Hobgoblin TWF Warblade NPC Feedback?

[Matticussama]

I am a long-time 3.5 player and DM, but relatively new to ToB. I was introduced to it by one of my players and really like the flexibility it gives to melee. I've introduced a few low-level ToB enemies so far, but this will be the first time building the BBEG as a ToB class. Thus, I'd appreciate any feedback you might have on the BBEG build.

The party is all level 5, with mostly mid-op players:
Human Warblade 4/Fighter 1 (main tank)
Half-Orc Ranger 5 (TWF support melee)
Elf Battle Sorcerer 2/Ranger 3 (working towards homebrew improved Arcane Archer)
Human Dread Necromancer 5 (1 skeleton minion, 1 zombie minion, plus summon undead)
Human Cloistered Cleric 5 (mostly sticks to buffing and zen archery ranged support)
Human Druid 5 (new to D&D, mostly sticks to blasty spells while sicking her hyena familiar on enemies)
Halfling Rogue 5 (new to D&D but has a good mind for tactics to get sneak attack)

Background: For the current story arc in the 3.5 game I am running, the players are going to be facing off against a group of Goblins and Hobgoblins which have fortified a series of underground mines that contain a series of ancient magical forges used to equip their army. The party needs access to these forges, both for their own use as well as well as to search for lore they suspect is hidden somewhere in the mines to help them find the MacGuffin. There is more to it than just that, of course, but those are the parts that are necessary for the build help I'd like to request.


The leader of the enemy group is going to be a Hobgoblin Warblade 7. He will have large numbers of Medium Animated Statues as minions guarding the mines, as well as some lower-level Hobgoblin Warblades, Goblin Swordsages, and Goblin Rogues leading the animated statues in platoons. I'm not so worried about the lower-level goblins and hobgoblins, since they're just Lieutenants leading the patrol squads; I'm mostly concerned with making the Hobgoblin general a worthy opponent and a good fight.

Here is the build I have for the general so far:
Hobgoblin Warblade 7; 36 point buy, Str 14, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 14. I realize the Cha 14 is suboptimal, but I want it to reflect his leadership over the clan; he rules both by combat ability and force of personality.

Warblade 1: Weapon Finesse: Short Sword (level 1 feat), Weapon Focus: Short Sword (Flaw: Inattentive), Adaptive Style (Flaw: Shaky)
Warblade 3: TWF (Level 3 feat)
Warblade 5: Improved Initiative (Warblade 5 feat)
Warblade 6: Weapon Specialization: Short Sword (Level 6 feat)


Maneuvers:
Moment of Perfect Mind
Wolf Fang Strike
Rabid Wolf Strike
Battle Leader's Charge
Disarming Strike
White Raven Tactics
Iron Heart Surge

Stances:
Blood in the Water
Tactics of the Wolf

Equipment: 2 x +1 Shortswords, +1 Mythril Breastplate


If there is anything else you need to know for feedback, please let me know! Also, while I've tried my best to take advice from the various Warblade handbooks out there, I realize that my unfamiliarity with ToB might mean that I messed something up. I appreciate any constructive criticism you have to offer to help make this a notable and memorable boss fight for my party.

[rockdeworld]

I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for. You've DM'd for a long time, so I assume you know how to make a boss fight memorable already. To make it tougher you can just give the boss a few more HD or melee/damage bonuses. If you're asking whether the warblade on his own will be able to challenge the party, I say "heck no!" Perhaps with a group of his soldiers to help him out. Since you have 7 PCs (essentially 10 with skeletons and animal companion), they're essentially a small army and 1 level 7 Warblade can't stop that. 1 primary tank, 4 DPS, 1 BFC, 1 support, and 3 meatshields will overcome the level difference with simple action economy. He would probably need at least 4 CR3 allies to even be a boss fight (the party level is about 7 with all the additions).

My own experience with a warblade bad guy was a level 1 warblade with a guisarme, Steel Wind, and 5 hobgoblin allies. They slaughtered the party (only 2 PCs, so I made it too challenging by accident).

Assuming you use tactics, that increases the CR a bit in your favor. For example, attacking from behind doors that have caltrops in front of them so that when the PCs run through the door, they're surrounded and injured; using tunnels to make the PCs line up and secret passages to attack those in back, etc.

I'm not sure why you use two weapons - and shortswords at that (kukris would be better, especially keen kukris with Blood in the Water active) - because you only have one maneuver for TWFing (or 2 if you count using WRT on yourself).

Since you are using TWF, I think you ought to have ITWF (drop Weapon Specialization for it). I recommend dropping Blood in the Water for Punishing Stance to give you extra damage on your attacks. While useless against the skeletons, Fountain of Blood synergizes with DPS and would allow you to debuff the PCs (and has great fluff), possibly causing them to run away if you use it more than once in 1 minute; only you need a higher Str score to make it work. Sudden Leap will help you get in position to make a full-round attack with your two weapons.

On the other hand, facing this many PCs means Battle Leader's Charge is suicide (or would be if your HP wasn't so high). You'd probably need heavy tactics to prevent getting surrounded and subsequently killed.

So those are my 2 cents. Use whatever's helpful and discard the rest :smallsmile:

[Matticussama]

Now that I reread my original post I realize I wasn't entirely clear on exactly what I was looking for, my apologies! When I say memorable, mainly I mean help making him memorable in combat; I am pretty solid RP-wise on his personality and attitude. Basically, I was looking for feedback on the choice of stances, maneuvers, and feats as they relate to improving maneuvers. Since I'm still relatively new to ToB, I don't want to choose maneuvers and stances that wouldn't work very well with the character's battle strategy. I want him to come off as an effective fighter and a good commander in battle. You gave me a lot of that despite my vagueness, so many thanks!

This guy will definitely have allies to help him fight; probably 3 - 4 CR2 animated statues and a CR4 Goblin Rogue. Possibly more if the PCs don't take out the various patrol groups, in which case they will end up reinforcing the fight in waves depending upon how far they are from the battle. That was one of the reasons that I chose things like White Raven Tactics and Battle Leader's Charge, as he will be expecting support of numerous minions. However, I will definitely look at some of the other maneuvers and stances you suggested.

Out of curiosity, why would you suggest Kukri over Short Swords? My thought was that the 1d6 + 2 from Str + 2 from Weapon Specialization + Maneuver damage x2 (assuming both attacks hit) would be better for a continual damage output. I suppose 1d4 versus 1d6 isn't a huge drop in damage output, especially for an 18 - 20 crit range. The main reason that I am considering short swords is because the party Ranger dual wields, and the weapons were aimed for him. However, I don't mind changing thus guy's build to use Kukri and having short swords drop from other enemies (or just found unused in a weapons cache.)

Again, thank you for your feedback! I am sill trying to get a hold on the best maneuvers and stances to use, and how to best compliment them with various weapons and feats.

[Artillery]

With the size of the party I would recommend giving the boss a couple more levels.

Seeing as you are TWF with Shortswords this seems to be dex based. You already are grabbing adaptive style, so Swordsage multiclass makes sense.

I would recommend instead of Warblade 6, going Warblade5 with a level of Swordsage.
Swordsage 1 will get you discipline focus. If you Shadow Hand. You get weapon Focus with Shortswords. Take a Shadow Hand Stance and Shadow Blade. You now get dex added to dmg; on top of strength.

ECL8 for the boss would let you get Wisdom to AC from Swordsage 2 and some more maneuvers and stances.

[Keld Denar]

If he spends his time in Blood I'm the Water, he will probably get a better return on kukiri over short swords. One crit will make up the difference. That said, he needs at least 3 crits to make up the difference between BitW and Punishing Stance. Punishing Stance doesn't scale, but it starts the encounter strong, and you don't lose the benefits if he wants to switch stances and charge.

You have an IL of 7, but no 4th level maneuver. Dancing Mongoose or Pouncing Charge are the obvious choices, but Dazing Strike is another decent one from Iron Heart.

I'd try to work in Wall of Blades as well. Your guy will probably be outgunned under focus fire, so denying a big Power Attack hit might be the difference between lasting 4 rounds and lasting 5, especially since he won't be Power Attacking himself.

[Matticussama]

With the size of the party I would recommend giving the boss a couple more levels.

Seeing as you are TWF with Shortswords this seems to be dex based. You already are grabbing adaptive style, so Swordsage multiclass makes sense.

I would recommend instead of Warblade 6, going Warblade5 with a level of Swordsage.
Swordsage 1 will get you discipline focus. If you Shadow Hand. You get weapon Focus with Shortswords. Take a Shadow Hand Stance and Shadow Blade. You now get dex added to dmg; on top of strength.

ECL8 for the boss would let you get Wisdom to AC from Swordsage 2 and some more maneuvers and stances.

I hadn't considered multi-classing Swordsage for this guy, but Shadow Blade definitely makes sense. It will also help to get more maneuvers and skillpoints. Thanks! I will definitely take you up on this suggestion.


If he spends his time in Blood I'm the Water, he will probably get a better return on kukiri over short swords. One crit will make up the difference. That said, he needs at least 3 crits to make up the difference between BitW and Punishing Stance. Punishing Stance doesn't scale, but it starts the encounter strong, and you don't lose the benefits if he wants to switch stances and charge.

You have an IL of 7, but no 4th level maneuver. Dancing Mongoose or Pouncing Charge are the obvious choices, but Dazing Strike is another decent one from Iron Heart.

I'd try to work in Wall of Blades as well. Your guy will probably be outgunned under focus fire, so denying a big Power Attack hit might be the difference between lasting 4 rounds and lasting 5, especially since he won't be Power Attacking himself.

Now that I'm looking back over the details, I can see why Punishing Stance would be better for him than Blood in the Water. I'll definitely change that.

Also, I can't believe I forgot 4th level maneuvers. This is exactly why I asked for feedback, lol. Dancing Mongoose, Pouncing charge, Dazing Strike, and Wall of Blades all sound really good too. Especially since I'm now considering multi-classing Swordsage/Warblade, it will allow me to shift some of these maneuver ideas to Swordsage since it has more and focus on things like Wall of Blades and other Iron Heart maneuvers for the Warblade slots.



Thanks again for all of the feedback everyone, I really appreciate it! I can already tell this is going to drastically improve my use of ToB in this story arc.

[Artillery]

Yeah multi class swordsage/warblade gives you lots of options.

I am playing an unarmed swordsage/war blade. He is going into Shadow sun ninja next level. Assassins stance with Craven. Let's me get free damage at the start of combat. Cloak of Deception followed by a full attack is a good way to start combat while still having a good to hit when AC is unknown. Though using a reach weapon is what really helps my survival.

Me and my DM are both learning ToB as we go.