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Seatbelt
2007-01-13, 01:00 AM
I think I'm going to run a Warblade in a game we're starting up soon. I know very little about these martial classes and what makes them strong characters, I understand how they function though. This DM's campaign is going to be a little different. There is no magic, divine or arcane. All abilities that were commonly said to be divine are now now psionic (like some/all of the Monk's abilities). Psionics is king, and there are lots of abberations. The game will be using a variant of the taint rules from HoH that have yet to be explained. I need a little advice/direction in building the character. We're starting at 10th level, and this is supposed to be a game with high character mortality, so I have no room to learn how to make a powerful warblade build. There are 7 or 8 people in this game, so I have room to be what I want.

1) Can a Warblade learn any of the manuvers and stances listed from all those disciplines, or do I need to pick one discipline to be a master of?

2) Can someone point out some interesting/strong (but not broken, I know ToB characters are stronger than normal melee types and the DM has never seen this book used, so I dont want to scare him with that crazy thri-ken build) feat/manuver combos for a Warblade? Some good abilities that I can use to give my character some direction

3) Does/Can the Warblade combine with the Knight class at all? I like the flavor of combat for personal glory and honor and I intend to build my character into a fighter who wants glory for glory's sake.

4) (optional) Really ambitious and helpful people who have some time on their hands could post a 20-level build for a Warblade or Warblade/Knight or Warblade/Barbarian or really just any cool Warblade builts that fit the glory for glory's sake concept.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide. :)

Draco Ignifer
2007-01-13, 02:22 AM
First off, you don't have to pick one discipline to master. You can learn maneuvers and stances from all five of the disciplines which you have access to (Diamond, Tiger, Iron, Stone, Raven)

Third, I'm not sure I'd recommend switching to a knight. You lose your martial progression while you're in knight mode, unless you take feats - and even then, you only get half your knight level towards further martial abilities. If you like what you get from low-level knighthood, go ahead, but you'll lose access to all the fun abilities.

Now for second and fourth... I'm not sure how much you want to play with this, or what your flavor is. It's entirely possible to make some very brutal characters with this book. Just to give you my favorite example, raging mongoose plus pouncing charge turns the Shocking Leap cheese into pure madness (full attack, with two extra hits at full BAB, and +3x your BAB to each hit's damage... ). At level 10, you can still deal 70-some odd damage with the weak version of the technique (dancing mongoose instead of raging). On the other hand, with just plain ol' Elder Mountain Hammer, you can do 40 average with basic equipment and feats, and ignore DR and Hardness... and with Greater Insightful Strike, which you get next level, you can do 49 average assuming no Constitution bonus.

Similarly, I dunno what you mean by glory for glory's sake... If my guess is accurate, he's probably the sort who charges into battle, shattering everything in his path. If that's the case, then he's probably good with Tiger Claw and Stone Dragon, with some Iron Heart and Diamond Mind for good measure. Tiger Claw streaks him in with its leaping attacks, Stone Dragon finishes the job and keeps the foes from escaping, and Iron Heart and Diamond Mind keep him from falling... and can pull some heavy hitting of their own.

Seatbelt
2007-01-13, 12:19 PM
Thanks. That gives me a little more direction. :)

PinkysBrain
2007-01-13, 01:27 PM
3) Does/Can the Warblade combine with the Knight class at all?
Knight doesn't combine well without anything except for more Knight ... if you take the Knight class you should at most dip another class every couple of levels. (Since the DCs for your Knight abilities are determined by class levels and you have to keep the DCs up for them to remain useful.)

Person_Man
2007-01-13, 04:17 PM
Knight doesn't combine well without anything except for more Knight ... if you take the Knight class you should at most dip another class every couple of levels. (Since the DCs for your Knight abilities are determined by class levels and you have to keep the DCs up for them to remain useful.)

Not true. Once you have Test of Mettle at 4th level, Knight goes quite well with Hexblade 4 for Dark Companion, Mettle, and Arcane Resistance. It also goes well with with Blackguard 3 for Dark Blessing and Aura of Despair.

Dark Companion and Aura of Despair each reduce enemy saving throws by -2, which is equivelant to 8 Knight levels (since the save DC for Test of Mettle is 10 + Cha mod + 1/2 Knight levels).

So if you fight a lot of magical enemies, Knight 4/Hexblade 4/Blackguard 3 makes a lot more sense then Knight 11. If you face a lot of people with Tumble (thwarted by Vigilant Defender) or think you might make it all the way to Knight 20 (for the uber Loyal Beyond Death), then strait Knight is the way to go.

You could also go Fighter 2/Knight 2/Paladin 4/Cavalier X (or Halfling Outrider) and have an excellent mounted combat build.


But yes, Knight doesn't go with anything particularly well in ToB.

Ashes
2007-01-13, 04:27 PM
But yes, Knight doesn't go with anything particularly well in ToB.

As I recall Knight synergizes quite well with the Deepstone Sentinel for the "Impassable object that none shall pass"-thing. Especially the Mountain Fortress Stance is good for the Knight.

Tibor
2007-01-13, 05:15 PM
If you go to this link http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=680285 it will have a bunch of ideas for martial adepts.

Also if you are going to multiclass it I would strongly recommend you read this thread as well http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=683268 . Very educational stuff when it comes to optimizing (without breaking) a martial build.