Masters of the Sword: A Warblade's Handbook [Under Construction]

[Draz74]

Originally Posted by Darrin

Another nitpick with some of the MIC items, specifically long-range communications...

Aspect Mirror (4000 GP, Complete Scoundrel) is far superior to the Linked armor property, Farspeaking Amulets, Sending Stones, Rings of Communication, etc., since it has unlimited use and unlimited range (on the same plane). Contact Medallion is kinda nice if you suddenly need to contact someone who doesn't already have a communication device, but would be useless if everyone in the party already has an Aspect Mirror.

I wouldn't say it's far superior to Sending Stones or Rings of Communication, since those are both cheaper than Aspect Mirrors, and superior to the Mirrors in some way even if they don't have unlimited use and range. (Sending Stones have a 95% chance of functioning even on different planes of existence, while AMs only work on the same plane. Rings of Communication let you communicate with your party even when they're not expecting to get a message from you, and let you communicate with all of them at once, rather than one-at-a-time like AMs.)

Overall, although AMs definitely have their uses, I'd prefer to cover communication needs with a Ring and a Stone rather than a Mirror. Unless AMs owned by NPCs are all over the place and function as a telephone network.

[Elfin]

DMG armors/shields up.

So, I just realized, after running out of space in a post for the first time - even if we squish all the posts together, there may not be enough room in the reserves for the size the finished handbook will eventually end up at. It's not an immediate concern, but there may eventually be a need to relocate to new premises.

[Cieyrin]

Not seeing the appeal of Animated for a Shield Basher, since Improved Shield Bash gives you the AC bonus regardless of whether you smack somebody in the gob with it or not. If you're a dedicated Shield Basher, you actually use it for applying effects and whatnot as well, so it seems like money thrown away when you could be making it Bashing and enchanting it as a secondary weapon for knocking people on their ass and dazing them.

[Harnel]

Originally Posted by Cieyrin

Not seeing the appeal of Animated for a Shield Basher, since Improved Shield Bash gives you the AC bonus regardless of whether you smack somebody in the gob with it or not. If you're a dedicated Shield Basher, you actually use it for applying effects and whatnot as well, so it seems like money thrown away when you could be making it Bashing and enchanting it as a secondary weapon for knocking people on their ass and dazing them.

The reason for it is relatively simple. A shield takes up a hand, but an animated shield leaves that hand free for use with a two-hander

[Suichimo]

When the Third Eyes go up, I'll be surprised if Concentrate is anything less than gold. What Warblade won't love a constant +10 bonus to his Concentration. That and Steady Concentration guarantees that your saves are effectively 20+Character Level+3. Tunic of Steady Spellcasting being its little brother.

Also, what do you guys think about mixing in Incarnum into a Warblade through feats? I'm in a game, currently, where I'm doing this but I haven't picked up Bonus Essentia yet, got a little more than a level before that happens, so I haven't really been able to judge for myself.

[lord_khaine]

Hello, i just noted a small oversigt in the magical weapons section.

Sacred Burst – If you’re critting with enough regularity to consider this enhancement, it is going to send you to 0 Cha – and thus, out of the battle – in no time. 1d4 Cha damage every time you crit makes this ability worse for you than your foe.

Its only if you are undead that you suffer the Cha damage, and the same thing also aplies to the Sacret enchantment.

[Cieyrin]

Originally Posted by Suichimo

When the Third Eyes go up, I'll be surprised if Concentrate is anything less than gold. What Warblade won't love a constant +10 bonus to his Concentration. That and Steady Concentration guarantees that your saves are effectively 20+Character Level+3. Tunic of Steady Spellcasting being its little brother.

Also, what do you guys think about mixing in Incarnum into a Warblade through feats? I'm in a game, currently, where I'm doing this but I haven't picked up Bonus Essentia yet, got a little more than a level before that happens, so I haven't really been able to judge for myself.

Incarnum adds well to anything, especially Shape Soulmeld. Thunder Boots, Impulse Boots, Planar Ward, the list goes on and on.

[Qwertystop]

Incarnate Weapon can be pretty good if you have the right alignment.

If you're TWF-ing, you can avoid the whole extra-cost-to-keep-equipment-upgraded problem very nicely with it.

[Essence_of_War]

Originally Posted by Suichimo

Also, what do you guys think about mixing in Incarnum into a Warblade through feats? I'm in a game, currently, where I'm doing this but I haven't picked up Bonus Essentia yet, got a little more than a level before that happens, so I haven't really been able to judge for myself.

The few times I've mixed the two I've splashed a little ToB into my Incarnum (Crusader, to get heavy armor proficiency to make optimal use of the Ironsoul Forgemaster!) rather than the other way around, but there are a ton of soulmelds that could help out a ToB guy.

And don't even get me started on the delicious, delicious gestalt options

[Suichimo]

Originally Posted by Essence_of_War

The few times I've mixed the two I've splashed a little ToB into my Incarnum (Crusader, to get heavy armor proficiency to make optimal use of the Ironsoul Forgemaster!) rather than the other way around, but there are a ton of soulmelds that could help out a ToB guy.

And don't even get me started on the delicious, delicious gestalt options

I've got Airstep Sandals and Phase Cloak. At 9th I'll be taking Bonus Essentia so I can fly at 30' and at 12th I'll be takin Open Lesser Chakra(Shoulders).

I'll be going Warblade 10/Eternal Blade 10.

[Elfin]

Originally Posted by lord_khaine

Hello, i just noted a small oversigt in the magical weapons section.

Thank you for noticing – I shall get that fixed straightaway.

[Elfin]

Working on the starting packages and extended example builds, I've come to the point where I'm working on the maneuver and stance progression for the charger build.

This is what I've come up with:

Spoiler

Bolded maneuvers are those which are never traded away. Stances are in italics.

L1 Charging Minotaur, Moment of Perfect Mind, Wolf Fang Strike; Leading the Charge
L2 Sudden Leap
L3 Wall of Blades
L4 Wolf Fang Strike -> Emerald Razor; Blood in the Water
L5 White Raven Tactics
L6 Charging Minotaur -> Iron Heart Surge
L7 Bounding Assault
L8 Emerald Razor -> Death from Above
L9 Pouncing Charge
L10 Death from Above -> Disrupting Blow; Press the Advantage
L11 Manticore Parry
L12 Disrupting Blow -> Iron Heart Endurance
L13 Swooping Dragon Strike
L14 Bounding Assault -> Avalanche of Blades
L15 White Raven Hammer
L16 Sudden Leap -> Diamond Nightmare Blade; Stance of Alacrity
L17 Time Stands Still
L18 Iron Heart Endurance -> Strike of Perfect Clarity
L19 War Master's Charge
L20 Manticore Parry -> Mountain Tombstone Strike

Does that look about right?

An issue I'm having is with races for the starting packages. The warblade races shortlist is basically human, shifter, warforged, raptoran, wood/snow elf, dragonborn, and water orc, with ToB listing humans and elves as the most likely candidates. Those two are probably in, especially because they're both Core (or in the case of the snow elf, SRD), but that still leaves a fair deal of possibility for the third package.

Shifter might be nice for a Tiger Claw-focused package, and raptoran for a White Raven one; the first may be too setting-specific, though. Warforged I'm a bit leery of, because they as a concept don't always mesh well with a setting, and water orcs are iffy because of obscurity and cheese factors (though regular orc or half-orc might work). Dragonborn might do well, however.

At the moment, the general concepts I have in mind for the three builds are a charger type, a simple, Weapon Focus/Spec sword and boarder, and a TWFer. Adding a battlefield control or retaliation build might be an idea, but I worry that it would step on the crusader's shoes too much.

Any thoughts on races or sample builds?

[deuxhero]

Warforged Bloodstorm Blade that uses a throwing returning battlefist?

[Dusk Eclipse]

Isn't the snow elf from Frostburn? (+2 Dex -2 cha)

[Curious]

Go with the best of both worlds; Warforged Dragonborn, reflavored as needed.

[Elfin]

Oh, yes, the snow elf is from Frostburn. My mind just went immediately to UA.

A Bloodstorm Blade build would be good to include, but for these I think it's best to stick with warblade 20; following in the footsteps of the PHB II, the intention is to create generic, single-classed builds to embody basic archetypes. Of course, the ones they provided were utterly lousy, but that's beside the point.

Dragonborn warforged is an interesting possibility, but the issue I can see is that it may be a bit too flavor-intense for a vanilla character. I'm not sure, though.

[Curious]

Originally Posted by Elfin

Dragonborn warforged is an interesting possibility, but the issue I can see is that it may be a bit too flavor-intense for a vanilla character. I'm not sure, though.

Well, I was really recommending it as a solid base to build a Dragonborn character from, since there aren't many races that make really good Dragonborn. Besides, there are some pretty cool ways to fluff a robot-dragon. Or not. You could just ignore the fluff of being a robot, and say the character is a great hero reincarnated in his new form by Bahamut to fight against the chromatic dragons.

[Elfin]

Originally Posted by Curious

You could just ignore the fluff of being a robot, and say the character is a great hero reincarnated in his new form by Bahamut to fight against the chromatic dragons.

I like that idea quite a bit. In fact, I think there's no need at all to mention that the base creature is a warforged.

Dragonborn, elf, and human it is, then. Great. And speaking of dragonborn, there's shiny new cover art to replace the old Sonic Warrior picture.

[Cieyrin]

Originally Posted by Elfin

Oh, yes, the snow elf is from Frostburn. My mind just went immediately to UA.

Yeah, I think you must have meant Wood Elf/Arctic Elf.

[TravelLog]

Happy new year!

[Elfin]

Happy new year. I am both lazy and strapped for time, but I have not abandoned this handbook – after enduring a year or so of quiet guilt in the back of my mind, there is no way I will abandon it. Updates shall come, anemic though they will perhaps be.

[Kymme]

One thing. In the roles section, you mention ranged combat is subpar without homebrew diciplines, but you never say what it would be like with homebrew diciplines. Do you think that you could update that?

[Elfin]

Well, it obviously depends heavily on what homebrew archery discipline you use. I've looked at a few, and my favorite is Fax's excellent Falling Star discipline; unfortunately, it's only open to crusaders and swordsages. If you could get your DM to handwave that limitation, a Falling Star-focused warblade could be pretty workable, especially if you go into EB. But if you want an archery-focused martial adept, I'd say you should still go with a standard crusarcher/Eternal Bow build. I know Person Man wrote up a bit about martial adept archers, but I can't seem to find it.

[Greenish]

Originally Posted by Elfin

I know Person Man wrote up a bit about martial adept archers, but I can't seem to find it.

You sure you aren't thinking of Eldarial or Darrin? They've done work on it, too.

[Darrin]

Originally Posted by Greenish

You sure you aren't thinking of Eldarial or Darrin? They've done work on it, too.

Already posted in this thread, even.

(Hmm. Apparently I left out a sample Eternal Warbow build. Lemme go fix that...)

[Incanur]

I'm not sure I agree with the sample stat arrays. In particular, the two points in Wis over Dex strike me as dubious. It depends on the build, of course, but Dex helps so much if you want to have fun with Combat Reflexes or tumble around. Wis just boosts a save you're going to fail without Moment of Perfect Mind anyway.

[Elfin]

Originally Posted by Darrin

Already posted in this thread, even.

(Hmm. Apparently I left out a sample Eternal Warbow build. Lemme go fix that...)

Darrin, I am really incredibly sorry. This is twice now in a couple of weeks that you've had to correct me.

As for the stats, there's not a huge deal of difference between Dex 12/Wis 8 and Dex 10/Wis 10 outside of Combat Reflexes qualification - while the former could be superior, the general intent was to make the stat arrays very cardboard-y (and someone who wanted to take Combat Reflexes would know to get a 12 Dex). Especially because it would leave one with two 8s, 10/10 seemed the better generic layout...but then, you may be right. Was there anything else in the stat arrays that looked subpar to you?

[ranger557]

Originally Posted by Cieyrin

Not seeing the appeal of Animated for a Shield Basher, since Improved Shield Bash gives you the AC bonus regardless of whether you smack somebody in the gob with it or not. If you're a dedicated Shield Basher, you actually use it for applying effects and whatnot as well, so it seems like money thrown away when you could be making it Bashing and enchanting it as a secondary weapon for knocking people on their ass and dazing them.

I agree with Cieyrin on this. If you took the Shield slam and charge feats and so forth. Wouldn't you give that up or have wasted feats if you always tell your heavy steel shield to go animated and float around you? Or can you magically tell your shield to bash still?? O.o lol .

[Incanur]

Originally Posted by Elfin

Was there anything else in the stat arrays that looked subpar to you?

With 32 points, the 12 Dex seems sketchy to me. Again, it depends on whether you're going for Combat Reflexes and how much you care about AC. I might go for the following instead: Str 17, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 9, Cha 8 or Str 16, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 8 or Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 8. There are lots of good options, really. I guess I'm just worried folks will read those arrays and think warblades necessarily need Con a lot more than Dex.

[Elfin]

Originally Posted by ranger557

I agree with Cieyrin on this. If you took the Shield slam and charge feats and so forth. Wouldn't you give that up or have wasted feats if you always tell your heavy steel shield to go animated and float around you? Or can you magically tell your shield to bash still?? O.o lol .

There's no reason I know of that you can't bash with an animated shield.