ToB Multiclassing question

[Dann]

So I've started playing a crusader in a two-person game. Eventually my goal is to pick up a level of swordsage and then go master of nine. My question is about how my new maneuvers learned will work. The character will be crusader 7/figher 1/swordsage 1 and pick up his first Mo9 level. I get 2 maneuvers known and one readied.

Which side gets the readied maneuver? I'd rather have it be swordsage, because they don't recover very well and otherwise I get my crusader maneuvers back less often.

Also, what rules apply to which ones I can know? Mo9 says I can choose from any of the 9 disciplines, does that mean I can choose a 5th level Shadow Hand maneuver, since my crusader IL is 9? Or could I only choose 3rd level since my SS IL is 6? If I can and do choose a 5th level Shadow Hand maneuver, does that mean it has to be known/used only on my crusader side, since that's the one with IL 9? If I do take a 3rd level Shadow Hand maneuver, can I put it on either side, and if so do I make that choice once and stick with it or can I change it day to day?

I think that's all my questions.

[IdleMuse]

Most of the answers to these questions are on p96 of ToB, but some of them are fairly hard to extract. From what I'm reading...

1. You choose which side the readied maneuvre is added to. If you add it to the Crusader side, you also start with one maneuvre more at the beginning of an encounter.

2. I'm fairly sure that you can stick your new maneuvres known on either class, irrelevant of discipline. When you calculate your Initiator Level, you use all of your classes (so in your case, IL9.5 after the Mo9 level), and can use this to determine which maneuvres are available to you, no matter which class you apply them to. (This is also true for your Swordsage level, btw; you might be able to start with higher than first-level maneuvers in that class, depending on 'maneuvers known' prereqs).

3. Once you've picked something like this, you can't change it, short of having a retraining-friendly DM, (or levelling up further in a base ToB class which allows you to swap out maneuvres).

I think that answers your questions.

[Douglas]

The maneuver readied goes to whichever side you want it to. I'd actually recommend giving it to Crusader, for two reasons: on Swordsage, it doesn't help recover the existing Swordsage maneuvers any better and adds yet another one dependent on that horrible recovery mechanic; on Crusader, an additional maneuver readied automatically also gives an additional maneuver granted - your Crusader refresh rate stays exactly the same, but with one more maneuver recovered each time, so you can spam even more maneuvers without running out.

The new maneuvers known go to whichever side you choose, and the limit on maneuver level is determined by the initiator level of the side that gets it. Any maneuver you add to Crusader can be up to level 5. Any maneuver you add to Swordsage is limited to level 3. Available disciplines is determined entirely by the PrC independent of which class you give the maneuver to, so all 9 disciplines are open regardless of your Crusader vs Swordsage choice. You could even take a 5th level Iron Heart maneuver - a discipline neither base class gets - and give it to Crusader. Again, I'd recommend adding both new maneuvers to Crusader; that way they can be higher level maneuvers and they would benefit from Crusader's superior recovery mechanic.

[navar100]

While you can choose which progression to increase your maneuvers known, Crusader or Swordsage, for Master Of Nine always increase your Crusader progression. Master of Nine gets 1 more readied maneuver every level. When a Crusader enters a prestige class and increases its progression, every new readied maneuver also increases the amount of granted maneuvers. That means, from the five levels of Master of Nine you get 5 more readied maneuvers therefore 5 more granted maneuvers!

I had played a Master of Nine that was Crusader 11/Swordsage 2/Master of Nine 5 by campaign end. Since I had the feat Extra Granted Maneuver, at campaign end as a Crusader I had 11 maneuvers readied, 9 maneuvers granted at the start of every encounter and upon refreshing, and refreshed every three rounds.

Crusaders adore Master of Nine if maneuvers are your focus.

[Dann]

Thanks for the answers, including the reference to page 96 which I had not noticed.