Challenges for XPH/TOB/MOI Campaign

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Anyeong, playgrounders!

I may be DM'ing a D&D campaign soon. These players are a little insistent on 3.5, but open to a different take on it.
PHB classes are banned. Only base classes from Expanded Psionics Handbook, Tome of Battle, and Magic of Incarnum are allowed. We're also using web expansions, Hyperconscious, Lords of Madness, and the Races books, plus Magic Item Compendium and Rules Compendium.

I'm looking for suggestions regarding level 1 adventures.
Specifically, I'm looking for encounter design considerations for psionic, incarnum, and initiator classes.
Survival, resource management, pacing, non-combat challenges, rewards, etc.

What are some things I should look out for?

[Psyren]

Most of those classes are in the T2-T4 range, so you should be fine running an ordinary campaign/module. Simply replace most consumables like scrolls and wands with power stones, dorjes, and... whatever Incarnum folks use. Remember that the Incarnum folks can use psionic stuff too if they shape Psion's Eyes.

If someone picks Incarnate, keep an eye on them, they're a complicated class to play well.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Healing, mostly, especially status conditions-- a Crusader can help put people back on their feet, but meldshapers can't do much in the way of healing and psionic classes are pretty bad at it too, but hit points aren't that hard to deal with. The biggest issues is that I don't know that anyone is going to be able to pull out things like Restoration and Cure Disease when you really need 'em. Especially if you extend the ban to mean that you can't get magic items except for those that ToB/MoI/XPH classes can make.

Otherwise you should be fine with conventional adventures-- except for the Soulborn and Soulknife, all of the classes in your allowed books are quite strong and versatile, but rarely have the sort of "screw your adventure, I've got a spell for that" abilities that Wizards and Clerics can occasionally manage. Specifically... I guess XPH and ToB classes generally have no resource management issues (except for HP and a few soulmelds), so it'll be the psions pushing for breaks. The former two are also exceptionally strong at low levels-- psionic characters will probably feel second-rate for a few levels, at least. Once you hit ~5th-6th level it should start to level out a bit, with Incarnates beginning to fall behind* and Psions beginning to pull ahead.



*Single-classed Incarnate offense tends to start quite nice, with multi-d6 touch attacks and reaction attacks, but the pace of capacity-boosters falls off quickly, meaning your damage does as well. Probably the best single-class fix is to rule that Soulspark Familiars and/or Wild Cohorts qualify for Share Soulmeld; that way you can have two buffed-up attackers. Otherwise they don't really have the BAB to be fighters or the boom to be blasters. A two-level Totemist dip can fix most problems, though, as can jumping into things like Ironsoul Forgemaster or Chameleon.

[AnimeTheCat]

Healing, mostly, especially status conditions-- a Crusader can help put people back on their feet, but meldshapers can't do much in the way of healing and psionic classes are pretty bad at it too, but hit points aren't that hard to deal with. The biggest issues is that I don't know that anyone is going to be able to pull out things like Restoration and Cure Disease when you really need 'em. Especially if you extend the ban to mean that you can't get magic items except for those that ToB/MoI/XPH classes can make.

The Heal skill will probably become more necessary. You can use it to treat poison, diseases, etc as well as accelerate natural healing.

[Manyasone]

If you use the web enhancement for psionics be sure to dig up the sangehirn (or something like that) prc for psionics. Combined with the egoist archetype that heals it makes for a resilient healer even if it has its own list. It's a decision as a player you make i'm afraid

[LordOfCain]

I would also think about healing being a factor. One of the core assumptions in 3.Xe is that healing is available. If it's not, than suddenly injuries are a lot more long lasting and deadly.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Well, at the very least I should make sure that psionic tattoos of Vigor, Body Adjustment, and Body Purification are available among treasure stashes. The relevant Crusader maneuvers could also be found as martial scripts. Maybe let the party find a dorje of Empathic Transfer at some point.
But that's no substitute for a wand of cure light wounds...

Maybe some items that bolster the healing skill then?

[ksbsnowowl]

Anyeong, playgrounders!

I may be DM'ing a D&D campaign soon. These players are a little insistent on 3.5, but open to a different take on it.
PHB classes are banned. Only base classes from Expanded Psionics Handbook, Tome of Battle, and Magic of Incarnum are allowed. We're also using web expansions, Hyperconscious, Lords of Madness, and the Races books, plus Magic Item Compendium and Rules Compendium.

I'm looking for suggestions regarding level 1 adventures.
Specifically, I'm looking for encounter design considerations for psionic, incarnum, and initiator classes.
Survival, resource management, pacing, non-combat challenges, rewards, etc.

What are some things I should look out for?

A year ago I started a similar campaign. See this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?488882-Spawn-of-Tiamat-adventure-ideas) where I was asking for some plot ideas. I didn't get a lot of responses, but there are a few tidbits in there, I think.

I did allow my PC's to gestalt an NPC class on one side, because I didn't know how much not having traditional healing measures was going to screw with their survivability. They pretty much all chose either Warrior to make up for a Swordsage's medium BAB, or Expert for the skill points, stuff like that.

A few random thoughts off the top of my head:

Make a Healing Belt (Belt of Healing? MIC) available to the PC's right at the start. In the very first session my PC's joined the city's adventurer's guild (necessary for operating within the city and not getting arrested), where they can buy and sell items at the standard book prices (casters are tainted in my world, so magic items are otherwise harder to come by, and more expensive; the guild works to make items available "below market value" to their members). The healing belt just "randomly" became available (was repossessed from a party that couldn't pay) just that day. The relatively poor starting PC's were able to rent it on high-interest weekly payments; paying that off was one of their biggest early priorities.

The adventuring guild was a great way to post little jobs for hire within the city. Small little missions that would only take one session, or maybe a session and a half.

In addition to the books you listed, I also emphasized the Binder class from Tome of Magic. One of the first little adventures was jewelry being stolen and then resold in a jewelry shop. The proprietor was a Kenku Binder that used ... Malphas during the day (bonuses to bluff and diplomacy, at-will disguise self to look like a human), and his Incarnate kenku henchmen that used Airstep Sandals to move among the city's rooftops, get into the Old City (where the aristocracy live), and climb in through upper-story windows to steal valuables. Wait, the theft plot was a bit different... The kenku had a thieves network throughout various cities and towns. They would sell the jewelry at their ally's legitimate shop, then the Airstep Sandals kenku would follow the buyer back to their home. A few days later he would steal the jewelry back, and it would then be sent through the thieves network to a similar shop in a different city (probably via weekly shipments). The shop owner was in on it, but his Malphas-granted silver tongue ability helped him lie effectively to cover up his involvement. The shop owner was a kenku, and I had a great time chomping my teeth together as I voiced his responses to the PC's (he was used to clacking his beak...)

Another job for hire was by a Dryad that lived in the city's "central park," who was pissed about the pair of lovers who carved their initials in a heart on her Oak tree... When the PC's met with her, they saw a horrible scar, the same initials and heart, displayed red, angry, and welted on her cheek. She just wanted someone to bring them back for retribution (since a dryad can't move very far from her tree). The PC's ended up tricking the lovers back to "their spot" via forged notes, and they actually stood by as the dryad whipped the two young lovers (my PC's are all Neutral; none are Good).

Other jobs the PC's have done:

Shipments from a local mine were stolen en route to the city from the mine. One survivor from the caravan brought the news, and can lead the PC's to the location of the ambush. The survivor could be innocent, or he might be in on it with the bandits. I used this (http://www.fantasticmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/kq9banditlairisometric.jpg) pair of images (http://www.fantasticmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/banditlairupperlevelweb.jpg) for the Bandit Lair, where the PC's fought a dozen or so bandits, and their guard dogs, and recovered the stolen jade ore. It was on their way to investigate this that my "random" encounter with some ethereal marauders and an ether scarab happened (mentioned in my linked thread).

Further through the pass that the mine shipment was stolen at, I ran the formerly-free web adventure The Burning Plague (you can probably find it free on-line, but dndclassics has it for 99¢ if you want to look there). The PC's were 3rd level or so before that module started.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

[Sagetim]

Level 1 is always kind of hideously dangerous in 3.5. Crusader is the fastest way to healing that doesn't have a daily limit. Psionics has issues healing because their cost to pay out for healing is set, and set low. At best, you have a level 1 Ardent who can heal hp at a 1:2 power point to hp rate at level 1. If you go up to level 3, any full manifester could use expanded knowledge to steal that power off the ardent's list and do it themselves, but it's still a really bad ratio. A better power comes by at 6th level powers, where you get 11 power points for 55 healing, but that's the equivalent of dropping a heal on someone and getting about half the effectiveness on hp healing, with no scaling, and no curing of secondary effects like diseases, poison, etc.

Maneuvers are limited mostly to hp healing until much higher level (one of them grants a heal effect specifically, but you're nowhere near that at level 1). Crusader's Strike may wind up being the party bread and butter for a while to get healing, but it only gives you a 1d6+initator level (max 5), the target of the attack has to pose a a clear and present danger to your or your allies and they need to be at least one alignment factor away from you. And that's one of the things that may get overlooked about crusaders: A LOT of Devoted Spirit is based on alignment hate. More reliable for healing at low level is going to be Martial Spirit, a level 1 stance from Devoted spirit that lets you get 2 healing for every successful melee attack (be it a strike or regular hit). That hp can be used on yourself or any ally within 30 feet (3 times the range of crusader strike's measly 10ft healing range).

Binders can also make effective out of combat healers, Beur giving a 1 standard action to 1 hp healed option, with a 5 round cooldown option on it for 1d8+something something. The downsides being that Beur is a 4th level vestige (so even with feat shenanigans, you'll need to be 5 in binder before you can Start healing) and the low actual output. Very good for tidying up between fights though, as it is actual limitless healing.

The Sangehirn prestige class takes a while to get online, with it's ultimate payoff being the Fast Healing that it gets while psionically focused. Now if only you had vitalist in 3.5....(oh wait, isn't Society Mind still up on this forum or somewhere on the internet?). Unfortunately, I think Society Mind falls very solidly into 'this is third party material) so it may not be valid for what you're going for.

The Belt of Healing is going to be a life saver for your party, especially at low level. Consider having it be a kind of signing bonus for joining the adventurer's guild. Perhaps with a little catch if your party is the kind of braying jackanapes that would see their character level as an excuse to go on an npc killing spree.

Back in the land of maneuver users, the Shadow Sun Ninja also has a minor bit of 'technically limitless healing' they can pull off. Touch of the Shadow Sun lets them slap a living target for negative energy damage, then in the following round drop that as a positive energy healing on themselves or an ally or what have you.

Martial Scripts might whet a player's appetite for particular maneuvers, but items like the Crown of the White Ravens, or the Amulet of Devoted Spirit are going to break open the availability of maneuvers for your players in a more permanent fashion. Having them be available, possibly even as treasure drops or quest rewards can help open up devoted spirit to non crusaders. They might still need to take Martial Study if they wanted to get higher level maneuvers out of such an item, but that just means they would get consistent access to whatever devoted spirit maneuver they were after in the lower levels.

Oh, huh, and I did not realize that Martial Study can be taken at level 1. Which means you can go warblade and have crusader's strike. Then take Martial Stance as a human bonus feat at level 1 and have Martial Spirit. And then when you get your hands on an Amulet of Devoted Spirit, with respect to your level limits and those of the amulet, you could potentially grab up to a 6th level maneuver out of it since you already know two devoted spirit maneuvers (remember, stances count). It also means that the next time you took Martial Study, you could (while respecting your level limits) take up to a 7th or 8th level maneuver. That could be a typo, but it seems like the 8th level stance requires 3 maneuvers, but the 8th level strike only requires two. Weird. The 9th level strike only requires 3 maneuvers known, so with 3 feats and a magic item you could pick up the strongest move for a discipline that is normally class exclusive. And on a Warblade, you could get that strike out, what, every other turn? I dunno, maybe faster with some of the shenanigans that happen on this board.

Anyway, healing is going to be the party's major concern at low level. If you want the campaign to be particularly gritty, you could have them make fortitude saves against getting sick from trudging through muck (because trudging through sewage with open wounds is a bad idea).

Oh, and Truenaming Looks like it can do healing. But it's not actually that great at it as levels go on. That whole, arithmetic skill increase vs geometric dc increase thing really murders the whole thing. With a really good int score, skill focus, and maximum ranks you can get to the point of reliably working your word of nurture on the party members a few times per day, but the reliability of that is going to go down as the party level goes up unless the truenamer has an item familiar for skill points, or you change the rules to make the truenaming dc reasonable.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Well...

I had an idea for an adventure, but I can see how it might be a really horrible idea.

A 5th level nomad-psion named Vishal knows the location of a color pool in the Astral Plane leading to a demi-plane. He believes that there are some mystical writings there that might aid him in his quest for enlightenment.
He is using the Astral Caravan power to get there.
Now, Vishal is a pacifist, and not particularly optimized as a psion. He has the means to keep himself alive, make a hasty retreat, or, if needed, defend himself with his dorje of Entangling Ectoplasm.
So, Vishal is hiring some guards to accompany him and serve as an extra set of eyes.

Now, if I am understanding the Astral Plane correctly (as described in the Manual of the Planes), if your astral form dies there then your silver cord snaps and you wake up in your original body, correct?
Does Astral Caravan send you to the Astral Plane in your physical form, or in your astral form? If the latter, then it would present a means of crafting challenging but non-lethal adventures for my players. I'll probably then have Vishal's wife, Prisha, look after the PC's comatose bodies while they are away having astral adventures.

Of course, if Astral Caravan sends you to the Astral Sea in your physical form then this would obviously be a terrible adventure for 1st level characters...
(Not to mention, the adventure requires a DMPC to literally hold the player character's hands.)

[Sagetim]

Well...

I had an idea for an adventure, but I can see how it might be a really horrible idea.

A 5th level nomad-psion named Vishal knows the location of a color pool in the Astral Plane leading to a demi-plane. He believes that there are some mystical writings there that might aid him in his quest for enlightenment.
He is using the Astral Caravan power to get there.
Now, Vishal is a pacifist, and not particularly optimized as a psion. He has the means to keep himself alive, make a hasty retreat, or, if needed, defend himself with his dorje of Entangling Ectoplasm.
So, Vishal is hiring some guards to accompany him and serve as an extra set of eyes.

Now, if I am understanding the Astral Plane correctly (as described in the Manual of the Planes), if your astral form dies there then your silver cord snaps and you wake up in your original body, correct?
Does Astral Caravan send you to the Astral Plane in your physical form, or in your astral form? If the latter, then it would present a means of crafting challenging but non-lethal adventures for my players. I'll probably then have Vishal's wife, Prisha, look after the PC's comatose bodies while they are away having astral adventures.

Of course, if Astral Caravan sends you to the Astral Sea in your physical form then this would obviously be a terrible adventure for 1st level characters...
(Not to mention, the adventure requires a DMPC to literally hold the player character's hands.)

It's physical movement. If you want characters to go there and don't mind having the npc be an incredibly high level wizard, possibly sending them there without him just to take notes and root around and possibly kill some stuff that he considers himself to be way beyond wasting his time on, Astral Projection will send players to the astral plane without sending their physical bodies. That said, if they have their cords cut, it's an instant kill. So don't send them after Githyanki. At least not at first. I don't recall if there's any alternate means of astral projection. I would think that there should be for psionics, since it's all up on mind bending adventure shenanigans and themes, but it might just be a matter of the people writing the psionics rules thinking 'yeah, but psions should be better at it than wizards, so they just go there physically like it's no problem at low level'. And not thinking that...you know, maybe people want to have that safety line or something.

[Nifft]

XPH has two good base classes and two bad ones.
- Psion is good. Viable Sorcerer replacement.
- Psychic Warrior is good. More interesting than a Fighter, that's for sure. Quite durable when you get the Psicrystal + Share Pain + Vigor combo running.
- Soulknife is bad. It's grossly underpowered and the features have poor synergy.
- Wilder is bad. It's mildly underpowered, and a Psion can out-perform a Wilder in the Wilder's own niche.

ToB:Bo9S has three base classes and all of them are great.
- Crusader is great.
- Swordsage is great.
- Warblade is great.

MoI has three base classes, and one-and-a-half of them is good.
- Totemist is fun, straightforward, and good.
- Incarnate is weird. It can be good, but it takes a lot more effort.
- Soulborn is bad. Don't use it.

You didn't mention the following classes, but you should consider them, because they're all weird & good:
- Warlock (Complete Arcane) is good. Shoot-all-day like a ToB class, but with range and battlefield control options and dark edgy outfits.
- Dragonfire Adept (Dragon Magic) is good. Shoot-all-day like a ToB class, but you're a (wanna-be) dragon. Short-range control & some fun utility / social / buff capabilities. Also, they can take Draconic Auras as feats starting at level 3, so you might be able to take Draconic Vigor (from the PHB2 list) and heal your party up to half for free.
- Binder (Tome of Magic) is good. It's very flavorful, fits the sort of shoot-all-day mechanics that ToB and Incarnum bring to the table, and it's got even more pacts & doom than a Warlock.
- Ardent (Complete Psionic) is decent. It's possible to screw one up if you pick Mantles poorly, and overall Complete Psionic is a book that should NOT be used by default, but the Ardent can be useful to a campaign.


One further note: if you're going to run standard modules, you're probably going to want Trapfinding in the party. The weirdo ways to get Trapfinding are:
- Scout. Scouts are great. Even without shenanigans, even just attacking 1/round with Skirmish every time, they're great.
- Barbarian 3 with Trapslayer (from Dungeonscape). This is hilarious and I love it in my games.
- Factotum from Dungeonscape. Some people like them.
- Spellthief from Complete Adventurer. Good for exactly one level, then take Wizard + the Master Spellthief feat. Otherwise ugh.
- Ninja - yuck just be a Rogue or Scout.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

It's physical movement. If you want characters to go there and don't mind having the npc be an incredibly high level wizard, possibly sending them there without him just to take notes and root around and possibly kill some stuff that he considers himself to be way beyond wasting his time on, Astral Projection will send players to the astral plane without sending their physical bodies. That said, if they have their cords cut, it's an instant kill. So don't send them after Githyanki. At least not at first. I don't recall if there's any alternate means of astral projection. I would think that there should be for psionics, since it's all up on mind bending adventure shenanigans and themes, but it might just be a matter of the people writing the psionics rules thinking 'yeah, but psions should be better at it than wizards, so they just go there physically like it's no problem at low level'. And not thinking that...you know, maybe people want to have that safety line or something.

Well, another possibility is dream travel. Hyperconscious has some rules for that, as does the Manual of the Planes.
If your dreamself dies, you just wake up (though you might take some Constitution damage if you wake up from the Shallows.) Heroes of Horror has rules for Oneiromancy that could be relevant.

Homebrew content is always a possibility too, of course. I just want to make sure I'm not reinventing the wheel.

*edit*





One further note: if you're going to run standard modules, you're probably going to want Trapfinding in the party. The weirdo ways to get Trapfinding are:
- Scout. Scouts are great. Even without shenanigans, even just attacking 1/round with Skirmish every time, they're great.
- Barbarian 3 with Trapslayer (from Dungeonscape). This is hilarious and I love it in my games.
- Factotum from Dungeonscape. Some people like them.
- Spellthief from Complete Adventurer. Good for exactly one level, then take Wizard + the Master Spellthief feat. Otherwise ugh.
- Ninja - yuck just be a Rogue or Scout.

There are also Psychic Rogues from an online supplement!

[Eldariel]

For Trapfinding, you can also use Planar Touchstone tied to Catalogues of Enlightenment to gain Kobold-domain granted power including Trapfinding. Can't be a Cleric so you need other means to gain Disable Device in class but that's the hard way. Of course, you could just remove the whole concept and make Trapfinding a matter of Search, Disable Device and company, not an exclusive club that's not in the game. Frankly the game is more enjoyable without it anyways: even Pathfinder had the wits to do away with it.

As for the topic, don't forget that spell-likes are much more interesting if you don't have spells accessible to the PCs. Also make sure to include the monsters from the books and spread the ToB/MoI/Psionic abilities around the adversaries as well - otherwise it'll be a bit simple on the enemy side. Classed NPCs and more monsters with innate abilities.

[danielxcutter]

I hear the True Healer ACF for Egoists makes them into great healers.

[Elkad]

I'm in a game like this. Highly modified RHoD. No divine magic at all in the campaign, and limited arcane magic.
We just hit L6 and fought Ozzy (who was a Chaos Dragon I think, with some sort of incarnum class level tacked on) at the bridge - he got away, but we succeeded. Party is Warblade, Warmage, Ardent (no custom mantles allowed), PsiWarrior.

Healing is HARD. Despite Healing Belts, we are spending a fortune on tattoos and dorjes of Touch of Health.

BFC is hard. We don't have a lockdown melee, which would help. I'm trying to push the PsiWarrior that way, maybe he'll get there.

I don't think the other 3 have played RHoD. I'm very familiar with it (I'm actually DMing it for another group), so despite all the monsters being different, I know the framework, but I'm trying not to meta. We sure won't be prepared with Water Breathing at the swamp later. Flight will be a problem for 2 of us if the owls aren't available.

We had a TPK earlier (at L4) with a completely different party makeup. Same world and DM, but not RHoD. DFA, Crusader/Incarnate, Scout, Duskblade. Trap we didn't detect split the party, and it went downhill rapidly.

[Grod_The_Giant]

One further note: if you're going to run standard modules, you're probably going to want Trapfinding in the party. The weirdo ways to get Trapfinding are:
- Scout. Scouts are great. Even without shenanigans, even just attacking 1/round with Skirmish every time, they're great.
- Barbarian 3 with Trapslayer (from Dungeonscape). This is hilarious and I love it in my games.
- Factotum from Dungeonscape. Some people like them.
- Spellthief from Complete Adventurer. Good for exactly one level, then take Wizard + the Master Spellthief feat. Otherwise ugh.
- Ninja - yuck just be a Rogue or Scout.
Also the Theft Gloves soulmeld. And you might houserule it onto the Swordsage list.

[Sagetim]

I'm in a game like this. Highly modified RHoD. No divine magic at all in the campaign, and limited arcane magic.
We just hit L6 and fought Ozzy (who was a Chaos Dragon I think, with some sort of incarnum class level tacked on) at the bridge - he got away, but we succeeded. Party is Warblade, Warmage, Ardent (no custom mantles allowed), PsiWarrior.

Healing is HARD. Despite Healing Belts, we are spending a fortune on tattoos and dorjes of Touch of Health.

BFC is hard. We don't have a lockdown melee, which would help. I'm trying to push the PsiWarrior that way, maybe he'll get there.

I don't think the other 3 have played RHoD. I'm very familiar with it (I'm actually DMing it for another group), so despite all the monsters being different, I know the framework, but I'm trying not to meta. We sure won't be prepared with Water Breathing at the swamp later. Flight will be a problem for 2 of us if the owls aren't available.

We had a TPK earlier (at L4) with a completely different party makeup. Same world and DM, but not RHoD. DFA, Crusader/Incarnate, Scout, Duskblade. Trap we didn't detect split the party, and it went downhill rapidly.

Sounds like a good place to consider using martial study and stance feats to get crusader's strike etc grafted onto the warblade. 1d6+5 healing may not be that much, but if you can drop it every other round it might help slow the bleed of money from consumables. Good luck.

[Eldariel]

Sounds like a good place to consider using martial study and stance feats to get crusader's strike etc grafted onto the warblade. 1d6+5 healing may not be that much, but if you can drop it every other round it might help slow the bleed of money from consumables. Good luck.

This does come at the risk of missing and the opportunity cost of doing less damage since you're not using a damaging maneuver, thus killing opponents slower and taking more damage in turn from the not-dead-yet enemies though... It's a good maneuver but it's probably not worth the feat at this point. I'd rather dip Crusader personally.

[Pleh]

Star Wars Saga also suffers from inaccessible healing. Mostly your options are expending medkits/bacta (cure potions) or the jedi sacrifices HP to "share" with the less fortunate.

So to supplement, they give the heal skill the application:
DC 15 as full round action to heal the injured character's ECL number of HP, plus 1 hp for each point you beat the DC (never more than max health).
You can try as much as you like, but it expends medkits (bandages) each time you try (win or fail) and an injured creature can only benefit from any success of this skill once per day.
You can try it on yourself at -5 to the check.

They also get Second Wind (I think 4e had the same mechanic). Basically 1/day heal 1/4 max health if below half health

[Elkad]

Sounds like a good place to consider using martial study and stance feats to get crusader's strike etc grafted onto the warblade. 1d6+5 healing may not be that much, but if you can drop it every other round it might help slow the bleed of money from consumables. Good luck.

Vs our Raptoran Warblade using Death From Above or full power attack Emerald Razor? Hard to nerf your damage output that much.
The prior (dead) Crusader/Incarnate was me. I had the meld for double self-healing and was trying to tank for the party, but it was awkward at best.
And it still doesn't solve out-of-combat healing (other than cheesing it up by killing furniture, swatting flies, and/or stabbing friendlies with 1d2 weapons - and if there is a DM that actually allows that, I've never seen it.)

[Ursus Spelaeus]

What about reserve points from Unearthed Arcana?
That should help, right?
Though I'm tempted to just straight up give the players healing surges from 4E.

(I actually really like 4E overall, but I just feel now that the design was maybe too conservative in respects. I prefer definitely prefer 3.5 psionics over 4E psionics, and I wish 4E martials had ToB's recharge mechanics. I'm also disappointed that incarnum never got ported over to 4E.)

[Nifft]

UA Reserve healing could help, yeah.

You could combine that reserve HP pool with some kind of Second Wind in-combat healing. Something like...

Second Wind - Once per encounter, you can pull from your Reserve HP pool to heal yourself. You must have fewer than half your maximum HP to use this combat action, and the amount of time it takes depends on your class features:
- If you're a tanky class, your Second Wind is a Swift action.
- If you're a roguey class, your Second Wind is a Move action.
- If you're a caster class, your Second Wind is a Standard action.

The number of HP you can heal in this way is equal to your Constitution score, or 1/4 of your maximum HP, whichever is greater.

[Sagetim]

Unearthed Arcana also has Vitality and Wound points, where your characters are going to get vitality points instead of hp, which represents ability to avoid damage, then wound points which are just a fat stack of con based 'this is how much actual damage I can take' things. It's most pronounced at level 1, and with low level opponents who suddenly don't just drop in one or two hits because they have a stack of con based wound points instead of a craptacular d4 hp or what have you.

But that would also require house ruling how maneuvers based healing and psionic healing meshes with that, because vitality and wounds has rules for cure spells, and nothing else.