[3.5] Good things to pick up in a Crusader dip

[BlueInc]

Hello! I'm playing Akeru (http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=22762), a level 4 "hobgoblin" cleric in a friend's 3.5 campaign. He's human by stats, hobgoblin story-wise. He is the group's tank and healer, and was the moral core of the party before he took some questionable actions last session and may be Lawful Evil now.

The party consists of a manipulative sorcerer, a druid, and an NPC barbarian, all minimally optimized. The sorcerer is basically built around bluffing his way out of problems, the druid is mostly a skillmonkey who casts spells we remind her to, and the barbarian gets an enormous number of lucky crits that let her one-shot opponents with ease.

Anyway, we accomplished a major story goal that involved months and months of preparation last session, and we probably got enough experience to level. This summer I discovered the Tome of Battle and got the DM to greenlight the Crusader for a dip. Does anyone have any suggestions for stances and maneuvers I should take at this level for battlefield control?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you're going to lose a level of spellcasting for Crusader, then you may as well go into Ruby Knight Vindicator also in ToB.

As for your maneuvers and stances for a dip, with four Cleric levels you'll have an initiator level of 3 at Crusader 1, so you'll be able to pick 2nd level maneuvers (there aren't any 2nd level stances). I'd get Foehammer, Mountain Hammer, Crusader's Strike, Leading the Attack, and Battle Leader's Charge, with Iron Guard's Glare for your stance. Extra Granted Maneuver as your 6th level feat is highly recommended, since it lets you cycle through your available maneuvers every three rounds instead of every four rounds.

[BlueInc]

If you're going to lose a level of spellcasting for Crusader, then you may as well go into Ruby Knight Vindicator also in ToB.

As for your maneuvers and stances for a dip, with four Cleric levels you'll have an initiator level of 3 at Crusader 1, so you'll be able to pick 2nd level maneuvers (there aren't any 2nd level stances). I'd get Foehammer, Mountain Hammer, Crusader's Strike, Leading the Attack, and Battle Leader's Charge, with Iron Guard's Glare for your stance. Extra Granted Maneuver as your 6th level feat is highly recommended, since it lets you cycle through your available maneuvers every three rounds instead of every four rounds.

Awesome, tyvm!

[Essence_of_War]

For battelfield control, the gold standard is Thicket of Blades. It's 3rd level stance, but because of the Crusader's weird stance progression a straight crusader can't learn it until 8th level! By contrast, a multiclass Crusader can take advantage of the fact that he has gets a stance each level at 1/2 and that RKV gets a stance known at lvl 1!

If you go Cleric4/Crus2/RKV1 you'll get Thicket of Blades as your 1st level RKV stance. Note that Cleric4/Crus1/RKV1 WILL NOT do it.

If you want to hang out in cleric a little longer, Cleric6/Crus2 gets Thicket of Blades at its second crusader level.

For more general advice, maneuver ratings, etc, you can find links to the Crusader Handbook (as well as the other ToB handbooks!) in my sig.

[BlueInc]

For battelfield control, the gold standard is Thicket of Blades. It's 3rd level stance, but because of the Crusader's weird stance progression a straight crusader can't learn it until 8th level! By contrast, a multiclass Crusader can take advantage of the fact that he has gets a stance each level at 1/2 and that RKV gets a stance known at lvl 1!

If you go Cleric4/Crus2/RKV1 you'll get Thicket of Blades as your 1st level RKV stance. Note that Cleric4/Crus1/RKV1 WILL NOT do it.

If you want to hang out in cleric a little longer, Cleric6/Crus2 gets Thicket of Blades at its second crusader level.

For more general advice, maneuver ratings, etc, you can find links to the Crusader Handbook (as well as the other ToB handbooks!) in my sig.

I'm not sure if my DM will greenlight RKV (this was originally supposed to be a Core + his homebrew world campaign), but I can try.

Two levels of Crusader doesn't sound bad at all for my character concept, but my dex isn't high enough to really take advantage of Thicket of Blades/Combat Reflexes.