[3.5 ToB] Swapping Schools

[Eldariel]

Yes, they get many more maneuvers known and readied than the rest. But they also have by far the worst recovery method of the three (by far - I really cannot emphasize this enough), and I'm unconvinced that it really offers that much versatility, really. Most of the time both the Warblade and Crusader will be plenty fine on versatility. Really, the trick the Swordsage can pull that they can't is the things Shadow Hand gives him.

The thing is, with as many maneuvers as Swordsages have, they don't really need Recovery that much. They burn through a couple per turn and generally have enough gas to last them the whole combat. That and Adaptive Style helps quite a bit anyways.

AC's not really that important, though.

This depends on level, types of adversaries and the amount of trouble pumping it takes. Generally, the argument against AC is that it's too expensive to buff it to really relevant numbers to fight martial opponents with it. SS is quite a bit better off than your average class here.

How so? The Wis thing adds an ability for them to be decent, it doesn't remove one. The Warblade gets some bonuses for a decent Int, but it's by no means mandatory, and the Crusader doesn't even have that to worry about - both could be just fine with dumping everything but Str and Con. The Swordsage can't.

Str/Con-based SS is perfectly doable. You need Heavy Armor Prof (prolly from Crusader or Fighter), but you're fine that way; sure, you don't get Wis to AC or damage, but that's no less than anyone else gets.

That said, that's not what I was really going at. The point is, even without school exclusivity, SS's ability to go Wis-exclusive means there's plenty of reasons to play SSs. You said there wouldn't be a reason to play SS over Warblade or Crusader, I'm covering the cases where that's most definitely not true here.

[QUOTE=DragoonWraith;8061433Skill points are true, though the Crusader and Warblade are at least decent with those, for martial classes. Larger number of schools is not really that much of a bonus, with the way the prerequisites work out. And the capstone is solid, but not even half as good as the Warblade's.[/quote]

*shrug* 6 schools gives you automatic access to Master of the Nine. Also, many schools have great low-level dip maneuvers like Wall of Blades, White Raven Tactics, Flame's Blessing or Counter Charge, making access to them beneficial even if you don't actually pick anything much from there. And yeah, Warblade capstone is better, but SS one is plenty powerful too.

[QUOTE=DragoonWraith;8061433No one will miss Stone Dragon; I believe several people (myself included) have mentioned that. Diamond Mind might be the most powerful offensively, but the utility options in Shadow Hand just aren't available in other disciplines.[/quote]

Yeah, this is true but I've built plenty a Swordsages with just the Shadow Blink from Shadow Hand and don't feel them gimped. Let's remember that Stone Dragon isn't entirely useless either; it has Mountain Hammer-line along with Roots of the Mountain and such.