I need some Warblade input

[Sagetim]

So, I imagine this hasn't happened to most people, and here's the story:
I've been in a thursday dnd campaign for a while now, with the first session involving my character nearly being his last as someone dropped maximixed fell animated fireballs via scroll on the market square and proceeded to engage in pvp against the established party members who had apparently wronged the guy in previous sessions. But my level 5 truenamer survived, that's the important part. In the second session we tried to go and do the job that the party had been dragging it's feet on, and were waylaid by wyverns with poorly built level 15 riders. Eventually, the party prevailed. There was much rejoicing. One of the wyverns had been diplomancered into submission, while my truenamer managed to save one's life with truename based healing, then through some diplomancery, intimidation, and bribery wound up having a wyvern to call his own.

So far so good.

So when we got back to town (we turned back, someone had to know there were wyvern riding jerks in the forest) we rested, sold some stuff, bought some stuff, and on the third day a Tempest arrived. Our party monk (the second monk, who had joined alongside my character as my character's bodyguard) opened up the combat that began by flying up on his half dragon half giant wings and grappled the tempest into submission. He then kept it grappled for the duration of combat.

When combat was over, the tempest subdued with dexterity damage, djinn who had been hunting it spoke up (they had been watching in amazement as our party took care of the problem) and offered us some rewards on the elmental plane of air. Some shenanigans were involved (including the party's exalted vow of poverty monk retiring from the game because he got the thing he was questing for) and we wound up teleported off towards what we were supposed to be dealing with by the Djinn. Before we left town, my truenamer commissioned a spell with the mages guild: An arcane version of awaken that only works on wyverns. Because he wanted his to have more than 6 int.

We'll cut ahead to more recently: The spell was completed, and the wyverns teleported to the party via the mages guild. Because of a house rule, the extra hit dice from awaken can be spent on useful character classes instead of crappy monster hit dice. Another house rule states that mounts continue to gain xp equal to what their owning characters are gaining (not a share, a mirrored amount). So the end result is my conundrum:

I want to give my 10 hit die wyvern (it started with 10 hit dice) 6 levels of warblade. What should I give him? What skills should he invest in? What maneuvers will function with his natural weapons and nasty nasty tail poison? And he'll probably need a name. He has +2 hit dice (ie, +2 levels) from the awakening, and had wracked up enough xp from mirroring my truenamer for the other 4 levels.

[BowStreetRunner]

First off, what size is your wyvern? Normally, 10 racial HD would make it Huge. If it took additional racial HD it would be Gargantuan. However, the class levels might just leave it at Huge.

You are looking at getting maneuvers as follows: 3 maneuvers up to 3rd level, 1 stance of 1st level; 2 maneuvers up to 4th level; replace 1 maneuver with another up to 5th level, 1 stance up to 5th level, 1 maneuver up to 5th level; replace 1 maneuver with another up to 6th level. Warblades get Diamond Mind, Iron Heart, Stone Dragon, Tiger Claw, and White Raven.

Your stance options are actually pretty limited, as quite a few won't do much for a wyvern. I would pick up either Blood in the Water or Leading the Charge for your first stance. For a multi-attacker BitW can be decent, and even better if you have a way of increasing your crit rate. LtC affects all allies, which by definition includes the warblade himself, and +11 damage on charges isn't too bad.

As for maneuvers, I would skip Diamond Mind as concentration isn't likely to be your wyvern's strong skill. Stone dragon has some nice maneuvers but you have to be touching ground so it works against a flying creature a bit. That's okay because the other three disciplines have plenty for you to use. I particularly like White Raven for the bonuses to allies that the maneuvers give. Order Forged from Chaos and War Leaders Charge would both be fantastic for you.

[Sagetim]

It had 3 extra hit dice (for a total of 10) before it joined the party. So yes, it has 10 hit dice and is Huge. I'm willing to look at crusader and sword sage as well, but I figured it would be easier to run him as a warblade, since he's my mount and not a full player character. If another racial hit die is enough of a benefit to get to gargantuan, it might be worth having 11 HD and 5 warblade (or what have you). I mostly just want people's input on what kinds of maneuvers and other things would be good to take. I think there are also at least two feats in here too, but I may get to pick his level 9 feat too since I don't think the DM specified it.

[BowStreetRunner]

If another racial hit die is enough of a benefit to get to gargantuan, it might be worth having 11 HD and 5 warblade (or what have you).
I was mostly wondering about size because there are some maneuvers that are impacted by size. Anything that only works on opponents that are larger are going to be less useful. Some things like Giant's Stance have a size maximum to function at all.

[SinsI]

:[ ]
Who the hell is going to train that wyvern to be a Warblade?

That wyvern is an NPC so you don't get to make choices for it - DM does.

[Sagetim]

:[ ]
Who the hell is going to train that wyvern to be a Warblade?

That wyvern is an NPC so you don't get to make choices for it - DM does.

He has placed the leveling of that npc in my hands, and okayed it having warblade levels. So...warblade wyvern! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YMPAH67f4o&spfreload=10)

I'm willing to look at other classes if people have suggestions, but the build I'm thinking about at the moment is abusing tail attacks and improved fly by attack to get maneuvers out with on hit wyvern poison.

[SinsI]

That still doesn't solve the problem of finding a master that can train that wyvern to be a warblade. He would have to speak Wyvern language and intimately know wyvern physiology to adapt humanoid fighting style for a beast (maybe some Wizard/Warblade gish that polymorphs himself into a wyvern?).

IMHO, Totemist would fit better.

[Komatik]

Magic would fit a wyvern better than more articulate ways of tearing stuff to pieces as a result of more brainpower?

[BowStreetRunner]

That still doesn't solve the problem of finding a master that can train that wyvern to be a warblade.
Quite a few DMs leave this part out. In those cases the process of locating a trainer is not necessary for leveling. However, if it is necessary, there could be a polymorphing dragon out there who learned the fighting style while in human form and then adapted it to the dragon form.

[BowStreetRunner]

...the build I'm thinking about at the moment is abusing tail attacks and improved fly by attack to get maneuvers out with on hit wyvern poison.
Okay, with Sting as a primary attack along with Fly By Attack (and from this statement I assume you are picking up Improved Fly By Attack as an additional feat as well), then you are looking for maneuvers that can be used as the standard action attack part of a Fly By Attack. You get a total of 6 maneuvers and 2 stances to work with, so I would recommend these:

Iron Heart Maneuvers: Steel Wind (L1), Wall of Blades (L2), Mithral Tornado (L4), Iron Heart Focus (L5)
Iron Heart Stances: Punishing Stance (L1), Dancing Blade Form (L5)
Tiger Claw Maneuvers: Wolf Fang Strike (L1), Rabid Bear Strike* (L6)
(*Retrained from Rabid Wolf Strike)

Your 4 readied maneuvers would be Steel Wind, Mithral Tornado, Wolf Fang Strike, and Rabid Bear Strike.

Your primary strategy would be to make Fly By Attacks that put you in position to threaten multiple targets at the point where you make your attack. Using Dancing Blade Form to extend your reach 5 feat to assist this strategy you would use Steel Wind to attack 2 targets simultaneously or Mithral Tornado to attack every target you threaten - all with your Sting attack. When you can't use these you would use Punishing Stance to get an additional d6 damage to each attack (the AC penalty won't matter much if your opponents cant reach you on their turn to attack) and hit them with Wolf Fang Strike (Sting + Bite) or Rabid Bear Strike (bonus to attack and damage, again the AC penalty won't matter if you fly away before they can attack). If you are expecting a combat where you are worried about a ranged attacker or another flying unit that is a real threat, switch in Wall of Blades to protect against their most powerful attack. And if you are expecting spellcaster issues switch in Iron Heart Focus for a potential saving throw reroll.

[Nifft]

The Wyvern was Awakened by a bunch of mages at the mage guild. Obviously the Warblade training came from a Master Warblade who was visiting the mage guild.

Blood in the Water is a good Stance choice. Bolstering Voice is nice, too.

Steel Wind means two Stinger attacks as a standard action. In combo with Fly-By Attack, that's pretty nice.

The one major Warblade flaw is that it gets its 2nd stance at level 4 instead of level 5. My advice is to ask your DM if the wyvern can delay acquisition of the 2nd stance until 5th level, or if not, then see if your wyvern can go Warblade 3 / Fighter 2 / Warblade ++ (without getting any XP penalty, of course).

[BowStreetRunner]

The one major Warblade flaw is that it gets its 2nd stance at level 4 instead of level 5. My advice is to ask your DM if the wyvern can delay acquisition of the 2nd stance until 5th level, or if not, then see if your wyvern can go Warblade 3 / Fighter 2 / Warblade ++ (without getting any XP penalty, of course).

The wyvern already has 10 levels of dragon, so when it takes its first level of warblade has an initiator level of 6 total, so this should not be necessary.

[Nifft]

The wyvern already has 10 levels of dragon, so when it takes its first level of warblade has an initiator level of 6 total, so this should not be necessary.

Does that mean you're allowed to take level 3 maneuvers & stances at Warblade level 1? Because if so, that's great, and it changes your options in a very good way.

[BowStreetRunner]

Does that mean you're allowed to take level 3 maneuvers & stances at Warblade level 1? Because if so, that's great, and it changes your options in a very good way.

Level 3 maneuvers yes (although Prerequisites still have to be fulfilled). By RAW your first stance still has to be first level however, due to the wording under the Stances section. After that however, your stance selection is only limited by initiator level.

[SinsI]

Quite a few DMs leave this part out. In those cases the process of locating a trainer is not necessary for leveling. However, if it is necessary, there could be a polymorphing dragon out there who learned the fighting style while in human form and then adapted it to the dragon form.
It is OK to leave it out if you are a humanoid that knows local language, has decent relationship with locals and there are plenty of warblades around.
But wyvern would need someone with lots of specific knowledge and actually willing to teach a monster - it is very strange to handwave it.
And I doubt that wyvern is a martial arts genius to invent all those techniques on his own, unlike something like soulmelds that can be an innate ability.

[The Insanity]

The DM said it's okay.

[Sagetim]

It is OK to leave it out if you are a humanoid that knows local language, has decent relationship with locals and there are plenty of warblades around.
But wyvern would need someone with lots of specific knowledge and actually willing to teach a monster - it is very strange to handwave it.
And I doubt that wyvern is a martial arts genius to invent all those techniques on his own, unlike something like soulmelds that can be an innate ability.

This is a campaign where we awakened a raptor as a wizard and had him research the awaken wyvern spell. His name is Professor Raptor and he already has Tenure due to some equal rights grumbling and the threat of litigation. The campaign is not serious in that manner.

Also, wyverns speak draconic. And depending on the int roll, he could be a martial arts genius wyvern. After all, they start at 6 int and I'll be rolling +2d6 for his int score.

Edit: So, Iron Heart forever? Should I worry about grabbing some white raven too? I'm not sure how much melee the wyvern will actually be in, I just want him to be as effective as possible when the opportunity presents itself. When I was looking over manuevers, white raven tactics looks really really nice as a party support move. Some of the player characters in the party can hit really high damage output per round,

I can't remember, do you need to use an in discipline weapon for 3.5 maneuvers? I know in pathfinder you do, but it also has a feat that lets you set one weapon category as usable for all disciplines.

[BowStreetRunner]

So, Iron Heart forever? Should I worry about grabbing some white raven too? I'm not sure how much melee the wyvern will actually be in, I just want him to be as effective as possible when the opportunity presents itself. When I was looking over manuevers, white raven tactics looks really really nice as a party support move. Some of the player characters in the party can hit really high damage output per round,

I can't remember, do you need to use an in discipline weapon for 3.5 maneuvers? I know in pathfinder you do, but it also has a feat that lets you set one weapon category as usable for all disciplines.
The maneuvers I recommended were proposed to support the combat style you requested. They only represent a single focus out of many that you could choose. I still don't believe Stone Dragon maneuvers are a good idea for a flying creature since you need to be touching the ground for them to work. I also advise against Diamond Mind unless you intend to max out your Concentration skill. Otherwise Iron Heart, Tiger Claw, and White Raven all have great maneuvers to offer.

Remember that (until you level again) you are only going to be having 4 maneuvers ready and 2 more on the bench waiting to be subbed in if you have advanced warning or something that calls for one of them. Your recovery method is good so you can keep recycling your 4 maneuvers regularly. However the 4 you choose are really going to decide your combat focus - so pick carefully.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the high level maneuvers have prerequisites. You can count stances as maneuvers for this. Plus when you replace one maneuver with another you can count the one you are replacing as one of the prerequisite maneuvers for the new one. But that still means that some things become hard to pick up - it can take some wrangling to work it all out. This means it is easier sticking to one or two disciplines and not trying to spread yourself around. (But the other way can be done with some planning.)

Here are a few more points to consider:

If you really want Emerald Razor (Diamond Mind maneuver that allows you to make a melee attack as a touch attack) you can take one of the Concentration-based maneuvers first and then swap that maneuver out for another maneuver later. You still keep Emerald Razor even though you no longer have the prerequisites.
There are quite a few maneuvers that cause effects if your opponent fails their save. I usually avoid these as the save DCs are not normally very high. This can change if your relevant ability score has a high bonus. In that case many of these become very useful. If you end up with any very high ability scores, take a good look at some of these.
Leading the Charge (White Raven stance) goes really well with Battle Leader's Charge, War Leader's Charge,and Pouncing Charge. So a charge-based build is another option.
No, you do not need to use discipline weapons. However, there are some feats that take advantage of doing so.

[Sagetim]

Well, I think that answers my questions with regards to leveling this wyvern with warblade. Thank you for the help, Bowstreetrunner. If people want to keep discussing this, I'm not averse to seeing where this thread might lead.