[3.5] Help with a Master of Nine build

[Galacktic]

Hey folks. I'm reworking a character at the moment into a Swordsage/Mo9 and was wondering if anyone had any assistance. The character is not human, but does have two flaws, and is not allowed to take a cleric dip to get the domain bonus feats. What would your recommended build path for this be?

Dex/Wis based, with the following stats and the unarmed swordsage variant.

13
16
16
16
15
14

Don't take gear into account for right now, we don't have any gold or an easy means of acquiring gear. So I just want to know leveling/feat path, really. I was thinking Swordsage 1/Fighter 2/Swordsage ??? until Mo9. We're currently level 9, almost level 10, and if it'd be more efficient, I'd be happy to wait until later levels to get it.

I would like to stay effective in combat, however, with things like Craven, Weapon Finesse, and Shadowblade of course.

[Darrin]

Useful Dips:

Monk 2: Gets IUS, Dodge, and Blind-Fight (use the bonus feat rules in OA p. 19 and Table 6-1 on p. 79). You can also swap Evasion for the Invisible Fist ACF (Exemplars of Evil), and 1 round of invisibility (the MM version, not the spell version that goes away after an attack) is quite nifty on a sneak attack build. If OA isn't available, the variant fighting styles in Unearthed Arcana can get you Dodge or Improved Initiative as a bonus feat, but sadly not both at once.

Fighter 2: Two bonus feats. Might be an ACF out there, but not really anything that would be useful here.

Feat Rogue 2: UA variant, gets two fighter bonus feats, evasion, and a bucketload of skill points. You can throw the Wilderness Rogue variant on there as well, if you need some outdoorsy skills. Evasion might also be swapped for Mimic/Feign Death (Exemplars of Evil) or Spell Reflection (Complete Mage).

Psychic Warrior 2: Two fighter bonus feats and two psionic powers. Expansion is fun, and inertial armor may be worth a look, but be careful about how many different things can suck up your swift actions. If you give up a feat, you can also get access to dimension hop and hustle via the Mantled Warrior ACF (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) + Freedom Mantle.

Swashbuckler 1: Gets Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat. However, you can skip this if you can pick up some light Feycraft weapons (1500 GP each, DMGII p. 275).

Barbarian 1: Dragon Totem trades away Fast Movement for Blind-Fight (Unearthed Arcan). Unfortunately, this rules out getting Pounce via Spirit Lion Totem (Complete Champion), which is usually worth a dip just for that. If you have access to Dragon Magazine, then the City Brawler ACF (Dragon #349) is ubertastic: IUS, TWF (IUS only), and improvised weapon penalty reduced to -2.

Battle Dancer 1 (Dragon Compendium): Gets Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, which may be useful if your DM rules that Unarmed Swordsage doesn't get IUS. (And by RAW, it doesn't, which is bogus and most DMs will handwave this away.) This dip is more likely to be useful in Warblade/Mo9 builds that are trying to keep as much BAB as possible. Works well with Superior Unarmed Strike because it doesn't count as having monk levels and therefore your IUS damage scales up by character level.

Warblade 5: Gets either Improved Initiative or Blind-Fight as a bonus feat.

Knight of the Middle Circle 1 (Defends of the Faith p. 65): Gets Blind-Fight as a bonus feat. Somewhat easy to get into, as you only need BAB +6 and some skill ranks, no feats required. Full BAB, and with Wis 12+ you get a spell slot with a very limited number of spells. Combat Sense is awesomesauce, designate an opponent and get +2 insight bonus on attacks and AC.


As far as your specific build goes, decide how many levels you want to dip: 2 or 4. I'm going to assume Unarmed Swordsage gets IUS, so your optimum dips would probably be...

Race: Human.
1) Swordsage 1. Feat: Expeditious Dodge/Desert Wind Dodge. Bonus: Improved Unarmed Strike. Human: Shadow Blade.
2) Swordsage 2.
3) Swordsage 3. Feat: Adaptive Style.
4) Swordsage 4.
5) Swordsage 5. Assassin's Stance.
6) Fighter 1. Feat: Craven*. Bonus: Improved Initiative.
7) Fighter 2. Bonus: Blind-Fight.
8) Swordsage 6. (Note: You can probably enter Mo9 here if you like).
9) Swordsage 7. Feat: Staggering Strike/Weapon Finesse.
10) Swordsage 8.

*Note: Some DM's don't allow Assassin's Stance to qualify for Craven, as Craven requires sneak attack as a *class feature*. I say, Assassin's Stance is a class feature of being a Swordsage, so that's good enough for me.

If you'd prefer 4 dips, then consider:

Race: Human.
1) Swordsage 1. Feat: Expeditious Dodge/Desert Wind Dodge. Bonus: Improved Unarmed Strike. Human: Shadow Blade.
2) Swordsage 2.
3) Swordsage 3. Feat: Adaptive Style.
4) Swordsage 4.
5) Swordsage 5. Assassin's Stance.
6) Fighter 1. Feat: Craven. Bonus: Improved Initiative.
7) Fighter 2. Bonus: Blind-Fight.
8) Swashbuckler 1. Bonus: Weapon Finesse.
9) Barbarian 1. Feat: Staggering Blow. Spirit Lion Totem -> Pounce.
10) Swordsage 6 or Mo9 1.

Barbarian 1 doesn't really help you with bonus feats, but Pounce is kinda a must-get if you want to stay relevant in melee. It also helps even out your Initiator Level.

Something else to consider: Dragonborn of Bahumat. Among other things, this makes Fighter a favored class, if your group plays with multiclass XP penalties. Combined with the human favored class (Swordsage here), this makes the second build progression avoid XP penalties. BUT WAIT, you say, what about the human bonus feat? Don't I lose that? Not necessarily. Races of the Dragon, page 10: "If your original race granted you a nonspecific bonus feat (such as the one gained by a human at 1st level), any feat can be lost, so long as it is not a prerequisite for another feat you have." But what can I lose, you say? Fighter has a bunch of bonus feats for armor and shields. You can lose Tower Shield Proficiency instead of your human bonus feat. You can also swap an existing feat for Dragon Tail or Dragon Wings, and you probably don't need Heavy Armor Proficiency or Shield Proficiency. If you're going the TWF route with Shadow Blade, then Dragon Tail adds a secondary tail attack to your full attack. If you want a breath weapon instead, then Dragon Wings puts you one feat away from having a Fly speed.

[StreamOfTheSky]

While dipping unarmed Swordsage is very useful for qualifying, Swordsage has the most godawful recovery mechanic in the book. The best base class to focus on before Mo9 is Crusader, if you're willing to, since they auto-refresh and the huge number of added readied maneuvers also increase granted ones, so you'll be very unlikely to not have a really strong maneuver available each round even w/ the randomness.

[Galacktic]

While dipping unarmed Swordsage is very useful for qualifying, Swordsage has the most godawful recovery mechanic in the book. The best base class to focus on before Mo9 is Crusader, if you're willing to, since they auto-refresh and the huge number of added readied maneuvers also increase granted ones, so you'll be very unlikely to not have a really strong maneuver available each round even w/ the randomness.

I'm happy to dip Crusader but I don't wanna focus it. Our party already has a Crusader going into Ruby Knight Vindicator, and I want some variety! That being said, the build above looks pretty decent. Adaptive Style mostly fixes Sword Sage's recovery anyway.

[Darrin]

That being said, the build above looks pretty decent.

Which one? The two-dipper or four-dipper?

Also, I forgot: take Expeditious Dodge or Desert Wind Dodge instead of boring ol' vanilla Dodge.

[Galacktic]

Which one? The two-dipper or four-dipper?

Also, I forgot: take Expeditious Dodge or Desert Wind Dodge instead of boring ol' vanilla Dodge.

Two dip. That'd get me the most bang for my buck overall, I feel, while not holding up maneuver progression too badly. Plus, I can just take Mo9 whenever I want. When would that be best though? Probably 10-12 for the first level?