Warblade Build Help 3.5

[Teapot Salty]

Hey guys. So I'm building a warblade. (TOB woot woot!) And I'm faced with a bit of a problem that I think you guys can fix. First and formost my disciplines are going to be: Diamond Mind, Iron heart and tiger claw. And I'm torn between a TWFer, A TWFer critfisher, or a two handed fighter. I'm not looking for super optimized builds, but I do want to know which one is: a) first and foremost, the most fun to play, at the end of the day, this is always the most important thing. b) One that is strong and reliable. I don't want to play some terrible mook, I want to kick as, or at least be on par with the rest of the party. Not to mention, I want to know if the critfisher is reliable. And c) The coolest. Definitely a last priority, but I still want it :)
And as always, go nuts.

[(Un)Inspired]

All are very viable on a warblade. Which sounds coolest as a way for your character to fight?

[Val666]

Im palying a Warblade atm. It's really nice, is fun to play, strong and very very cool. Are you using Point Buy? What classes are your friends? Are you planning on Warblade 20??

[CrazyYanmega]

One of the player's I'm DMing for has a Raptoran Warblade/Bloodstorm Blade.

How it works is that he flies out of reach, and throws his harpoon (from Stormwrack, I believe), preferably with some sort of strike. The weapon hits, and deals damage as normal. The struck enemy must then make a Reflex save, or the harpoon gets stuck in them. Now Bloodstorm Blade kicks in, bringing the weapon back. The harpoon, as described in Stormwrack, deals the exact same damage going out as it did going in. Rinse and repeat.

This guy managed to single-handedly overcome a 12-headed Hydra's fast healing of 22 and killed it in 5 rounds.

[HammeredWharf]

You don't really have to build for crit fishing. Just use two keen kukris and that's it. Both TWF and THF are good options for a warblade. Tiger Claw is the TWF discipline, so take a look at it and decide if you want to use it. THF probably has a better damage per round maximum due to being compatible with charging. I had a warblade charger once and he was very powerful.

[MirddinEmris]

Hey guys. So I'm building a warblade. (TOB woot woot!) And I'm faced with a bit of a problem that I think you guys can fix. First and formost my disciplines are going to be: Diamond Mind, Iron heart and tiger claw. And I'm torn between a TWFer, A TWFer critfisher, or a two handed fighter. I'm not looking for super optimized builds, but I do want to know which one is: a) first and foremost, the most fun to play, at the end of the day, this is always the most important thing. b) One that is strong and reliable. I don't want to play some terrible mook, I want to kick as, or at least be on par with the rest of the party. Not to mention, I want to know if the critfisher is reliable. And c) The coolest. Definitely a last priority, but I still want it :)
And as always, go nuts.

There are no cool builds, only cool characters, so it's all in your hands. Fun is a very subjective term, but i found that initiators are all very fun to play, regardless of combat style, because there are almost always something you can do. As for the power of the build, if you don't seek anything really high-op, then you can choose your maneuvers based on how cool their description sounds and still be efficient warrior. So, do whatever you want to - it's really hard to mess up initiator build)

A couple of advices - Diamond Mind's save replacers are really good, but remember that they are mostly for important saves failing on which can cripple you character, don't waste them on trivial matter in combat (you can ready each maneuver only once and immediate action take place of next swift action, so if you take it, you can't refresh maneuvers on your next round). Tiger claw main focus is the two-weapon fighting, but that doesn't mean that you can't benefit from it with another style (additional attacks are always good) and jumping as swift action is a good way to move and make a full attack in one round. Remember to take stances that will give some way of detection (there is one that gives scent in TC and one that gives blindsense in DM) and always have them active when you are not in combat - scent is basically autodetection in 30ft radius for most things without need of making spot/listen check.

[HammeredWharf]

Oh, and remember you can TWF and THF at the same time. Get some armor spikes and use them as an off-hand weapon. They're not the best weapon there is, but they let you benefit from Tiger Claw maneuvers and THF Power Attack bonus.

[Teapot Salty]

So it's a bad idea to go tiger claw and not twf?

[Darrin]

So it's a bad idea to go tiger claw and not twf?

Not at all. There are a handful of maneuvers in Tiger Claw that help TWF, but most of the strikes are "Make a Jump check followed by a single melee attack" + a status effect or some bonus damage. One of the issues with mixing TWF with Tome of Battle is since TWF relies so much on full attacks, you can't really mix it with a lot of standard-action strikes. A "traditional" TWFer is better off cherry-picking all the disciplines for mostly boosts/counters, and grabbing a couple of strikes for "utility" purposes, such as bypassing DR (Mountain Hammer), negating status effects (Iron Heart Surge), ability damage (Bonesplitting Strike), etc.

If you want to use THF as your primary style, you can still get an offhand weapon for TWF-related strikes by adding armor spikes or taking Improved Unarmed Strike. I tend to prefer IUS because it works with Power Attack and Snap Kick, but most TWF builds don't have enough room for it. If you go with armor spikes, consider saving up for netcutter spikes (200 GP, Races of the Wild): +4 circumstance bonus to get out of nets/web/entangle effects.

I'm not a big fan of critfishing, but the best way to do it is to convince your DM to allow a pair of Aptitude Kukris to count as light maces for the Lightning Mace weapon style feat. And it will probably be awhile before you get it all working, because even if your DM gives you the thumbs up, you've still got to scrape up enough gold to buy two Aptitude Kukris (8308 GP each).

Personally, I prefer dual bastard swords + Oversize TWF, but from an optimization standpoint it's terrible. If you're going to go exotic, then dragonsplits (MMIV) will save you a feat, or try dual dwarven waraxes with a dwarf.

[Red Fel]

Something important to remember is that many, if not most, strikes in ToB require a single melee attack. In this context, oftentimes, having a more powerful weapon will mean a more powerful strike. As such, the THW Warblade will have a (very slight) edge over the TWF Warblade.

That said, there are certainly merits to TWF, particularly for a Warblade. It has often been observed on these forums that the trick to making TWF practical is to have a source of supplemental damage on your strikes, such as Sneak Attack, that makes up for their weaker damage and the lower to-hit in TWF. Punishing Stance does this for you, and frankly will serve you well even into higher levels.

The thing to remember about critfishing is that it is rather unreliable; even with various enhancements and tricks that expand your crit range, you are at the whim and mercy of the dice. However, when it booms, it can boom big. What you want to do is have such a high baseline that even in the absence of a crit, you hit hard, fast, and often.

As others have already indicated, the question is what you want to do. I can tell you that, numerically and in the absence of maneuvers, THW generates the highest damage and requires the least feat-tricking to optimize. However, Warblade has a high enough floor that if you want to go TWF, you really, really could. Warblades are inherently pretty cool; the question is what you want to do to make yours cool.

[Metahuman1]

The problem with crit fishing is a lot of monsters will be immune to it and the higher level you are the worse this gets.

That said, TWF with Armor spikes or unarmed strikes and a two handed weapon is perfectly valid, and indeed, probably more historically accurate. And Focusing on Diamond Mind while Cherry picking Iron Heart and Tiger Claw maneuvers is a good way to go. (TWF + Time Stands Still + Raging Mongoose FTW!!!!!)