help me build swordsage lvl7

[koelhanna]

Hi. Help me build a swordsage lvl 7.
Str 13. Dex 16. Con 14. Int 16. Wis 14. Cha 13.

We play in 3.5. All books accepted. I really need help. The setting is a war between gods and we are iinvolved. I have a ship and we fight on water and on land.

Thanks a lot!

[ScrambledBrains]

Alright, as Swordsage is my fav. ToB class, I'll take a crack at helping ya. :smallsmile:

First thing I would recommend is that you swap your Wisdom and Intelligence stats if you can. Swordsages already have a good amount of skill points, but they need Wisdom for a lot of class features and a few Disciplines. Speaking of which...

What is your character concept? With access to six Disciplines, there are a lot of ways one can build a Swordsage. Once I know that, I can help you more.

[koelhanna]

Hi and thanks. I want a "surprising" character. I want to be able to make a lot of dmg even if im not the primary fighter or tank and i want to be able to use maneuvers to be able to board a ship and make my way to the captain. I want to be great as secondary melee.

[Morbis Meh]

Hi and thanks. I want a "surprising" character. I want to be able to make a lot of dmg even if im not the primary fighter or tank and i want to be able to use maneuvers to be able to board a ship and make my way to the captain. I want to be great as secondary melee.

Alrighty, first of all: what race are you? Hands down the best for a swordsage is either human or whisper gnome (yes they are THAT good). Now judging from your list of wants you will probably focus mostly on Shadow Hand, Tiger Claw and Diamond Mind for your maneuvers since they usually result in the best damage combo's

Feats:
(1) Shadow Blade (allows for dex to damage + str for shadow hand weapons so short swords are your best bet)

(3) Weapon Finesse (congrats you are now Dex SAD!)

(6)Two Weapon Fighting: By this level you will have access to sneak attack damage thus TWF becomes much more useful

Now if you're a human you would get a bonus feat which should be eaten up by Adaptive Style (allows quick swap for maneuvers which is almost mandatory for swordsages). If you're allowed to use flaws then this is how I recommend your feats.
(If human then take darkstalker)
(F)TWF
(F)Adaptive Style
(1)Shadow Blade
(3) Weapon Finesse
(6) Craven

Stances: Child of Shadow, Island of Blades, Assassin's Stance

Maneuvers:
Lv1: Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Distracting Ember, Wolf Fang Strike, Sudden leap, and Shadow Blade Technique

Lv2: Shadow Jaunt, Cloak of Deception, and Mountain Hammer (this is for utility) or Emerald Razor

Lv3: Insightful Strike, Mind Over Body, and Soaring Raptor Strike if you're a Whisper gnome or Strength Draining Strike if you're human

Lv 4: Death From Above or Ruby Nightmare Blade

Skills to focus on: Jump, Concentration, Hide, Move Silently, Listen, Tumble, Balance and sense motive/swim. (Buy boots of agile leaping from the magical item compendium for dex to jump checks, only 600 gp!)

For your defensive stance class feature select Shadow hand , for insightful strike pick tiger claw first then either diamond mind or shadow hand, and for weapon focus class feature select shadow hand.

So for weapons select short swords and for armor select a mithral chainshirt... as for magical items select utility items or something to boost damage a defense (I suggest grabbing two lesser crystals of Life Drinking to get some hp regen),

[ScrambledBrains]

Hi and thanks. I want a "surprising" character. I want to be able to make a lot of dmg even if im not the primary fighter or tank and i want to be able to use maneuvers to be able to board a ship and make my way to the captain. I want to be great as secondary melee.

I was going to reply, but Morbis Meh has it very well covered already, so I'll leave with a good luck and I hope you enjoy your Swordsage character. :smallsmile:

[Kazudo]

It's funny that two persona avatar-using folk leapt on this and helped. It's not often that that stuff coincides.

[koelhanna]

Thanks a lot. Im going human. As for the weapon. Was thinking about elven lightblade with aptitude weapon and keen on them. They act as rapier too with 18-20 crit threat (15-20 with keen) and a lesser crystal on them
Merci!

[Morbis Meh]

Thanks a lot. Im going human. As for the weapon. Was thinking about elven lightblade with aptitude weapon and keen on them. They act as rapier too with 18-20 crit threat (15-20 with keen) and a lesser crystal on them
Merci!

If you're looking for a crit fishing build you would be better served with a warblade. Your choice of weapon makes my abovementioned build useless, you cannot apply dex to damage to elven quickblades since they are not a shadow hand weapon, dual wielding them would lead to much higher penalties since they are not light weapons and crit builds work better if you have higher BAB since more attacks mean much higher chances to hit and more attacks in general. Believe me, you will do more damage with short swords in the long run and you can spend that extra gold on pumping your dex.

[Eldaran]

Morbis, I'm confused as to why you take Craven but don't take Assassin's Stance. Where are you getting sneak attack from?

[Morbis Meh]

Morbis, I'm confused as to why you take Craven but don't take Assassin's Stance. Where are you getting sneak attack from?

I just forgot to add that in, my bad :smallredface: They get a third stance at level 5 and I forgot to mention it.... I suppose I thought I already put it in considering the build is around it lol

[ScrambledBrains]

It's funny that two persona avatar-using folk leapt on this and helped. It's not often that that stuff coincides.

:smallbiggrin: I'll be honest, I didn't even notice that till just now.

Yours is Thantos, right Morbis? :smallsmile:

[Morbis Meh]

:smallbiggrin: I'll be honest, I didn't even notice that till just now.

Yours is Thantos, right Morbis? :smallsmile:

Yep it sure is, took a long time to make but it turned out pretty good, you're avatar inspired me actually :smallbiggrin:

[ScrambledBrains]

Yep it sure is, took a long time to make but it turned out pretty good, you're avatar inspired me actually :smallbiggrin:

:smallbiggrin: Kymme made mine, actually, but I'm glad it inspired yours. :smallsmile:

[koelhanna]

Thanks. But aptitude elven blade could work with shadow blade ?

[Darrin]

Thanks. But aptitude elven blade could work with shadow blade ?

It's debatable, or rather, "Ask Your DM" for a ruling. The biggest concern about Aptitude weapons is abusing Lightning Mace, but that's not an issue for your build.