Help with building a Marshal/Crusader

[falcon36]

I'm starting a new campaign soon and I want to make a Crusader/Marshal character using solely the White Raven set of maneuvers.
Some requirements are as follows
Starting level is 10
The character has to start a transition from Crusader to Marshal before level 10
The character cannot take any more classes of Crusader or Marshal after level 10
Classes with Full BAB progression only
No other TOB classes

I would love some help on this because I don't have too much experience with melee classes at all.

[HunterOfJello]

Question #1: Are you allowed to take Prestige Classes from Tome of Battle?


Next up, you're going to want to take 3 levels in the Marshall class maximum. You gain 1 minor aura at 1st, 1 major aura at 2nd and 1 minor aura at 3rd. Only having one of each aura can be plenty, but if you want a second minor aura, that's understandable. (Also note that the Marshall isn't Full BAB)

As far as the auras go, you're going to want to grab one (or two) of the Motivate [X Stat] to boost up the party. You'll have to look up exactly how each one would help you in and out of combat. For instance, Dexterity helps for improving initiative, Trip attempts, and a number of abilities that a Crusader wouldn't often use. (Since initiative and trip attempts use dexterity checks and the others are dexterity based skills.)

Motivate Care is probably your best option for the Major aura. Everything else on the major aura list scales easily except for AC.

~

Tome of Battle for Dummies (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871270/Tome_of_Battle_for_Dummies) is a great resource for Crusader information.

[Greenish]

If I had to fit marshal in there, I'd go with Crusader 1/Marshal 2/Crusader 7.

[FMArthur]

You can use the Draconic Auras from Dragon Magic in place of Major Auras, so I think the Senses aura is probably best, giving your party +1 Initiative and +1 to Spot and Listen.

Marshal actually becomes sort of good when you can get enormous Charisma; don't take the class with less than 18 Charisma, and anything from 20 to 22 to eating racial hit dice + LA for more might be preferable to actual Marshal levels. You'll want Motivate Dexterity so that your whole party can act first, but immediately afterwards you should switch to a different aura because that is generally the limit of Motivate Dexterity's usefulness. There are actually a lot of desirable Minor Auras for different situations if your Charisma is high enough for them to make a big impact; Motivate Dexterity (Initiative), Motivate Charisma (Diplomacy, Intimidate, Iaijutsu Focus), Motivate Strength (trip, bull rush, escaping spells/other confinement), the saving throw auras and the damage auras can all be very useful. Simply giving the entire party +10 to their initiative rolls and then looking at your enemies to pick a save to boost by +10 can have a massive impact on a battle's outcome.

[falcon36]

Right, the Marshal class is a 3/4 BAB. Just realized that

I was thinking a medium humanoid for RP purposes. LA is bought off but we have a +1 limit.

My GM isn't too keen on ToB in general because he feels it can be abused very easily. I also don't think any of the Prestiges in ToB are helpful to the class because of the White Raven only thing

The character is definitely going to be Charisma heavy so the minor aura would be very effective

[Pechvarry]

If there's a discipline that should scare off DMs, it's White Raven. >.>

I've recently become a fan of Complete Champion's Squire of Legend, particularly the Reikhardt variety, but it's far from a strong class. Which might actually be a good thing. Alternatively, the Reikhardt version of Mythic Exemplar from the same book might do you very well.