A question about flurry of blows

[Draugr Heart]

So i was wondering if one level in monk is worth it for flurry of blows. I was planning to do one to two levels of monk then the rest in sword sage. I am going to use unarmed attack as my main weapon, so two weapon fighting is out of the question. This leaves me to wonder if -2 to all attacks is worth the extra one attack that i would get from flurry of blows.

Any suggestions would be great, just a reminder i do want to be unarmed and i do want to use quite a few levels in sword sage, at least to around 5-6th level manuvers/stance's.

[HunterOfJello]

If you're playing a swordsage, then you would be better off using maneuvers to do your damage and sticking with pure swordsage. Wolf Fang Strike does the same thing as flurry of blows, but is only a standard action instead of a Full-Round action. Shadow Blade Technique lets you roll two attack rolls and take whichever one hits (with the possibility of extra cold damage.)

Those are better than wasting a level to get flurry of blows.

[Zweisteine]

Except maneuvers have to be readied to use. That makes them somewhat less useful than flurry of blows.

If you're going to do that, you should make ire your DM let's the bonuses from the two classes progress together. I don't remember the unarmed Swordsage exactly, but I believe they get an AC bonus. Monk levels should stack with those for determining the final bonus.

[shaikujin]

Just for FoB alone, maybe not that worth it.

But monk overall is a pretty decent 1-2 level dip, it does qualify you for FoB progression, and you do get monk unarmed damage progression. Which in turn qualifies you for some PrCs.

Several items allow you to boost a monk's unarmed damage and FoB progression. (If DM don't allow benefits from multiple items to stack, Gauntlets of Talon in C.Divine explicitly allows stacking with Monk's belt).

Carmendine monk and Superior unarmed strike (might have mis-spelled, it's a feat in ToB) allows more unarmed damge boost if you want to go that way. Size increase and Greater Mighty Wallop spell improves damage further. Scorpion Karma allows unarmed damage to be applied to weapons.

Try to get an effective FoB level higher enough for the 2nd extra attack and 0 penalty if possible.

You can also use the Sparring Dummy of the Master to change your 5 ft step into 10 ft steps.

Plus, you get +2 to all 3 saves.

Monk 1 gives 2 bonus feats, 1 is improved unarmed strike, the other is a bonus feat that you don't need to meet requirements for. Look at monk martial style ACFs (on SRD and UA) to see if any of the feats you want can be picked up as a monk bonus feat. Power attack from Overwhelming style is nice. This will free up a free feat slot for something better. Martial monk and Eberron allows even more choices of monk bonus feats.

Monk 2 gives another bonus feat, evasion (swap out for ACFs like Invisible fist).

Bloodlines and DCFS might be a bit cheesy, but very nice if allowed.