Tome/Belt of Battle

[Gnaritas]

A quote from the "Tome of Battle for Dummies":


Belt of Battle (Magic Item Compendium): Expend charges for extra actions. This is great for any class, but arguably more so for a Martial Adept who has more uses for their various actions, and who standard (strikes) and swift (boosts) actions are often more powerful than normal melee characters.

Is this not incorrect? Doesn't the Belt use a swift actions to activate, making it "worse" for ToB-ers because they already have a good use for their swift action?

[Ernir]

Eh, martial adepts can still get more use out of an extra standard action than "normal" melee-ers can.

Which is "better" is just a matter of opinion. The one who wrote the quote even said so, calling it "arguably more so".

And the item is awesome for any character regardless. :smalltongue:

[Runestar]

I would argue that belt of battle is less useful to martial adepts exactly because of their standard action strikes. Fighters and barbs will appreciate the ability to gain an extra move action 3/day, since they can combine this with a full-attack, and they typically have nothing better to do with their swift actions anyways.

Conversely, adepts can already move+attack (unless they want the extra move action to simulate a spring attack), and as mentioned, swift actions are already a very rare commodity to them. The ability to get an extra standard action does not seem tempting enough to me.

[Gnaritas]

Eh, martial adepts can still get more use out of an extra standard action than "normal" melee-ers can.

Which is "better" is just a matter of opinion. The one who wrote the quote even said so, calling it "arguably more so".

And the item is awesome for any character regardless. :smalltongue:

I put the "worse" between quote's to show i realised it is still good.

However the poster still claims the belt is more powerful because a ToB-er has more uses for (among others) swift actions, which imho should work the other way around.

Also the fact that a ToB-er has better standard actions than a fighter, shouldnt make it more valuable for the ToB-er....you can say the same for about any item...
"Blabla item makes the character survive longer, so it is better for a Warblade than a Fighter, since the Fighter sucks...".

[Mongoose87]

It can allow a ToBer to move, then use a full-round maneuver, which is pretty shiny.

[Douglas]

It can allow a ToBer to move, then use a full-round maneuver, which is pretty shiny.
Meh, ToBers can do that anyway with Quicksilver Motion, and they don't need to spend money or limited uses per day on it.

[Gnaritas]

Meh, ToBers can do that anyway with Quicksilver Motion, and they don't need to spend money or limited uses per day on it.

You mean Shadow Blink?

[Douglas]

No, I mean Quicksilver Motion. Spend a swift action, gain a move action.

Though Shadow Blink works too.

[Zaydos]

I'd say it would work better for a warblade or crusader than a swordsage (in my limited experience they have less uses for swift actions than a fighter). It allows them to make 2 strikes in a single round which is typically greater than a full attack. The real question is: will your character be using a swift action every round of combat? If no then the has more swift action options doesn't make it that much weaker. The fact that a standard action doubles your damage makes a standard action a very good option. A move action will help a fighter engage and full attack, but in many cases it's just +1 attack on an already full-attack.

Really it would depend upon the build. If you use a lot of diamond mind/setting sun/iron heart counters and shadow hand/desert wind/tiger's claw boosts it won't help you. If you have more strikes then it's more useful. Would I say it's flat out "better" no. Unless you have pounce on a normal melee character he will probably get 3 full attacks he normally wouldn't have per day with it, compared to 1 extra strike. The advantage for a ToB character is that they get the extra strike when it can turn the tide of the battle instead of round 1 of each battle (although normally big damage round 1 is enough you won't need that).

When I've finished playing devil's advocate I'd actually say it's somewhat better for normal melee.

[Asheram]

This could get interesting with any class that've got the skirmish ability