iaijutsu SwordSage build advice?

[Tvtyrant]

Swordages can be dex based and with the Shadow Hand manuevers can get sneak attack, so they seem to fit the bill for an initiative taking death dealer. This always brings Iaijutsu to mind to me, and I was wondering if anyone has any build advice for how to get it as a skill and if it would work with Shadow Sun Ninja.

[Darrin]

Swordages can be dex based and with the Shadow Hand manuevers can get sneak attack, so they seem to fit the bill for an initiative taking death dealer. This always brings Iaijutsu to mind to me, and I was wondering if anyone has any build advice for how to get it as a skill and if it would work with Shadow Sun Ninja.

To get Iaijutsu Focus as a class skill:

1) Ask the DM if you can add it to the SwordSage's skills, or swap it with something like Craft, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (something), Profession, or Sense Motive. Easy, simple, no fuss/muss. Fluff-wise, it fits perfectly. Balance-wise, not that much of a concern... yeah, okay, so it's more melee damage. Big deal. It's not a Searing Reached Twinned Split-rayed Invisible Energy-Substituted Fell-Drained Maximized Empowered Necrotic Skull Bomb.

2) Skill Knowledge (http://srd.realmspire.com/unearthedAlternativeSkills.html#skill-knowledge). It's from an alternate skill system, but it's in the SRD, and works just fine with the default skill system.

3) 1-level dip into Samurai (OA version) or Factotum + Able Learner. Actually, Swordsages get enough skill points that you could probably skip Able Learner.

As far as Shadow Sun Ninja... I don't really see how the PrC really adds anything to Iaijutsu Focus, and some of the class abilities that focus on unarmed strikes can't be used with it. Even assuming you can "quickdraw" a guantlet, I'm not sure how that would work with Iaijutsu focus, or if it would still be considered an unarmed strike for the purposes of your class abilities.

Shadow Sun Ninja is a lot like the Drunken Master PrC: extremely cool concept, very poor mechanics/execution.

[manyslayer]

Also to get Iajutsu focus as a class skill a one-level dip into Human Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm#humanParagon) with the adaptive learning ability for iajustsu focus.