The Ruby Knight Vindicator

[Bloodymango]

is the a way to enter The Ruby Knight Vindicator class with out being a sword sage/crusader/or warblade. say i wanted to be a straight cleric. then also how would my stances and Maneuvers level up.

[kestrel404]

The Martial Study and Martial Stance feats will let you qualify. Just choose a Devoted Spirit maneuver and stance as two of your first feats and you're good.

[RaggedAngel]

then also how would my stances and Maneuvers level up.

They would not, which is why it's usually worth it to take at least one level of Crusader.

[Yorrin]

And to answer the other part of your question: you'd keep getting new maneuvers/stances as outlined in the PrC. You'd have all your maneuvers prepared every encounter, but no refresh method. So they all become 1/encounter essentially. Stances function as normal.

Edit: since I was swordsage'd with this:

They would not, which is why it's usually worth it to take at least one level of Crusader.

This is wrong. They'd still get the new maneuvers as per the PrC table. Moreover their RKV levels are full initiator levels rather than half levels. So a Cleric 5/RKV 10 would have an IL of 12, for example.

[RaggedAngel]

Edit: since I was swordsage'd with this:


This is wrong. They'd still get the new maneuvers as per the PrC table. Moreover their RKV levels are full initiator levels rather than half levels. So a Cleric 5/RKV 10 would have an IL of 12, for example.

Huh, that's odd; I was assuming it advanced your initiating class like your casting class. This is good to know, actually.

[Bloodymango]

i still dont understand how they work though.

[Yorrin]

i still dont understand how they work though.

Based on this comment I'm going to assume you're new to ToB.
Learning maneuvers is mostly based on your initiator level (IL). In any class that doesn't appear in ToB (eg-Cleric) you gain half of your levels to your initiator level. So if you take Martial Study at level 1 and Martial Stance at 1 or 3 you'd have an IL of 1 when picking your first maneuver and stance. See the chart on page 39? That tells you the maximum level of maneuver you can learn based on IL. So you'd get a 1st level maneuver and stance, which you'd pick from devoted Spirit to qualify for the PrC.

Your levels in the PrC count as full IL progression, so at Cleric 5/RKV 1 you'd have an IL of 3 (2 for the Cleric levels and 1 for the RKV). So the stance you get at that level could be up to 2nd level, and would be chosen from one of the following disciplines: Devoted Spirit, Stone Dragon, White Raven, Shadow Hand. As you continue to gain levels you gain more stances/maneuvers as outlined in the RKV class chart, using your RKV level, +2 for the Cleric levels, as your IL.

Since you have no levels in Crusader/Swordsage/Warblade all your maneuvers can be used exactly once per encounter, but you can still change stances whenever you want as a swift action.

[Bloodymango]

so the maneuvers are the attacks while the stances are the disciplines :Devoted Spirit, Stone Dragon, White Raven, Shadow Hand

[MrRigger]

Not quite. The Disciplines are the nine different schools. Devoted Spirit, Stone Dragon, etc. Maneuvers are what you activate during combat, used to give you extra damage, alter your attack roll, add rider effects, etc. Stances also belong to the nine different schools, and you can enter different stances to allow you do different things. Give you access to sneak attack damage, allow you to make additional Attacks of Opportunity, make the area difficult terrain, etc.

MrRigger

[deuxhero]

Adaptive Style IIRC, lets you bypass the lack of refresh method.

Hope you are human/strong heart halfling if you are going for it though.