Need a little bit of help please and thank you

[poorwhiteboy]

Hello all,
To start we just had a TPK and have decided to change up GMs. He has banned all psionics because of obvious cheese factor however what I am going to list is approved by him and would like some help to optimize. We are starting at level 2 but everyone in the group is going to be taking a +1 LA race/template and we have a 39 point buy system bu no stat can be negative. We can have 2 flaws to give extra feats. And I have no idea what kind of classes the other players are playing.... DM calls it meta gaming if we talk about what class ect ect we are going to play

Role: Tank/Damage
Class: Swordsage
Race: Lesser Aasimar
Template: Necropolitan
Light armor and a greatsword

He has given me all the goodies of being brought back under the most of ideal conditions (might be a little too generous) as he says a dread necro undead mastery and had corpse crafting feats are okay with him.

Stats after bonus
20
18
10 (doesnt apply but cant be negative)
14
18
15

Feats:
1st level: Adaptive Style Feat, Power attack
And a little lost from here any feedback is appreciated

[Venger]

He has banned all psionics because of obvious cheese factor
Lol no. psionics is more balanced than normal spellcasting, your gm likely just doesn't know how psionics works and/or doesn't want to learn, but if you're not planning on a manifester, it's kind of moot.


DM calls it meta gaming if we talk about what class ect ect we are going to play
that's not what metagaming is[/quote]



Role: Tank/Damage
Class: Swordsage
Race: Lesser Aasimar
Template: Necropolitan
Light armor and a greatsword

He has given me all the goodies of being brought back under the most of ideal conditions (might be a little too generous) as he says a dread necro undead mastery and had corpse crafting feats are okay with him.

Stats after bonus
20
18
10 (doesnt apply but cant be negative)
14
18
15

Feats:
1st level: Adaptive Style Feat, Power attack
And a little lost from here any feedback is appreciated

what exactly is the point of being an aasimar if you're going necropolitan?

by RAW, you actually can't go necropolitan until level 3, but it's pretty clear from the context that your gm's just giving it to you for free, so let's set that aside.

why do you not have a second level? necropolitan is a la0 template.

starting at level 2 as an undead swordsage, your bones will be made of glass, so you'll need any and every source of bonus hp while such things are still relevant at low levels. an amulet of tears is a decent bandaid.

are you planning on going straight swordsage 20? if so, what disciplines are you going to emphasize? if not, what prcs are you looking at entering? in 3.5, you really need to plan that kind of thing out in advance to make sure earlier levels have all the skills and stuff you need

[poorwhiteboy]

Going to be aasimar for the bonuses to wis and cha, and necropolitan says you have to give up a level and an additional 1000 xp. Gm is just giving me the template at the level loss.

I was thinking that the d12 from the necropolitan would help make up for being that low level and or did i misunderstand that? I am not sure what level we are playing to, but I was thinking id stay as swordage, and the only one I'm sure on is diamond mind.

Sorry for the lack of info just trying to explain and min-max as much as i can and having a decent dex score should help with ac.... and then add wis to ac at level 2 should also help me live a little bit longer

[ExLibrisMortis]

The d12 compensates to a point, but don't forget you also lose the ability to fall unconscious at -1 hp. You are simply destroyed at 0 hp, no questions asked. Corpsecrafter & Dread Necro with desecrate and an altar are really nuts though, you can make a killing there, at higher levels. I think I got up to +12 hp/HD when I went all-out, but that's a bit cheesy.

For a swordsage with free +1 LA, I would suggest playing some cool anthropomorphic animal, like a baboon (2 HD, +4 str/dex/wis, +2 con, -2 cha), crocodile (2 HD, +8 str, +6 con, +4 wis, +2 dex, -4 cha), constrictor snake (+6 str/dex, +4 wis, +2 con, -4 cha), or tiger (2 HD, +6 dex, +4 str/wis, +2 con). Lots of physical stat boosts and good wisdom, and you get some monstrous humanoid HD, which have full base attack and d10 hit die. You'd have to take swordsage 1 as your third level.

[KillianHawkeye]

A Swordsage normally has a d8 Hit Die. Assuming average hp, a d12 without Con is equivalent to a d8 with a 14-15 Con. You knew you were going undead, so you dumped Con, but if you were planning to play a living melee warrior type character you'd probably at least get a 12 in there, so the d12 is in reality only helping you a little bit. Also, you can't ever get any magic item to improve your Con, which you'd want and would eventually put you ahead of what you're getting as an undead. Still, 6 hp per level isn't a lot if you're going to spend most of your time in melee, especially when you've lost all your margin for error because you're dead as soon as you reach zero.

Also, you're undead, so 90% of people just instinctively hate you.

[ATHATH]

He has banned all psionics because of obvious cheese factor
Read this: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444945-Myth-The-XPH-is-overpowered

The most important thing to gleam from it is this: "The single most important rule in the Expanded Psionics Handbook is that you cannot spend more power points on a power than you have manifester levels in the class the power belongs to. This is absolutely essential to understand.
What this means is that a 9th level psion can only spend 9 power points on any one manifestation.

There are two, and only two, exceptions to this rule: the Overchannel feat, which causes damage to the Psion, and the Wilder's Wild Surge, which can stun the Wilder and drain more power points than the power was augmented by. Overchannel is discussed in Myth 22.
More than this limit, Psionic characters have to pay for every extra point of damage they do. Unlike Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids and Clerics, the Psionic powers do not freely scale in damage. A 10th level psion manifesting the Psionic equivalent of Fireball does not do 10d6 damage as a 10th level wizard does, he does 5d6, unless he pays an extra 5 power points, effectively manifesting that power twice. This type of augmentation is what keeps psionics from being overpowered, as the power point reserve held by manifesting class is finite and, for some classes, extremely limited."