Hig Optimization Swordsage Help!

[S0lar1s]

I am going to play in a campaign and I want to play an effective meele character with two weapons.In the campaing is in pathfinder but includes all books from 3.5.
I think i should pick at least some levels as Swordsage so I can use the Shadow Blade feat and use some very nice maneuvers and stances.Other feats I consider to pick are:two weapon fighting,two weapon finesse,improved two weapon fighting,power attack.We are going to have an 2h ubercharger warblade in the party and I want to compare with him in damage.Plz help!

[Snowbluff]

So... TWF but you are not Full BaB?

I don't think you'll ever be able to match a Warblade Ubercharger. Since Shadowblade counts at weapon finesse for prereqs, I'd say take take Dervish Dance, but you are TWF...

You might want to look at Bloodclaw Master and/or Revenant Blade.

[GenericMook]

You won't be able to match a Warblade Ubercharger. If he's doing things right, he'll be getting all sorts of damage boosts from Stormguard Warrior, Leap Attack, etc.

With TWF, however, you're going to have to go through lots and lots of hoops to get something that's kinda sorta boring.

It's possible to make an effective melee character with it, but there's some things we'd have to know first. The two big ones are this:

1) What's the starting level?
2) Are Flaws allowed?

[BowStreetRunner]

I actually think Warblade 6 does this better - because then you can get Weapon Specialization and Melee Weapon Mastery and increase your base damage. Knowledge Devotion helps too. Add in the Blood in the Water stance and the damage can start to climb significantly.

[Darrin]

It's difficult to combine TWF with Power Attack, because you usually wind up with a one-handed weapon (Power Attack but no damage multipliers) and a light weapon (no Power Attack at all). But there are a couple ways around this with some weapons that do work with Power Attack, but unfortunately they aren't Shadow Hand preferred weapons, and thus Shadow Blade won't work.

There are at least two ways to get two-handed Power Attack multipliers into a TWF build: 1) Dragonsplits (MM4) are one-handed weapons that are treated as light weapons for the purposes of TWF penalties. 2) Exotic Weapon Master's "uncanny blow" feature allows you to treat one-handed weapons as if they were two-handed for the purposes of Power Attack. For example:

Race: Dwarf
1) Barbarian 1. Feat: TWF. Spirit Lion Totem (Pounce), Whirling Frenzy.
2) Fighter 1. Bonus: Power Attack.
3) Fighter 2. Feat: Travel Devotion. Bonus: Oversize TWF.
4) Swordsage 1. Weapon Focus: Dwarven Waraxe.
5) Swordsage 2.
6) Swordsage 3. Feat: Adaptive Style.
7) Swordsage 4.
8) Exotic Weapon Master 1. Uncanny Blow.
9) Swordsage 5. Feat: Improved TWF.
10) Swordsage 6.
11) Swordsage 7.
12) Swordsage 8. Feat: Leap Attack.
13) Swordsage 9.
14) Swordsage 10.
15) Swordsage 11. Feat: Greater TWF.
16) Swordsage 12.
17) Swordsage 13.
18) Swordsage 14. Feat: Travel Devotion.
19) Swordsage 15.
20) Swordsage 16.

To add Shadow Blade into the mix, we can use Spiked Chain + Unarmed Strike. We get Power Attack multipliers on the Spiked Chain, and we at least get some extra damage on the unarmed strike, which is still considered a light weapon but can be used with Power Attack for 1x damage. If you want to go this route, see if your DM will allow you to use the Unarmed Swordsage variant to pick up the monk's Improved Unarmed Strike.

Race: Human.
1) Unarmed Swordsage 1. Feat: Adaptive Style. Bonus: EWP Spiked Chain. Bonus: Improved Unarmed Strike.
2) Swashbuckler 1. Bonus: Weapon Finesse.
3) Fighter 1. Feat: Shadow Blade. Bonus: TWF.
4) Fighter 2. Bonus: Power Attack.
5) Swordsage 2.
6) Swordsage 3. Feat: Superior Unarmed Strike.
7) Swordsage 4.
8) Swordsage 5.
9) Swordsage 6. Feat: Improved TWF.
10) Swordsage 7.
11) Swordsage 8.
12) Swordsage 9. Feat: Snap Kick.
13) Swordsage 10.
14) Swordsage 11.
15) Swordsage 12. Feat: Greater TWF.
16) Swordsage 13.
17) Swordsage 14.
18) Swordsage 15. Feat: Leap Attack.
19) Swordsage 16.
20) Swordsage 17.

(If Unarmed Swordsage isn't available, swap in a level of Battledancer or Overwhelming Attack Monk.)

GenericMook is probably right, though... if the Warblade knows what he's doing, it's going to be very difficult to keep up with his damage. Even these builds, without something like Sneak Attack + Craven, are going to be lackluster on damage.

[Snowbluff]

If you are fighting with Dragon Splits, I would make the one end keen, then use Butterfly's Sting. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/butterfly-s-sting-critical) When crit with it, switch over to the x4 crit end for extra damage on your next hit.