Good 3-Level Dip for a Martial character?

[Talbot]

So, I had my build all worked out, then found out several levels of it don't work. So now I need to figure out how to fill them in. Build is:

Unarmed Swordsage 2/Avenger or Sentinel 4 (depending on alignment)/Shiba Protector 1/Dragon Warrior 10

The build's main gimmick is Wis-SAD (with Serenity to base saves off it), but I'd really love a secondary (non-casting) trick to fall back on for when "hit it really hard" isn't an option. Feats are pretty scarce for the first ten levels on account of pre-reqs for the prestiges, but after that I haven't really committed to much.

I'm considering just finishing off with three more levels of Swordsage, but with an IL topping out at twelve, I'm not really sure it's worth it.

Ideas?

[Jarian]

Hm. There's not much more Wis synergy you can get without going in to conflicting alignments. If you can swing it, the Saint template will give you Wis to AC again, though I don't recall what the alignment restrictions are on Dragon Warrior.

A few levels of Ninja could give you swift action invisibility/miss chances.

Taking some Warblade levels at the end could net you access to some of the stronger early maneuvers and give you something to do with your swift actions, though there's no Wis synergy here.

[Talbot]

Hm. There's not much more Wis synergy you can get without going in to conflicting alignments. If you can swing it, the Saint template will give you Wis to AC again, though I don't recall what the alignment restrictions are on Dragon Warrior.

A few levels of Ninja could give you swift action invisibility/miss chances.

Taking some Warblade levels at the end could net you access to some of the stronger early maneuvers and give you something to do with your swift actions, though there's no Wis synergy here.

Dragon Warrior is any non-Lawful non-Chaotic, though my DM is considering relaxing that to allow me to take Avenger (CG) instead of Sentinel (LG), as it makes more sense for the character but is virtually the same power-wise.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

One or two more Swordsage levels wouldn't lose any BAB. One or two Fighter levels would give you some extra feats to play with, which you could spend on Efficient Defender from Cityscape. Cloistered Cleric 1 with the Celerity domain and Knowledge and Travel Devotions would be pretty amazing.

A bloodline (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) would give your character some additional benefits without reducing your max skill ranks, and bloodline levels would even increase your initiator level and any "X per level" class features you gain. Some give +1 Wisdom and other ability scores, Alertness (required for Shiba Protector) or various other bonus feats, useful spell-like abilities and resistances, some even grant unique abilities like Titan gives Oversize Weapon, etc. Bloodline levels can be taken at any point in your career, so you could go Unarmed Swordsage 1/ Bloodline 3/ Unarmed Swordsage +1/ etc. and get 3rd level maneuvers, with high skill points/level right afterward to make up the ranks in your important skills.

[The Rabbler]

A bloodline (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) would give your character some additional benefits without reducing your max skill ranks, and bloodline levels would even increase your initiator level and any "X per level" class features you gain. Some give +1 Wisdom and other ability scores, Alertness (required for Shiba Protector) or various other bonus feats, useful spell-like abilities and resistances, some even grant unique abilities like Titan gives Oversize Weapon, etc. Bloodline levels can be taken at any point in your career, so you could go Unarmed Swordsage 1/ Bloodline 3/ Unarmed Swordsage +1/ etc. and get 3rd level maneuvers, with high skill points/level right afterward to make up the ranks in your important skills.

Stop that. Bloodlines are easily one of the most vaguely-worded and poorly-written things ever released by WoTC. They also break everything.

[Talbot]

Efficient Defender is kind of a bad idea, as I'm pretty sure the AC bonus from Dragon Warrior only occurs when unarmored.

Bloodlines might not work for the campaign setting, sadly. The Warblade idea isn't bad as I could pick up both IHS and WRT, I think.

[HunterOfJello]

If you take the True Believer feat (which gives access to all sorts of great items in the MiC), you can likely gain access to the Pious Templar PrC. It requires Knowledge (religion) 4 rank and Weapon Focus (with deity's favored weapon), but you should have the first easily and the second from your first level in Swordsage.


This PrC is lame except for the level 1 ability you get when you enter into into it. Mettle!

Mettle works like Evasion except for Will and Fortitude saves. Any time you would normally have Will Partial or Fort partial, you instead have nothing happen to you at all.

~

[Talbot]

Where is Pious Templar?

Also, I'm not really trying to pick up any spellcasting (using the "bonus feats" ACF for Paladins to ditch the casting from Sentinel/Avenger), and I need classes that allow either NG or CG.

[HunterOfJello]

Sorry, Pious Templar is from Complete Divine.

~


There's also the feat Serenity in the Dragon Compendium that lets a Paladin use Wisdom for his Paladin abilities instead of charisma. This includes Divine Grace. That would give you some excellent bonuses to your saves if you took Paladin of Freedom 2.

~

Oh! And there's also the Rogue 2 along with the UA Rogue ACF that lets you replace sneak attack with a fighter's bonus feat progression. Taking the ACF Rogue 2 that way would net you Trapfinding, 2 Fighter Bonus Feats, a plethora of skill points, lots of new class skills and Evasion!

If your saves are already high, then I suggest Pious Templar 1 and Rogue 2. This will net you both Evasion and Mettle to allow you to ignore anything you make a successful save on. Your DM might hate you, but you'll be smiling.

~

Or you could ignore all that stuff and take some levels in Psychic Warrior or Ardent. Both give you bonus Power Points based on Wisdom and get a handful of cool abilities each. Psychic Warrior gets 2 bonus feats (fighter or psionic) while the Ardent gets more powers known.

[Talbot]

Yeah, I already have Serenity planned (Avenger/Sentinel are the CG/NG Paladin variants from Dragon Mag). Pious Templar 1/Rogue 2 looks good (my DM likes to whine about having lots of classes, but he'll get over it), the only problem is that my character doesn't really have a deity, although he does, at a conceptual level, more or less worship dragons... but there are not Dragon-related Gods in this campaign setting. And again, I really don't want any spellcasting, but maybe he'll let me trade away the casting for extra skillpoints or something.

Now I just need to figure out where in the build to take them.