Questions about multiclassing to Swordsage

[Hashmir]

So, I've been reading the ToB, and something odd struck me about "initiator levels" and multiclassing, so I want to confirm whether my understanding is correct.

A character starting as a 1st-level Swordsage who wants the most high-level maneuvers at any given time - and thus taking the highest-level new maneuvers and retraining whenever possible - would have a progression like this:

{table=head]Character Level|Level 1 Maneuvers|Level 2 Maneuvers|Level 3 Maneuvers
1|6|0|0
2|7|0|0
3|7|1|0
4|6|3|0
5|6|3|1[/table]

But, a character entering the class at 5th level - with initiator level 3, and thus access to level 2 maneuvers - could just have the following:

{table=head]Character Level|Level 1 Maneuvers|Level 2 Maneuvers|Level 3 Maneuvers
X 4/Swordsage 1|0|6|0[/table]

Stances are affected similarly. No they're not, stupid.

Now, this seems strange to me. Am I missing or misunderstanding something, or does this simply turn out not to be an issue for some reason?

[gkathellar]

You are correct in your understanding. It seems a bit silly, but it works out in a few levels (and remember that you can have at most six non-initiator class levels if you want 9th level maneuvers — so that's 4 out of your build). And even at 5th, a full swordsage has a 3rd-level stance and a 3rd-level maneuver.

Stances, notably, are not similarly affected. You can only take 1st-level stances with your first level in an initiator class. Look at the text.

I'm not sure offhand if maneuvers start having prerequisites at level 2 or 3, but if it's 2 then that's also prohibitive.

[Hashmir]

Ok, thanks. This doesn't actually change anything for my character; I'm just mildly annoyed because all of the maneuvers I want are 2nd level. :smallyuk:

It's a pretty over-the-top campaign anyway, and I'm just using swordsage as filler for a Rogue//Assassin gestalt, so I'll ask if the DM might let me swap out one per level if I only use two schools or something.