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kamikasei
2007-10-06, 11:40 PM
I've a Warblade character I'm hoping to start playing on the forums here soon but I'm feeling quite lost as to strategies/maneuvers for her. It's my first time playing a ToB character so any advice would be appreciated!

The character sheet is here (http://www.thetangledweb.net/addon.php?addon=Profiler&page=view_char&cid=2170). Greatsword seems to be a Stone Dragon or White Raven weapon, but I'm not sure what benefits attach to using a discipline's weapon. High Concentration tempts me towards Diamond Mind.

The game starts at level 2 and goes on to near 20 with a war-based focus (rather than dungeon crawling). I'd like the character's fighting style to reflect her high Intelligence and have a tactical feel to it.

Maneuvers and feats are what I'm after. Can anyone help?

The Demented One
2007-10-06, 11:45 PM
Firstly, you're going to want to focus on two disciplines. Between the Warblade's limited maneuvers known and the prerequisites, that's all you're going to be able to do if you want to have as many high-level maneuvers as possible. Diamond Mind's a pretty strong discipline; with your concentration score, Moment of Perfect Mind and Sapphire Nightmare Blade would be good choices.

Dhavaer
2007-10-07, 01:00 AM
You might find that Skill Focus (concentration) is handy for a Diamond Mind adept. At lower levels it's more important that your strikes hit; the abilities can do enough damage on their own, so you could safely drop Power Attack until level 6 or 9. Blade Meditation (diamond mind) and Unnerving Gaze are good ones too, both of which can be taken as Warblade bonus feats. When you get some extra cash, a Tunic of Steady Spellcasting (from Complete Adventurer, +5 to Concentration) is your friend. It makes Insightful Strike (and the Greater version) absolutely devastating.
Iron Heart is worth getting as a secondary discipline, for Iron Heart Endurance, Mithral Tornado/Adamantine Hurricane and Lightning Throw.
Vital Recovery could be handy too, depending on whether you have a healer or not.

Behold_the_Void
2007-10-07, 01:52 AM
It's possible to focus on three disciplines with the Warblade, as I recall, but a bit more difficult. White Raven Tactics might be good since the campaign is so martial and war-based, there are a lot of nice ally support abilities in it.

AslanCross
2007-10-07, 02:47 AM
Weapon choice isn't really as important for the warblade. There are only some feats that require you to use a particular weapon to gain the benefit of the style (Shards of Granite requires Stone Dragon weapons, for example), but in general, maneuvers don't require particular weapons. The Swordsage needs to be more particular as one of his class features gives him weapon focus in a chosen discipline's weapons.

You will probably eventually focus in only two disciplines (by this I mean get the Lv 9 maneuvers thereof), but for a Warblade it's entirely possible to have maneuvers from all the disciplines you have access to. Martial Study feats give you even more.

Dhavaer
2007-10-07, 02:49 AM
With regards to 9th level maneuvers, specialising in Stone Dragon is a little pointless, as Mountain Tombstone Strike has no prerequisites.

GeneralTacticus
2007-10-07, 04:20 AM
It is possible to follow three Disciplines at once as a Warblade, but you will inevitably have to pass up some good stuff from each Discipline to keep up in another one.

The manouevres you've got look fine, although personally I'd swap Bolstering Voice out for Leading the Charge, unless you expect to run into a lot of fear effects. Particularly if you're going to have a lot of allies around, giving them all bonuses on charging damage can be quite handy.

For future manouevres, Emerald Razor would make an excellent choice next level, to ensure that your greatsword strikes with their nasty 2d6+4 damage actually hit. It's a particularly nice combination with Power Attack. Similarly, the Ruby and Diamond Nightmare Blade strikes are brilliant if you have a reasonably high base damage, and Lightning Recovery is a great way of ensuring that your critical attacks aren't foiled by an inconvenient natural 1.

As far as feats go - Unnerving Calm would be a waste. Its one and only use is to replace Intimidate with Concentration if you engage in a duel of wills before combat, and give you a couple of bonuses related to that; much too situational to be of serious use. The tactical feat it leads to is similarly useless.

Combat Reflexes would be very useful later on if you picked up Stormguard Warrior (Iron Heart tactical feat) and a reach weapon or some other means of getting lots of AoOs. I'm not sure how much good it's going to do you now, though, especially since you can pick it up as a Warblade bonus feat anyway.

At level 6, consider taking the feat Steady Concentration from Races of Stone - it allows you to take 10 on a Concentration check at any time, even in combat. Combined with Moment of Perfect Mind and some decent Conentration boosters, you can basically ignore Will save effects at a rate of one per turn. The only prerequisite in having 8 ranks in Concentration, which you'll want anyway.

If you have a Rogue in the party, or anyone else with abilities that depend on from flanked opponents, the White Raven Defence/Clarion Commander tree is worth looking at - White Raven Defence isn't that spectacular, but Clarion Commander lets you declare an enemy flanked for one minute if you make a DC 20 Intimidate check and then hit it on your next turn.

Hope you find something in there helpful.

kamikasei
2007-10-07, 12:09 PM
This is all really helpful! Thanks to everyone who's replied.

Okay, I've put together a draft maneuver progression. Still a little up in the air about stances, but here's what I'm thinking:

Level 1:
* Moment of Perfect Mind
* Sapphire Nightmare Blade
* Steel Wind
* Stance: Leading the Charge
Level 2:
* Steely Strike
Level 3:
* Emerald Razor
Level 4:
* Wall of Blades (swapping out Steely Strike)
* Stance: Stance of Clarity
Level 5:
* Insightful Strike
Level 6:
---
Level 7:
* Lightning Recovery
Level 8:
* Ruby Nightmare Blade (swapping out Sapphire Nightmare Blade)
Level 9:
* Dazing Blow
Level 10:
* Mithral Tornado (swapping out Steel Wind)
* Stance: Pearl of Black Doubt
Level 11:
* Iron Heart Endurance
Level 12:
* Greater Insightful Strike (swapping out Insightful Strike)
Level 13:
* Finishing Move
Level 14:
---
Level 15:
* Lightning Throw
Level 16:
* Diamond Nightmare Blade (swapping out Ruby Nightmare Blade)
* Stance: ???
Level 17:
* Time Stands Still
Level 18:
* Adamantine Hurricane (swapping out Mithral Tornado)
Level 19:
* Strike of Perfect Clarity
Level 20:
* Mountain Tombstone Strike (swapping out ???)

Are there better choices I could be making here? I can swap up to a higher-level maneuver at levels 6 and 14, but I'm unsure what I should swap out. As I said, stances especially I'm uncertain of.

Thanks again to everyone who's helped!

Armads
2007-10-08, 08:13 AM
How about getting some White Raven maneuvers like War Leader's Charge/Battle Leader's Charge, and getting War Master's Charge at ECL 19 instead of Strike of Perfect Clarity (War Master's Charge is much better).

Iron Heart Endurance is somewhat weak as it only heals you if you are below half hit points. You might want to replace it with the awesome Iron Heart Surge. Rabid Bear Strike is good at ECL 11, if you can acquire it via the tiger claw bracers.

The 8th level tiger claw stance that lets you five-foot step when you move is a good one to take. Combined with Adamantine Hurricane, you can destroy mooks pretty quickly.