First melee character help swordsage/shadowlord

[Aurosman]

So I'm making my first melee character and would like some help since I don't know much about them, and its my first attempt at multiclassing. So far my build goes as follows.

Swordsage3, fighter 2, swordsage 2, telflammar shadowlord 5, swordsage 8

My rolled stats are 17,18,18,14,13,11

I will be taking the shadow walker template and also he is going to have the dark template (was cursed and decided to make the curse into his fighting stlye) love the whole teleport through shadows stuff, especially with the 3 shadow hand maneuvers. Plan is to have the character teleport in and the hide in plain sight from the dark template and then react to the battle as needed.

So question time

1. Str17, dex18, con14, wis18, int13, char11 that the appropriate distribution of the stats?

2. Would it be viable to use a chain weapon and make a trip/disarm build and still be able to use maneuvers to deal decent damage? Would be interested in this more than the next question.

3. If not, I would just go with a 2 weapon fighting style instead. What would be good weapons to dual wield?

4. Feats, I get the basic ones like weapon fineness, 2 weapon fighting, imp trip/disarm and such, but are their any obscure ones that would help out?

Any other tips or tricks would be appreciated also. Trying to learn as much as I can.

Edit: all official books are allowed, dragon magazine stuff needs to be approved before use but is usually allowed.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Immediate advice: use hit and run fighter from Drow of the Underdark. Synergizes nicely with your plan (this is assuming your DM does not use multiclass penalties BTW).

1. That could work. Be advised your fort save is going to be lacking, so keep an eye out for items that boost it such as cloak/vest of resistance. Fort is an important save. Focus on increasing your strength. More reliable and damaging hits are good hits.

2. Yes. Spiked Chain is an amazing solid weapon in general but be aware that you cannot take it until 3rd level (unless fighter is your 1st).

3. Two-Weapon Fighting with your already low BAB could be tricky and it takes a lot of resources to do. Just go in eyes open on that and be prepared to compensate for it. As for weapons I forget (Thanks to weapons groups and ruling that double weapons doing 1.5x Str on their off hand I use exclusively those).

[Das_Tabby]

Well, if you're burning a feat on Spiked Chain i really recommend the "Shadow Blade" feat (well, for TWF too, as long as you're using Shadow Hand weapons (dagger, sai, short sword, spiked chain, siangham, and unarmed strike))
it allows you to add your Dex to damage rolls with shadow hand weapons as long as you're in a shadow hand stance (if you do that i'd recommend to swap your str and con stats)

and on tripping: look at setting sun maneuvers, that's tripping (even based on dex instead of str) and damage dealing in one

[Dagroth]

Well, if you're burning a feat on Spiked Chain i really recommend the "Shadow Blade" feat (well, for TWF too, as long as you're using Shadow Hand weapons (dagger, sai, short sword, spiked chain, siangham, and unarmed strike))
it allows you to add your Dex to damage rolls with shadow hand weapons as long as you're in a shadow hand stance (if you do that i'd recommend to swap your str and con stats)

and on tripping: look at setting sun maneuvers, that's tripping (even based on dex instead of str) and damage dealing in one

Note that Shadow Blade stacks Dex bonus to damage on top of Str bonus to damage.

For a TSL, I suggest grabbing a level of Conjuration Specialist Wizard with the Abrupt Jaunt ACF (PH2) for immediate-action 10' teleports per day (only a few, but worth it). Remember you get a Full Attack after every teleport-like thing you do, so if you do a Shadow Jaunt you can follow up with an Abrupt Jaunt.

Or just Abrupt Jaunt to avoid an attack and get a free full attack on the guy too! With the Dark template, you should have 100% concealment which means Assassin's Stance is very good for you.

Drop your first stat increase into Int for +1 skill point per level after that point.

If you can convince your GM that Kung Fun Genius should work with Swordsage, then put the 18 in Int instead of Wis for skill-point goodness. I think it's worth a Feat to get +3 skill points every level.