adaptive style

[limejuicepowder]

Who has real experience using this feat on a swordsage? Common wisdom dictates that it Must Be Taken, but I don't buy it. Swordsages get more maneuvers then they will ever really use, and I just don't see spending 25% of the average encounter getting back maneuvers when I still have 5 more attacks. This isn't to say that the feat is useless, I just suspect it's more of a niche then a mainstay.

Anyone?

[Flickerdart]

You may have 5 more maneuvers readied, but it is very likely that the maneuvers you've expended were expended because they were useful, which means that you will want them back, whereas the maneuvers you have left are left because they weren't as useful. So while your large amount of maneuvers readied means that you will almost certainly have a useful one for the situation at hand, it is not likely that you will have many more useful ones than that, especially at low levels.

[Snowbluff]

You may have 5 more maneuvers readied, but it is very likely that the maneuvers you've expended were expended because they were useful, which means that you will want them back, whereas the maneuvers you have left are left because they weren't as useful. So while your large amount of maneuvers readied means that you will almost certainly have a useful one for the situation at hand, it is not likely that you will have many more useful ones than that, especially at low levels.

This. If you don't take it, you'll have to recover each maneuver as a full action anyway.

One.

At.

A.

Time.

Alternatively, take that feat that lets you get a maneuver back as a swift 1/encounter or play a Ruby Knight Windicator.

[limejuicepowder]

This. If you don't take it, you'll have to recover each maneuver as a full action anyway.

One.

At.

A.

Time.

Alternatively, take that feat that lets you get a maneuver back as a swift 1/encounter or play a Ruby Knight Windicator.

That's kind of my point though. Most encounters only last 4 rounds at most, so that only leaves round 2 or 3 to recover maneuvers. The swordsage has a lot more then 2 good maneuvers, even at low levels, so I would think the situation where it's worth it to spend an entire round to get a maneuver back wouldn't come up that often - and even when it does, if the maneuver is THAT important, it would probably be worth it to recover it the usual way.

The real benefit is being able to completely change around your maneuvers based on the situation - this should not be understated.

The feat is definitely decent, but no where near "feat tax" good.

[Fouredged Sword]

In high op you can get away without it as combat will not last more than 3-4 rounds and you can't afford to stop acting for a round.

[eggs]

My group uses the conservative reading that doesn't treat it as a full restore. It still shows up on most of the Swordsages. Moment of Perfect Mind and Countercharge just aren't that useful to have readied when your ambushers are archers.

[Emmerask]

In high op you can get away without it as combat will not last more than 3-4 rounds and you can't afford to stop acting for a round.

then again who would willingly play a swordsage in a high op game?
All around you reality is being bend or created completely anew and you stand there being able to jump a tiny bit higher then normal.

[Aegis013]

then again who would willingly play a swordsage in a high op game?
All around you reality is being bend or created completely anew and you stand there being able to jump a tiny bit higher then normal.

High op doesn't necessarily mean t1. You could play a high op t3/4 game or something along those lines.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Boss fights and multiple enemy encounters.

In a fight with an enemy(s) that is going to take longer than 5 rounds adaptive style could be the difference between victory and death.

If all your maneuvers readied are offensive in nature your d8 hd and poor fort save could rapidly become a problem.

If they're all defensive the fight could drag on that much longer, and you could easily need one multiple times in rapid succession, effectively taking you out of the fight either through constant recovery or not having the counter you need and ending up dead.

Adaptive style lets you, appropriately enough, adapt on the fly to whatever needs you have in a given battle, provided your mix of disciplines and maneuvers covers more than just one tactic. Imo this makes the feat a necessity.

The unprepared warrior is a dead warrior.

[StreamOfTheSky]

I've played several Swordsages. All of them have had Adaptive Style. All of them. Never once have I regretted it. It's been used frequently.

Swordsages get a lot of KNOWN maneuvers. Readied? They start off with one more than the warblade(!!!). And while they have a lot of maneuvers, they also get by far the most options for boosts and counters of the 3 classes, so many rounds you'll find yourself using 2 maneuvers and draining your pool that much faster.

Another thing is, you have the same amount of trade-up swaps (since you can swap a level 1 for a level 3, for example, unlike with spells) as the other adepts, and on average, one extra maneuver learned per level from levelling up. So you'll have 3 (1 swap + 2 from level ups) maneuvers of your highest levels at most, and the other adepts will have 2 (1 swap +1 from level ups). The point is...you won't really have that many "best" attacks compared to the other classes, so you'll still find yourself wanting to recover, to use them again.

Finally, there's the utility aspect. Have a fire-based maneuver prepped and the foe is fire immune? Have throw maneuvers readied and the DM throws a giant at you? You can, in one round, completely reformat your repoirtre! This has come in handy often for me, and it allows for you to go out and pick the awesome yet situational maneuvers, because you know you won't be stuck with them when they're useless, or alternatively, you can call them up whenever you need them.

Adaptive Style is a great feat for Swordsage, and necessary. They need it more than Druid needs Natural Spell (granted, that's partly because w/o natural spell the druid is still a dude w/ an awesome pet who's either a primary spellcaster OR an uber fighter at any given moment), the class just doesn't function much at all w/o it.