIVE STYLE. If you are going barb don't forget to also take the whirling frenzy as it stacks with haste and more attacks weee.

[Perturbulent]

woah. that is an intense and interesting build to start out with. I'm not sure I could quite keep up with it. Still, very interesting.

I did notice the shadow lord shenanigans, but I imagine my DM would throw books at me if I tried.

Also, after having spent substantially more time on it, I've arrived at a rough skin of a build somewhat unlike my original. I'll edit the first post to reflect that.

[Amphetryon]

There's a fun concept. Are you looking to wind up in Bloodstorm Blade? It seems appropriate, and can potentially allow you to do the Wolverine/Colossus "Fastball Special" shtick.

[Vaz]

I love Hadozee. It's not really related, but I'm currently playing an Arcane Stunt Swashbuckler Skill Monkey/Ardent with Psionic Minor Creation Hadozee with Profession Sailor Skill. Obviously, it is not the most powerful thing, but its crazy, like Macguyver. Always the right tool for the job, 'here have a vine rope' 'here have a bamboo ladder' etc etc.

Shadow pounce is good, but it is easy to not abuse, by well, not abusing it. Limit your self to 1 a turn. Not to mention that SS's poor recovery mechanic means you can gank target twice during an encounter. Admittedly, that maybe enough, but your DM will start to either say 'stop it' or throw 7+ high HP monsters at you.

Oddly enough, Bloodstorm Blade and Shadowlord go well together. You can only melee attack on a shadow pounce, but bsb makes your thrown attacks count as melee.

[Darrin]

If you weren't aware, Hadozee get Dodge as a bonus feat. It's not listed under the racial abilities in Stormwrack on page 41, but if you look up the monster stats on page 151, it's listed in the stat block.

If you take Desert Wind Dodge later, you can swap your original Dodge feat for something else. Which makes me wonder... if you get Desert Wind Dodge temporarily, such as through Inspire Greatness or psychic reformation, is the feat swap permanent?

My "throw people around" build was King of Pong, but I'm not sure there's anything in there that works all that well for a Hadozee Swordsage. The key to throwing creatures is probably Hulking Hurler's "Throw Anything" ability, but you need to be Large for that.

[Regissoma]

Or if you can maintain a grapple and a "pin" you could take levels of Drunken Master and get your unarmed damage and throw your enemies at enemies. Because I would think an enemy = improvised weapon with you are now proficient with.

[Darrin]

Because I would think an enemy = improvised weapon with you are now proficient with.

By RAW, Drunken Master does not confer proficiency with anything, improvised or otherwise.

However, if you wield an opponent as an improvised weapon and roll a "1", your opponent breaks apart and becomes useless.

[Amphetryon]

By RAW, Drunken Master does not confer proficiency with anything, improvised or otherwise.

However, if you wield an opponent as an improvised weapon and roll a "1", your opponent breaks apart and becomes useless.

I'll take "Hilarious Unintended Rules Interactions" for $800, Alex.

[Darrin]

I'll take "Hilarious Unintended Rules Interactions" for $800, Alex.

Use Shadow Blade Technique as a strike. You make two attack rolls, and can select the lowest result. 10% chance of breakage.

Now THIS is odd...

"If you use the lower die result, or if both die results are the same, your attack deals an extra 1d6 points of cold damage as both the mystic double’s attack and your true weapon strike home."

So, if you pick the lower result... the attack automatically hits, regardless of what you rolled, and does +1d6 cold damage.

Huh. That could have been worded a little better.

[Regissoma]

Well snap, you are right good sir. Add in Bloodstorm Blade for the literal throwing of enemies and penetrating shot to initate a iron heart strike with your projectiled enemy along a line? Given enough targets the chances of a 1 increase quite a bit.