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View Full Version : Pathfinder New to Path of War - no clue what maneuvers to take!



Extra Anchovies
2014-10-19, 05:53 PM
Hello all! I just recently starting going over Path of War, and the Zweihander Sentinel (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/classes/warder/warder-archetypes/zweihander-sentinel-warder-archetype) archetype for the Warder struck me as totally awesome. However, after quite a bit of reading through the book, I have absolutely no idea regarding which maneuvers/stances I should and should not pick - there are just too many! Especially at the low levels, I'm just completely overwhelmed by the massive pile of choices, of which I can only choose one. I know that the Advanced Study feat exists, but it doesn't grant any extra readied maneuvers; I could always try to use the Martial Training chain to gain the maneuvers I want, but then I'd have two maneuver pools and that would be way too much bookkeeping. And then there's also the fact that I could use that feat chain to get things from other disciplines! It's just all waaay too much for me to wrap my head around, so I'm turning to you all for help. I can handle ToB's nine disciplines with 207 maneuvers, but not PoW's 11 disciplines with 404 maneuvers.

TL;DR I want help with the following:
Which maneuvers I should learn, and at what levels I should learn them?
How many times I should take Advanced Study, and what maneuvers I should pick up with it?
Is it worth using the Martial Training chain to get maneuvers from other disciplines, or will I be able to survive without it?
Maybe if I'm having this much trouble figuring out the good and bad bits from the subsystem, should I just skip it and play something else, maybe coming back to PoW when I have more time to pore over the book?

ETA: My general idea of what I want the character to do is tank first, damage-dealing second, and action-economy manipulation third.

Bluydee
2014-10-19, 06:23 PM
IRON TORTOISE is all the defense you need, basically. For damage it is either Primal Fury or Black Seraph, and for action economy it is Golden Lion, or the Riven Hourglass discipline coming out in the next book, available through google docs in the expanded thread.

Sayt
2014-10-19, 07:35 PM
Basically, the long and short of it is that as you level up, you get two maneuvers of each level, barring 9th and 1st level maneuvers. You get less 9s because those are generally the ones you trade away, being of least quality and usefulness (Exception's for maneuvers like Leaping Dragon or Shoulder Rush(Especially for Warlords). However 9s you can't actually qualify for all the 9s you're eligible to take, so you end up with a further smattering of second line, helpful stuff to have.

Elricaltovilla
2014-10-19, 07:36 PM
Hi. I have a (slightly outdated) warder guide in my sig that I wrote. It doesn't have Scarlet Throne, the Warlord guide does though.

Iron tortoise is a good defensive discipline, golden lion messes with action economy and buffs your teammates, and Primal Fury and Scarlet Throne are your go to disciplines for major damage.

I'd suggest picking your 3 favorite disciplines of the ones you have access to and focusing on those, that way you don't have to worry too much about relying on your feats to get you enough maneuvers to get 4 9th level maneuvers.

I'd avoid martial training if you're already an initiator, everything you get natively to your class is going to be better than spending the six feats necessary to take advantage of it.

EDIT: Based on your ETA, I'd focus on Iron Tortoise, Scarlet Throne and Primal Fury. If you pick your maneuvers very carefully, you can still get a smattering of Golden Lion for team support, and with judicious use of feats and maneuver retraining you can get enough maneuvers from each discipline to get 9th level maneuvers for all four of your disciplines.