Sword Sage, with a dip of rogue.

[Tabris92]

I was hopin to get a review of my character, trying to make it as strong as possible.
what Im going for is a TWF-er that hits for sneak attack damage as much as possible while being able to actually hold their own in a back and forth fight.

The race is homebrew, as my dm allowed it and helped me to make it. The race is Kitsune (fox humanoid)
Racial Abilities are Low light vision, Eyes of the Fox (constant truesight) Fox fire (dancing light spell, at will) Scent, and polymorph (to go into fox form and back) and the scores of +5 dex, -2 con, -1 str.
Sword sage 4/ Rogue 2
Ability Scores are fairly decent I'd say.
STR 7
DEX 22
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 18
CHA 10

HP is 30, AC is 27.
Fort is 3
reflex is 13
wiill 9
Initiative is 7 and grapple is 1

Feats are Weapon Finesse, Shadow Blade, TWFing, craven, and martial stance. (spider climb stance)
then stances are assassins stance, and child of shadow.

For my maneuevers, I think im going to try Burning blade from Desert Wind. Cloak of deception, shadow garrote, shadow jaunt, strength draining strike from Shadow Hand. Moment of perfect Clarity from Diamond Mind. Mountain Hammer from Stone Dragon and Wolf Fang Strike from Tiger Claw.

Im wanting to get Blinding speed and staggering Strike when I am able, and to get more maneuevers that debilitate my opp as well as start playing with poisons.

[CoffeeIncluded]

My time to shine.

Your character looks pretty decent, though is absurd amounts of sneak attack all you're going for? If you want to see other possibilities, I'm actually playing a dual-wielding rogue with absurd amounts of sneak attack right now. Her build is a bit different. Instead of being a swordsage with a bit of rogue, she's a rogue/swashbuckler with a swordsage dip and a level in a trapsmith prestige class for character purposes. I generally go for flavor and roleplaying over power, though not to the point where I would be crippling my character Regardless, at level 9 she has four attacks (five with Haste), 6d6 sneak attack damage, a pretty decent attack bonus considering she only has 17 base dex, and is also self-buffing with the Cat's Grace spell that the Trapsmith prestige class grants her.

If you're curious, here's her character sheet. (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=386542) Note that Craven was banned by the DM and he nerfed Island of Blades to a maneuver, not a stance. If you just want her quick level/feat rundown:

Rogue4/Swashbuckler3/Trapsmith1/Swordsage1. Her feats are Improved Initiative, Two-Weapon Fighting (human), Darkstalker, Daring Outlaw (the linchpin of her build. It allows the rogue and swashbuckler levels to stack when determining sneak attack damage, dodge bonus (which I ACFed to Shield of Blades), and reflex save bonus so I can just take swashbuckler levels with d10 hit dice from here on out), and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting. She also has the Penetrating Strike ACF so she can deal sneak attack damage against undead and plants and the like.

[Gwendol]

Picking up Swashbuckler will give you weapon finesse, but you need Daring Outlaw to stack the classes, so that evens out. What you do get is INT to damage, an AC bonus, better BAB and HP at the cost of skillpoints.

To maximize TWF damage and sneak attack dice you really should stick with the daring outlaw, but the added versatility of swordsage is hard to resist.
You might want to pick up the Dark creature template, or dip Shadowdancer in order to get HiPS which is an essential component for being able to trigger SA damage consistently. The other piece I'm missing is Penetrating strike in order to deal half SA dice to creatures normally immune when flanking them.

Not sure what to do with that crazy high WIS except swordsage though.

[Tabris92]

Good to know, however. my DM has stated that we may only have 2 classes, 1 prestige. I woulda done swashbuckler if I coulda but I had to pick 2.

I initially was gonna do rogue like I always do, and then discovered how amazingly fun sword sage could be in and out of combat. Since then, I been more focused on Sword Sage due to its utility, almost as flexible as a spellcaster :D
walking on walls and ceilings in and out of a fight, short distance teleporting at will. its been really fun.

I wasnt planning to do just completely SA and run like I used to, and sword sage kinda lets me do more. a d8 hit die isnt fantastic, but its better than the rogues d6. and I have ways to get out of combat in a pinch if I need to.

What I was thinking of doing, was going for Blinding Speed and Staggering Strike. I figure it would be pretty deadly, especially combined with shadow hand maneuevers. Though Blinding speed may require me to get a dex boost in some way (not sure how atm, other than a ring with a bonus)

Im not sure what other feats to get, other than the TWF tree cause I really want to NOT take those penalties.
And Im really lookin forward to getting insightful strike on my next Sword Sage level for shadow hand discipline.
I was also curious if anyone knew how this works out in practice...how does riposte really work with sneak attack of opportunity? It would let me counter immediately for my my whole SA damage, but im not 100% on its effectiveness in practice either.

[Venger]

Good to know, however. my DM has stated that we may only have 2 classes, 1 prestige. I woulda done swashbuckler if I coulda but I had to pick 2.

I initially was gonna do rogue like I always do, and then discovered how amazingly fun sword sage could be in and out of combat. Since then, I been more focused on Sword Sage due to its utility, almost as flexible as a spellcaster :D
walking on walls and ceilings in and out of a fight, short distance teleporting at will. its been really fun.
oh yeah, swordsage is definitely a better class for that stuff. assassin's stance will let you SA plenty. between that and the extra you do via maneuvers, you won't be hurting for damage.


Im not sure what other feats to get, other than the TWF tree cause I really want to NOT take those penalties.
And Im really lookin forward to getting insightful strike on my next Sword Sage level for shadow hand discipline.
I was also curious if anyone knew how this works out in practice...how does riposte really work with sneak attack of opportunity? It would let me counter immediately for my my whole SA damage, but im not 100% on its effectiveness in practice either.

sneak attack of opportunity is an epic feat, so you can't take it normally.

[Tabris92]

sneak attack of opportunity is an epic feat, so you can't take it normally.

im not sure how that works then.

[Venger]

im not sure how that works then.

epic feats are only open to characters of ECL 21 or higher. I assume your game isn't going that high, so you won't be able to take that feat. consequently, its interaction with riposte is moot.

[Tabris92]

epic feats are only open to characters of ECL 21 or higher. I assume your game isn't going that high, so you won't be able to take that feat. consequently, its interaction with riposte is moot.

ah. then forget it anyway.
Ill have to find something else to do then.
may take in a feat or two at some point for stances or maneuevers if need be.