VoP unarmed magical swordsage for low magic campaign

[lunar2]

Title says it all. i'm getting into a new campaign (lv. 1), and was wanting some general advice for the character. i'm wanting kind of a dbz feel from it. i'm not looking for specific builds or anything, just an idea of what would be good maneuvers and spells to pick up down the line

i've already got:

maneuvers:
counter charge
clinging shadow strike
wolf fang strike

spells:
shield
blood wind
swift expeditious retreat

stance:

child of shadow

ps. i know VoP is usually sub-par. but if anyone can pull it off, it's a magical swordsage. and it is a low magic campaign (magic exists, but is heavily restricted on who can legally use it), the one place where VoP really shines.

[Red Fel]

Wait, are you taking the unarmed swordsage variant, the arcane swordsage variant, or just using a swordsage with no weapons multiclassing as a caster?

[lunar2]

a swordsage taking both the unarmed and the magical variants.

[Red Fel]

So, basically... You give up armor proficiency and maneuvers... And you're left with... a monk without monk feats who casts spells and has a couple of nice class abilities?

I'm not even sure how that would work...

[Callin]

Oh no. You still get Maneuvers you can just trade some out for spells. It does catch alot of flack on this site though since its poorly worded and what not, but I truly love it.

Be sure to get Adaptive Style as soon as you can. Cast buff spells then Adaptive Style out to your combat set up. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

[Red Fel]

Oh no. You still get Maneuvers you can just trade some out for spells. It does catch alot of flack on this site though since its poorly worded and what not, but I truly love it.

Be sure to get Adaptive Style as soon as you can. Cast buff spells then Adaptive Style out to your combat set up. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Yeah. Neither Unarmed Swordsage nor Arcane Swordsage is a "proper" variant, in that neither is statted, so you'd best work out the specifics with your DM, in detail, beforehand, or risk having books thrown at you.

For instance, that Adaptive Style trick technically allows you to refresh all of your maneuvers with a single full-round actions. If you could then cast spells from your maneuver slots, take a full-round action to refresh maneuvers, then do it all again... That'd seem awfully powerful, wouldn't it? (It would also smell like Limburger.)

[lunar2]

i'm not going to be doing anything cheesy with it, although with this group it seems like that would be fine. i suggested someone play an ubermount build and the only complaint was that it was too much work to keep track of.

for the most part, i will be sticking to the suggested spell selection (abjuration, evocation or transmution of touch or personal range), and my spells/maneuvers are going to be focused around reproducing dbz style feats. for example, i can already duplicate yamcha's wolf fang fist (swift expeditious retreat for fast movement, wolf fang strike for extra attack), or the afterimage ability (child of shadow stance grants concealment as long as i move at least 10 feet). blood wind gives me a poor man's ki blast, by allowing me to use my unarmed strikes at range.