Snap kick possible combos?

[vageta31]

So the more I read about snap kick, the more awesome it actually seems to be(especially for Sneak attacks). Add a free unarmed strike after any melee attack? The possibilities seem truly endless. To benefit the most from it you'd just have to maximize your unarmed strike damage via 1 level of monk and some sort of progression feat (ascetic rogue) and maybe improved natural attack. So if you gain surprise round or initiative during any fight and you're within your movement range it seems you'd always have a chance to get 2 hits in along with SA dice on both.

Is this a valid method of adding damage? It sounds even better than TWF if you can get your unarmed strike damage up. And it allows you to do pretty much a full attack with any standard attack action. I'm guessing there are some sweet combos you can pull off, here's a few I was thinking about.

Acrobatic Strike: Normally this is considered pretty weak as you lose the ability to full attack in place of getting the flat footed condition. But with snap kick you can tumble in and get SA dice on both attacks with a +4 to negate the -2 snap kick penalty.

Penetrating strike/Karmic Strike: Hit with penetrating strike, and if you get hit during that same round you can follow up with a standard attack and snap kick each having double damage? Sounds good.

Combat reflexes: Follow up any AoO with a 2nd attack and get multiple per round?

Improved trip; As long as you trip in melee range you get the free hit AND snap kick?

I'm sure there's a ton more but that's just off the top of my head.


These are just ideas based on what I assume the rules to be and of course the more damage you do with unarmed strike the more you'd benefit. Are there any kinks in my ideas or does it pretty much work the way I'm imagining? It really seems this is a high powered feat if you can do good damage with the snap kick itself.

[Keld Denar]

It;s really that good. I recommend slapping it on a PsyWar/Monk Tashalatora chassis and amp up your UAS damage. Combined with Weapon of the Vampire and Expansion, you got a big hitter with some staying powah!

Altenatively, put it on an Unarmed Swordsage chassis. That gets you UAS damage progression, and every time you use a strike, you get a free sucker punch.

[pilvento]

supouse i take the sprping attack feat chan: spring attack, bounding assault, rapid blitz. if i hit 3 diferent targets, do i get the snap kick every time?

[Lyndworm]

That's a very interesting question, Pilvento... I don't think so, though. The feat says that you add one attack, so I'm pretty sure you can only add one. However, you could theoretically attack one extra enemy.

[Curmudgeon]

supouse i take the sprping attack feat chan: spring attack, bounding assault, rapid blitz. if i hit 3 diferent targets, do i get the snap kick every time?
Sorry, but no. You're still using just the one attack action, even with Rapid Blitz's 3 attacks, and that's just one trigger for Snap Kick's "When you make a melee attack" trigger. It's the same for a full attack action: still only one Snap Kick.

[T.G. Oskar]

Penetrating strike/Karmic Strike: Hit with penetrating strike, and if you get hit during that same round you can follow up with a standard attack and snap kick each having double damage? Sounds good.

I presume you mean Decisive Strike (the Monk ACF from Player's Handbook II), which makes all your attacks deal double damage, but it limits you to one melee attack as a full-round action. With Combat Reflexes (and if you're going to go, or dip, Monk you'll have a decent enough Dexterity anyways), and very later on either Karmic Strike or Robilar's Gambit, you can rack up a lot of hits, each of which counts for Snap Kick damage (since each attack of opportunity would be a separate melee attack).

See it as follows: if you make a melee attack as a standard action, a full attack action, a strike maneuver that requires a melee attack (most do), or you gain a melee attack by means of an attack of opportunity or Improved Trip, Snap Kick activates. In the case of Spring Attack, it would activate as part of the melee attack action, but only once. In the case of Whirlwind Attack, you are forfeiting that feat's benefit because the clause of the feat explicitly says so.

Bounding Assault and Rapid Blitz work differently. Instead of making one separate melee action, you basically use your iteratives in a different way. For example: whenever you reach BAB +12, you get one extra attack, but it's like if you made a full attack action; you can make it against a single enemy, or against two different enemies. You could activate Snap Kick on the first or the second, but you couldn't activate it on both because you gain only one such attack in the entire action. Rapid Blitz works exactly like Bounding Assault except you get one more attack, so it has the same limitations. Fortunately, you don't get limitations on when, just in the how to.

Though, for all it's worth and for how complicated that feat chain is, I'd allow Snap Kicks on every attack on the chain that hits a different enemy (thus, you could do 6 hits total/2 hits per enemy with three targets; 5 hits/2-3 hits per enemy with two targets, or 4 hits on a single target) because the feat chain really needs something to make it attractive anyways. As it is, and by RAW, you can't do it, but I'd pay a blind eye to it if it makes Spring Attack any useful (and to think that WotC seems to incline Monks to get Spring Attack, given that it's the only way they can take advantage of their mobility).

[Darrin]

I'm guessing there are some sweet combos you can pull off, here's a few I was thinking about.


Take a look at the base ability of Oxyrhynchus, Planar Handbook p. 172. Due to the wonky way it's worded, you get an extra attack at -5 against a flat-footed opponent any time you can make multiple attacks in a round. Since Snap Kick allows you to make two attacks on a standard action, Oxyrhynchus could be used to get a third attack.

[ajburges]

Sun School tactical feat (Complete Warrior) + Shadow School teleports + Adaptive Style (or other quick maneuver recovery)

Breakdown:

Use all three shadow school teleports. At the end of each Sun School triggers giving you an attack at full attack bonus (and thus each one can trigger snap kick :smallbiggrin:)

I am waiting for a ~lvl 14 campaign to introduce a Shadowsun ninja that uses this as a primary attack option (I visualize Nightcrawler the opening scene of the second X-man movie)

My current planed build is Swordsage 1/Monk 2/Swordsage 2/Shadow Sun Ninja 10/Swordsage rest. Warning: feats will be TIGHT.

Required:
Sun School
Adaptive Style
Snap Kick

Desired:
Unnerving Calm
Perfect Clarity of Mind and Body (A few good options including a perfect setup for a 9 level maneuver)
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip (Small buff to sun school maneuvers)

By level 11 you should have 2 teleports, 3 by 14. You add double wisdom to AC in addition to monk AC bonuses (a Shadow Hand stance give concealment :smallwink:). At level 18 get Perfect Clarity of Mind and Body and any move boosts to complement Tornado throw. Then go Exalted on the mooks:smallbiggrin:

[The Cat Goddess]

Sun School tactical feat (Complete Warrior) + Shadow School teleports + Adaptive Style (or other quick maneuver recovery)

Breakdown:

Use all three shadow school teleports. At the end of each Sun School triggers giving you an attack at full attack bonus (and thus each one can trigger snap kick :smallbiggrin:)

I am waiting for a ~lvl 14 campaign to introduce a Shadowsun ninja that uses this as a primary attack option (I visualize Nightcrawler the opening scene of the second X-man movie)

My current planed build is Swordsage 1/Monk 2/Swordsage 2/Shadow Sun Ninja 10/Swordsage rest. Warning: feats will be TIGHT.

Required:
Sun School
Adaptive Style
Snap Kick

Desired:
Unnerving Calm
Perfect Clarity of Mind and Body (A few good options including a perfect setup for a 9 level maneuver)
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip (Small buff to sun school maneuvers)

By level 11 you should have 2 teleports, 3 by 14. You add double wisdom to AC in addition to monk AC bonuses (a Shadow Hand stance give concealment :smallwink:). At level 18 get Perfect Clarity of Mind and Body and any move boosts to complement Tornado throw. Then go Exalted on the mooks:smallbiggrin:

I'm not certain why you're doing Monk in that build, beyond Evasion, since Unarmed Swordsage gives you the Unarmed Attack & Wis-to-AC. Fighter-2 would be better, if you're going Monk just for the bonus feats IMHO. I don't recall the feat progression for Psychic Warrior, but that might work as well and give you other neat powers to throw into the mix too.

Edit: Monk & Swordsage Wis-to-AC do not stack... not by RAW, nor by WotC FAQ. Though you could get Carmendine Monk or Kung-Fu Genius on Monk and get Int-to-AC to add to your Wis-to-AC.

P.S. If you go Fighter-1 first, your BAB is +1 and it opens your feat chains faster. Also, unless you're doing Fractional-BAB, Fighter-2 is that much more valuable than Monk-2.

[ajburges]

I'm not certain why you're doing Monk in that build, beyond Evasion, since Unarmed Swordsage gives you the Unarmed Attack & Wis-to-AC. Fighter-2 would be better, if you're going Monk just for the bonus feats IMHO. I don't recall the feat progression for Psychic Warrior, but that might work as well and give you other neat powers to throw into the mix too.

Edit: Monk & Swordsage Wis-to-AC do not stack... not by RAW, nor by WotC FAQ. Though you could get Carmendine Monk or Kung-Fu Genius on Monk and get Int-to-AC to add to your Wis-to-AC.

P.S. If you go Fighter-1 first, your BAB is +1 and it opens your feat chains faster. Also, unless you're doing Fractional-BAB, Fighter-2 is that much more valuable than Monk-2.

*Whops about the Wis to AC! Forgot that no armor was excluded from Swordsage AC bonus
*Swordsage doesn't give Improved Unarmed Strike
*BAB is a sore spot for it yes.
*Feat chains don't need ASAP unlocking as bad since Sun School needs the teleports before we can really abuse it. Until then, throws from the Setting Sun school will do (AKA Adaptive Style, Combat Expertise, and Improved Trip are better early level feats and that leaves Unnerving calm to fill the last spot until we can get Sun School).

Monk:
*gives furry of blows which is a prerequisite for Sun School
*fulfills Improved Unarmed Strike requirements for classes/feats
*gives Stunning fist which Shadow Sun Ninja improves (and Sun School uses)
*adds 2 levels to unarmed damage (1d10 -> 2d6 max and snap kick is being abused here), movement speed (30' -> 40' max), furry of blows penalty, and AC bonus progressions.
*+3 to all saves for 2 levels
*gives evasion and a second bonus feat while giving us so much else

[Lyndworm]

adds wisdom to AC again

:smallconfused: Uhh... no it doesn't. Monk AC doesn't stack with Swordsage AC. It specifically says that it does not in the Swordsage entry.

[The Cat Goddess]

Monk:
*gives furry of blows which is a prerequisite for Sun School
*fulfills Improved Unarmed Strike requirements for classes/feats
*gives Stunning fist which Shadow Sun Ninja improves (and Sun School uses)
*adds wisdom to AC again
*adds 2 levels to unarmed damage (1d10 -> 2d6 max and snap kick is being abused here), movement speed (30' -> 40' max), furry of blows penalty, and AC bonus progressions.
*+3 to all saves for 2 levels
*gives evasion and a second bonus feat while giving us so much else

1) Unarmed Swordsage gives Improved Unarmed Strike.
2) Unarmed Swordsage (arguably) gives Flurry of Blows.
3) Stunning Fist is a Feat... better for Monks (number of uses-wise) sure, but if you're only taking Monk-2 then there's no special bonus to it for being a Monk.
4) As I said Monk Wis-to-AC and Swordsage Wis-to-AC do not stack.
5) Superior Unarmed Strike Feat, Improved Natural Attack, Monk's Belt, etc.
6) Fighter-2 gives more HP, +1 BAB & better feat selection.

As I said... other than Evasion (and, perhaps, saves), why bother with Monk?

Psychic Warrior loses out on the +1 BAB, but gets 2 level one powers... like Expansion and Inertial Armor.

[ajburges]

Can you cite this "Unarmed Swordsage" I see no mention of it in my ToB.
Edit: found it under Adaptation. No Furry of Blows.

It doesn't specifically say that Wis-to-AC does not stack in the Swordsage entry. I just doesn't specify that it doesn't apply unarmored (same end scenario though).

Furry of Blows is a requirement for Sun School (a linchpin of the snap kick abuse) similar abilities won't cut it by RAW

In all fairness it's been 4 years since I made these notes. Monk made a quick and easy class to explore the concept. It's also the only way the concept works with the material I recall and have looked at today. Consider that Swordsage/Monk/Shadow Sun Ninja can be easier to sell to a DM than Swordsage/Psychic Warrior/Shadow Sun Ninja (and could even be used to bergen for fractional BAB)

Edit: In summary, Furry of Blows is what shoehorns it into Monk 1. Monk 2 then adds so much at this point. You trade 2 levels of Shadow Sun Ninja for Monk to get +1 BAB, -1 Initiator, Ki Strike (Magic), and lose Balance of light and dark.

[vageta31]

Personally I think the best bet would be to houserule in an "aesthetic swordsage" feat. That way you could take 1 or 2 levels of monk, then go full swordsage and get the wis bonus in light armor and still progress your unarmed damage. That's what I'm trying to do right now, I'm wanting to build sort of a swordsman than can dish out unarmed damage along with his sword. Specifically I'm wanting to use an elven court blade(finessable 2h) combined with TWF and/or snap kick to throw out a kick after every sword attack.

Legal way to do it is to take 1 level of Rogue for the bonus skills. Take a level of monk to get the basics, then continue on with Rogue with the aesthetic Rogue feat to keep up unarmed progression. Sprinkle it with swordsage to get your wis AC boost in light armor and as much maneuvers/stances as you want or need. I'd take superior unarmed strike, improved natural weapon and snap kick. That way you'd get your full sneak attack dice on multiple attacks during surprise rounds and initiative rounds as long as you can reach them in one movement. This I'd assume even works with a charge. Throw in acrobatic strike and you can get 2 attacks with SA dice each time.

Of course if you can manage to talk DM into aesthetic swordsage feat you could skip Rogue and just use assassin's stance for the extra SA damage.

[Siosilvar]

It doesn't specifically say that Wis-to-AC does not stack in the Swordsage entry. I just doesn't specify that it doesn't apply unarmored (same end scenario though).

Monk's Wis-to-AC works only unarmored.
Swordsage's Wis-to-AC works only in light armor.

These two are incompatible.

SS should work unarmored, but still shouldn't stack.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Personally I think the best bet would be to houserule in an "aesthetic swordsage" feat. That way you could take 1 or 2 levels of monk, then go full swordsage and get the wis bonus in light armor and still progress your unarmed damage. That's what I'm trying to do right now, I'm wanting to build sort of a swordsman than can dish out unarmed damage along with his sword. Specifically I'm wanting to use an elven court blade(finessable 2h) combined with TWF and/or snap kick to throw out a kick after every sword attack.

Legal way to do it is to take 1 level of Rogue for the bonus skills. Take a level of monk to get the basics, then continue on with Rogue with the aesthetic Rogue feat to keep up unarmed progression. Sprinkle it with swordsage to get your wis AC boost in light armor and as much maneuvers/stances as you want or need. I'd take superior unarmed strike, improved natural weapon and snap kick. That way you'd get your full sneak attack dice on multiple attacks during surprise rounds and initiative rounds as long as you can reach them in one movement. This I'd assume even works with a charge. Throw in acrobatic strike and you can get 2 attacks with SA dice each time.

Of course if you can manage to talk DM into aesthetic swordsage feat you could skip Rogue and just use assassin's stance for the extra SA damage.

Fist it is acetic not aesthetic.

Second: Open your ToB in page 20, see the adaptation section? It mentions the unarmed Swordsage adaptation, just remove the SS light armor proficiency and you get monks unarmed attack damage progression, tthere is no need to homebrew acetic swordsage, as the adaptation does that just perfect.

[jiriku]

Sword-sage's Wis-to-AC switching off when unarmored is considered by some (including myself) to be an oversight by Wizards.

Unarmed Swordsage is a sweet class option. If you're looking for a non-sucktastic monk, though, you can find a number of nice monk fixes in the homebrew forum (including mine :smallbiggrin:).

As Oskar mentioned, Snap Kick + Decisive Strike is just brutally unfair to the bad guys, especially if you combined it with things that give you even more opportunities to take an attack, or sources of bonus damage like skirmish or sneak attack (and unarmed swordsage has an easy route to pick up a 2d6 sneak attack).

[vageta31]

Second: Open your ToB in page 20, see the adaptation section? It mentions the unarmed Swordsage adaptation, just remove the SS light armor proficiency and you get monks unarmed attack damage progression, tthere is no need to homebrew acetic swordsage, as the adaptation does that just perfect.

I knew about the option but it requires you to be unarmored. I was looking for an alternative to be able to keep your light armor along with the SS ac bonus and keep monk progression going.

[vageta31]

Fist it is acetic not aesthetic.

And it's "ascetic", hehe.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I knew about the option but it requires you to be unarmored. I was looking for an alternative to be able to keep your light armor along with the SS ac bonus and keep monk progression going.

Easy as well, just wear a Mithral Chain shirt, no ACP no penalties for wearing it.

[Doughnut Master]

I presume you mean Decisive Strike (the Monk ACF from Player's Handbook II), which makes all your attacks deal double damage, but it limits you to one melee attack as a full-round action. With Combat Reflexes (and if you're going to go, or dip, Monk you'll have a decent enough Dexterity anyways), and very later on either Karmic Strike or Robilar's Gambit, you can rack up a lot of hits, each of which counts for Snap Kick damage (since each attack of opportunity would be a separate melee attack).


This also works well with Improved Trip and Knockdown.

Then you can hit, kick, and trip someone to the ground, all for the price of one attack.

[vageta31]

Easy as well, just wear a Mithral Chain shirt, no ACP no penalties for wearing it.

Is that a common houserule or is it RAW? I know mithril armor counts as one type lower, ergo mithril chain should count as "no armor" but does that mean a monk can wear it with no penalties?

It still seems that swordsage is losing out on at least a little bit. Monks get fast movement when not in armor, it seems swordsage only get the AC bonus part and they don't get flurry either way.

[jiriku]

A monk in a mithril chain shirt is still wearing light armor, and loses class abilities accordingly.

Unarmed swordsage is not monk, and does not have all of the monk's strengths. People recommend it because, while the two classes have different strengths and weaknesses, they're similar in overall style and unarmed swordsage has more strengths and fewer weaknesses than the regular vanilla monk. In particular, it's actually good at doing stuff, which the regular monk is not.

[vageta31]

Easy as well, just wear a Mithral Chain shirt, no ACP no penalties for wearing it.

Is that a common houserule or is it RAW? I know mithril armor counts as one type lower, ergo mithril chain should count as "no armor" but does that mean a monk can wear it with no penalties?

It still seems that swordsage is losing out on at least a little bit. Monks get fast movement when not in armor, it seems swordsage only get the AC bonus part and they don't get flurry either way.

[Curmudgeon]

Is that a common houserule or is it RAW? I know mithril armor counts as one type lower, ergo mithril chain should count as "no armor" but does that mean a monk can wear it with no penalties?
I'd call it an uncommon houserule, because this is the first time I've heard of it.
Mithral

Mithral is a very rare silvery, glistening metal that is lighter than iron but just as hard. When worked like steel, it becomes a wonderful material from which to create armor and is occasionally used for other items as well. Most mithral armors are one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement and other limitations. Heavy armors are treated as medium, and medium armors are treated as light, but light armors are still treated as light. The Monk's restrictions aren't related to armor weight, but rather armor presence. Weightless armor, if it uses up the Armor body slot, still hurts the Monk.

[vageta31]

The Monk's restrictions aren't related to armor weight, but rather armor presence. Weightless armor, if it uses up the Armor body slot, still hurts the Monk.

Which is why I thought it sounded more feasible for a swordsage to take one level of monk to get the goodies and hopefully talk a DM into houseruling some sort of "ascetic" feat version. Doesn't make much sense for the swordsage to have the ability to get an AC bonus on top of his light armor, then lose it for unarmed damage without gaining any of the other monk bonuses. Seems like a weak trade when you can take feats like superior unarmed fighting, improved natural weapon and then get a monk's belt to boot. You'd keep your higher AC and still get the majority of the unarmed progression.

Edit: And a monk gets an extra armor bonus as he levels on top of his wis bonus that the swordsage doesn't get as well correct?

[Ravens_cry]

And it's "ascetic", hehe.
I guess an Aesthetic Monk would be Charisma based, like the Monks of Cool.
(http://www.monksofcool.net/):smallcool:

[T.G. Oskar]

Personally I think the best bet would be to houserule in an "aesthetic swordsage" feat. That way you could take 1 or 2 levels of monk, then go full swordsage and get the wis bonus in light armor and still progress your unarmed damage. That's what I'm trying to do right now, I'm wanting to build sort of a swordsman than can dish out unarmed damage along with his sword. Specifically I'm wanting to use an elven court blade(finessable 2h) combined with TWF and/or snap kick to throw out a kick after every sword attack.

See if this is what you're looking for (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169491). It's pretty strong, though, since it stacks more than just AC bonus and unarmed strike damage.


Fist it is acetic not aesthetic.

Second: Open your ToB in page 20, see the adaptation section? It mentions the unarmed Swordsage adaptation, just remove the SS light armor proficiency and you get monks unarmed attack damage progression, tthere is no need to homebrew acetic swordsage, as the adaptation does that just perfect.

There's a little problem: nowhere does it mention that it stacks. It doesn't overlap, but the levels don't stack; hence, you'll be at least 1 point lower on terms of AC.

Another thing is that the poster apparently is interested in Light Armor, hence why he seeks for an ability that allows him to stack both the unarmed attack AND the Wis to AC on no/Light armor. That would definitely require some homebrewing, because otherwise you'd have a character that couldn't add his Wis to AC by RAW (though, as jiriku states, it's an oversight most people ignore). Try reading a bit between the lines.

Also, with all the mentions of unarmed Swordsage, I'd think everyone already knows that exists, so I'm going for the impression that he feels he should stack the vanilla Swordsage with Monk instead of losing his light armor proficiency as a Swordsage.

Actually, and a bit out of tangent: Shadow Sun Ninja only advances Monk levels. Unarmed Swordsage isn't considered as having Monk levels, so you'd still need Monk to progress those abilities if you want that to stack (odd if read by RAW, no?)

Anyways: good point about Sun School + Shadow Hand bamfing. Another interesting point: you can take all three bamfing maneuvers without requiring Shadow Hand maneuvers. You could technically do it with Warblade, though you'd still need Monk (because it requires the actual Flurry of Blows ability, which unarmed Swordsage doesn't get because it only gets the unarmed strike progression, and Flurry is an entirely different ability that progresses separately) to get Sun School's requirements set. You'd need Martial Study or getting into Shadow Sun Ninja for it, but Shadow (bamfing) + Warblade recovery progression means you can shadow-pounce with Snap Kick and Sun School once per two rounds, which is pretty awesome. You could also combine Shadow Blink + Flurry of Blows for some lethal moves. And with Carmendine Monk/Kung Fu Genius, you could add your Int to AC, Reflexes, damage while Flanking and others by progressing further into Warblade (not to mention you get full BAB and d12 hit dice for about 8 levels or so).

[vageta31]

See if this is what you're looking for. It's pretty strong, though, since it stacks more than just AC bonus and unarmed strike damage.

I'd say it's a tad strong, but the idea is on point :) Truthfully I think the monk should gain his bonuses and speed without any armor, so giving that all to a swordsage with light armor probably isn't balanced. I just want a standard swordsage to be able to have the fists of a monk(natural weapon, non-lethal damage if you choose) and keep the damage progression up. Superior unarmed strike is a start, but it progresses too slowly and you can't use improved natural attack unless you actually have monk fists.

It seems there is no true RAW way to do it, but with all of the ascetic "x" types of classes I'd say the precedent is there for a houserule if your DM ok's it.

[T.G. Oskar]

I'd say it's a tad strong, but the idea is on point :) Truthfully I think the monk should gain his bonuses and speed without any armor, so giving that all to a swordsage with light armor probably isn't balanced. I just want a standard swordsage to be able to have the fists of a monk(natural weapon, non-lethal damage if you choose) and keep the damage progression up. Superior unarmed strike is a start, but it progresses too slowly and you can't use improved natural attack unless you actually have monk fists.

It seems there is no true RAW way to do it, but with all of the ascetic "x" types of classes I'd say the precedent is there for a houserule if your DM ok's it.

Hmmm...in that case, as Dusk mentions, unarmed Swordsage grants that. You gain unarmed strikes exactly as a Monk gets them (natural or manufactured weapon as benefits the most, lethal or non-lethal damage, increased damage progression), which allows you to get INA on your fists if you so desire (because they count as natural weapons for that feat). This allows for a slight increase in damage which is imperceptible up until you reach 16th level in which you get about 4 points in average of increase from one tier to another.

The feat intends to allow progress on other things, such as the Monk's speed bonus, the swordsage's initiative bonus and initiator level, and allows the AC bonus of Monk and Swordsage to stack (progression and Wis to AC applying in light or no armor). It's a tad strong in that you get the ability to add Wisdom to AC in light armor even as a Monk, plus use flurry of blows and fast movement in light armor which grants a phenomenal bonus to a Monk but not much bonus to a Swordsage. However, it's not insanely strong, and it might justify a mere Monk dip for all goodies you can get: need to change that a bit. I showed it up just because it seemed to be your goal, but since I see that you're not so interested in light armor (mostly on the unarmed damage progression), the unarmed Swordsage adaptation is just fine.

[vageta31]

showed it up just because it seemed to be your goal, but since I see that you're not so interested in light armor (mostly on the unarmed damage progression), the unarmed Swordsage adaptation is just fine.

No I am interested in the light armor, that's the problem. I want light armor and unarmed progression without worrying about the extras. I want to be able to wear my mithril chain shirt and attack with my sword, but throw out some unarmed strikes via snap kick/TWF and want to have enough damage on my strikes to make it worth it. 1 level of monk gives me the natural weapons, swordsage gives me the light armor ac bonus, just looking for a way to tie it together.