Wardancer or Dervish ?

[Seto]

Hey guys !
I've been playing a 3.5 campaign for some sessions. The game is not optimized at all, the highest-tier character we have is a Sorcerer whose player basically doesn't know how to play a caster. My character is a 5th-level half-elf Wardancer (link here to the class (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=6309.0)), with the following stats : CON 14, DEX 14 (+2 gloves = 16), STR 12, WIS 10, INT 10, CHA 18. She fights with a war fan in each hand. I'm much more concerned about roleplaying than optimizing, I just don't want my character to suck TOO bad.

So here's my issue : my DM doesn't allow maneuvers or stances. It kinda blows since the class revolves around them, but it would make my character too powerful compared to the others (yes, very low-op game) so I agree with him. But he called me yesterday saying "hey, I looked at your class closely and you're really gonna suck, what do you say you become a 5th-level fighter and then go Dervish, since rp-wise it's basically the same thing ? The choice is up to you". So I read the Dervish Manual, I found the class rather interesting, but I have some issues :

- I'm ok with re-building differently my skills and my feats, but not my stats. My character is charismatic, that's an important part of her. And apparently CHA should be the dump stat for a Dervish, so I'd suck even more.

- I feel like on the short run it would be a big loss of power (I can Wardance several times a day with +4 to attack and damage rolls ; if I go Dervish, I have to wait until next level and then I will be able to dance once a day with +1 to both rolls).

- I'd be stuck until level 10 or 11 at least. And here I was about to take a level of Rogue or two.

So right now I'm thinking I'll stick with Wardancer. But I ask your opinion since I'm something of a newbie and I have trouble with mechanics and numbers. Roleplaying matters more to me, but I still don't wanna make awful choices battle-wise.
Thank you very much ! ;D

(P.S. Sorry if my English is not perfect, I'm not a native speaker)

[Eldariel]

Wardancer just doesn't work without maneuvers. That's all there is to it. The class is built for maneuvers so meh. On the other hand, Fighter 5 would be horrible entry to Dervish. Not to mention, it'd be dreadfully boring as you literally have no options in combat. You could, if you want a high Cha-version of Dervish, go Monk 2/Fighter 4 for the entry using Passive Way (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown) Monk to get Combat Expertise and e.g. Improved Trip (great feat anyways, and you can use it easily with your Dance if you take Knock-Down (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown) later) without the Intelligence-requirement.

Fighter 4 would qualify you for Melee Weapon Mastery [PHBII] which would give you a semblance of damage on level 9. High Charisma would qualify you for Imperious Command [Drow of the Underdark], though it would be kinda hard to use it in a Dervish-shell. Could work in a low op though there's still the threat of you just being dreadfully bored, since all you can do is attack, move-and-attack (dance) and knock people down. Imperious Command would add intimidation-angle but without Fighter 9 or Barbarian-levels, it's hard to get easy Intimidation.


Normal entry for Dervish is Ranger 2/Scout 4 for Swift Hunter but I guess that's hard to do here, since you'd still need Combat Expertise somehow and you can't exactly fit in Monk-levels to pick it up. Eh, suppose it's your choice either way. With those stats though, it might be worth just forgetting about Dervish and looking for ways to add Charisma to everything (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125732) instead.

[Zanfire]

I believe there's a snowflake wardance bard entry to dervish in the handbook. Its unoptimized but doesn't look like that matters to you too much and might fit your fluff better?

[Seto]

Thanks Eldariel. Adding Charisma would be nice indeed. I have yet to find a way that doesn't contradict the way I played my character up until now (that's to say a lot like a Dervish).

Zanfire, I'll definitely look into that. I indicated in my background that my character has made a living as an entertainer for a while (without actually having Bard levels), so that could be fitting. Moreover, Eldariel's suggestion of Monk 2 is lost on me since she's chaotic (forgot to say it, my bad :/).

[Zanfire]

There's a chaos monk variant someplace (dragon mag) and the cobra strike varient gives you most of the prerequisites. Its a decent entry.