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View Full Version : Good prestige to go into from crusader



Brendan
2009-12-11, 07:50 AM
Hi. I am a Monk (i know, bad.) 3, crusader 1, and intend to stay crusader for the remainder of the game unless there is a useful prestige to go into. Ruby knight is out of the question, as it would require lots of multiclassing and feats, and I will be fighting close up, so the thrower is not good. master of nine could be fun, but would require many, many feats. Are there any other books that build on ToB, or are there any very crusader friendly homebrews in this site?
Thanks!
By the way, knowing at least by tommorow at nine wold be helpful, as I have a session soon after.

Optimystik
2009-12-11, 07:59 AM
Sadly, no other books build on ToB, but ToB. There might be good homebrew out there, I don't know.

AslanCross
2009-12-11, 08:12 AM
You could go Kensai and enhance your fists. The skill requirements are all easily attainable by Crusader. Power Surge is pretty sweet.

The problem, though, is you don't have maneuver progression.

The Argent Fist from Faiths of Eberron might have different flavor from your character's religion, but it's a Monk/Paladin multiclass, so it might work with your build. It allows the Monk AC bonus to work even while you're in heavy armor, if I'm not mistaken. Not awesome, and doesn't advance your maneuvers, but it could still work.

Tokiko Mima
2009-12-11, 09:00 AM
If you're willing to take a swordsage level to get the prerequisite manuevers, it could be worth your while to consider Shadow Sun Ninja. It's especially nice because it would allow you to take some of the nicer Shadow Hand/Setting Sun maneuvers like Shadow Blink (which has no prerequisites. :D ), or Fool's Strike as Crusader maneuvers, and progress monk class features as well.

I would really recommend another look at Master of Nine as a monk/crusader. With +5 maneuvers readied on your Crusader progression, it means you would start every battle with 7 of 10 maneuvers granted, which can be very handy. As a bonus, ToB prestige class level advance your initiator levels in all your martial adept classes, so multiclassing with them can be extremely beneficial.

Douglas
2009-12-11, 09:47 AM
Master of Nine is insanely good for Crusaders if you can manage to satisfy the prerequisites. Unfortunately, the prerequisites are about as insane for a class with only 3 disciplines as the benefits. If you go that route, take a 1 level dip in Swordsage or Warblade to get the maneuvers from different disciplines prereq.

As for why Master of Nine is so good? 5 more maneuvers readied. Additional maneuvers readied also increase maneuvers granted. Think about it, 10 or 11 maneuvers readied at once, all but 2 or 3 of them granted instantly, and the whole lot refreshing on its own every 3 or 4 rounds. All that on top of being able to pick from every discipline and getting huge numbers of maneuvers known to pick with. Your bag of tricks just expanded hugely and got a lot more flexible and reliable, and you can burn through strikes, boost, counters, and miscellaneous stuff (some maneuvers like Shadow Stride use move actions) as fast as you can spend the actions and you still won't run out before it all refreshes.

If you don't want to spend all the resources required to qualify for MoN, though, I'd say just stick with Crusader. It's a good class all the way through, you don't want to stop maneuver progression, and all the other ToB PrCs are either not suited for your character or not very good.

Draz74
2009-12-11, 12:44 PM
Yeah, I'd say just stick to Crusader. You'll do fine.

Brendan
2009-12-11, 04:01 PM
I might try to convince my DM to let me switch my monk levels for unarmed swordsage, but thats all the other flexibility I have. Oh, and i at first level took weapon proficiency (greataxe), so I might be able to switch that out, as I now am gaining martal weapon prof.

Haven
2009-12-12, 03:49 PM
I might try to convince my DM to let me switch my monk levels for unarmed swordsage, but thats all the other flexibility I have. Oh, and i at first level took weapon proficiency (greataxe), so I might be able to switch that out, as I now am gaining martal weapon prof.

If you can convince your DM, you should do both of these things. After that, I'd definitely recommend going Master of Nine. You'll already have Improved Unarmed, so if you're human and/or your DM lets you pick up a flaw or two, you should have no problem meeting the prerequisites.

Though really, just continuing to advance as either a Crusader or a Swordsage is definitely a viable path.

tyckspoon
2009-12-12, 03:59 PM
If you can get the Swordsage switch, Master of Nine should be a pretty natural move. If not, consider taking one more level of Monk (yes, yes, I know, but at Monk 4 his BAB and saves increment, his unarmed damage progression moves up a step, and he gets an initiator level for having an even-numbered level in non-ToB class[es]. If you're gonna have Monk 3, you may as well go to 4.) From there, Crusader pretty much is your prestige class; you'll do fine taking it for however many levels the game runs.

Tokiko Mima
2009-12-12, 05:16 PM
If you can get the Swordsage switch, Master of Nine should be a pretty natural move. If not, consider taking one more level of Monk (yes, yes, I know, but at Monk 4 his BAB and saves increment, his unarmed damage progression moves up a step, and he gets an initiator level for having an even-numbered level in non-ToB class[es]. If you're gonna have Monk 3, you may as well go to 4.) From there, Crusader pretty much is your prestige class; you'll do fine taking it for however many levels the game runs.

Or if you could get your first level (only) switched to swordsage, it would benefit you greatly as well. You'd get the 6+Int skillpoints (with the crazy 6x multiplier that is almost surely a misprint), an increase to your Reflex and Will saves like you'd taken 4 levels of monk and you get those Swordsage maneuvers you need. You'd keep almost everything good monk every has as well, i.e. evasion, unarmed strike progression, and two bonus feats.

Hida Reju
2009-12-13, 03:32 AM
I would recommend Eternal Blade if you can meet the pre reqs or if you can convince the GM that its cool if something other than Elves or half elves can use it.