Swordsage 8 - Maneuvers; which ones?

[TK-Squared]

Just as the title says; I'm making a level 8 Swordsage for a campaign and I'd like him to do a bit of damage, preferably focuing on Desert Wind, Shadow Hand and Tiger Claw schools than others. Any suggestions would be useful. Thankyou!

[storybookknight]

Go for boosts. If you're TWFing (and it sounds like you are) anything which adds fire damage, sneak attack damage, or amps the amount of attacks you get will be most helpful in maximizing your damage potential.

[Darrin]

Just as the title says; I'm making a level 8 Swordsage for a campaign and I'd like him to do a bit of damage, preferably focuing on Desert Wind, Shadow Hand and Tiger Claw schools than others. Any suggestions would be useful. Thankyou!

It would help if you let us know what feats and maneuvers you've already taken.

Looking at the 4th level maneuvers...

In Desert Wind, Searing Blade is a strong pick. Damage scales up as you level, and as a boost you can combine it with other maneuvers and full attacks. Great for TWF. Avoid Searing Charge ("oh look, SwordSage fall down...") and Firesnake (similar to a blast spell, not so great against energy resistance, damage reduction, high Ref, or evasion).

Diamond Mind is full of strikes. Bounding Assault would be good if you've got Pounce or a PA/IBR/ST/Leap Attack build, since it counts as a charge. Mind Strike... 1d4 Wis damage, not really enough to be useful, although if you find a way to keep hitting something with it, lower Wis makes their Will saves worse. Ruby Nightmare Blade... not good for a TWF build, since it's only one attack as a standard action.

Setting Sun - Comet Throw is good for trip builds, but otherwise there are better things to do with your standard actions. Strike of the Broken Shield, again not good for TWF, and there are better/more reliable ways to make your target flat-footed.

Shadow Hand - Hmm. Hand of Death... doesn't appear to involve much death, difficult to use, and is a waste of an action if the target makes their Fort save. Obscuring Shadow Veil looks a bit more useful, but doesn't mesh well with TWF.

In Stone Dragon, another boost - Boulder Roll, good to have lots of boosts if you're going to finish out SwordSage, but I don't seel overrun being used all that much (I think most high-mobility characters would rather tumble around/through instead). Bonesplitting Strike... Con damage good, no save even better. Might be useful if you're running into things with high DR or are immune to most of your standard attacks but still vulnerable to ability damage. Overwhelming Mountain Strike does have a save, and against a high Fort opponent you'd risk wasting a standard action on a single attack.

For Tiger Claw, there's Death From Above, which is great if you've been maxing out your Jump ranks. It also allows some movement as part of a standard action, so this is a good maneuver to close in on an opponent, get in one attack with extra damage (no save *and* flat-footed, so another +2d6 from Assassin's Stance), and land on the other side, ready to give flanking to a less nimble ally. Fountain of Blood is another boost... but I'm not sure it'd be all that useful, unless you have an unnaturally high Str bonus to drive up the save DC.

I'd say your three strongest picks:

1) Death From Above - extra damage, extra movement, and sneak damage.
2) Searing Blade - best pick for TWF, boost for extra damage on all your attacks, scales up as you level
3) Fountain of Blood or Bonesplitting Strike

[Amiria]

1st level: Burning Blade, Sudden Leap, Wind Stride, Wolf Fang Strike

2nd level: Burning Brand, Cloak of Deception, Shadow Jaunt

3rd level: Fan the Flames, Mind Over Body, Shadow Garotte

4th level: Death From Above, Hand of Death, Obscuring Shadow Veil

Stances: Child of Shadow, Leaping Dragon Stance, Stance of Clarity

I thought of a TWF guy for those maneuver selection. At 1st and 2nd level are some nice boosts, 3rd level gives decent ranged attacks and a useful counter for your one poor save, 4th level are the big guns.

There is some Diamond Mind in it, mainly so that you are on your way to have the prerequisites for higher level Diamond Mind maneuvers (6th+), which are really good too.

[TK-Squared]

Alright. Thanks very much. I'll probably be going down the Two Weapon Fighting style and keeping in mind the suggestions. Cheers.

[Charity]

Well the mighty He whom should not be named silly rule helped me out with some ToB BBEG's the swordsage was the only one to survive (don't follow this link Ikkie/Dorisfrog) and the one that still strikes fear into my players hearts she rocks! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41828#10) though He whom should not be named did tone them down a wee bit for my players, though it should be easy enough to ramp back up.