Is this a good build for a martial character?

[Tman1027]

This is my current build. I would love any suggestions to improve it. Right now I specialize in Diamond mind and Iron Heart martial paths. I'm thinking about leveling up into either rouge or Bloodstorm blade.
Human Fighter 2/Warblade 20
str 28
Dex 20
Con 26
INt 14
Wis 16
Cha 16
AC 38, Touch 18, Flat-footed 37

Weapons
Bastard Sword +5
Whip-dagger of minor lightning
Long sword of lesser flame +5

Armor
Platemail +5
Tower Shield +4
Amulet of magic defense +3
Ring of protection +3
Ring of Resistance +5
Gauntlets of Ogre Power
Boots of Toughness +5

Feats
Improved initiative
exotic wep BS
combat expertise
iron heart aura
Storm guard warrior
combat reflexes
quick draw

[Seerow]

A level 22 character with no epic feats?

[Tman1027]

A level 22 character with no epic feats?

As far as I can tell, my DM isn't playing with epic feats.

[Keld Denar]

You have no flight, no FoM, no miss chance, no short range teleport, no Mind Blank, no Death Ward, and are missing a large number of other important aspects for a high level character. Also, check with your party to see what buffs they can provide. No point in having +5 weapons if there is a wizard or cleric or bard who can give Greater Magic Weapon, and no reason to have +5 armor if there is a cleric who can loan you a pair of +5 Magic Vestaments.

So...in a word...No.

[Eldariel]

Alright, the level build is fine though yeah, you should pick up something Epic on level 21; you can get all you need from non-epic earlier. Now, next I'd look at the feats and items.

First, you have lots of Warblade bonus feats (Quick Draw, Combat Reflexes and Iron Heart Aura can all be taken as those) and I'd go Longsword over Bastard Sword (same weapon fluff-wise, but Longsword is largely just better) to save a feat on the Exotic Weapon Proficiency. This would open up a ton of feats; just imagine what all you could do with them (Improved Trip -> Knock-Down, Mage Slayer, all the good stuff).


Then I'd rework the equipment if at all plausible; stuff like Flight, saving throws and extra actions/teleportation are very key and should be present there. What are Boots of Toughness, btw?

EDIT: No epic feats then. That's fine.

[Eldariel]

Hm, thinking about it (figured might as well try to give you some ideas since you left so much out of the first post). Here's how your feats will break down:
1.
3.
6. Stormguard Warrior
9.
12.
15.
18
21.
Fighter 1. Combat Expertise
Fighter 2.
Warblade 5. Ironheart Aura
Warblade 9. Combat Reflexes
Warblade 13. Improved Initiative
Warblade 17. Quick Draw


Here's what I'd do: You can skip Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword, since Longsword is basically just as good but without a feat (not to mention, a more classic Knight-weapon). You have Double Stance (or Stance Mastery; same thing) so you can pick up Thicket of Blades from Crusader or as a feat, and keep another Stance open (Stance of Alacrity, Hearing the Air, Leading the Charge, some such).

Here we get to your remaining feats: You could pick up Martial Study: Shield Block (might even want to take Martial Study: Shield Counter later) and Martial Stance: Thicket of Blades (alternatively, could take 1 level of Fighter and 1 of Crusader, learning the Crusader-stuff you want on the Crusader-level) to gain that stance. Hell, you could even Martial Study: Strike of Righteous Vitality if desired. Access to Heals could help a lot.

Other feats of interest include Improved Trip -> Knock-Down (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown), Shield Specialization -> Shield Ward [PHBII], Improved Shield Bash and Two-Weapon Fighting-line (would require switching to Heavy Shield from Tower Shield but that wouldn't be the end of you; goes nicely with Stormguard Warrior to get extra attacks for Channeling the Storm, though might be better to just Avalanche of Blades -> Time Stands Still), Mage Slayer -> Blind-Fight -> Pierce Magical Concealment, and others. Could look like for example:
Fighter 1/Warblade 11/Crusader 1/Warblade +9
1. Shield Specialization
3. Shield Ward
6. Stormguard Warrior
9. Improved Trip
12. Knock-Down
15. Mage Slayer
18. Pierce Magical Concealment
21. Martial Study: Strike of Righteous Vitality (as an example; feel free to take it as a Warblade-maneuver)
Fighter 1. Combat Expertise
Warblade 5. Ironheart Aura
Warblade 9. Combat Reflexes
Warblade 13. Improved Initiative
Warblade 17. Blind-Fight

If you have Flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) and/or are Human, you could fit a couple more feats in (such as a second Martial Study for Shield Counter or Improved Shield Bash + Shield Slam or Endurance + Steadfast Determination or some such). That's a good start. Yeah, Diamond Mind and Iron Heart (with a dash of White Raven, and Devoted Spirit from feats + Crusader-level) Maneuvers would work great. Avalanche of Blades, Quicksilver Motion, Time Stands Still, Diamond Defense, Moment of Alacrity; the high level Diamond Mind is godlike.

Iron Heart has Manticore Parry/Wall of Blades, Iron Heart Surge, Lightning Throw and overall, good stuff on the lower levels. And White Raven most interestingly has White Raven Tactics, White Raven Hammer and the Leading the Charge-stance. Devoted Spirit has the Shield-maneuvers and Strike of Righteous Vitality as stuff you probably want. Leveling Bloodstorm Blade afterwards would be fine. Rest of the work would be investing in the right items. Right now, you lack many of the basics like flight, short range teleportation and ways to detect invisible opponents (though ToB helps with that; you should learn the "Hearing the Air"-stance from Diamond Mind). A quick buy list:
- Boots of Speed [DMG]
- Winged Vest [MiC] (or Wings of Flying [DMG] if looking for a way to fly permanently instead of just for fights)
- Cloak of Resistance +5 [DMG]
- Boots of Big Stepping [ToB] (can be combined with Boots of Speed for 1.5* the listed price; these rules are in DMG)
- Belt of Battle [MiC]
- Scarab of Invulnerability [MiC] (OH SHI-! button)
- Scout's Headband [MiC] (when you need True Seeing...)

Maybe some Rods of Cancellation or some such. Antimagic Torc [Underdark] would also be helpful but that list would get you started with stuff other than AC and To Hit.

Stats; you obviously want to pump the everliving out of your Str & Con, and good Int & Dex are obviously exceedingly useful since you add them to a bunch of stuff (you could even take the Hit'n'Run Variant Fighter from book named "Drow of the Underdark" to get Dex to hit and damage against flat-footed opponents; kinda baby version of Sneak Attack). Rest are just gravy.

[Keld Denar]

Strike of Righteous Vitality doesn't appear on the Warblade list, so your IL when taking it is not 1:1. At ECL21, you'll only have an IL of 10.5 (10), so you can't actually take it.

Then again, by that level, the hundred thousand gold or so that you need to buy a master item of Devoted Spirit is chump change, so it might be better to pick up the maneuver with cash rather than a feat.

[Greenish]

Strike of Righteous Vitality doesn't appear on the Warblade list, so your IL when taking it is not 1:1. At ECL21, you'll only have an IL of 10.5 (10), so you can't actually take it.I don't think Martial Study cares where your IL is from.

[Keld Denar]

Why wouldn't it? You don't magically have full Crusader IL just because you have Warblade levels. You still have to meet prereqs, and IL is a prereq.

[Veyr]

Greenish is correct: when an initiator takes Martial Study, he adds the maneuver to his own list of Maneuvers Known, exactly as if he had gotten it from leveling up except that he can choose a maneuver from any list. He can take any maneuver he likes that he meets the prerequisites for, and ready and recover it as a maneuver from his own class, as well as use his own initiator level to qualify and use it.

[Eldariel]

Why wouldn't it? You don't magically have full Crusader IL just because you have Warblade levels. You still have to meet prereqs, and IL is a prereq.

Which is why you take it as a Warblade maneuver, duh. Since classes with access to no martial disciplines can take martial maneuvers with Martial Study, classes with martial disciplines obviously can take martial maneuvers outside their normal selection with Martial Study; that's a prerequisite for the feat functioning.

And maneuver prerequisites are transparent with regards to class; you can only learn a maneuver once and as long as you know a maneuver, you know the maneuver regardless of the class so Crusader maneuvers have no trouble qualifying you for a maneuver you pick as Warblade; after all, same would work if you picked White Raven first from Crusader and then built upon that as Warblade. We're just using feat instead of class feat selection here.

[Veyr]

And maneuver prerequisites are transparent with regards to class; you can only learn a maneuver once and as long as you know a maneuver, you know the maneuver regardless of the class so Crusader maneuvers have no trouble qualifying you for a maneuver you pick as Warblade; after all, same would work if you picked White Raven first from Crusader and then built upon that as Warblade. We're just using feat instead of class feat selection here.
This... is dramatically more ambiguous, however. It's a bit unclear how this works when you're a multiclass adept, and it does matter.

There are two choices:
If you know a maneuver, you know it. You can ready it with either of your classes (provided the IL is high enough for both), but you can only ready it once. It gets recovered as with any maneuver of that class.
Maneuvers are tracked separately for different initiating classes. When you learn a maneuver from a PrC or the Martial Study feat, you must choose which class learns it, and from then on, only that class can ready, use, and recover it. However, since they're separate, both classes can learn and ready it independently, which means you can have two of the same maneuver readied.
Either way, ToB does specify that if you know the maneuver, it counts for pre-reqs, regardless of how you know it, IIRC.

[Keld Denar]

Ah, yea, I guess you're right. When you pick up a maneuver with Martial Study, its kinda like picking up a maneuver via a PrC. If you are a Warblade/EternalBlade, for example, at ECL11 when you take your first EB level, you'll have an IL of 11, and can immediately choose from a 6th level Devoted Spirit maneuver (assuming you satisfy the other prereqs).

Never mind, blond moment.

PS: More people need to ask me questions! Go to go to! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194049&page=15)

[Greenish]

Ah, yea, I guess you're right. When you pick up a maneuver with Martial Study, its kinda like picking up a maneuver via a PrC. If you are a Warblade/EternalBlade, for example, at ECL11 when you take your first EB level, you'll have an IL of 11, and can immediately choose from a 6th level Devoted Spirit maneuver (assuming you satisfy the other prereqs).

Never mind, blond moment.Hmm, looking over ToB, I think an argument could well be made for your interpretation.