Any ideas to incorporate Tome of Battle into Greyhawk setting?

[Astralia123]

I'm DMing a campaign based on Savage Tide Adventure Path and try to make a sound background for each PC (as well as introducing personal stories for each PC).

Now there is one of them who plays a wood elf warblade, and I just can't find any article or anything that deals the relationship between ToB and official settings.

I've read the article "Weaponmasters of the Flanaess" on Dragon Annual 1998 and it certainly gets the tone well, but it seems that does not translate well into 3rd edition. Alas, all the school listed in it seems to be faraway from Sasserine, thus do not seem to be a good background source for a PC.

So...Any ideas?

[JoshuaZ]

I'm DMing a campaign based on Savage Tide Adventure Path and try to make a sound background for each PC (as well as introducing personal stories for each PC).

Now there is one of them who plays a wood elf warblade, and I just can't find any article or anything that deals the relationship between ToB and official settings.

I've read the article "Weaponmasters of the Flanaess" on Dragon Annual 1998 and it certainly gets the tone well, but it seems that does not translate well into 3rd edition. Alas, all the school listed in it seems to be faraway from Sasserine, thus do not seem to be a good background source for a PC.

So...Any ideas?

Is there a specific reason the fluff needs to recognize that being a warblade is different? One could just fluff them as a fighter and would people notice? If one absolutely needed to make warblades a separate thing, why not just drop an elven warblade or combat school somewhere in Sasserine? Maybe it was founded by one of the members of the Dawn Council or maybe somoene somehow connected to Castle Teraknian? This is something you could maybe discuss with the player to work out some mutual worldbuilding that you both like.

One thought, that maybe the PC (or possibly even the player) isn't aware of: The school secretly has another purpose. Possibly the school was founded long ago due to a prophecy that one day someone from the region would need to have certain combat skills to have any hope of stopping some evil force. Alternatively, there might be a powerful magical artifact hidden at the school (possibly one of the Tome of Battle legacy weapons although they honestly aren't that impressive as magical weapons go). Or it could have deep inside some hidden vault which keeps an ancient magical tome that once belonged to Acerak or Vecna. There's a lot of room for plothooks here.

[Astralia123]

Is there a specific reason the fluff needs to recognize that being a warblade is different? One could just fluff them as a fighter and would people notice? If one absolutely needed to make warblades a separate thing, why not just drop an elven warblade or combat school somewhere in Sasserine? Maybe it was founded by one of the members of the Dawn Council or maybe somoene somehow connected to Castle Teraknian? This is something you could maybe discuss with the player to work out some mutual worldbuilding that you both like.

One thought, that maybe the PC (or possibly even the player) isn't aware of: The school secretly has another purpose. Possibly the school was founded long ago due to a prophecy that one day someone from the region would need to have certain combat skills to have any hope of stopping some evil force. Alternatively, there might be a powerful magical artifact hidden at the school (possibly one of the Tome of Battle legacy weapons although they honestly aren't that impressive as magical weapons go). Or it could have deep inside some hidden vault which keeps an ancient magical tome that once belonged to Acerak or Vecna. There's a lot of room for plothooks here.

I was trying to dip in some sort of Wuxia feelings in this character and his plots. But well, it is true that even Wuxia Novels themselves usually don't try to create a believable world setting, or at least do not try that hard. So maybe I can just take it more easily...

The player actually is making this harder when he insists to become a dragonspawn of Bahamut. But I like the idea that building a martial school based on prophecy - Bahamut himself, as long as I understand, do act with some long-term foreseeing, and prophecy really is how the City of Sasserine get found itself.

Perhaps I should drop some wyverns and younger evil dragons around Sasserine to keep them busy between the chapters...

[Troacctid]

Any particular problem with the default fluff?

[torrasque666]

I mean the default setting for 3.5 is Greyhawk. All the stuff that's not in the setting specific books is​ Greyhawk fluff.

[GrayDeath]

This.


Also its not necessary for the School themselves to be there, if one or more of the masters (or at the very least advanced adepts) travelled here.
Be it because of a Prophecy or not.

Dont overdo it. ;)


Now if he himself wanted to include the Schools themselves into his backstory that would be another matter.


Also, wqelcome him to the CLub of Dragonborn Warblades for me, ok? ^^

[Kish]

I mean the default setting for 3.5 is Greyhawk. All the stuff that's not in the setting specific books is​ Greyhawk fluff.
Yes, this. There are campaign worlds where it would be tricky to plunk down the monasteries and characters described in Tome of Battle, not a letter changed.

Oerth is not one of them. It's just a matter of throwing a pin at the world map and saying "there is the location of the monastery where the Sublime Way was founded."