Need help: whisper gnome warblade

[Rishal]

Hi everyone, I'm returning to dnd from a 5+yr hiatus and am looking for some help with a quirky character I would like to play.

The group I am joining is at level 1 and mostly made up of ranged casters, so I am hoping to be able to soak and/or avoid damage, while still putting out decent damage and having some melee focus. I really love the idea of wielding a spiked chain and going down the path of tripping and disarming enemies but being small kind of hurts both of those prospects.

I've rolled decent enough ability scores (18,17,16,15,14,12) that I could go with either a Str or Dex build but am having a real tough time deciding which is best and it has me questioning if whisper gnome is really the race I want to use.

Can anyone help provide tips on what builds and progression would work best keeping the Whisper Gnome race?

I'm also open to builds with different races but if possible I think it'd be fun and equally hilarious to play a small character that trips their foes to bring them down to their level.

Thanks ahead for any and all help!

[javijuji]

The most fun ive had with whisperer gnome is the Giant Killing route. You basically become a impossible to hit target the bigger your enemies are. You use things like underfoot combat to get into your enemies square and use sneak attacks to finish them off. I dont remember the build exactly but im pretty sure it has some rogue levels in there.

[avr]

Whisper gnomes are great at stealth; swordsages do stealth better than warblades. Swordsages can do the tripping via Setting Sun very effectively, see Mighty Throw et al. Useful?

[StreamOfTheSky]

I also rather enjoyed the giant killing route. I did a swordsage with martial rogue (UA and srd.org; trade sneak attack for fighter bonus feats) for 2-4 levels, and the Desert Wind Dodge + Titan Fighting feat combo, so she could skirmish to gain +4 AC vs. anything larger than her. Soaring Raptor Strike is excellent for a small swordsage.

I would advise against Setting Sun throws, don't be fooled by the fluff. It's still a trip check, so you still face a size penalty on it and by RAW can't throw something more than 1 size bigger than you, so SS discipline is actually awful for the little folk and best for big brawny behemoths, in an unfortunate and complete and utter failure of crunch matching up with fluff.

That said, the Counter Charge maneuver does not use the trip mechanics and is great, well worth picking up, especially if you'll be skirmishing in and out of melee.

Use Shadow Hand stances (I like Child of Shadow, and later Assassin's with Craven and Staggering Strike) so you can get Shadow Blade for dex to damage. You also want Weapon Finesse and all swordsages require Adaptive Style. Very feat-heavy build, that's why I needed the rogue levels. Feats at rogue 1, 2, and 4 help a lot. And I still needed 2 flaws, too!

[KitTheOdd]

If you really want to go with the tripping stuff, then flip your RoS book back a few pages and check out the goliaths. They are Medium sized, but their Powerful Build allows them to count as Large for tripping, bull rushing, weapon size, and such. They are LA +1, but with +4 Str and +2 Con on top of a Warblade's d12 HD you should be able to soak damage as well as dish it out.

Another option, if you really want the "little guy" look might be a dwarf. The problem of the size modifiers is just too big in my opinion to make a good tripping gnome.

[StreamOfTheSky]

The problem of the size modifiers is just too big in my opinion to make a good tripping gnome.

It's not just the crippling massive size modifiers. A small character just plain canot trip something that is size large or larger, without increasing his own size. Which often results in loss of dex as well as defeating the whole point of a small tripper theme.